Jerome Gambit: Still Relatively Obscure

On page 48 of Ten Ways to Succeed in the Opening (2001), by Timothy Peter Talbut Onions and David Regis, you will see a diagram familiar to many of those who play the Jerome Gambit.

The authors write

Here, White has attacked straight from the opening, and has won a Rook and two Pawns for a Bishop. 

But look at the pieces left! Black's pieces can all come into the attack quickly, while White's are sitting around the edge. 

Black is winning here: try it!

It is clear that the authors were impressed by the finish to the Jerome Gambit game Amateur - Blackburne, London, 1884 - the collection Mr. Blackburne's Games at Chess (1899) dated the game at "about 1880" but contemporary accounts give 1884 - which continued from the diagram: 8...Qh4 9.O-O Nf6 10.c3 Ng4 11.h3 Bxf2+ 12.Kh1 Bf5 13.Qxa8 Qxh3+ 14.gxh3 Bxe4 checkmate

Amateur - Blackburne, London, 1884

It is worth pointing out, however, that, contrary to Onions' and Regis' assessment, Black is not winning in the first diagram. Instead, White has two lines of play that lead to better positions after 8...Qh4, Black's strongest move.

9.O-O Nf6 10.Qd8 Bb6 11.e5 dxe5 12.Qd3; and

9.d4 Nf6* 10.Nd2 Bxd4 11.0-0 Ng4 12.Nf3 Qxf2+ 13.Rxf2 Bxh8 14.Rf1 

To be fair, the Jerome Gambit is still a relatively obscure opening, and was even moreso, 20 years ago. Quite likely the Blackburne game was the only one the authors were familiar with.  

(* There is a wild and wonderful alternative, here, producing scary chess for White, but which is objectively even worse for Black than the main line: 9...Bb4+ 10.c3 Bh3 11.gxh4 Qxe4+ 12.Kd2 Qh4 realizing that taking the Rook allows White's Queen to escape and harass his King with Qxh7+ 13.cxb4 Re8 14.Kc2 Ne7 15.Qxe8+ Kxe8 16.Nc3 Qxf2+ 17.Bd2 Qf5+ 18.Kb3 and White has 2 Rooks and a Bishop for his Queen)