November 14, 2025 • 29 mins
Suspense was one of the most popular and successful radio series during it's run of over 900 episodes, spanning 1940-1962. Guest stars included Orson Welles, Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, Agnes Moorehead, Marlene Dietrich and Humphrey Bogart. The plots were mostly engaging crime dramas, science fiction and some horror - usually with a surprise ending.
Hope you enjoy this episode of Suspense! Find all our OTR radio stations and podcasts at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Audio Credit: The Old Time Radio Researchers Group. - All Podcasts @ Spreaker | Apple | YouTube | Spotify | Amazon | iHeart
Hope you enjoy this episode of Suspense! Find all our OTR radio stations and podcasts at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Audio Credit: The Old Time Radio Researchers Group. - All Podcasts @ Spreaker | Apple | YouTube | Spotify | Amazon | iHeart
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
And now tonight's presentation from radio's outstanding Theater of Prills
Suspense Tonight the story of a murder deliberate, cold motivelest
in which we will examine its effects on our protagonist.
(00:25):
The story is called The Earth Is Made of Glass.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Good morning, doctor West, Oh, good morning is Sadam. I've
brought down the night charts from the fourth floor.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
And I looked the morning. Hm, what sort of night
did you have?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Fairly quiet, doctor, No new cases?
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Hum, they were I don't know where you'd put 'em.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Well, we have one vacant dead this morning, four thirty six.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Mister Steele, Yes, he died about the four surprise.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
He held on that long.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I thought you might be upset, doctor, I mean the
day supervisor Miss Rosenberg told me you and mister Steele
were either related or very close friends.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
No, no, not at all. Mister Steele suffered certain delusions.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Just before he died. He asked me to give you this,
doctor West. It's some kind of diary of journal, he said,
he owed it to you, that it was in compensation.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Well, leave it on the desk. I'll ask who is
in charge of settling his estate?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
All right, Doctor, I looked at the first few pages.
It's very strange. Oh well, I'm going off duty.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Verry, Well, miss Adams, I'll see you tomorrow, Yes, doctor.
The Journal of Richard Thomas Steele hm strange. He tore
out a good many pages, everything up to July twenty sixth.
That's only a month ago. Why unearthly leave it to me?
(02:02):
Who do you think I was the devil? There was
certainly something torturing him. July twenty sixth an extremely depressing day.
From early morning on the air was hot, heavy, sticky.
I stayed indoors.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
I stayed indoors with the blinds drawn.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
Spent three and a half hours arranging and cataloging a
new shipment of books. I must say I gloated over
the volume of Bacon gold Leaf, Uncut eighteen thirty six,
a treasure. In the afternoon, I ventured out to play
chess with Elliott. He's an uninspired player and a worse conversationalist.
I'm appalled that a man of Elliot's pretension still wallows
(02:45):
in eighteenth and nineteenth century thought patterns, quaddle and sentimentality.
He's totally out of step of the times, Blindly determined
to keep his mind closed to any developments and science.
It was so apparent in that argument we had over
Ralph Waldo Emerson. I noticed he had a volume of
Emerson's essays, a cheap reprint, and I thumbed through it.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
There was one paragraph in the.
Speaker 5 (03:07):
Essay called compensation, which especially annoyed me. I must have snorted,
because Elliott was instantly on the defensive when I asked
him if he actually believed such clap trap, he fairly
leaped that man.
Speaker 6 (03:18):
Certainly, I believe there's compensation, Richard tit for tap, measure
for measure, leve for love. Whatever a man does comes
back to him good for.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Good, evil for evil.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
So that if I should commit a crime, I would
have necessity be punished in one way or another. Yes,
you mean that I would in some way suffer in
compensation for my evil deed.
Speaker 6 (03:35):
Isn't that what Emerson says?
Speaker 7 (03:37):
Ha ha, I want to know what you believe.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
I believe what he says. Well, let's read what he says.
Discounting the poetry and all the emotional overtones. Emerson says,
commit a crime, and the earth is made of glass.
Commit a crime, and it seems as if a coat
of snow fell on the ground, such as reveals in
the woods the track of every partridge in fox and
squirrel and mole. You cannot recall the spoken word. You
(03:59):
can not wipe out the foot track. You cannot draw
up the ladder so as to leave no inlet or clue.
Some damning circumstance always transpires. The laws and substances of nature, water, snow, wind,
gravitation become penalties.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
To the thief. Well, Elliott, beautiful, isn't it. Don't be evasive, Elliot,
we're discussing his theory. Well, I don't see how there
can be any argument.
Speaker 5 (04:21):
We know a good deal more than Emerson, you old fellow,
especially about the laws and the substances of nature. They
surely haven't changed, No, no, But we've taken them into
the laboratory. We've tested the substances, and we've mastered the laws,
put them under our control. The scientific method, Eliot White,
cancels out every word your friend Emerson wrote.
Speaker 6 (04:39):
The scientific method. Is it an open sesame to all knowledge?
Does it make us gods? There are still mysteries we
can never fathom, Richard, For instance, the mysteries in ourselves.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
In our souls, Yes, in our souls.
Speaker 6 (04:54):
Whatever it is we have that cannot be weighed or tested, yet,
which manifests itself in every good or evil thing we do.
Say you commit a murder, say I do a perfect crime,
or I grant you that a man of your intelligence
can out with the police. Nevertheless, you could not escape
from well, let's call it your conscience.
Speaker 5 (05:14):
But say I commit a laboratory murder. Ah what, Let
me put it this way. To catch a murderer, the
police first set out to discover some connection between the
murderer and his victim, which leads them to the motive
of the crime. And when a murderer is caught by
his own conscience, it is also through his connection with
his victim, his his emotional connection. But in a pure
(05:36):
abstract murder, one occurring in an emotional vacuum, possible, the
two participants would be connected only by the unadulterated act
of killing.
Speaker 6 (05:47):
Isn't every man connected first of all with himself? I mean,
a man renders judgment on himself in his soul, I
would say.
