WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:06.000 The Roma Wine Company of Fresno, California presents... 00:06.000 --> 00:08.000 Suspense! 00:08.000 --> 00:25.000 Tonight, Roma Wines bring you Mr. Joseph Cotton, as star of The Earth is Made of Glass, a suspense 00:25.000 --> 00:30.000 play produced, edited and directed for Roma Wines by William Spear. 00:30.000 --> 00:35.000 Suspense! 00:35.000 --> 00:42.000 Radio's outstanding theater of thrills is presented for your enjoyment by Roma Wines. 00:42.000 --> 00:46.000 That's R-O-M-A, Roma Wines. 00:46.000 --> 00:50.000 Those excellent California wines that can add so much pleasantness to the way you live, 00:50.000 --> 00:56.000 to your happiness and entertaining guests, to your enjoyment of everyday meals. 00:56.000 --> 01:03.000 Yes, right now a glass full would be very pleasant, as Roma Wines bring you Mr. Joseph Cotton 01:03.000 --> 01:05.000 in a remarkable tale of... 01:05.000 --> 01:07.000 Suspense! 01:12.000 --> 01:13.000 Good morning, Dr. West. 01:13.000 --> 01:14.000 Good morning, Miss Adams. 01:14.000 --> 01:16.000 Well, there's one bed vacant this morning. 01:16.000 --> 01:20.000 I see that 4.36, Mr. Steele died, 4 a.m. 01:20.000 --> 01:23.000 Yes, I was there. Coronary thrombosis. 01:23.000 --> 01:26.000 You're not terribly concerned, Dr. West? 01:26.000 --> 01:28.000 Why should I be especially concerned? 01:28.000 --> 01:31.000 Well, the day nurse, Miss Rosenberg, said that you and Mr. Steele... 01:31.000 --> 01:33.000 You girls gossip too much. 01:33.000 --> 01:34.000 Yes, doctor. 01:34.000 --> 01:37.000 But I understand there's no family. What am I going to do with Mr. Steele's things? 01:37.000 --> 01:38.000 What things? 01:38.000 --> 01:42.000 Well, his overcoat, this parcel was in it, this book. 01:42.000 --> 01:46.000 He said it was his journal and he told Miss Rosenberg you would have it. 01:46.000 --> 01:48.000 He said it had important scientific data and... 01:48.000 --> 01:50.000 Well, give it here. 01:50.000 --> 01:51.000 Yes, doctor. 01:51.000 --> 01:54.000 Journal of Richard Thomas Steele. 01:54.000 --> 01:57.000 Important scientific data, I'll bet. 01:57.000 --> 01:59.000 I still can't figure out what was eating that guy. 01:59.000 --> 02:02.000 What he had to say to me that was so darned important. 02:02.000 --> 02:05.000 Why do people want to keep diaries? 02:05.000 --> 02:08.000 July 26th, not a fruitful day. 02:08.000 --> 02:11.000 The weather this morning was heavy, sticky. 02:11.000 --> 02:14.000 Lord knows what crazy stuff he's written here. 02:21.000 --> 02:23.000 July 26th, not a fruitful day. 02:23.000 --> 02:25.000 The weather this morning was heavy, sticky. 02:25.000 --> 02:31.000 I stayed indoors with the blinds drawn, spent three and a half hours arranging and cataloguing a shipment of books. 02:31.000 --> 02:38.000 And I must say I gloated over my new volume of bacon, gold leaf, uncut, 1836, a treasure. 02:38.000 --> 02:42.000 In the afternoon I ventured out to play chess with Eliot. 02:42.000 --> 02:45.000 He's an uninspired player and a worse conversationalist. 02:45.000 --> 02:53.000 I'm appalled that a man of Eliot's pretensions still wallows in 18th and 19th century thought patterns, twaddle in sentimentality. 02:53.000 --> 02:57.000 He's totally unaware of the potentialities of modern science. 02:57.000 --> 03:03.000 It was so apparent to me when we got into that argument over Ralph Waldo Emerson. 03:03.000 --> 03:07.000 I was thumbing through a volume he had of Emerson's essays, a cheap reprint at that. 03:07.000 --> 03:11.000 I was annoyed by a paragraph in the essay called compensation. 03:11.000 --> 03:14.000 I must have snorted because Eliot fairly leaped at me. 03:14.000 --> 03:18.000 Certainly I think there's compensation for everything. 03:18.000 --> 03:21.000 Kid for tat, measure for measure, love for love. 03:21.000 --> 03:25.000 Do you contend, Eliot, that no matter what a man does it comes back to him? 03:25.000 --> 03:27.000 One way or another, yes, yes it does. 03:27.000 --> 03:29.000 Then if I do good I get good back? 03:29.000 --> 03:31.000 Yes, I believe that, Richard. 