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Imagination, v. 1, issue 4, whole no. 4, January 1938
Page 12
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12 ence as some men liv for Fame, money, or a sweetheart. "His coleag & Friend, Dr. N. Spurgeon, was not on the teaching staff of the University tho sometimes he lectured there by invitation. Who he was, from whence he came, I do not know, but he was reputed to be immensely wealthy. A tall slim man of 45 or 50, with a long face, dark eyes, & thinning hair. In his way (he had writn, I undrstood, an authorytiv treatise on physics & mechanics) he too was a genius but mad--O, from the first I thot him mad!--with an intense gleam in his eyes. "Prof Aritos was short & inclined to be stout; a man sometimes sharp in his mannr but kind heartd at bottom & givn to absentmindedness. "2 more dissimilr peopl than he & Dr Spurgeon would be hard to find but doubtless one supplyd what the other lackt. "I knew (because having to work my way thru college I was employd jointly by the Prof & the Dr to help in some their experiments requiring routine supervision) both men were interestd in radio & investigations that had to do with the broadcasting of--mattr. 'Considr!' commanded the Prof--'if the human voice can be sent thru the other & pickt up by a receiving set, y not, for instance, ton coal?' "'But the voice' I protestd 'creates sound-waves; the coal doesn't.' "The Prof smiled indulgently. 'There would be difficultys of course. Yet the sound-waves U speak of are energy-waves. All things can be reduced to vibration or varying degrees of frequency. The medium demonstraoly exists, we know that; the problem is to materialize our knowledg in the propr sending & receiving cabinets.' "Which implys a radicl departure from radio construction of today' declared the Dr. 'The song, the speech, can be sung or spoken over & over & pickt up by 1000 receivrs. Would this be tru the coal? Then the miracl of the loavs & fishes...' he shrugd his shouldrs. 'U perceiv, my lad,' he sayd sardonicly 'that he who entrs this field of investigation must put off the shoes of dullness & ply the shuttl of Imagination!' "I have sayd that from the first I thot the Dr dementd. This is tru. But he had a hypnotic personality. He spoke in a fashion at once brilliant & strange. I think his mannr fascinated as much as repeld me. His was not the preoccupation with pure science that characterized the Prof. With him science was but the means to an end. Raw student tho I was I noticed & commentd on it. "He followd current events keenly; he connectd the things he sought to discovr with methods of destruction, of conquest, & with certn politicl ideas. I was by way of being a bit of a Marxian socialist & he ridiculed what he calld my 'youthful naivety'. "Democracy--' he would declare with a withering laf, his intense eyes gleaming--'bunk, twaddl! Socialism--an illusion, a will-o-the-wisp! The peopl can't govern, they don't want to govern. What they want is a strong hand to rule them. The best ruler is & always will be a military genius. The Man On Horseback!' he cryd--'that's what this country needs, The Man On Horseback!' "Of course I argued with him heatedly, with all the enthusiasm of my young idealism, & of course he would lisn to me courteously, his dark eyes dancing. The Prof would ansr these outbursts of his with
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12 ence as some men liv for Fame, money, or a sweetheart. "His coleag & Friend, Dr. N. Spurgeon, was not on the teaching staff of the University tho sometimes he lectured there by invitation. Who he was, from whence he came, I do not know, but he was reputed to be immensely wealthy. A tall slim man of 45 or 50, with a long face, dark eyes, & thinning hair. In his way (he had writn, I undrstood, an authorytiv treatise on physics & mechanics) he too was a genius but mad--O, from the first I thot him mad!--with an intense gleam in his eyes. "Prof Aritos was short & inclined to be stout; a man sometimes sharp in his mannr but kind heartd at bottom & givn to absentmindedness. "2 more dissimilr peopl than he & Dr Spurgeon would be hard to find but doubtless one supplyd what the other lackt. "I knew (because having to work my way thru college I was employd jointly by the Prof & the Dr to help in some their experiments requiring routine supervision) both men were interestd in radio & investigations that had to do with the broadcasting of--mattr. 'Considr!' commanded the Prof--'if the human voice can be sent thru the other & pickt up by a receiving set, y not, for instance, ton coal?' "'But the voice' I protestd 'creates sound-waves; the coal doesn't.' "The Prof smiled indulgently. 'There would be difficultys of course. Yet the sound-waves U speak of are energy-waves. All things can be reduced to vibration or varying degrees of frequency. The medium demonstraoly exists, we know that; the problem is to materialize our knowledg in the propr sending & receiving cabinets.' "Which implys a radicl departure from radio construction of today' declared the Dr. 'The song, the speech, can be sung or spoken over & over & pickt up by 1000 receivrs. Would this be tru the coal? Then the miracl of the loavs & fishes...' he shrugd his shouldrs. 'U perceiv, my lad,' he sayd sardonicly 'that he who entrs this field of investigation must put off the shoes of dullness & ply the shuttl of Imagination!' "I have sayd that from the first I thot the Dr dementd. This is tru. But he had a hypnotic personality. He spoke in a fashion at once brilliant & strange. I think his mannr fascinated as much as repeld me. His was not the preoccupation with pure science that characterized the Prof. With him science was but the means to an end. Raw student tho I was I noticed & commentd on it. "He followd current events keenly; he connectd the things he sought to discovr with methods of destruction, of conquest, & with certn politicl ideas. I was by way of being a bit of a Marxian socialist & he ridiculed what he calld my 'youthful naivety'. "Democracy--' he would declare with a withering laf, his intense eyes gleaming--'bunk, twaddl! Socialism--an illusion, a will-o-the-wisp! The peopl can't govern, they don't want to govern. What they want is a strong hand to rule them. The best ruler is & always will be a military genius. The Man On Horseback!' he cryd--'that's what this country needs, The Man On Horseback!' "Of course I argued with him heatedly, with all the enthusiasm of my young idealism, & of course he would lisn to me courteously, his dark eyes dancing. The Prof would ansr these outbursts of his with
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