Lanterna Rally

Author: G. Lydston

Publisher:

Published: 2019-03-18

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 9781090871831

GEORGE FRANK LYDSTON was born Marcy 3, 1858, in Jacksonville, California, to parents who had gone west with the gold rush. Although they later moved back east, their son, who would later become a doctor, maintained nostalgia for the Great American West. A great interest of Dr. Lydston was criminal anthropology, a blend of the study of the human species and the study of criminals. He became a widely recognized pioneer in the field of offender profiling, based on apparent links between the nature of a crime and the personality of the offender.In addition to many publications in relation to his profession, he engaged in travel writing and fiction, a sample of which is presented in this volume. "Poker Jim, Gentleman" is set in California during the 1860s. A young doctor, William Weymouth, settles at Jacksonville, a mining site. When he is asked to extract a bullet from a man, he meets the "Jim" of the title, which eventually leads to a most surprising discovery for the young doctor. The character of Jim makes for an interesting study in criminal behavior. Marked as a "corrupter of public morals," Jim nonetheless exhibits traits of altruism, principle, and the upright comportment of a gentleman. To follow is "Johnny: A Story of the Philippines." Like Jim, Johnny is an unlikely hero. A teenaged street kid from Chicago, Johnny joins the Montana Volunteers and is deployed to the Philippines. Here, he finds his true vocation as a soldier. In Teddy-Roosevelt-like swashbuckling fashion, he encounters tropical diseasesand jungle pitfalls in addition to the voracious Filipino villains. Other stories include, "Chiquita," an anecdote of unrequited love. A young man poisons himself when he gets a letter from his sweetheart terminating their romance in the story, "Leaves from a Suicide's Diary." One is reminded of Edgar Allen Poe's obsession with death and decay in "A Grim Memento," an account of death by strangling, and in "A Dead Ideal: A Romance of the Dissecting Room." A man sketches a stunning woman he has seen in a dream, and becomes obsessed with her. He later becomes a doctor. One day, during a routine autopsy, he looks down and finds to his shock, that the corpse is totally identical to his drawing of the woman who appeared to him in a dream. Chilling tales guaranteed to turn one pale, the old doctor's book does not disappoint.