TOLD BY THE COLONEL. New York: J. Selwin Tait & Sons, [1893]. Octavo, pp. [i-ii] iii [iv] 1-176, illustrations by Richard Jack and Hal Hurst, original decorated red cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold. First edition. Collection of loosely connected stories narrated by an old American Colonel to some compatriots in a Paris bar, comic fantasias that sometimes veer into the outright fantastic. In "Silver Plated," a tenor brought over to America for a tour, accidentally sits in a pool of electricity, which melts the silver from his pocket watch and deposits it around his waist. Customs agents demand duty on him on account of the silver and the impresario must use some Yankee ingenuity to avoid paying it. See Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years, for a description of similar tales of Alden that appeared in periodicals. Wright (III) 44. Owner's signature dated 1893 on front free endpaper. Ink stain along outer rear joint, spine lean, several other spots and some general dust soiling to cloth, otherwise a very good copy, internally clean and tight. (#134349).
Price: $75.00
No statement of printing.