Speaker 5 (05:58):
But superstitious claptap, Elliott, Apparently you're completely unable to grasp
my premise.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Theoretically, a laboratory murder is entirely possible. Why not? Actually,
it'd be.
Speaker 5 (06:08):
Very interesting to test the theory and find out. July
twenty eighth, the weather continues warm, humidity high. This is
the last summer I shall spend in New York. Today
I roamed around my library, read a little thought a
great deal. It's odd how I keep referring back to
(06:30):
my conversation with Elliott. Abstract murder, A laboratory murder. I
jotted down one or two theoretical points today, an amusing
project in such hot weather. What utter nonsense to think
of conducting a laboratory experiment in writing on paper? Or
(06:54):
it's a contradiction in terms.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
The core of the scientific method is to prove theory
in life. So let us proceed actually to create a
pure murder, a murder committed, as I said to Elliott,
and a material and emotional vacuum, A murder of someone
with whom I have no connection, whom I have no
possible reason to kill. But I will decide how to.
Speaker 5 (07:15):
Choose my victim after I've made all the other preparations
and have purchased the necessary equipment.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Gloves, sir, what kind of gloves?
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Any kind of gloves. But I mean, what do you
want them for?
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Driving? Gardening?
Speaker 4 (07:30):
I want gloves I can use for almost anything. Ah well,
now we call these utility gloves. Ah. Yes, those are excellent.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Yes, what size?
Speaker 4 (07:37):
And when you size?
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Medium?
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Now these look justin.
Speaker 5 (07:40):
No, no, no, I don't want to try them on.
I'll pick them out they or just wrap them up.
Speaker 7 (07:45):
You know, I'm very fond of.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
A genuine old fashioned hardware store like this one.
Speaker 8 (07:49):
Lots of people tell me that, sir, anything special you're
looking for?
Speaker 5 (07:54):
No, I suppose I'm just browser. What are those ice picks? Yes,
hive quite a selection a screwdrivers? And are there's something
I want.
Speaker 8 (08:06):
A knife of?
Speaker 3 (08:07):
One of those?
Speaker 8 (08:08):
Were? To be fair with you, sir, those are pretty
poor knives. That's why they're marked down. Too big for paring,
too small for carving. Just knives, and it's about it.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
For the best possible recommendation, I'll take one a meaningless knife,
all purpose gloves, knife and gloves, new factory made, uncontaminated
by human association, smelling only the harsh and personal machines
which turned them out. My first safeguards against the intrusion
(08:39):
of emotion. And now to complete my plans.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
Who will it be? I must never see his or
her face. I must not know his or her name, age, occupation, thoughts,
or desires. I must come into contact with its victim
as casually as though we were blown together by the wind.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
There can be no selection, no volition on my part
except the elementary volition necessary to raise my arm to kill.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
July thirtieth, the exact record of.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
What has occurred, I must write it down now, while
it's fresh in my mind.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
I'd be absolutely precise and objective very well.
Speaker 5 (09:19):
Then, at exactly ten p m. Tonight, I left my house,
wearing the new gloves and carrying the knife in my
right hand coat pocket. I walked an undetermined number of blocks,
turning corners at random, taking care to observe no street
signs or landmarks. I observed only one thing, that there
were many people on the street. In fact, I became
aware that I was push into a rather dense crowd.
(09:40):
I walked on with difficulty, but not once did I
allow myself to become conscious of the exact nature of
my surroundings. Then, at last, I found my progress to
the crowd blocked by what I can only describe as
a human bank. I raised the knife and drove it
into the back with all my force. I continued walking
(10:03):
without haste, pausing only a fraction of a second to
hear He's dead. Yes, I paused just long enough to hear.
Thus confirmed my unqualified belief that, without any possible consequence
to myself, I had taken another human being's life.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
You are listening to mister Joseph Kerns in Sylvia Richard's
study and motive The Earth Is Made of Glass, Tonight's
presentation in Radio's outstanding Theater of Frills Suspense.
Speaker 7 (11:00):
This is Flag Week, when all patriotic organizations urge all
patriotic Americans to display their stars and stripes. Your flag
hanging on high tells all who pass that America truly
is one nation, indivisible. Give new glory to old glory
by showing your country's colors during Flag Week and on
all patriotic holidays, national and local.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
And now we bring back to our Hollywood sound stage,
mister Joseph Kerns in Elliot Lewis's production of the Earth
Is Made of Glass, A tale well calculated to keep
you in suspense.
Speaker 5 (11:41):
Well August first, all day I felt enormously stimulated, elated
by the success of my experiment. The very intensity of
the sun outside my study is added to my feeling
of well being. Tomorrow I shall complete my notes on
(12:02):
this extraordinary and I'm sure of valuable psychological study. Today
I shall relish to the full my mood of achievement.
How I regret that I can't tell old Elliot. I
can picture the disbelief and horror on his face if
he knew compensation.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
Oh, Tut tut, mister Emerson.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
August third.
Speaker 5 (12:31):
Yesterday I was unable to write in my journal because
of the excessive heat, and because I suffered from a
headache and a vibration in my ears. Today I'm forcing
myself to write, to have on record the final control
in my experiment, my laboratory murder, to assure complete ignorance
of the identity of my victim. I have read no newspaper,
and will not read any for a period of two
(12:53):
or three weeks, nor will I hold conversation with anyone
apt to be morbidly interested in murder. As reported in
the tabloid press. August fourth, The heat is unbearable, and
all day I have felt that odd, heavy vibration in
(13:14):
my head now also on my arms and body. It
is almost constant in a one two one two rhythm.
But sometimes it's a sound as well as a vibration,
like the distant sound for sea, I must consult the doctor.
