Author Archive: Retro

Big Ben has the largest store in the town of New Ralgia. His chief clerk is in love with the post mistress. The three of them get involved in a series of mishaps with their customers and with the town ladies’ man, whose advances conceal a more sinister purpose.

In the midst of an emotional depression, a man hires a murderer to kill him. But the despair soon passes, and the man must now escape the killer he’s hired to end his life.

The fiend faces the spectacular mind-bending consequences of his free-wheeling rarebit binge.

A young married couple are living happily in the little fishing village and at the opening of the story the young husband is one the “Three fishers went sailing away to the West, away in the West as the sun went down. Each thought on the woman who loved him best, and the women stood watching them out of the town. For men must work and women must weep, and there’s little to earn and many to keep. Though the harbor bar be moaning.” As the days rolled by the “three wives sat up in the lighthouse tower…They looked at the squall, and they looked at the shower,” but no sign of their husband’s return could be seen. Ah! Little did they know that on a distant shore “Three fishers lay out on the shining sands, in the morning gleam as the tide went down.” When the rescue party brings the fishers in they find [...]

In the little Italian city of Cremona there dwelt Taddeo Ferrari, a violin maker and student of Andrea Amati, the most famous of the craft. Ferrari’s pretty daughter, Giannina, was beloved by one of his apprentices, Sandro. Filippo, a crippled youth and the best violin maker in Cremona, also loved the girl with a pure, holy affection that is more spiritual than material, but realizing his unattractiveness through his deformity, suffers his hopelessness with resignation. Yearly there is a prize of a precious chain of gold awarded to the maker of the best violin, and all the apprentices strive to win it. On this occasion, however, the hand of Giannina is to be bestowed upon the most proficient craftsman, and this induces the young men to make extra efforts to win. Sandro fully appreciates the rare talent of Filippo and feels sure his wonderful skill will win his sweetheart from him. Crushed and despairing he [...]

This story affords the renowned European actress, Asta Nielsen, an opportunity of displaying her wonderful ability as a great artist. It depicts the life of a young woman, who tiring of her husband and her life in attractive surroundings conceives a sudden admiration for a picturesque circus man. He also is attracted by her, and when he appears and demands that she cast in her lot with the circus folks, she yields and leaves her beautiful home for the wandering life of a circus. Under the tuition of her admirer, she becomes a gifted member of the “haute ecole.” The new life fascinates her. Months pass, she becomes disillusioned, for her hero, Rudolph, proves fickle; he transfers his affections to another girl of the circus. There is a quarrel between the two women and Asta and Rudolph are discharged. Down they sink in the social scale; he becomes a dissolute ne’er do well, and she [...]

As we are treated with a rare appearance from a true master of the miraculous Asian thaumaturgy, a fine display of multiplication commences, and a serene young geisha completes the enchantment. What does the Chinese conjurer have in mind?

In the days of ’61 how many of the brave soldiers were urged to deeds of valor and heroism by thoughts of “the girl he left behind.” This story tells of the transforming of a pusillanimous coward into a lion-hearted hero by the derision of the girl he loved. The battle takes place outside her home, and he, panic-stricken, rushes in, trembling with fear, to hide. She laughs in scorn at his cowardice and commands him to go back and fight. Her fortitude inspires him and he manages to rejoin his company before his absence is noticed. Ammunition is low and somebody must take the hazardous journey to procure more from another regiment, which he volunteers to do. This undertaking cannot be adequately described, for the young man faces death at every turn. The most thrilling part of his experience is where the opposing forces build bonfires along the road to menace the powder-wagon.