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Post by dem bones on Mar 3, 2015 15:45:32 GMT
Another railway horror for our End Of The Linesmen, another suicide, this time that of the gent who, one stormy night, has the misfortune to share a carriage with Hamilton Macallister's The Lady Who Didn't Waste Words. She is of the belief that "words that aren't to praise the lord are wasted." He just wants to finish his smoke in peace. She keeps smiling at him until that single black front tooth gets on his nerves. The train enters a tunnel. To his horror, she creepily sidles up to him. It's the last straw, and he lets her know as much! Angry protests are wasted on this "obvious mental" so there's nothing left for it but to pull the emergency cord and throw himself from the train. If only he'd got the timing right. The guard, the doctor, everyone is upset, but not the lady who didn't waste words, who regards his death as confirmation that, truly, she is an Angel of the Lord.
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Post by ian38018 on Mar 3, 2015 23:29:31 GMT
THE LADY WHO DIDN'T WASTE WORDS By Hamilton Macallister
Two strangers are sharing a railway carriage. The female has a habit of moving seats whenever the train enters a tunnel. This so unnerves the male passenger that he pulls the communication cord, leaves the train after it stops and promptly throws himself into the path of an oncoming train on the adjoining rail. By the time the initial carriage finally reaches its destination the lady has vanished, possibly or possibly not be throwing herself from the moving train.
I have to hold my hands up in surrender here and admit to not having a clue what is happening in this tale. It reads like someone’s bad dream, or perhaps a swiftly-discarded outline for an episode of Outer Limits.
Is the lady of the title really “an angel of the Lord”, or just some fruit-loop her co-traveller has been unfortunate enough to share a carriage with? If the former, her punishment of the chap for what appears a lightweight utterance of blasphemy does seem overly severe. Whilst, if the latter, then the man’s actions are equally extreme.
The conversation between the guard and the doctor after the lady had either tumbled from the train or returned to heaven is surreal in the extreme. And as for what the dust on the carriage wall is about………..?
pandaemonian.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/the-pan-book-of-horror-stories.html
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Post by dem bones on Mar 4, 2015 0:50:56 GMT
The dust could signify that she got frazzled by that lightening bolt after all, but I doubt it. Another possibility - the one that most appeals to this reader - is that she's a ghost who makes a habit of this type of thing. Men jumping and women disappearing from the same carriage of the same train on the same night can't be that common an occurrence, yet the stationmaster takes it in his stride, like he's filed many similar reports and is tired of doing so.
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Post by ripper on Mar 4, 2015 8:31:53 GMT
I was also a bit puzzled by 'The Lady who didn't waste Words.' I thought she was just mentally disturbed, but Dem's comment about her possibly being a ghost has merit. It isn't a story I re-visit often, though as a whole I like the first volume of Pan Horror quite a bit.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Mar 4, 2015 8:32:56 GMT
THE LADY WHO DIDN'T WASTE WORDS By Hamilton Macallister
Two strangers are sharing a railway carriage. The female has a habit of moving seats whenever the train enters a tunnel. This so unnerves the male passenger that he pulls the communication cord, leaves the train after it stops and promptly throws himself into the path of an oncoming train on the adjoining rail. By the time the initial carriage finally reaches its destination the lady has vanished, possibly or possibly not be throwing herself from the moving train.
I have to hold my hands up in surrender here and admit to not having a clue what is happening in this tale. It reads like someone’s bad dream, or perhaps a swiftly-discarded outline for an episode of Outer Limits.
Is the lady of the title really “an angel of the Lord”, or just some fruit-loop her co-traveller has been unfortunate enough to share a carriage with? If the former, her punishment of the chap for what appears a lightweight utterance of blasphemy does seem overly severe. Whilst, if the latter, then the man’s actions are equally extreme.
The conversation between the guard and the doctor after the lady had either tumbled from the train or returned to heaven is surreal in the extreme. And as for what the dust on the carriage wall is about………..?
pandaemonian.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/the-pan-book-of-horror-stories.html
That's a great Pan Horror blog by the way. And I note a mention of Hearts in your other blogs
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Post by dem bones on Mar 4, 2015 9:59:30 GMT
I was also a bit puzzled by 'The Lady who didn't waste Words.' I thought she was just mentally disturbed, but Dem's comment about her possibly being a ghost has merit. It isn't a story I re-visit often, though as a whole I like the first volume of Pan Horror quite a bit. I'm not sure that it has any merit whatsoever! The story is so (deliberately?) disjointed in the telling she might even be what she thinks she is, or maybe one of Lucifer's fallen angels, or a Typhoid Mary, or merely a woman with a disconcerting smile who only ever thinks and talks about God.