(13:38):
Last night I was kept awake by the throbbing in
my head, and toward morning I was subjected to a
new agony, very softly at first, but louder and louder,
like voices heard in delirium. My head became filled with
an almost hysterical bablom. Again, not for an instant have
the voice stopped or even paused, and set time with
(14:00):
the reverberation of my heart.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
August eighth, I.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
Have no need to consult a doctor, for I know
the nature of my illness. Last night, trying to drive
the unspeakable uproar from my brain, I turned to music.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
But when I put the record on the.
Speaker 5 (14:25):
Machine Schnobbles recording of Beethoven's F minus sonata the Aposionata,
the sound and the voices rose to a bedlam shrieking.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
Round out the music.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
And then I knew, in spite of every proportion, my
laboratory murder had not taken place in a backroom. Do
things had penetrated my shield. First of the voices echoing
in my ears, the fragments of speech about a concept,
are the same voices I heard in that cloud, rising
again and again to the climax of a woman's scream,
(14:59):
and the pulsing sound I hear when I drove that
knife home into a beating heart, its vital rhythm. The
mighty leap and contraction of the heart's muscle on the
blade of the knife was transmitted back to me through
my hand and remains indelibly recorded in the heartbeat of
my own blood.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
August eleventh.
Speaker 5 (15:27):
During the past hour, the incessant hammering of sounds receded,
But I know this respite will be brief.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Now, while I am able to.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
Reason, I must discover where I urd an act swiftly
to correct my errors. No turnning back the death I
caused as an accomplished fact. And each day I remember
something more. Today, suddenly, like a photograph imprinted on my brain,
I saw the black collar of his coat, his gray hat,
and between his clicked, silky reddish hair, and I had
(15:58):
and still have an insatiable desire to turn his head around.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
Seize face.
Speaker 5 (16:03):
Perhaps there's only one course for me to take to
reverse my plan. Learn everything about my victim, every possible detail,
create for myself a total portrait, and then discard it
in its entirety. Learn his name, ade address all the statistics.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
Of his life. I beg your pardoners, where are the
newspaper files? Oh?
Speaker 9 (16:24):
What dates? Did you wish to see?
Speaker 3 (16:25):
The week of July thirtieth?
Speaker 9 (16:28):
Which paper?
Speaker 4 (16:29):
The times?
Speaker 9 (16:30):
I'll start with that just a moment.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
I want them for the whole week.
Speaker 9 (16:33):
Yes, yes, well, here are all the copies for July bound,
and these loose ones are August so far.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Oh thank you.
Speaker 9 (16:42):
Now don't take them out of the reading room and
return them to the desk, and you're through, please, yes,
thank you, I will.
Speaker 5 (16:49):
I opened the bound volume near the end and immediately
saw his picture, page one center. The photograph was blurred,
but without reading a word, I recognized him because he
matched his hair, I mean, his face went with the
back of the head I had seen. But before I
could read the headline above the picture, someone spoke to.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Me, pardon me, but may I look at that for
just a moment?
Speaker 5 (17:10):
It couldn't be standing at my shoulder, smiling, young, apparently
as alive as I but it was he was there,
he my victim. The face in the paper and his
face were the same.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
I swear they were the same.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
I'm sorry to bother you. And the girl at the
desk told me you had that volume of The Times. A. Yes, yes,
there's an item I wanted to see in the July
thirtieth issue. I'd wait, but I have to catch a train.
If I'm late, my wife worries. You know how it is.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
If I am late, my wife worries. And that night
he was very late. Somewhere she's still waiting, waiting. Is
that what he wanted me to know? What is this madness?
Speaker 7 (17:58):
Hysteria?
Speaker 4 (18:00):
It's merely coincidence. The man in the library looks so
much like him. He's dead. I know he's dead, and
the dead neither walk nor speak. I must believe that, and.
Speaker 5 (18:10):
I must go back to the library and find out
where he lived, who and what he was. And August fifteenth,
I'm beyond all human help. I can confide the terrors
I live with only to.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
The pages of this journal. To day.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
I went to Riverside, to a quiet street where he
had lived, a tree lined street running down to the
Hudson River. I walked past his house, number two four
six Palisades Road. A young woman on the front porch
was trimming a morning glory vine.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
I ache to speak to her and ask her name,
but the words stuck in my throat. I walked on.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Then at the next.
Speaker 5 (18:49):
Corner it happened again. I had paused at the curb
when he came up behind me.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Pardon, mate, did you see the bus go by the hip?
The bus, Yes, the bus for Columbia. Say what's wrong?
Are you ill?
Speaker 2 (19:04):
No?
Speaker 4 (19:04):
No, no, no, I'm all right.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
You look like you're about to faint. I live right
near here. If you want to.
Speaker 4 (19:10):
Lie, No, no, no, please, I'm all right.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
House is just down. But please, no, it's up to you.
I can't make you come, but I hate to see
you suffer needlessly.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
August twentieth. He doesn't like to see me suffer. Yet,
because of him, there isn't one day, one hour when
I'm free from despair and fear.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
I accept him.
Speaker 5 (19:41):
Now.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
The dead do.
Speaker 5 (19:43):
Walk and speak. At least one dead man does. Whether
actually or in the madness of my brain, I do
not know. I only know that if I venture out
of my house, inevitably he finds me Sometimes he follows
at a distance, sometimes waits ahead of me and beckons,
and sometimes he meets.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
Me face to face, as he did two days ago.
I was going home and I stopped at the corner
drug store.
Speaker 5 (20:05):
Anything, mister Steele Malden, No, no, I'll have a couple
of coffee, sure thing?
Speaker 4 (20:10):
Yeah, this stool's vacant next to this gentleman. Thank you?
Oh no, no, go ahead, sit down yours?
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Sit down? I won't bite you.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
Is your coffee? No, Joe, I changed my mind.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Book fella. If it's something about me, what's wrong.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Mister Steele?
Speaker 3 (20:28):
What do you wanted me?
Speaker 4 (20:28):
Tell me what you want me?
Speaker 3 (20:30):
I don't want anything.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Why don't you leave me alone?
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Somebody who know mister Steele?
