 We present now a special transcribed Christmas message from the president of the United States to the American people My fellow countrymen all over our country and in many other parts of the world Men women and children are preparing to celebrate the birthday of Christ Never before in our lives has a Christmas seemed so important I'm not thinking of turkey dinners and stacks of gifts I mean the quiet reverent celebration of faith hope and love born in a manger in Bethlehem Across all the continents of this world peace-loving people today feel apprehension and lowliness and fear Many have forgotten the humble surroundings of the nativity and how from a straw littered stable shown a light Which for nearly 20 centuries has given men strength comfort and peace peace of mind At this Christmas time we should renew our faith in God We celebrate the hour in which God came to man. It is fitting that we should turn to him Many of us are fortunate enough to celebrate Christmas at our own fireside But there are many others who are away from their homes and loved ones on this day Thousands of our boys are on the cold and dreary battlefield of Korea But all of us at home at war wherever we may be are within reach of God's love and power We can all pray All of us should pray We should ask the fulfillment of God's will We should ask for courage for wisdom For the quietness of soul which comes alone to them who place their lives in his hands We should pray for a peace which is based on righteousness The nation already is in the midst of a crusade of prayer on the last Sunday of the old year There will be special services devoted to a revival of faith in God I call upon all of you to enlist in this common cause I call upon you no matter what your spiritual allegiance may be We're all joined in the fight against the tyranny of communism Communism is godless Democracy is the foundation of faith Faith in oneself, faith in one's neighbors, faith in God Democracy's most powerful weapon is not a gun, a tank, or a bomb It is faith, faith in the brotherhood and dignity of man under God Let us pray at this Christmas time for the wisdom, the humility, and the courage to carry on in this faith Ladies and gentlemen, you have just heard President Truman's Christmas message to the American people This is NBC, the national broadcasting company In answer to many thousands of requests from its listeners The national broadcasting company is happy to bring you adventures in time and space transcribed in future This is a story of Riesling, the singer of the spaceways You've probably sung his songs in school in English, French, or German. The language doesn't matter But it was an earth tongue But the real story of Riesling is not found in the footnotes of a scholar's critique or a publisher's biography It is in the memories of the old-time Spacemen, the pioneers who pushed the thundering old-fashioned rockets to the far strange ports that are our commonplace heritage These men know the true story of Riesling The arching sky is calling Spacemen back to their trade Oh, handstand by free falling and the light below was fed The sons of terror Far drives the thundering jet Up leaps the race When I first met Riesling, he was hustling drinks in the Twin Moons bar at Drywater, Mars He'd won a guitar off a Chinese barkeep at Luna City by cheating at one club And he made his whiskey by singing in the bar and passing the hat Listen to her. She's drum pretty like a 16 year old gal Now much you collect on that last song three dollars Marsha in a slug and grabbed it from a bill You don't trust me no more Funny never did have no luck with hound dogs and a Martian barkeep. Hey Riesling Over there by the bar. There's an institute for striper giving in the eye. No, I'm Captain Hicks off the gauze hook. Are you sure giving you the once-over? They don't make never no mind to me I've been blacklisted Hicks logged me for making up a song on watch right fine song too Here comes the brass arm. Riesling. I've been looking for you. I've been right here skipper You saw to that. I need a jet man on the gauze. I'm just Real interest well, I got news for you skipper you blacklisted me remember well you kept your nose clean And we need an experienced man Little change in down after the course hook ain't this skipper how'd you know that you got that new atomic pile drive Blastery of them tea kettles blue somewhere in the asteroids. Look it's double pay, but if you're scared scared Listen fella But double pay I jump off the top of the Herman Tower if you allowed me rubber heels for the land all right then You show up tonight to sign the book Sober got no choice skipper money and me is total strangers way lift at 1130 Mars time Sober you want to stand reasoning? You're taking the job well that gauze hook