03:31.000 --> 03:33.000 And if I commit a crime I'm of necessity punished? 03:33.000 --> 03:36.000 Well, it depends what you mean by punishment. 03:36.000 --> 03:39.000 I mean that I will suffer somehow for the evil I do. 03:39.000 --> 03:40.000 Isn't that what Emerson says? 03:40.000 --> 03:42.000 I want to know what you believe. 03:42.000 --> 03:43.000 Well, I believe what he says. 03:43.000 --> 03:44.000 Well, I'll read what he says. 03:44.000 --> 03:47.000 Discount the poetry, old man, he used lush language. 03:47.000 --> 03:52.000 Emerson says, commit a crime and the earth is made of glass. 03:52.000 --> 03:58.000 Commit a crime and it seems as if a coat of snow fell on the ground such as reveals in the woods 03:58.000 --> 04:02.000 the tracks of every potterage and fox and squirrel and mole. 04:02.000 --> 04:04.000 You cannot recall the spoken word. 04:04.000 --> 04:06.000 You cannot wipe out the foot track. 04:06.000 --> 04:10.000 You cannot draw up the ladder so as to leave no inlet or clue. 04:10.000 --> 04:14.000 Some damning circumstance always transpires. 04:14.000 --> 04:20.000 The laws and substance of nature, water, snow, wind, gravitation, become penalties to the thief. 04:20.000 --> 04:22.000 Well, Eliot? 04:22.000 --> 04:25.000 Beautiful, isn't it? You read very well. 04:25.000 --> 04:28.000 Don't try to turn me off, Eliot. We're discussing his theory. 04:28.000 --> 04:31.000 I don't see how there can be any argument. We know... 04:31.000 --> 04:34.000 We know a good deal more than Emerson, you old fellow, 04:34.000 --> 04:37.000 especially about the laws and substances of nature. 04:37.000 --> 04:42.000 We've tested the substances, learned control over the laws, the scientific method, Eliot. 04:42.000 --> 04:48.000 It cancels out every word your friend Emerson wrote, let's say, in compensation. 04:48.000 --> 04:50.000 The scientific method. 04:50.000 --> 04:55.000 I'd like to see it applied to some situations in nature, to human nature. 04:55.000 --> 04:58.000 All right, say you commit a murder. 04:58.000 --> 04:59.000 I'd better very well say I do. 04:59.000 --> 05:04.000 Well, if you aren't caught by the police, and that can be managed by an intelligent man, 05:04.000 --> 05:09.000 you still won't escape. Call it your conscience. That's what Emerson means. 05:09.000 --> 05:12.000 But say I commit a laboratory murder. 05:17.000 --> 05:19.000 What kind of a murder is that? 05:19.000 --> 05:22.000 Let me put it this way. When the police catch a murderer, 05:22.000 --> 05:27.000 they have found a connection between the murderer and his victim, motive and clues, right? 05:27.000 --> 05:30.000 And when a murderer is caught by his conscience, 05:30.000 --> 05:34.000 it is still because he is connected with his victim through his emotions. 05:34.000 --> 05:35.000 I agree so far. 05:35.000 --> 05:40.000 Well, how is a murderer caught if he is in no way connected with his victim? 05:40.000 --> 05:41.000 Well, that's not possible. 05:41.000 --> 05:47.000 I don't know. There could be a pure abstract murder, a murder occurring in almost a vacuum, 05:47.000 --> 05:57.000 a murder in which the only connection between the two participants is the unadulterated act of killing. 06:02.000 --> 06:06.000 July 28th. The weather continues warm, humidity high. 06:06.000 --> 06:10.000 Today I roamed around my library, read a little, thought a great deal. 06:10.000 --> 06:15.000 It's odd that I should keep referring back to my conversation with Elliot. 06:15.000 --> 06:18.000 Abstract murder, a laboratory murder. 06:18.000 --> 06:21.000 I jotted down one or two theoretical points today. 06:21.000 --> 06:26.000 It will be an amusing project in such hot weather. 06:35.000 --> 06:43.000 July 29th. What utter nonsense to think as I have of a laboratory experiment carried out in writing on paper. 06:43.000 --> 06:45.000 It's a contradiction in terms. 06:45.000 --> 06:49.000 The core of the scientific method is to prove theory in life. 06:49.000 --> 06:53.000 So let us prove the possibility of a pure murder. 