Speaker 3 (20:34):
Cr Mister Steele thinks he knows me.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
I do? Oh, I do?
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Maybe so, mister, if you say so. But if you
know me, it sure wasn't from this life. Must have
been some other incarnation.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
That was the evening of the seventeenth and yesterday. I'd
started down the.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
Subway steps at fifty third Street, after looking all around
to make sure he was nowhere near.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
I'd only gone a few steps when I felt my
arm jostled and I turned.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Oh, pardon me, please, what do you want? You want?
Speaker 4 (21:16):
What do you mean are you following me? I looked
and I didn't see you, and then suddenly struck my arm.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Maybe it's just fate or something. Anyway, I said out,
then have mercy on me and go away. Look, you
don't own the subway. Please please, I beg okay, okay,
since my face seems to give you the willies, I'll
be big hearted. I'm in no hurry, but all the
time in the world, So I'll wait and take the
next train. Will that help? You?
Speaker 8 (21:39):
Know?
Speaker 5 (21:39):
It?
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Will?
Speaker 3 (21:40):
I don't know and don't want to, but run along
now before I changed my mind.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
August twenty sixth, What will you have? Quoth God? Pay
for it? And it?
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Well?
Speaker 5 (22:01):
I have paid, and I must now take for the
day I learned the cure for all my pain and torment,
the day.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
The course I have to take is clear.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
Today, on a deserted path during fifth avenue, I saw
him again.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
He was coming directly told me I waited. I didn't
even try to escape. Oh wait, I must ask ask
me why? Only one question? I have to know.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
I'm not sure I understand.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
We don't have to play games or pretend I accept
you your real Yes, I guess.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
I'm real, and only you can give me the answer.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
Why me, Please? I can't stand much more.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
Don't you see you look sick? If you want me
to help you out.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
There's only one way you can help, only one way.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Just answer me.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Well, okay, go ahead, I'll try.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
Do you do you believe in in compensation?
Speaker 3 (22:58):
And what do you mean by that?
Speaker 4 (23:00):
If someone does evil? If I have done evil, must
I get evil in return?
Speaker 3 (23:04):
Well? Say it again?
Speaker 4 (23:07):
Do you believe in good for good?
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Evil for evil?
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Look?
Speaker 4 (23:13):
What about killing?
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Well, there's all sorts of killing. In the war, I
killed several people.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Oh but but.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
Senseless killing, killing for no reason? What's the compensation for that?
Speaker 3 (23:24):
You've asked a pretty complicated question of a pretty simple guy.
The only thing that comes to my mind right now
is what it says in the Bible. An eye for
an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
That's that's what you believe.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
Well, sure, I guess that's what I believe. Well, does
that answer your question?
Speaker 5 (23:57):
An eye for an eye, a tooth for command? The
price asked by the only one who can ask it, Well,
I'll pay or I've learned that no event between two
human beings can happen in the vacuum.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
We're all enmeshed, bound together through our blood in a
pulse in neck.
Speaker 5 (24:20):
If one of us does violence to another, he does
violence to himself.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
Very well, this price.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
I'm glad to pay. I'm glad to die for his death.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
There is no other way.
Speaker 9 (24:44):
Hello, mister Steel, are you awake? Am I in the hospital?
How do you feel?
Speaker 4 (24:51):
Hospital? But I must die now that.
Speaker 9 (24:56):
We can keep you from it. I have to well,
you did your best, and what a silly way to
do it with a butcher knife.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
I tell you you have to let me die. Where's
the doctor now?
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Now?
Speaker 9 (25:07):
Lie down, Lie down, mister Steele. The doctor will be
here in a minute.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
I have to make him see I promise you promise.
Speaker 9 (25:16):
Oh, here's the doctor now, doctor west eye. I'm having a.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
Little troubles, Rosenberg. What seems to go the matter?
Speaker 2 (25:25):
You forgive me?
Speaker 4 (25:29):
I tried to do as you said, I tried to die.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Tell it.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Please go away with me alone. Promise I'll miss Adams. Yes, doctor,
did you finish reading his journal?
Speaker 4 (25:52):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Doctor, it's a weird document.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Certainly is what made him think you were the man
he killed.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
It was the nature of his illness. He had a
fixed delusion. He looked at me and saw some one
else's face. Hu strange, yes, but there's something stranger still.
When I finished reading this, I called the police and
checked about the murder. Yes, and there was no such
murder as he described, not on July thirtieth.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Not ever, He didn't kill any one.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
He never drove his knife into a living back. But
Richard Steele killed in his mind.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
You mean, just because he thought of killing.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
No, he went further than that. He selected his victim.
Who the man whose picture was in the paper? I
looked it up. It was on the front page of
the book review section, the photograph.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Of an author, someone he wanted to kill.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Yes, and even for that crime, because he wished for
someone's death. The earth was made of glass. There was
full compensation.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Whose death? Who was it?
Speaker 3 (26:56):
The author of a new biography called Ralph Waldo Emerson
in Our Times?
Speaker 2 (27:02):
And who is it by?
Speaker 3 (27:04):
The author was Richard Steele himself?
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Suspense in which Joseph Kerns was starred in The Earth
is made of Glass? Next week, the story of a
man with no imagination? Who found it? Necessary to cause
the violent end of a life. It was written by
the winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award, E Jack Newman,
(27:41):
and it's called Sequel to Murder. That's next Week on Suspense.
(28:03):
Suspense is produced and directed by Elliot Lewis. That music
composed by Lucian Morrowick and conducted by Loud Gluskin. The
Earth Is Made of Glass was written for Suspense by
Sylvia Richards. In Tonight's story, Joseph Kerns was heard as
mister Steele. Featured in the cast were Whitfield, Connor, Charlotte, Lawrence,
(28:24):
Herb Butterfield, Jerry Hausner, Paula Winslow, and Junius Matthews. And
remember next Week e Jack Newman's new suspense play Sequel
to Murder. When four noisy people give one noisy party
(28:57):
in a Baltimore home, two of the four wind up
at the Morgue. It's an unsettling bit of business that
interested all of Baltimore just a few years ago. And
CBS Radio's Crime Classics weighs the available facts for you
Tomorrow night. On most of these stations, hear.
