Issue 06 # Dec 1951 by Fantasy; Science Fiction

Author:Fantasy; Science Fiction
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2012-05-16T05:42:51+00:00

Alexander de Campo Fregoso, Bishop of Ventimilium, professed to me, saith Carpus (upon the faith of a Bishop), that at Lamai, a woman of the noble family of the Buccanigens brought forth sixteen children at a birth, of the bigness of a man’s palm, all of which had motion; and that besides these sixteen, which had human likeness, she brought forth at the same time a creature, in the likeness of a horse, which had also motion.

— Nathaniel Wanley, The Wonders qf the Little World 1678.

In his radio programs Murder by Experts and The Mysterious Traveler (for which he recently received his second” Edgar” award from Mystery Writers of America), Robert Arthur is compelled to restrict himself to grim and grisly writing — which is, we think, a most deplorable state of affairs. Competent merchants of grimness are not uncommon; but the Arthur gift for plausible absurdity is a rare and enviable one, as you already know from such stories as Postpaid to Paradise. Here we offer another revival of a delightful Arthur fantasia from Argosy, this time with a wacky science fiction slant — and a plea to radio producers to turn him loose on creating such humorous improbabilia for the millions who now know him only as a murdermonger.

The Universe Broke Down

by robert arthur

I wish I knew exactly how to describe Jeremiah Jupiter. The truth is, I don’t know whether he’s the world’s most brilliant scientific mind or whether he’s cracked worse than the Liberty Bell,

I once read a story about a baseball pitcher who could throw the most eccentric curves, because he was a refugee from a strait jacket and that was the way his mind worked — in eccentric curves. Sometimes I think that’s the case with Jeremiah Jupiter. That he doesn’t think so much as let his mind jump around inside his skull like a Mexican jumping bean on a hot griddle.

But there’s no use trying to analyze Jupiter for you. He’s a wealthy amateur dabbler in advanced science, with money enough to buy a ton of radium, and therefore no interest whatever in making more money. He’s given to enthusiasms in which he’ll work years if necessary to develop an idea, but the enthusiasms sometimes go just as fast as they come. He may spend a year developing a gadget, and then lose interest in it just as it’s on the point of perfection.

Since I’ve known him he’s made some of the most outstanding scientific developments, but I have acquired a certain allergy to Jeremiah Jupiter and his discoveries. They have a bad habit of going wrong, somehow; and nine times out of ten, I’m the one they go wrong on.

Consequently, when he called me up one morning last June and said he

wanted me to go up to Bear Mountain with him to try out his newest scientific miracle, I said no, loudly and firmly. Then I groaned, got up — it was Sunday morning and I’d planned to sleep late — and got dressed.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.