06:53.000 --> 06:58.000 It must be someone met in an emotional and material vacuum, 06:58.000 --> 07:04.000 someone with whom I have no connection, someone whom I have no possible reason to kill. 07:04.000 --> 07:09.000 The preparations for such a murder are of necessity, classically simple. 07:09.000 --> 07:12.000 This afternoon I bought my equipment. 07:12.000 --> 07:14.000 Gloves, sir? What kind of gloves? 07:14.000 --> 07:15.000 Oh, any kind of gloves. 07:15.000 --> 07:18.000 But what do you want them for? Driving? Gardening? 07:18.000 --> 07:20.000 I want gloves I can use for anything. 07:20.000 --> 07:22.000 Well, we call these utility gloves. 07:22.000 --> 07:23.000 Yes, those will be excellent. Thank you. 07:23.000 --> 07:24.000 What size, sir? 07:24.000 --> 07:25.000 Any size, medium. 07:25.000 --> 07:26.000 Well, now, these look just about... 07:26.000 --> 07:30.000 No, no, no, I don't want to try them on. I'll take them as they are. Just wrap them up. 07:30.000 --> 07:33.000 Yes, sir. Just as you say. 07:33.000 --> 07:39.000 You know, I'm very fond of a genuine old-fashioned hardware store, Mr. Jeremy. Like yours? 07:39.000 --> 07:43.000 Yes, a lot of people tell me that, Mr. Steele. Yes. 07:43.000 --> 07:45.000 Anything special you're looking for? 07:45.000 --> 07:47.000 I don't know. I suppose I'm just browsing. 07:47.000 --> 07:48.000 Yes, sir. 07:48.000 --> 07:50.000 Oh, what are those? Ice picks? 07:50.000 --> 07:53.000 Yes, sir. And pre-war metal, too. You want one? 07:53.000 --> 07:56.000 No, no, I have one. My, quite a selection. 07:56.000 --> 07:59.000 Screwdrivers and... Oh, there's something I want. 07:59.000 --> 08:00.000 Oh, a knife? 08:00.000 --> 08:03.000 One of those. 08:03.000 --> 08:06.000 Well, to be fair with you now, those are pretty poor knives. 08:06.000 --> 08:07.000 Doesn't matter. 08:07.000 --> 08:10.000 Well, just no darn good as far as I can see. 08:10.000 --> 08:13.000 The best possible recommendation, Mr. Jeremy. I'll take it. 08:20.000 --> 08:26.000 A meaningless knife, all-purpose gloves, knife and gloves new, factory-made, 08:26.000 --> 08:32.000 uncontaminated by human association, smelling only of the harsh, impersonal machines which turn them out. 08:32.000 --> 08:36.000 My first safeguards against the intrusion of emotion. 08:36.000 --> 08:40.000 In a laboratory, this procedure would be called controls. 08:40.000 --> 08:44.000 To complete the controls, who would it be? 08:44.000 --> 08:47.000 I must never see his or her face. 08:47.000 --> 08:52.000 I must never know his or her name, age, occupation, thoughts or desires. 08:52.000 --> 08:58.000 I must come into contact with this victim as casually as though we were blown together by the wind. 08:58.000 --> 09:06.000 There can be no selection, no volition on my part, except the elementary volition necessary to raise my arm to kill. 09:14.000 --> 09:18.000 July 30. The exact record of what has occurred. 09:18.000 --> 09:21.000 I must write it down now while it is fresh in my mind. 09:21.000 --> 09:24.000 I will be absolutely precise and objective. 09:24.000 --> 09:29.000 Very well. Tonight, at some undetermined hour after dinner, 09:29.000 --> 09:34.000 I left my house on 74th Street with a new gloves and knife in my right-hand coat pocket. 09:34.000 --> 09:39.000 The only external circumstance I noted was that the air was hot, heavy and still. 09:39.000 --> 09:45.000 After all, everyone is affected equally by weather, so my consciousness of it was no limitation on my experiment. 09:45.000 --> 09:50.000 I walked an undetermined number of blocks, taking care to observe no street signs or landmarks. 09:50.000 --> 09:54.000 I observed only one thing, that there were many people on the street. 09:54.000 --> 10:00.000 In fact, I became aware only vaguely that I was pushing through a rather dense crowd, 10:00.000 --> 10:05.000 but I deafened myself completely to any specific words or conversation. 10:09.000 --> 10:13.000 And although I imagined there was traffic passing in the street, 10:13.000 --> 10:17.000 I successfully blotted out all sound except for a dull roar. 10:17.000 --> 10:20.000 It seemed to me that the ominous heat had increased. 