Speaker 7 (29:12):
All about the death of a Baltimore Birdie and friend.
On crime classics tomorrow night. You can join the FBI
in Peace and War Wednesdays on the CBS Radio network
And now tonight's presentation from radio's outstanding Theater of Prills
Suspense Tonight the story of a murder deliberate, cold motivelest
in which we will examine its effects on our protagonist.
(00:25):
The story is called The Earth Is Made of Glass.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Good morning, doctor West, Oh, good morning is Sadam. I've
brought down the night charts from the fourth floor.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
And I looked the morning. Hm, what sort of night
did you have?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Fairly quiet, doctor, No new cases?
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Hum, they were I don't know where you'd put 'em.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Well, we have one vacant dead this morning, four thirty six.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Mister Steele, Yes, he died about the four surprise.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
He held on that long.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I thought you might be upset, doctor, I mean the
day supervisor Miss Rosenberg told me you and mister Steele
were either related or very close friends.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
No, no, not at all. Mister Steele suffered certain delusions.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Just before he died. He asked me to give you this,
doctor West. It's some kind of diary of journal, he said,
he owed it to you, that it was in compensation.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Well, leave it on the desk. I'll ask who is
in charge of settling his estate?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
All right, Doctor, I looked at the first few pages.
It's very strange. Oh well, I'm going off duty.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Verry, Well, miss Adams, I'll see you tomorrow, Yes, doctor.
The Journal of Richard Thomas Steele hm strange. He tore
out a good many pages, everything up to July twenty sixth.
That's only a month ago. Why unearthly leave it to me?
(02:02):
Who do you think I was the devil? There was
certainly something torturing him. July twenty sixth an extremely depressing day.
From early morning on the air was hot, heavy, sticky.
I stayed indoors.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
I stayed indoors with the blinds drawn.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
Spent three and a half hours arranging and cataloging a
new shipment of books. I must say I gloated over
the volume of Bacon gold Leaf, Uncut eighteen thirty six,
a treasure. In the afternoon, I ventured out to play
chess with Elliott. He's an uninspired player and a worse conversationalist.
I'm appalled that a man of Elliot's pretension still wallows
(02:45):
in eighteenth and nineteenth century thought patterns, quaddle and sentimentality.
He's totally out of step of the times, Blindly determined
to keep his mind closed to any developments and science.
It was so apparent in that argument we had over
Ralph Waldo Emerson. I noticed he had a volume of
Emerson's essays, a cheap reprint, and I thumbed through it.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
There was one paragraph in the.
Speaker 5 (03:07):
Essay called compensation, which especially annoyed me. I must have snorted,
because Elliott was instantly on the defensive when I asked
him if he actually believed such clap trap, he fairly
leaped that man.
Speaker 6 (03:18):
Certainly, I believe there's compensation, Richard tit for tap, measure
for measure, leve for love. Whatever a man does comes
back to him good for.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Good, evil for evil.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
So that if I should commit a crime, I would
have necessity be punished in one way or another. Yes,
you mean that I would in some way suffer in
compensation for my evil deed.
Speaker 6 (03:35):
Isn't that what Emerson says?
Speaker 7 (03:37):
Ha ha, I want to know what you believe.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
I believe what he says. Well, let's read what he says.
Discounting the poetry and all the emotional overtones. Emerson says,
commit a crime, and the earth is made of glass.
Commit a crime, and it seems as if a coat
of snow fell on the ground, such as reveals in
the woods the track of every partridge in fox and
squirrel and mole. You cannot recall the spoken word. You
(03:59):
can not wipe out the foot track. You cannot draw
up the ladder so as to leave no inlet or clue.
Some damning circumstance always transpires. The laws and substances of nature, water, snow, wind,
gravitation become penalties.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
To the thief. Well, Elliott, beautiful, isn't it. Don't be evasive, Elliot,
we're discussing his theory. Well, I don't see how there
can be any argument.
Speaker 5 (04:21):
We know a good deal more than Emerson, you old fellow,
especially about the laws and the substances of nature. They
surely haven't changed, No, no, But we've taken them into
the laboratory. We've tested the substances, and we've mastered the laws,
put them under our control. The scientific method, Eliot White,
cancels out every word your friend Emerson wrote.
Speaker 6 (04:39):
The scientific method. Is it an open sesame to all knowledge?
Does it make us gods? There are still mysteries we
can never fathom, Richard, For instance, the mysteries in ourselves.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
In our souls, Yes, in our souls.
Speaker 6 (04:54):
Whatever it is we have that cannot be weighed or tested, yet,
which manifests itself in every good or evil thing we do.
Say you commit a murder, say I do a perfect crime,
or I grant you that a man of your intelligence
can out with the police. Nevertheless, you could not escape
from well, let's call it your conscience.
Speaker 5 (05:14):
But say I commit a laboratory murder. Ah what, Let
me put it this way. To catch a murderer, the
police first set out to discover some connection between the
murderer and his victim, which leads them to the motive
of the crime. And when a murderer is caught by
his own conscience, it is also through his connection with
his victim, his his emotional connection. But in a pure
(05:36):
abstract murder, one occurring in an emotional vacuum, possible, the
two participants would be connected only by the unadulterated act
of killing.
Speaker 6 (05:47):
Isn't every man connected first of all with himself? I mean,
a man renders judgment on himself in his soul, I
would say.
Speaker 5 (05:58):
But superstitious claptap, Elliott, Apparently you're completely unable to grasp
my premise.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Theoretically, a laboratory murder is entirely possible. Why not? Actually,
it'd be.