is one stinking old time her engines got more bugs than a beagle dog in spring And that new drive is about as safe as a pretty gal in the old But I reckon she'll do for one more trip Riesling hi Jimmy legs meet my friend Hertzman. He's signing on as a walker weapon This is Jimmy legs Casey. He's boss. Can't hold it. Let go no more. No, sir. Poor boy Riesling you sober enough to sign the book Soberer make my mark stand aside three X's Took me a middle name Yeah, you too lay below and Hertzman isa get him sobered up before the skipper makes rounds Jimmy legs I'm sober as a hanging judge. Yeah, well, you can leave that bottle here. What bottle one in your back pocket Glass buttons maybe Give it here Jimmy legs. I swear. I'm gonna write a song about you go ahead threaten me Now get below we raise ship in 30 minutes What the devil you're doing up here on the bridge without permission figured I'd take a little stroll Riesling get big low before I hold on skipper. Let that gold braid just crawling up your arm I'm up here on business. Well that number two jet ain't fit cadmium dampers a walk. Why tell me tell the chief engineer He says they'll hold. Well, he's wrong. He's wrong He's got a harrowman Institute degree in power electronics and some drunk space rats says he's wrong skipper I was dampen jets on that shirt. They'll tear warp pins for buttons. I've got no time for your reasoning Casey sound takeoff. Hi, sir I'm telling you skipper that number two jets gonna blow dampers won't cook it like a turtle's back reasoning Drag your dad out of here. Hello Go ahead from control tower captain. All right, Casey fire one and four Reasoning and I had the second watch Damping was done by hand in those days with a mother flying vernier and a danger beaver And as long as the people ticked off slow and steady. We knew the ship was safe for a while Recently you better stole that guitar if Jimmy legs catches ill he'll blow a gasket. Don't worry I could damp this tea kettle in my sleep. How's number two? All right so far Do you ever hear that song about Hicks the one that got me blacklisted? Oh the skipper is the father of his crew a gentle guiding light to me in you But on Mars he likes his women if they walk or if they're swimming or if they've got six arms did it too Hey, the second verse is better Now the skipper likes his liquor by the court Yes, he'd go from Mars to Venus for a snort He'll drink a rocket fuel at high skip didn't see you come in you were too busy. Hey Who's watching the gauge? I got an eye on it. Don't you fret nuts Riesling? I'm going to fix it so you can't get a berth on a rocket-powered pogo stick Report the casing under arrest. I don't rightly think I will you what you kind of forget skipper caught in a space code You can't remove a jetman till the end of the watch, right now. Look you corn fed space Well, how is that a ruler aided? Riesling your ship is over at 2,300 and I'll see you ride the rest of the way in slop locker. Maybe Maybe in the meantime, you clear out of my power room. I gotta make me up a third verse from a song Number two. All right. Hey, let me have that Mike Jimmy legs is that forced dry boil up there give me that Casey Riesling I've taken just about enough for you. I've got a little news for you skipper number two jet is bulging like a fat lady in a Satin skirt listen you clown. I think I'm gonna jump my song and start over. I could do much better Damn number two a point. All right, sure You watch the gauge Now she's bucking a little She's tight now what happened number two blew your long-headed space around you all right little sunburn The lights are gone. Hey, what's the matter with the emergency circuits? Riesling Jimmy legs get some lights down here. It's dark get the emergency light on they're on Riesling They went on after the blast The lights are all What are you talking about? Jimmy legs Jimmy legs turn on the lights. It's dark Turn on the lights from the jets was the last thing Riesling ever saw His optic nerve was burned out in an instant He was in sick way on the rest of the trip and on the swing back we set Riesling down at dry water Mars Look out for the cable Riesling. Thanks, but Riesling Let you Jimmy legs hold up a minute. Will you Riesling Jimmy legs. I promised I'd write a song about you didn't I Sure Riesling sure can't seem to sing like a mister look Riesling The men up in the bridge feel kind of bad about this. Yeah Why didn't they think of that when Riesling told him that damper was shot now hurts man? That's all over sure sure that's all forgotten Racing like so let's get out of the twin moon before I know hold it hold it The skipper feels pretty bad about the whole thing recently Got a late for that Jimmy legs feeling sorry don't hold no corn Boys past the hat the skipper kicked in