10:20.000 --> 10:23.000 The stillness of the air was the most palpable. 10:23.000 --> 10:27.000 Perhaps it brought me sooner to the final resolution of my plan. 10:27.000 --> 10:32.000 But when I found my progress through the crowd blocked by what I can only describe as a human, 10:32.000 --> 10:36.000 I raised my knife and drove it into the back with all my force. 10:36.000 --> 10:38.000 I can't stand it! I can't! 10:41.000 --> 10:46.000 I continued walking without haste, pausing only a fraction of a second to hear. 10:46.000 --> 10:49.000 He's fallen! Get back! Give him air! Give him air! 10:51.000 --> 10:55.000 To hear those few words, he's fallen. Give him air. 10:56.000 --> 10:58.000 He needed no air, I knew that. 10:59.000 --> 11:04.000 And thus, I heard confirm my unqualified belief 11:04.000 --> 11:16.000 that I had taken without any possible consequence to myself a human being's life. 11:27.000 --> 11:31.000 For suspense, Roma Wines are bringing you as star Mr. Joseph Cotton 11:31.000 --> 11:34.000 in The Earth is Made of Glass by Sylvia Richards. 11:34.000 --> 11:40.000 Roma Wines presentation tonight in radio's outstanding theatre of thrills, Suspense. 11:49.000 --> 11:54.000 Between the acts of suspense, this is Truman Bradley for Roma Wines. 11:54.000 --> 12:01.000 First call to my dinners, says Miss Elsa Maxwell, is Roma California Sherry. 12:01.000 --> 12:05.000 For this delicious wine is a perfect beginning to a good meal. 12:05.000 --> 12:08.000 In fact, this famous hostess goes on to say, 12:08.000 --> 12:15.000 Roma Sherry is an ideal wine because you can enjoy it any time of day or night. 12:15.000 --> 12:18.000 Gold and amber with a rich nut-like taste. 12:18.000 --> 12:24.000 Glorious Roma Sherry is at its most delightful best served cool. 12:24.000 --> 12:30.000 Roma Sherry, like all the famous Roma wines, is made from carefully selected grapes 12:30.000 --> 12:32.000 from California's choicest vineyards. 12:32.000 --> 12:36.000 Grapes gathered at the peak of their flavor goodness 12:36.000 --> 12:40.000 when every grape is hanging firm and full on the vine. 12:40.000 --> 12:43.000 Then quickly but gently pressed. 12:43.000 --> 12:48.000 Finally, by a process as slow and as old as time, 12:48.000 --> 12:53.000 brought to delicious liquid perfection by Roma's skilled vintners. 12:53.000 --> 13:00.000 Yes, all Roma wines are true wines, always unburyingly good, 13:00.000 --> 13:03.000 bottled at Roma's own famed wineries. 13:03.000 --> 13:08.000 Enjoy Roma wines regularly for only pennies a glass. 13:08.000 --> 13:13.000 Remember, because of uniformly fine quality at reasonable cost, 13:13.000 --> 13:18.000 more Americans enjoy Roma than any other wine. 13:18.000 --> 13:20.000 Always ask for Roma. 13:20.000 --> 13:24.000 R-O-M-A. Roma wines. 13:24.000 --> 13:28.000 And now Roma wines bring back to our Hollywood soundstage 13:28.000 --> 13:33.000 Joseph Cotton as Richard Thomas Steele in The Earth is Made of Glass. 13:33.000 --> 13:38.000 A play well calculated to keep you in suspense. 13:52.000 --> 13:57.000 August 1st. I was unable to write in my journal yesterday because of the excessive heat. 13:57.000 --> 14:01.000 I suffered all day from a headache and a vibration in my ears. 14:01.000 --> 14:05.000 I'm writing today only to have on record the final control in my experiment, 14:05.000 --> 14:07.000 my laboratory murder. 14:07.000 --> 14:10.000 To ensure complete ignorance of the identity of my victim, 14:10.000 --> 14:13.000 I shall read no newspapers for a period of two or three weeks 14:13.000 --> 14:16.000 and a whole conversation with anyone apt to be morbidly interested 14:16.000 --> 14:19.000 in murders reported in the tabloid press. 14:19.000 --> 14:21.000 Compensation. 14:21.000 --> 14:23.000 Ta-tat, Mr. Emerson. 14:23.000 --> 14:26.000 August 4th. The heat is unbearable. 14:26.000 --> 14:30.000 All day I have felt that odd heavy vibration in my head. 14:30.000 --> 14:32.000 Now also in my arms and body. 14:32.000 --> 14:36.000 It is almost constant in a one, two, three rhythm. 