Speaker 5 (06:08):
Very interesting to test the theory and find out. July
twenty eighth, the weather continues warm, humidity high. This is
the last summer I shall spend in New York. Today
I roamed around my library, read a little thought a
great deal. It's odd how I keep referring back to
(06:30):
my conversation with Elliott. Abstract murder, A laboratory murder. I
jotted down one or two theoretical points today, an amusing
project in such hot weather. What utter nonsense to think
of conducting a laboratory experiment in writing on paper? Or
(06:54):
it's a contradiction in terms.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
The core of the scientific method is to prove theory
in life. So let us proceed actually to create a
pure murder, a murder committed, as I said to Elliott,
and a material and emotional vacuum, A murder of someone
with whom I have no connection, whom I have no
possible reason to kill. But I will decide how to.
Speaker 5 (07:15):
Choose my victim after I've made all the other preparations
and have purchased the necessary equipment.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Gloves, sir, what kind of gloves?
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Any kind of gloves. But I mean, what do you
want them for?
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Driving? Gardening?
Speaker 4 (07:30):
I want gloves I can use for almost anything. Ah well,
now we call these utility gloves. Ah. Yes, those are excellent.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Yes, what size?
Speaker 4 (07:37):
And when you size?
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Medium?
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Now these look justin.
Speaker 5 (07:40):
No, no, no, I don't want to try them on.
I'll pick them out they or just wrap them up.
Speaker 7 (07:45):
You know, I'm very fond of.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
A genuine old fashioned hardware store like this one.
Speaker 8 (07:49):
Lots of people tell me that, sir, anything special you're
looking for?
Speaker 5 (07:54):
No, I suppose I'm just browser. What are those ice picks? Yes,
hive quite a selection a screwdrivers? And are there's something
I want.
Speaker 8 (08:06):
A knife of?
Speaker 3 (08:07):
One of those?
Speaker 8 (08:08):
Were? To be fair with you, sir, those are pretty
poor knives. That's why they're marked down. Too big for paring,
too small for carving. Just knives, and it's about it.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
For the best possible recommendation, I'll take one a meaningless knife,
all purpose gloves, knife and gloves, new factory made, uncontaminated
by human association, smelling only the harsh and personal machines
which turned them out. My first safeguards against the intrusion
(08:39):
of emotion. And now to complete my plans.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
Who will it be? I must never see his or
her face. I must not know his or her name, age, occupation, thoughts,
or desires. I must come into contact with its victim
as casually as though we were blown together by the wind.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
There can be no selection, no volition on my part
except the elementary volition necessary to raise my arm to kill.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
July thirtieth, the exact record of.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
What has occurred, I must write it down now, while
it's fresh in my mind.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
I'd be absolutely precise and objective very well.
Speaker 5 (09:19):
Then, at exactly ten p m. Tonight, I left my house,
wearing the new gloves and carrying the knife in my
right hand coat pocket. I walked an undetermined number of blocks,
turning corners at random, taking care to observe no street
signs or landmarks. I observed only one thing, that there
were many people on the street. In fact, I became
aware that I was push into a rather dense crowd.
(09:40):
I walked on with difficulty, but not once did I
allow myself to become conscious of the exact nature of
my surroundings. Then, at last, I found my progress to
the crowd blocked by what I can only describe as
a human bank. I raised the knife and drove it
into the back with all my force. I continued walking
(10:03):
without haste, pausing only a fraction of a second to
hear He's dead. Yes, I paused just long enough to hear.
Thus confirmed my unqualified belief that, without any possible consequence
to myself, I had taken another human being's life.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
You are listening to mister Joseph Kerns in Sylvia Richard's
study and motive The Earth Is Made of Glass, Tonight's
presentation in Radio's outstanding Theater of Frills Suspense.
Speaker 7 (11:00):
This is Flag Week, when all patriotic organizations urge all
patriotic Americans to display their stars and stripes. Your flag
hanging on high tells all who pass that America truly
is one nation, indivisible. Give new glory to old glory
by showing your country's colors during Flag Week and on
all patriotic holidays, national and local.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
And now we bring back to our Hollywood sound stage,
mister Joseph Kerns in Elliot Lewis's production of the Earth
Is Made of Glass, A tale well calculated to keep
you in suspense.
Speaker 5 (11:41):
Well August first, all day I felt enormously stimulated, elated
by the success of my experiment. The very intensity of
the sun outside my study is added to my feeling
of well being. Tomorrow I shall complete my notes on
(12:02):
this extraordinary and I'm sure of valuable psychological study. Today
I shall relish to the full my mood of achievement.
How I regret that I can't tell old Elliot. I
can picture the disbelief and horror on his face if
he knew compensation.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
Oh, Tut tut, mister Emerson.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
August third.
Speaker 5 (12:31):
Yesterday I was unable to write in my journal because
of the excessive heat, and because I suffered from a
headache and a vibration in my ears. Today I'm forcing
myself to write, to have on record the final control
in my experiment, my laboratory murder, to assure complete ignorance
of the identity of my victim. I have read no newspaper,
and will not read any for a period of two
(12:53):
or three weeks, nor will I hold conversation with anyone
apt to be morbidly interested in murder. As reported in
the tabloid press. August fourth, The heat is unbearable, and
all day I have felt that odd, heavy vibration in
(13:14):
my head now also on my arms and body. It
is almost constant in a one two one two rhythm.
But sometimes it's a sound as well as a vibration,
like the distant sound for sea, I must consult the doctor.
(13:38):
Last night I was kept awake by the throbbing in
my head, and toward morning I was subjected to a
new agony, very softly at first, but louder and louder,
like voices heard in delirium. My head became filled with
an almost hysterical bablom. Again, not for an instant have
the voice stopped or even paused, and set time with
(14:00):
the reverberation of my heart.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
August eighth, I.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
Have no need to consult a doctor, for I know
the nature of my illness. Last night, trying to drive
the unspeakable uproar from my brain, I turned to music.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
But when I put the record on the.