half a month's pay didn't Then on principle I suppose all the time to stuff it back up the jets But you can't buy no drinking whiskey on Prince I'll take you here. Yeah I'll get it I'll be seeing you Riesling sure Jimmy Lee Come on hurts man. Let's get that drink that was all Just another space bum who didn't have the good sense to finish before his luck ran out I know Riesling hold up at the twin moon still his money was gone that he hooked a ride on a crawler over to Marsopolis It was a boom town then with an industrial district mushrooming between the lesser and grand canals I Ran into Riesling about two months later playing his guitar on a jetty that ran out into the canal He had a dirty rag tied over his eyes with a jetman snot and his hat was on the walk of the side That's me. Yeah, how do you be passable is this a venusian dine? Oh, it's a slug Figured, well, how's it going singing again some work in saloons mostly I've been thinking some funny songs hurtsman the words come out different than they used to Come on along the canal with you sure here take my arm. I know the way That's a funny thing hurts. I figure I know it better than other folks Look back there towards the city. What do you see factory towers? Smell them from here But I don't seem that way to me. I remember them old buildings old before Bible towns on earth Then and graceful like the ferry palaces my grandma used to tell about down home in the hills I've torn them down now or else blocks them up with cinder bricks Hertzman when I stand out out here on the canal I can see it the way it used to be the water ice blue with the stars shining about it way off there the city with A towel sweeping up like a bird of flying off a tree. I can see it. It's a dirtiest stink hole in the system not all Depends on how you see Why don't you go home recently home earth I've been thinking about that hurtsman When I was a youngster down in the Ozarks, I used to climb a big old oak tree my daddy had in the door Yeah, you could see the hills from miles green and cool I've been thinking about that. Why don't you go back then? I couldn't see them hills no more now I couldn't stand to see black when I knew they was lying all around me cool and green in the sun Couldn't stand that Well, let's get back to town hurtsman today. I made three and a half dollars Martian I'm all set to drink it down to four don't a lost track of wrestling after that I shipped out on a slow fray to the Condor class for Luna and he hitchhiked a ride to Venusburg on an oarship in the tri-planet run So he beat around the system Venusburg to lay port to dry water at a new Shanghai and back Any spaceport was his home and no skipper. It refused to lift the extra mass of wrestling and his battered guitar He made up his songs sitting out watches down in the power room with old shipmates While the monotonous speed of the jet shook the hull planes hear the jet Hear them snarl at your back when you're stretched on the rack hear the jet Feel the pain in your ship feel the strain in your grip Strangest he'll come alive on her jet little his songs began to travel along the spaceways ahead of him Raw spacemen songs with titles like since the pusher met my cousin and the space is built for two But more and more we began to hear a different kind of song Strain sad songs the ones you find printed in the centennial editions dark star passing death song of a woods cold And then finally a green hills of earth It grew for 20 years that's all They say it started way back when wrestling was down in the labor camps on Venus singing for the indentured man Now if someone will kindly pass a bottle, there's not much reasoning here. It'll do. Yeah, what is that stuff? You cannot make him good here on Venus. What do you use? Karak Bush a home it is Oh Where are you from son Tosco, Mexico? That's a long way from here. See a long way How'd you come to sign on? The man comes out to the village from the city and the shining automobile a very big He says there is work. You signed the paper for 10 years and you work Work there is work here. All right Then stinking ours in the jungle and machete I tell you when I get home to earth Well, you do son. It's the use. We aren't getting home You know how many men die out there in the swamp today? 