14:36.000 --> 14:39.000 And sometimes it is a sound as well as a vibration, 14:39.000 --> 14:53.000 like the distant sound of the sea. 14:53.000 --> 14:55.000 I must consult a doctor. 14:55.000 --> 14:58.000 Last night I was kept awake by the throbbing in my head 14:58.000 --> 15:01.000 and toward morning I was subjected to a new agony. 15:01.000 --> 15:04.000 Very softly at first, but louder. 15:04.000 --> 15:09.000 And louder like voices heard in delirium, 15:09.000 --> 15:13.000 my head became filled with an almost hysterical babbling. 15:13.000 --> 15:15.000 A passionata. 15:15.000 --> 15:17.000 A passionata. 15:17.000 --> 15:19.000 A passionata. 15:19.000 --> 15:21.000 A passionata. 15:21.000 --> 15:23.000 A passionata. 15:23.000 --> 15:25.000 A passionata. 15:25.000 --> 15:27.000 A passionata. 15:27.000 --> 15:29.000 A passionata. 15:29.000 --> 15:31.000 A passionata. 15:31.000 --> 15:35.000 For an instant have the voices stopped or even paused. 15:35.000 --> 15:39.000 And they seem to keep time with the reverberation of my heart. 15:39.000 --> 15:41.000 A passionata. 15:41.000 --> 15:43.000 A passionata. 15:43.000 --> 15:45.000 A passionata. 15:45.000 --> 15:47.000 A passionata. 15:47.000 --> 15:49.000 A passionata. 15:49.000 --> 15:53.000 August 8th. I have no need to consult a doctor. 15:53.000 --> 15:56.000 Now I know the nature of my illness. 15:56.000 --> 15:59.000 Last night I turned to music trying to drive the unspeakable 15:59.000 --> 16:01.000 upper off of my brain. 16:01.000 --> 16:05.000 When I put the records on the machine, the Frank Violin Sonata, 16:05.000 --> 16:08.000 and settled back to hear the first flowing melody of the violin, 16:08.000 --> 16:10.000 something happened. 16:10.000 --> 16:15.000 The music swelled and changed and became the passionata. 16:15.000 --> 16:17.000 Beethoven's passionata. 16:17.000 --> 16:19.000 Oh, but that's fine. That's fine. 16:19.000 --> 16:21.000 That's fine. That's fine. That's fine. 16:21.000 --> 16:23.000 Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. 16:23.000 --> 16:25.000 Then I knew I turned off the music. 16:25.000 --> 16:28.000 The deadly cycle began once more and the sound and voices 16:28.000 --> 16:31.000 of the fiends rose to a dreadful climax. 16:31.000 --> 16:33.000 Passionata. 16:33.000 --> 16:35.000 Passionata. 16:35.000 --> 16:40.000 In spite of every precaution, my murder had not taken place in a vacuum. 16:40.000 --> 16:43.000 My shield had been penetrated by those fragments of sound and speech 16:43.000 --> 16:46.000 echoing in my ears. Speech about a concert. 16:46.000 --> 16:49.000 Yes, I remembered how. 16:49.000 --> 16:52.000 I read that Schnabel was to play an all Beethoven concert 16:52.000 --> 16:54.000 in Carnegie Hall on July 30th. 16:54.000 --> 16:58.000 And the clanging of bells, that was a trolley going by on 7th Avenue. 16:58.000 --> 17:02.000 And I'd also heard and identified the roll and crash of summer thunder. 17:02.000 --> 17:06.000 That was the sound which preceded and punctuated a woman's scream. 17:06.000 --> 17:09.000 I can't stand it. I can't. He's falling. Get back. 17:09.000 --> 17:11.000 Give him a ear. 17:11.000 --> 17:13.000 What's the matter? 17:13.000 --> 17:18.000 Well, it may be possible to drive all this away in time, 17:18.000 --> 17:21.000 but the other thing which sets the rhythm for the rest, 17:21.000 --> 17:24.000 the pulsing sound I hear, 17:24.000 --> 17:28.000 when I drove that knife home into a human being's heart, 17:28.000 --> 17:30.000 the vital rhythm of the heart, 17:30.000 --> 17:35.000 the mighty leap and contraction of the heart's muscle on the blade of the knife 17:35.000 --> 17:40.000 was transmitted back to me through my hand and remains indelibly recorded 17:40.000 --> 18:02.000 in the beat of my own blood. 18:02.000 --> 18:05.000 August 11th. While I am still able to reason, 18:05.000 --> 18:10.000 I must discover where I erred and act swiftly to correct my error. 18:10.000 --> 18:13.000 There is no turning back. The death I caused is a fact. 18:13.000 --> 18:15.000 I cannot banish it by wishing. 