Speaker 5 (14:25):
Machine Schnobbles recording of Beethoven's F minus sonata the Aposionata,
the sound and the voices rose to a bedlam shrieking.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
Round out the music.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
And then I knew, in spite of every proportion, my
laboratory murder had not taken place in a backroom. Do
things had penetrated my shield. First of the voices echoing
in my ears, the fragments of speech about a concept,
are the same voices I heard in that cloud, rising
again and again to the climax of a woman's scream,
(14:59):
and the pulsing sound I hear when I drove that
knife home into a beating heart, its vital rhythm. The
mighty leap and contraction of the heart's muscle on the
blade of the knife was transmitted back to me through
my hand and remains indelibly recorded in the heartbeat of
my own blood.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
August eleventh.
Speaker 5 (15:27):
During the past hour, the incessant hammering of sounds receded,
But I know this respite will be brief.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Now, while I am able to.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
Reason, I must discover where I urd an act swiftly
to correct my errors. No turnning back the death I
caused as an accomplished fact. And each day I remember
something more. Today, suddenly, like a photograph imprinted on my brain,
I saw the black collar of his coat, his gray hat,
and between his clicked, silky reddish hair, and I had
(15:58):
and still have an insatiable desire to turn his head around.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
Seize face.
Speaker 5 (16:03):
Perhaps there's only one course for me to take to
reverse my plan. Learn everything about my victim, every possible detail,
create for myself a total portrait, and then discard it
in its entirety. Learn his name, ade address all the statistics.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
Of his life. I beg your pardoners, where are the
newspaper files? Oh?
Speaker 9 (16:24):
What dates? Did you wish to see?
Speaker 3 (16:25):
The week of July thirtieth?
Speaker 9 (16:28):
Which paper?
Speaker 4 (16:29):
The times?
Speaker 9 (16:30):
I'll start with that just a moment.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
I want them for the whole week.
Speaker 9 (16:33):
Yes, yes, well, here are all the copies for July bound,
and these loose ones are August so far.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Oh thank you.
Speaker 9 (16:42):
Now don't take them out of the reading room and
return them to the desk, and you're through, please, yes,
thank you, I will.
Speaker 5 (16:49):
I opened the bound volume near the end and immediately
saw his picture, page one center. The photograph was blurred,
but without reading a word, I recognized him because he
matched his hair, I mean, his face went with the
back of the head I had seen. But before I
could read the headline above the picture, someone spoke to.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Me, pardon me, but may I look at that for
just a moment?
Speaker 5 (17:10):
It couldn't be standing at my shoulder, smiling, young, apparently
as alive as I but it was he was there,
he my victim. The face in the paper and his
face were the same.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
I swear they were the same.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
I'm sorry to bother you. And the girl at the
desk told me you had that volume of The Times. A. Yes, yes,
there's an item I wanted to see in the July
thirtieth issue. I'd wait, but I have to catch a train.
If I'm late, my wife worries. You know how it is.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
If I am late, my wife worries. And that night
he was very late. Somewhere she's still waiting, waiting. Is
that what he wanted me to know? What is this madness?
Speaker 7 (17:58):
Hysteria?
Speaker 4 (18:00):
It's merely coincidence. The man in the library looks so
much like him. He's dead. I know he's dead, and
the dead neither walk nor speak. I must believe that, and.
Speaker 5 (18:10):
I must go back to the library and find out
where he lived, who and what he was. And August fifteenth,
I'm beyond all human help. I can confide the terrors
I live with only to.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
The pages of this journal. To day.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
I went to Riverside, to a quiet street where he
had lived, a tree lined street running down to the
Hudson River. I walked past his house, number two four
six Palisades Road. A young woman on the front porch
was trimming a morning glory vine.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
I ache to speak to her and ask her name,
but the words stuck in my throat. I walked on.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Then at the next.
Speaker 5 (18:49):
Corner it happened again. I had paused at the curb
when he came up behind me.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Pardon, mate, did you see the bus go by the hip?
The bus, Yes, the bus for Columbia. Say what's wrong?
Are you ill?
Speaker 2 (19:04):
No?
Speaker 4 (19:04):
No, no, no, I'm all right.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
You look like you're about to faint. I live right
near here. If you want to.
Speaker 4 (19:10):
Lie, No, no, no, please, I'm all right.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
House is just down. But please, no, it's up to you.
I can't make you come, but I hate to see
you suffer needlessly.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
August twentieth. He doesn't like to see me suffer. Yet,
because of him, there isn't one day, one hour when
I'm free from despair and fear.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
I accept him.
Speaker 5 (19:41):
Now.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
The dead do.
Speaker 5 (19:43):
Walk and speak. At least one dead man does. Whether
actually or in the madness of my brain, I do
not know. I only know that if I venture out
of my house, inevitably he finds me Sometimes he follows
at a distance, sometimes waits ahead of me and beckons,
and sometimes he meets.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
Me face to face, as he did two days ago.
I was going home and I stopped at the corner
drug store.
Speaker 5 (20:05):
Anything, mister Steele Malden, No, no, I'll have a couple
of coffee, sure thing?
Speaker 4 (20:10):
Yeah, this stool's vacant next to this gentleman. Thank you?
Oh no, no, go ahead, sit down yours?
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Sit down? I won't bite you.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
Is your coffee? No, Joe, I changed my mind.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Book fella. If it's something about me, what's wrong.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Mister Steele?
Speaker 3 (20:28):
What do you wanted me?
Speaker 4 (20:28):
Tell me what you want me?
Speaker 3 (20:30):
I don't want anything.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Why don't you leave me alone?
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Somebody who know mister Steele?
Speaker 3 (20:34):
Cr Mister Steele thinks he knows me.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
I do? Oh, I do?
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Maybe so, mister, if you say so. But if you
know me, it sure wasn't from this life. Must have
been some other incarnation.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
That was the evening of the seventeenth and yesterday. I'd
started down the.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
Subway steps at fifty third Street, after looking all around
to make sure he was nowhere near.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
I'd only gone a few steps when I felt my
arm jostled and I turned.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Oh, pardon me, please, what do you want? You want?