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Post by ripper on Mar 4, 2015 11:45:41 GMT
When I first read the story, in the beginning I was expecting the woman to be a ghost, but as I read it I thought she was just disturbed, and that is what I have thought for the many years since that reading, but maybe a ghost, fallen angel or some other supernatural entity. It is very vague.
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Post by Dr Terror on Oct 14, 2017 10:57:30 GMT
To mark their 70th anniversary Pan have reissued volume 1...
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Oct 14, 2017 11:22:34 GMT
That is a very silly cover.
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Post by andydecker on Oct 14, 2017 21:56:21 GMT
That is a very silly cover. Indeed.
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Post by jamesdoig on Oct 15, 2017 2:34:32 GMT
That is a very silly cover. It sure is - better off getting hold of the reissue with Johnny Mains' intro.
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Post by Dr Terror on Oct 15, 2017 9:26:07 GMT
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Post by ripper on Mar 31, 2019 9:18:40 GMT
Just browsing through some old radio horror shows, I came across a reading of Flies by Anthony Vercoe, which was included in a series from the early 60s called The Black Mass. I am not sure if it was abridged, though I suspect if it was, it wasn't much. The narrator is the old tramp, and the British accent isn't too bad--I believe the series was American. There are a few sound effects, the most prominent being the buzzing of the flies. There are a few other stories from Pan 1 that Black Mass featured, such as O Mirror, Mirror; The Squaw; and Nightmare, and I presume these were also readings.
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Post by ohthehorror on Feb 20, 2021 20:24:14 GMT
Have started to read these Pan Horror Stories since coming across 28 out of the 30 books on the 'luminist' site and am really enjoying them. I feel like I've been missing out all this time. To think all these goodies have been around as long as I have and I've only just noticed. It's difficult to pick the best of this first book so far(only half way through) simply because they're all so astonishingly good.
Jugged Hare, The Copper Bowl, The Lady Who Didn't Waste Words were all stand out stories, with W.S. probably being my favourite so far. The Copper Bowl seems to be a fan favourite here I notice and I liked it well enough but I think the fact that it was very obvious what was happening from very early in the story maybe lessened the impact for me, strangely, because knowing how things are going to go doesn't generally bother me in the least.
One that I won't be reading again anytime at all I think is The Physiology of Fear, and not because it wasn't a good story or it wasn't well written, it was both, but I felt like I was reading an actual first hand account by a survivor of WWII or an article interviewing survivors from Auschwitz or something. It wouldn't have been out of place if it had been. I think I just like my horror a little cosier or maybe just that little bit removed from the realities of life. I actually regretted reading it and had to force myself to continue on to the next story. It very nearly killed my enthusiasm for the rest. Still, I suppose that just means it was especially well done.
I've about half of them read in this first book so far, and am really quite pleased that all those stories in all those other Pans are just waiting out there for me.
Yeah, W.S. was really good. I really loved that one.
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Post by Swampirella on Feb 20, 2021 20:47:29 GMT
Have started to read these Pan Horror Stories since coming across 28 out of the 30 books on the 'luminist' site and am really enjoying them. I feel like I've been missing out all this time. To think all these goodies have been around as long as I have and I've only just noticed. It's difficult to pick the best of this first book so far(only half way through) simply because they're all so astonishingly good. Jugged Hare, The Copper Bowl, The Lady Who Didn't Waste Words were all stand out stories, with W.S. probably being my favourite so far. The Copper Bowl seems to be a fan favourite here I notice and I liked it well enough but I think the fact that it was very obvious what was happening from very early in the story maybe lessened the impact for me, strangely, because knowing how things are going to go doesn't generally bother me in the least. One that I won't be reading again anytime at all I think is The Physiology of Fear, and not because it wasn't a good story or it wasn't well written, it was both, but I felt like I was reading an actual first hand account by a survivor of WWII or an article interviewing survivors from Auschwitz or something. It wouldn't have been out of place if it had been. I think I just like my horror a little cosier or maybe just that little bit removed from the realities of life. I actually regretted reading it and had to force myself to continue on to the next story. It very nearly killed my enthusiasm for the rest. Still, I suppose that just means it was especially well done. I've about half of them read in this first book so far, and am really quite pleased that all those stories in all those other Pans are just waiting out there for me. Yeah, W.S. was really good. I really loved that one. W.S. is one of my top favorites too; glad you're enjoying the stories. I spent a few enjoyable weeks last month cherry-picking the most appealing stories from my Pan collection in print (minus #30). Thanks for pointing out that they're in digital form now too, the existence of the luminist site had slipped my mind.
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