18:15.000 --> 18:17.000 For each day I remember something more. 18:17.000 --> 18:19.000 Today, the color of his hair. 18:19.000 --> 18:23.000 Photographed between the black collar of his coat and his gray hat, I saw it. 18:23.000 --> 18:25.000 Clipped, silky reddish. 18:25.000 --> 18:30.000 And I had an insatiable desire to turn the head to see his face. 18:30.000 --> 18:33.000 There is one course left to me. 18:33.000 --> 18:36.000 I will reverse my plan. I will learn. 18:36.000 --> 18:40.000 I will learn in every possible detail the person whom I killed. 18:40.000 --> 18:43.000 Learn to know him. Construct a total portrait. 18:43.000 --> 18:52.000 Then I will attempt to discard this portrait in its entirety. 18:52.000 --> 18:54.000 I beg your pardon, Miss. I... 18:54.000 --> 18:56.000 Where are the newspaper files? 18:56.000 --> 18:58.000 I'll have to get them for you. What dates did you want to see? 18:58.000 --> 19:00.000 The week of July 30th. 19:00.000 --> 19:01.000 Which paper? 19:01.000 --> 19:02.000 The times. I'll start with that. 19:02.000 --> 19:03.000 Just a moment. 19:03.000 --> 19:05.000 I want them for the whole week. 19:05.000 --> 19:08.000 Yes, well, here are all the copies for July, bound. 19:08.000 --> 19:10.000 And these loose ones are August so far. 19:10.000 --> 19:11.000 Thank you. 19:11.000 --> 19:13.000 They must not be taken out of the reading room. 19:13.000 --> 19:15.000 The reading room is to your right. Do you need them long? 19:15.000 --> 19:18.000 It may take me some time. I don't know. I'm doing some rather intensive research. 19:18.000 --> 19:21.000 Return them to the desk when you're through. 19:21.000 --> 19:27.000 I opened the bound volume near the end and immediately saw his picture, page one, center. 19:27.000 --> 19:32.000 The photograph was blurred, but without reading a word, I recognized him because he matched his hair. 19:32.000 --> 19:37.000 I mean, his face went with the back of his head, the one who I had seen. 19:37.000 --> 19:45.000 The hair growing to a slight widow's peak, eyes widely spaced, gray or very light blue, mouth wide, young and strong. 19:45.000 --> 19:50.000 Then I read the words above the picture. Young man slain in crowd. 19:50.000 --> 19:54.000 That was all I read because at a moment, someone spoke to me. 19:54.000 --> 19:57.000 Pardon me. When you're finished with that volume, may I look at it? 20:00.000 --> 20:02.000 It was impossible. It couldn't be. 20:02.000 --> 20:08.000 Standing at my shoulder, smiling. Young, apparently as alive as I, but it was. 20:08.000 --> 20:11.000 He was there. He, my victim. 20:11.000 --> 20:16.000 The face in the paper and his face were the same. I swear they were the same. 20:16.000 --> 20:20.000 I'm sorry to bother you. The girl at the desk said you had the July volume at the time. 20:20.000 --> 20:21.000 Yes, I was. 20:21.000 --> 20:23.000 I'm sorry. Did I startle you? 20:23.000 --> 20:27.000 Your picture, I... I'm looking at your picture. 20:29.000 --> 20:32.000 My picture? What do you mean, in the paper? 20:32.000 --> 20:34.000 I don't see any picture. 20:46.000 --> 20:48.000 He's dead. I know he's dead. 20:48.000 --> 20:53.000 I felt his heart leap like a fish on the point of my knife and quiver and die. 20:53.000 --> 20:57.000 I saw him fall. I must believe that he is truly dead. 20:57.000 --> 21:00.000 And the dead can either walk or speak. 21:00.000 --> 21:02.000 But today on Fifth Avenue... 21:04.000 --> 21:06.000 Hello. What? 21:06.000 --> 21:09.000 What's wrong? Are you ill? No. No, no, no, I'm all right. 21:09.000 --> 21:14.000 You look like you were about to faint. You're still green. Are you sure that you're all right? 21:14.000 --> 21:17.000 Because I live right near here. If you want to lie down... 21:17.000 --> 21:18.000 No, no, no, please. 21:18.000 --> 21:22.000 Well, it's up to you. I can't make you come. 21:22.000 --> 21:25.000 But I don't like to see anyone suffer needlessly. 21:37.000 --> 21:41.000 August 20th. He doesn't like to see anyone suffer. 21:41.000 --> 21:46.000 Yet because of him, there is not one day, one hour when I am free from despair and fear. 21:46.000 --> 21:52.000 Yes, I accept him now. The dead do walk and talk. At least one dead man does. 21:52.000 --> 21:56.000 Inevitably. If I venture out of my house, he finds me. 21:56.000 --> 22:01.000 Today I started down the subway steps at 53rd Street after I'd looked to make sure he wasn't anywhere nearby. 