Tag: 1932)

Whispering Lane, The by Fergus Hume (1859 – 1932)

Following the death of her beloved fiancée Roderick, Miss Danby is hounded relentlessly by Dr. Slanton who wants to marry her to access her inheritance. Then one morning, Aileen, the sister of the deceased who lives with her discovers the doctor’s body in the woods near the cottage and Miss Danby becomes the prime suspect. Although she claims innocence, she refuses to give the details which could prevent her from going the gallows. Aileen and her lover as well as Inspector Trant who knew Aileen’s father years ago join forces to clear her name. The only clue they have is the word “whispering” uttered by the victim before he died!! – Summary by Celine Major

Crime: The Autobiography of a Crook by Eddie Guerin (1860 – 1932)

This is not what one could call in any shape or form a pretty story. It is the plain unvarnished tale of a man who has been a notorious criminal from his boyhood days, and it is printed only because it will prove, in a way that all the prison statistics in the world cannot prove, that you can’t win at the crooked game. – by the editor

Stories of the Coal Mine by Frank Mundell (1870 – 1932)

Men, women and children (who could until 1842 be as young as four years old and from 1900 had to be over thirteen years of age) worked in the coalmines which was hard, relentless and dangerous work. This was especially true for those men who mined the coal and who were forced to work in spaces of about 30 inches (75cm) high and to tunnel using pickaxes for long distances from the main shaft.
Flood, firedamp and chokedamp are ever-present dangers to the miner, all hidden maybe mere inches away to be released in response to an unlucky strike of his pick. Unleashing these deadly forces would put the miner in mortal danger of death from drowning, explosion or suffocation.
Can you imagine what it would be like to be trapped hundreds of feet underground? In complete darkness? With the water level rising? Or with suffocating fumes filling the tunnel? Or with sparks igniting the escaping inflammable gas? In a tunnel that you can’t turn around in? Totally disorientated? And possibly completely alone?
No – I can’t either.
But having read this book and the stories related within, I have a profound respect for the miners, their families, their communities, their sacrifices and their responses whenever an emergency or accident occurred. Whether they were trapped underground or were providing unstinting effort as part of the rescue teams that moved heaven and earth to release their comrades from their underground tomb, their bravery and self-sacrifice in the face of adversity knew no bounds.
The stories presented here have been collected from reports of actual incidents and the book is part of a series of inspirational texts and ‘heroic writings of daring deeds’ by the Victorian author Frank Mundell.
Frank Mundell wrote a significant number of books for children (both boys and girls) and young adults and many of these were distributed and presented to them through their Sunday schools. – Summary by Steve C

From Metternich to Bismarck: A Textbook of European History by Lionel Cecil Jane (1879 – 1932)

This short work opens in 1815, at the close of a period of twenty-five years of almost continuous war. The Congress of Vienna assembled to consider the restoration of the old order. Our author writes, “they rejected the ideal of ‘nationality’, the principle of the ‘rights of peoples’, opposing to it the principle of ‘stability’, founded upon recognition of the ‘rights of sovereigns’ and upon the establishment of a balance of power.” This was the Metternich system, which fell before the revolutions of 1848. Participation in the Crimean War earned nascent Italy a seat at the diplomatic table and Cavour began the campaign for Italian Unification. The Prussian junker Bismarck emerged and, through deft diplomacy and short wars, engineered the downfall of Austria and France, and created the modern German state. (Summary by Pamela Nagami, M.D.)