He emphasizes the suspense of the story for the characters.
Explanation:
As stated, dramatic irony is when the <em>reader knows more than the characters.</em> In The Open Book, Crane uses this technique by telling the story from a third person, omniscient point of view. This allows the reader to have more information than the characters do.
For example, the moment in which the crew sees a "deserted village with dunes and empty cottages" creates suspense since the crew believes they will arrive by themselves there but actually there are a lot of people at the beach. The suspense created from this moment occurs because they are not sure where they'd go since there was no one in sight.
Nearly every time clod went into the seller he made a desperate resolved to clear the place out Sunday reflecting bitterly that the money this wreckage cost would’ve put a boy through college decently