Scary Stories Treasury – Room for One More – Silent Photoplay: A Place for Stories of All Types

Read Time:6 Minute, 46 Second

Room for One More Kitty: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Winterjoy: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Welcome to story sixeen of our look into the Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark Trilogy. This story always reminds me of the second season Twilight Zone episode entitled Twenty Two in which a nurse emerges from the hospital morgue and says “Room for one more, honey!” and a stewardess who looks exactly like the nurse also tells the lady “Room for one more, honey!” At this, she runs from the plane, which, shortly after, blows up.

Room for One More

A man named Joseph Blackwell came to Philadelphia on a business trip. He stayed with friends in the big house they owned outside the city. That night they had a good time visiting. But when Blackwell went to bed, he tossed and turned and couldn’t sleep.

Sometime during the night he heard a car turn into the driveway. He went to the window to see who was arriving at such a late hour. In the moonlight, he saw a long, black hearse filled with people.

The driver of the hearse looked up at him. When Blackwell saw his queer, hideous face, he shuddered. The driver called to him, “There is room for one more.” Then he waited for a minute or two, and he drove off.

In the morning Blackwell told his friends what had happened. “You were dreaming,” they said.

“I must have been,” he said, “but it didn’t seem like a dream.”

After breakfast he went into Philadelphia. He spent the day high above the city in on e of the new office buildings there.

Late in the afternoon he was waiting for an elevator to take him back down to the street. But when it arrived, it was very crowded. One of the passengers looked out and called to him. “There is room for one more,” he said. It was the driver of the hearse.

“No, thanks,” said Blackwell. “I’ll get the next one.”

The doors closed, and the elevator started down. There was shrieking and screaming, then the sound of a crash. The elevator had fallen to the bottom of the shaft. Everyone aboard was killed.

*****

This is the first time that I could not directly get my hands on any of the sources cited for a story in our book. There are many stories of run-ins with ghostly apparitions, but the closest I can get to this story is the story of Lord Dufferin’s Ghostly Encounter. Lord Dufferin swore up and down that this happened to him, but he was quite the storyteller in his day, and there is no evidence that any of the story actually happened to him, including the elevator crash. It’s a great tale to tell during an elevator ride. 😆

So, I’ll put the story here, as told by John Welford. (1)

Lord Dufferin was a British diplomat who – so the story goes – was having a break in 1883 at a country house in Ireland. One night he heard a noise outside and went to investigate. He saw a man staggering across the lawn as he carried what turned out to be a coffin. The man’s face was contorted with hate and utterly loathsome. Lord Dufferin stepped forward to confront the man and walked right through him, after which the man and the coffin disappeared.

When Lord Dufferin told the people who lived at the house what had happened, none of them could give him a clue as to what he might have seen. There were no local ghosts who fitted the bill, and the man’s description meant nothing to anyone.

The story now moved on ten years, to when Lord Dufferin was British Ambassador to France. He attended a reception at a hotel in Paris, where the main event took place on the top floor and nearly everyone used a lift to get there from the entrance hall.

Lord Dufferin and his secretary joined the queue for the lift and eventually reached the head of it. However, when the lift doors opened, Lord Dufferin was horrified to see that the lift operator was the same man that he had seen carrying a coffin across an Irish lawn, ten years before. He refused to get into the lift and pulled his secretary back as well. The crowded lift ascended but, when nearly at the top, the cables broke and the lift plunged all the way down, killing everyone on board including the lift attendant.

Lord Dufferin tried to find out who the lift attendant was, but nobody knew. The hotel had only employed him as a casual worker, and nobody ever came forward to claim the body.

*****

Kitty

In what environment did you read the story? In my computer chair in front of my computer
Do you remember having read this story as a kid? Yes, but I didn’t remember all the details.
Analyze the actions of the characters in the story. Did they make sense? Would you have done anything differently? I’m really not sure if I would look out the window in the middle of the night if I heard a car in the driveway when I was visiting a friend’s place. I mean, those lines are just not crossed. You don’t complain to your host, and you don’t look out the window in the middle of the night.
Which was your favorite and least favorite character and why? My least favorite character is the main character, because he looked out the window in the middle of the night. My favorite character was the hearse man, because he was super inviting. I mean, he welcomed him into his personal space twice!
What did you think of the storytelling style? The storytelling style is pretty good. I like that it takes place in Philadelphia, a place I’ve been to multiple times.
Examine the art for the story. What are your thoughts on it? The art is spooky, but it has nothing to do with the story.
Your overall rating and why: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I think this would be the perfect story to scare someone into never entering an elevator ever again.

Winterjoy

In what environment did you read the story? In my room, bright and early with coffee.
Do you remember having read this story as a kid? It wasn’t until the end, that I started to remember this one.
Analyze the actions of the characters in the story. Did they make sense? Would you have done anything differently? I would probably also not go into such a crowded elevator.
Which was your favorite and least favorite character and why? My favorite character was Mr. Blackwell. I found him to be a reasonable and suspicious person which is always a good characteristic to have. Hearse-Man isn’t necessarily unlikeable. He’s just Hearse-Man.
What did you think of the storytelling style? I love the setup of the dream followed by the fate of the elevator. Great short storytelling.
Examine the art for the story. What are your thoughts on it? I’m a bit perplexed by this one. What is going on here and what does it have to do with the story?? Why is the one headstone thing turned? Is the empty spot where it was originally? But then the empty space is a square and the bottom of this turned headstone is round. Or is that the “room for one more”? Is that a mother and father and that is the child turned towards the mother? Is he nagging her for a snack? Can he just let her be? WHERE IS THE HEARSE?
Your overall rating and why: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐! I loved this one. Probably even a favorite so far. I love creepy endings but there is something special when it is also ominous. I think anyone can figure out the rest of the ending when the man calls from the crowded elevator but it doesn’t ruin it, somehow! Really great little story.