Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-08
Copyright, 1925, ty Public Ledger

He looked at her Across the blind
ing whiteness of the ghostly room she
cav dazedly that he was smiling at
| her
ITS true Phyl," she heard him say.
! wei. OF course I don't believe a
word Of it," announced Miss Relief
Brainard, getting up from her chair.
But if. it is 50, the first thing you'll
need is a restoration Of the censorship
yTe used to have on pictures"
Brainard laughed. THE world has
outgrown censorship. Aunt Rel. But
what would you do with censor
when you are dealing with actual
cventS?"
Events, nonsense! This is either
q clever hoax, as John says, or its
clever motion pictures. But it's al
| together too near to life to go on-un-
| censored"
That's the argument, merely in re-
verse. Miss Brainard. that ultimately
killed the censorship" said Mr.. Nor
man.
"Yes-it became too hard to find
pictures grew closer to life. 1t will be
impossible when they see what I have
to show them" said Brainard.
But, Radley," said Phyllis, too much
stirred to trifie, tell us about it.
There's a joke of some sort in this isn't
there? What you say implies altogether
too terrifying things-pictures of real
events that were-unwitnessed! Too
terrifying to believe! /" But she
lost the thread of what she had wanted
to say, in the sudden overwhelming
conviction Of the reality of the thing.
The rolling surf, and the breath OF
spray, the yielding, whitening, blood
lined flesh under those blackened
fingers!
Eyes" echoed Mrs. Norman, you
don't want us to believe"
Its not a question whether you be-
lieve or not" said Brainard a little
harshly. But you don't have to take
my word for it; nobody does. It's all
here"
He opened a closet door beside his
switchboard. The place was covered,
like all other usually visible features
of the studio, in white sheeting. He
took out a small, globular object about
the size and shape of base ball but
obviously heavy and the color of blued
steel.
Here in this little tomb he went
on, It have" He paused and in
spected the label, hand-written, pasted
on, as simply as he might have read
the label on a home-filled fruit can.
This is a fragment of the notorious
Whippleton dinner-a nine-day scam
dal, even in Hollywood, last Winter"
"Oh, great!" cried Carol. Il can just
see your line of talk on the billboards!
Why, Rad you've got something, as
suredly! It's going to knock old Com
plete Illusions, Inc, into the dim, dead
&c a.
toni"
isn't it?" replied Brainard, who had
lost his appearance of agitation now.
I'm thinking of naming my rival en-
terprise Universal Sensations, Inc. Only
I doubt if I shall incorporate"
ooh, yes you will! I want some
stock-in on the ground floor!"
The light talk fed past Phyllis mind
like cloud-shadows on whirlpool. She
was back again among the frightened
speculationS that Brainard'S statement
had reused. She knew him too well to
think that he was merely playing with
their credulity; and she had watched
him too closely these past months, as
he had been changing gradually under
her eyes, to think that the thing with
which he was dealing was a mere mat
ter of public entertainment. If what
he had said of his discovery-his in
vention-whatever it was-if what he
said of it were true. it staggered the
imagination. Her cropping fancy swooned
among the bewildering vistas flung
open to it by the bare idea.
But he had slipped the little bomb"
into niche in the. wall, hidden now
by falling fold of white. He looked
around at them and, without a word,
snapped off the electric lights. Again
the fare Of binding red from behind
the curtain struck at her eyes, then
softened and turned to rose tint. But
instead of daylight, here was suddenly
a multicolored radiance-hlling room
walled with roses-which seemed to
shed at once perfume and soft music,