Speaker 4 (21:16):
What do you mean are you following me? I looked
and I didn't see you, and then suddenly struck my arm.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Maybe it's just fate or something. Anyway, I said out,
then have mercy on me and go away. Look, you
don't own the subway. Please please, I beg okay, okay,
since my face seems to give you the willies, I'll
be big hearted. I'm in no hurry, but all the
time in the world, So I'll wait and take the
next train. Will that help? You?
Speaker 8 (21:39):
Know?
Speaker 5 (21:39):
It?
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Will?
Speaker 3 (21:40):
I don't know and don't want to, but run along
now before I changed my mind.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
August twenty sixth, What will you have? Quoth God? Pay
for it? And it?
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Well?
Speaker 5 (22:01):
I have paid, and I must now take for the
day I learned the cure for all my pain and torment,
the day.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
The course I have to take is clear.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
Today, on a deserted path during fifth avenue, I saw
him again.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
He was coming directly told me I waited. I didn't
even try to escape. Oh wait, I must ask ask
me why? Only one question? I have to know.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
I'm not sure I understand.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
We don't have to play games or pretend I accept
you your real Yes, I guess.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
I'm real, and only you can give me the answer.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
Why me, Please? I can't stand much more.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
Don't you see you look sick? If you want me
to help you out.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
There's only one way you can help, only one way.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Just answer me.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Well, okay, go ahead, I'll try.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
Do you do you believe in in compensation?
Speaker 3 (22:58):
And what do you mean by that?
Speaker 4 (23:00):
If someone does evil? If I have done evil, must
I get evil in return?
Speaker 3 (23:04):
Well? Say it again?
Speaker 4 (23:07):
Do you believe in good for good?
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Evil for evil?
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Look?
Speaker 4 (23:13):
What about killing?
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Well, there's all sorts of killing. In the war, I
killed several people.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Oh but but.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
Senseless killing, killing for no reason? What's the compensation for that?
Speaker 3 (23:24):
You've asked a pretty complicated question of a pretty simple guy.
The only thing that comes to my mind right now
is what it says in the Bible. An eye for
an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
That's that's what you believe.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
Well, sure, I guess that's what I believe. Well, does
that answer your question?
Speaker 5 (23:57):
An eye for an eye, a tooth for command? The
price asked by the only one who can ask it, Well,
I'll pay or I've learned that no event between two
human beings can happen in the vacuum.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
We're all enmeshed, bound together through our blood in a
pulse in neck.
Speaker 5 (24:20):
If one of us does violence to another, he does
violence to himself.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
Very well, this price.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
I'm glad to pay. I'm glad to die for his death.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
There is no other way.
Speaker 9 (24:44):
Hello, mister Steel, are you awake? Am I in the hospital?
How do you feel?
Speaker 4 (24:51):
Hospital? But I must die now that.
Speaker 9 (24:56):
We can keep you from it. I have to well,
you did your best, and what a silly way to
do it with a butcher knife.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
I tell you you have to let me die. Where's
the doctor now?
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Now?
Speaker 9 (25:07):
Lie down, Lie down, mister Steele. The doctor will be
here in a minute.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
I have to make him see I promise you promise.
Speaker 9 (25:16):
Oh, here's the doctor now, doctor west eye. I'm having a.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
Little troubles, Rosenberg. What seems to go the matter?
Speaker 2 (25:25):
You forgive me?
Speaker 4 (25:29):
I tried to do as you said, I tried to die.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Tell it.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Please go away with me alone. Promise I'll miss Adams. Yes, doctor,
did you finish reading his journal?
Speaker 4 (25:52):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Doctor, it's a weird document.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Certainly is what made him think you were the man
he killed.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
It was the nature of his illness. He had a
fixed delusion. He looked at me and saw some one
else's face. Hu strange, yes, but there's something stranger still.
When I finished reading this, I called the police and
checked about the murder. Yes, and there was no such
murder as he described, not on July thirtieth.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Not ever, He didn't kill any one.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
He never drove his knife into a living back. But
Richard Steele killed in his mind.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
You mean, just because he thought of killing.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
No, he went further than that. He selected his victim.
Who the man whose picture was in the paper? I
looked it up. It was on the front page of
the book review section, the photograph.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Of an author, someone he wanted to kill.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Yes, and even for that crime, because he wished for
someone's death. The earth was made of glass. There was
full compensation.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Whose death? Who was it?
Speaker 3 (26:56):
The author of a new biography called Ralph Waldo Emerson
in Our Times?
Speaker 2 (27:02):
And who is it by?
Speaker 3 (27:04):
The author was Richard Steele himself?
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Suspense in which Joseph Kerns was starred in The Earth
is made of Glass? Next week, the story of a
man with no imagination? Who found it? Necessary to cause
the violent end of a life. It was written by
the winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award, E Jack Newman,
(27:41):
and it's called Sequel to Murder. That's next Week on Suspense.
(28:03):
Suspense is produced and directed by Elliot Lewis. That music
composed by Lucian Morrowick and conducted by Loud Gluskin. The
Earth Is Made of Glass was written for Suspense by
Sylvia Richards. In Tonight's story, Joseph Kerns was heard as
mister Steele. Featured in the cast were Whitfield, Connor, Charlotte, Lawrence,
(28:24):
Herb Butterfield, Jerry Hausner, Paula Winslow, and Junius Matthews. And
remember next Week e Jack Newman's new suspense play Sequel
to Murder. When four noisy people give one noisy party
(28:57):
in a Baltimore home, two of the four wind up
at the Morgue. It's an unsettling bit of business that
interested all of Baltimore just a few years ago. And
CBS Radio's Crime Classics weighs the available facts for you
Tomorrow night. On most of these stations, hear.
Speaker 7 (29:12):
All about the death of a Baltimore Birdie and friend.
On crime classics tomorrow night. You can join the FBI
in Peace and War Wednesdays on the CBS Radio network
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