10 men 10 What is the use? My mother she's dead My father don't care a girl. Oh, she she says she wait. I sure You were you sing some more reason we drink you sing maybe a new song son We ride in the molds of Venus We read her tainted bread her flooded Jungles are crawling with unclean Finished the song raising I can't can't yet. It just don't come. I'll finish it when I go home That's it when I go home to the hills Now pass that bottle there. They don't wish it don't blow for four hours That's where the Green Hill started and I was there when it was finished It was 20 years after that and there wasn't a man flying around the beach hadn't heard of re-sling and his songs He was getting old now for a spaceman. It was a familiar figure through the whole system tall Gaunt and with that dirty bandage tied across his blind eyes I Was chief Jetman then on the old Falcon who were cradled at Venus Alice Isle scheduled for a direct jump to Great Lakes, Illinois on earth I was checking in dunnage when recently felt his way up the gangway and came through the Recently who's that Mike Hertzman hurts me hurts me. Well, what are you doing on this old home? Figured I'd rather make her earth Are you going home recently? I thought you were never going to make that run. I've been hankin to set foot in the Ozarks again How about those hills? I've been singing about him so long now hurts me. I got to finish the song I got a set foot in the door yard and hear the wind through that oak tree About the last thing I'll be doing I got to get home before re-sling has a new company policy You see Hertzman. I'm getting just a little old re-sling. Listen No more dead-head rides the new code book is in force I seen code books come and go the skippers one of them youngsters fresh out of Harrowman Institute cadet training He's liable to throw the book at you at me I've been around space as long as Halley's Comet and Brewster's Ridge. I'm going back to earth Cool green hills of earth. I'm going home That's re-sling kept re-sling and I'm dragging it back to earth captain not in this ship Earthman have this man removed Funny thing captain. I sprained my shoulder suddenly look skipper. You're a youngster. You're you're pretty new out here I'm going home. You don't know what that means to an old man going home I can't take it against the Harrowman call now look skipper You can slide me by the distressed basements clause in that code book distressed baseman my eye I've been bumming around the system for 30 years Give me You make me do something I never done for no one before I'm an old man an old blind man. I want to go home. I ain't never crawled in front of a force stripper in my life, but You got to let me drag home Law says a man's got a trip coming to him. You can stretch for a poor old blind man. I can't you You got a skipper Old space rat keep out of the way. I run an efficient ship and I don't want any trouble. No, sir. No trouble I'll just lay down to the power room Kind of like to be near the jets when they blast off for earth Sit down Riesling take a load off your feet. Thanks, man. I'm by for left stand by Best seat in the system power room and old hot grass here power on fire free. I see Green hills of earth still singing that recently summer I changed her little gonna finish her now Mac going home to finish it Yeah Have you seen those new? Automatic dampers Riesling don't have to nothing but sit and watch. Hey, where's the people turned off? She's all automatic. You have it soft nowadays when I was twisting her tail. He had to stay awake You got an old hand dampen plates on all but the links and ship them they cover up the dials You might need them. No the automatic handle everything Well, you finally going home recently, huh? Won't seem the same out past the moon. I've been waiting for this a long time, man Gonna be good to get home. I reckon The arch in sky is calling spacemen back Radiation blasts stay behind the battle. I got the link shift. I can hand down for an air What's going on in there? I'm still in jet three. Is this McDougal McDougal is dead. This is reasoning on what? You'll kill yourself. Don't worry skipper. I know this power Somebody's got a damper I'm sending in a crew. No, no use the whole room will be hot for an hour and the other jets won't hold Skipper throw on the recording tape. What throw on the recording tape I want to get something down tape. So I'm raising Right pretty sunburn Pick me out of here. Don't bury me in a litchi. You come okay Radiation is getting brighter. I can almost see Bright rosy like the sun like the sun over the heels down I got my song figured right now Here it comes Pray for one last landing On the globe that gave us birth Let us rest eyes on the fleecey skies of the cool green hills of Earth I Couldn't see him now huge my son I Can see the sun That's the way he died Riesling the blind singer of the spaceways Singing of the home we never reached The cool green hills of earth Next week we bring you another story many of you have requested that we repeat It's the strange tale of man's first visit to another planet and why he decides that Mars is heaven Be with us at this same time next week for another adventure into the unknown world of This program was transcribed now dynamic Tallulah Bankhead brings you the big show on NBC