22:01.000 --> 22:05.000 But I'd gone only three or four steps and I felt my arm jostle and my turn... 22:05.000 --> 22:09.000 Pardon. Oh. Oh, you again. 22:09.000 --> 22:11.000 I'll bet you think I'm haunting you. 22:11.000 --> 22:16.000 Jesus, what do you want? Look, I don't want anything. Let's just call it fate or something. 22:16.000 --> 22:18.000 Why don't you let me alone? 22:18.000 --> 22:21.000 I'd begun to think that maybe we were both to be spared this. 22:21.000 --> 22:23.000 So, so, so had I. 22:23.000 --> 22:26.000 If I were superstitious, I'd say we had some unfinished business. 22:26.000 --> 22:30.000 Please, will you tell me something? Will you answer one question? 22:30.000 --> 22:34.000 Do... do you believe in compensation? 22:34.000 --> 22:37.000 You'll have to explain what you mean. 22:37.000 --> 22:41.000 If someone does evil, if I have done evil, must I get evil back? 22:41.000 --> 22:44.000 Well, say it again. 22:44.000 --> 22:48.000 Do you believe in good for good, evil for evil? Look, look, what about killing? 22:48.000 --> 22:51.000 Well, there's all sorts of killing. 22:51.000 --> 22:56.000 But senseless killing. Killing with no reason. What is the compensation for that? 22:56.000 --> 23:00.000 You've asked a pretty complicated question of a pretty simple man. 23:00.000 --> 23:04.000 The only thing that comes to my mind right off is what it says in the Bible. 23:04.000 --> 23:06.000 An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. 23:06.000 --> 23:08.000 That's what you believe? 23:08.000 --> 23:12.000 Why, yes, I believe that. Is that any help to you? 23:12.000 --> 23:17.000 Yes. Oh, yes. Anything you say would help. 23:17.000 --> 23:22.000 An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, like a man, 23:22.000 --> 23:27.000 the price asked by the only one who can ask it. 23:27.000 --> 23:30.000 What will you have, quoth God. 23:30.000 --> 23:34.000 Pay for it in ten days, and you'll have a good life. 23:34.000 --> 23:36.000 I believe that. 23:36.000 --> 23:38.000 I believe that. 23:38.000 --> 23:40.000 I believe that. 23:40.000 --> 23:42.000 I believe that. 23:42.000 --> 23:44.000 I believe that. 23:44.000 --> 23:48.000 What will you have, quoth God. Pay for it and take it. 23:48.000 --> 23:52.000 Well, I'll pay. 23:52.000 --> 23:57.000 For I've learned that no event between two human beings can happen in a vacuum. 23:57.000 --> 24:02.000 We're all enmeshed bound together through our blood in a pulsing net. 24:02.000 --> 24:07.000 And if one of us does violence to another, he does violence to himself. 24:07.000 --> 24:09.000 Very well. 24:09.000 --> 24:13.000 This price I am glad to pay. 24:13.000 --> 24:15.000 There is no other way. 24:32.000 --> 24:35.000 Hello. Are you awake, Mr. Steele? 24:35.000 --> 24:36.000 Where am I? 24:36.000 --> 24:39.000 You're in Washington Hill Hospital. How do you feel? 24:39.000 --> 24:43.000 I'm not well, but I have to die. 24:43.000 --> 24:45.000 I don't want to keep you from me. 24:45.000 --> 24:49.000 I have to. Did I bleed much? 24:49.000 --> 24:50.000 Bleed? 24:50.000 --> 24:52.000 From the knife. 24:52.000 --> 24:55.000 You had a heart attack, Mr. Steele. 24:55.000 --> 24:58.000 No, I tell you here. I stabbed myself here. 24:58.000 --> 24:59.000 Where is the doctor? 24:59.000 --> 25:01.000 Lie down, Mr. Steele. The doctor will be here in a minute. 25:01.000 --> 25:05.000 I have to make him understand. I promised to die. 25:05.000 --> 25:07.000 You promised? Here's the doctor now. 25:07.000 --> 25:10.000 Yes, but I... 25:10.000 --> 25:12.000 You. 25:12.000 --> 25:14.000 Of course, you. 25:14.000 --> 25:16.000 Well, Mr. Steele... 25:16.000 --> 25:18.000 I tried to tell her. 25:18.000 --> 25:22.000 I tried to tell her that I have to die. 25:22.000 --> 25:24.000 Call another doctor for this patient nurse. 25:24.000 --> 25:25.000 But doctor... 25:25.000 --> 25:30.000 You tell her. The earth is made of glass. 25:30.000 --> 25:33.000 That if I don't die, you'll always find me. 25:33.000 --> 25:34.000 I know that. 25:34.000 --> 25:39.000 But tell her. Tell her the evil thing I have done, 25:39.000 --> 25:41.000 so she'll let me die. 25:41.000 --> 25:42.000 Dr. West has told me. 25:42.000 --> 25:44.000 Emerson said it. 25:44.000 --> 25:47.000 I carry a malignity in me. 25:47.000 --> 25:53.000 When I die, I make square the eternal account. 25:53.000 --> 26:09.000 Make square the eternal account. 26:09.000 --> 26:11.000 Well, Miss Adams, that's all there is. 26:11.000 --> 26:14.000 The journal of Richard Thomas Steele. 26:14.000 --> 26:17.000 Doctor, I don't remember reading of that murder. 26:17.000 --> 26:18.000 Do you? 26:18.000 --> 26:20.000 No. No, I don't. 26:20.000 --> 26:22.000 Who was the man he met? 26:22.000 --> 26:24.000 Who was it he thought he'd killed? 26:24.000 --> 26:26.000 It was me. 26:26.000 --> 26:28.000 You, Dr. West? 26:28.000 --> 26:30.000 Just as he described it. 26:30.000 --> 26:32.000 First in the library, and then the drug store, 26:32.000 --> 26:36.000 near my home, on buses, in the park. 26:36.000 --> 26:38.000 I couldn't imagine what was bothering him. 26:38.000 --> 26:41.000 But who did he kill? Really? 26:41.000 --> 26:43.000 I don't know. 26:43.000 --> 26:45.000 But I have an idea. 26:45.000 --> 26:47.000 Where's the package you found in his coat? 26:47.000 --> 26:49.000 Right here. Shall I open it? 26:49.000 --> 26:52.000 Yes, go on. 26:52.000 --> 26:56.000 You see? 26:56.000 --> 26:58.000 The gloves. And the knife. 26:58.000 --> 27:00.000 And they've never been used. 27:00.000 --> 27:02.000 Then he never killed anyone. 27:02.000 --> 27:06.000 No. Richard Steele never drove a knife into a living back. 27:06.000 --> 27:11.000 But in his way, he killed. In his mind, he killed. 27:11.000 --> 27:14.000 I guess old Emerson would say even for that kind of crime, 27:14.000 --> 27:16.000 there's compensation. 27:16.000 --> 27:18.000 Commit a crime? 27:18.000 --> 27:21.000 And the earth is made of glass. 27:37.000 --> 27:40.000 Roma wines have brought you Joseph Cotton, 27:40.000 --> 27:43.000 as star of The Earth is Made of Glass. 27:43.000 --> 27:45.000 Tonight's study in... 27:45.000 --> 27:47.000 Suspense. 27:47.000 --> 27:50.000 This is Truman Bradley for Roma Wines, 27:50.000 --> 27:53.000 the sponsor of Suspense. 27:53.000 --> 27:57.000 These days, says Miss Elsa Maxwell, world famous hostess, 27:57.000 --> 28:00.000 more and more people serve only one dish for dinner, 28:00.000 --> 28:03.000 with a salad and probably a sweet. 28:03.000 --> 28:07.000 That's why I'm sure so many more people serve Roma wines, 28:07.000 --> 28:11.000 because Roma wines add so much to a simple meal. 28:11.000 --> 28:14.000 With a savory pot roast, for example, 28:14.000 --> 28:18.000 I recommend glasses of good Roma California Burgundy, 28:18.000 --> 28:20.000 served cool. 28:20.000 --> 28:23.000 Now that's a good suggestion from Elsa Maxwell, 28:23.000 --> 28:28.000 for Roma Burgundy is a handsome wine with a good warm heart. 28:28.000 --> 28:34.000 Try it and discover how happily its tart piquancy goes with meats. 28:34.000 --> 28:37.000 And if you enjoy cocktails before dinner, 28:37.000 --> 28:41.000 you'll make better cocktails with Roma's full flavored Bermuth, 28:41.000 --> 28:46.000 sweet or dry, made and bottled in the heart of California's famous vineyards, 28:46.000 --> 28:49.000 yet surprisingly low priced. 28:49.000 --> 28:52.000 Try Roma Bermuth soon, won't you? 28:52.000 --> 28:56.000 We would like to thank Joseph Cotton for appearing in the place of Clifton Webb, 28:56.000 --> 29:00.000 whose illness prevented his being with us this evening. 29:00.000 --> 29:03.000 Joseph Cotton appeared through the courtesy of David O. Selznick, 29:03.000 --> 29:06.000 producer of Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound. 29:06.000 --> 29:09.000 Next Thursday, you will hear George Murphy in... 29:09.000 --> 29:13.000 Suspense, radio's outstanding theatre of thrills. 29:13.000 --> 29:35.000 This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.