 presents Loretta Young, Dan O'Hurley he Raymond Burr and tonight's special guest Mr. Thomas F. O'Neill the mutual network in cooperation with family theater presents Hound of Heaven starring Dan O'Hurley he and Raymond Burr and now here's your hostess Miss Loretta Young thank you Tony Lofrano family theater's only purpose is to bring to everyone's attention a practice that must become an important part of our lives if we're to win peace for ourselves peace for our families and peace for the world family theater urges you to pray pray together as a family oh to our transcribed drama Hound of Heaven starring Dan O'Hurley he as Francis Thompson and Raymond Burr as the narrator I fled him I fled him down the nights yes you fled him you eluded him I fled him down the nights and down the days yes you twisted turned tried to escape from those strong feet that followed followed after but did you ever really escape him his name was Francis Thompson and of all the lonely and obscure men who lived in London that year of 1887 none had made his bed in hell more surely than he for him each night was a lying down in hunger and fear each morning a slow awakening to pay you there get up come on come on get up I say yes you can't sleep here you know that I'm sorry office come on get along with you get along with you for Francis Thompson waking upon the Thames embankment each morning was a slow return to pain a remembrance of dreams made hideous by fear twisted by hunger dreams of delirium shot through with dying stars and the rivers mist dreams that always had their ending somewhere at the broken edge of the world with the night stick prodding his chest the agony of waking to another day and then as he would get to his feet brushing the dirt and matted leaves from his coat pulling it tight about him against the fog London to it seemed returned to life with the first cab in the street plop plopping by the first mackerel peddler crying his wares with the first farmers cart piled high with Surrey hay and the whistling of the Edinburgh Express coming down from the Northern Hills as he awoke London woke with him and they faced each other at the beginning of the day the man of bone and flesh against the city of stone the man with the tired heart driving his broken knuckles against the stone which never yielded each day began as another a hay penny for a mug of tea tuppence for a stale loaf of bread a furtive search for an old rag a wadded newspaper to line his shoes and then the long tramp in search for work pardon sir would that be a place for me some sorry no work today do we needing a man sorry we have all the help we need unemployment Francis unemployment it's the scourge that can lash a man's spirit it's a cross a contradiction of economics that hangs heavily upon the shoulders of people like you Francis so you've got to keep walking keep searching maybe somewhere you'll find work you can't stop to rest I turned on this street now there sorry no work for you try the greengrocer across the street sorry no work for you perhaps the wine shop try that I'm sorry no work for you the warehouse the warehouse no work for you yes Francis the day is over the long tramping from door to door huddled there in the darkened doorway and take your rest there will be no bread for your hunger tonight no roof above your head and there will be no drug to soothe the madness in your throat and brain lie in the doorway and take your rest for tomorrow's another day and if you live there'll be more miles to walk death comes slowly to the affected so you cannot hope for much tonight a drum perhaps it could be the failing beat of your heart no it's not that I hear it often stops begins again your imagination no sounds like footsteps though someone were following me try to rest no matter where I go I hear them they follow me always it's the drug Francis try to get through this night and you're craving for it perhaps tomorrow you'll find work it's not the drug on my imagination they are footsteps and they follow me wherever I go I'm like a man with the hounds crying after him a hunter thing in a swamp and I hear these footsteps night and day I hear there there you hear a drum you hear your heart beat footsteps all right someone approaching the doorway hello there you there are you all right all right why laddie you shouldn't be lying here in the doorway you'll cut your death a cold here let me help you all right I say I tell you this is a bad night for a man's body and soul all right if you to talk about bodies and souls the right of one human being to another lady look my friend you mean well and for that I thank you but I'm sick I'm tired I'm hungry I don't know you're sick I know you're alone that's why I'd like to help you what do you mean help I want you to come home with me my name is Matt Masters I'm a cobbler betrayed and I can put you to work if you want to jump like you'll owe me nothing like nothing at all why should you do this for me why shouldn't I lad if the situation were reversed it's you who'd be reaching out your hand to me this way it's my good fortune here come along now it's a warm bed for you tonight and a good day's work in the morning hello Francis how goes the work not so well Mr. McMasters I'm afraid I don't think I was cut out for a cobbler oh you're just learning lad it's only three weeks you've been here tell me let I didn't want to pry or anything but what what's your trade or profession I have none if I did I suppose you'd call it journalism oh you're right then yes Mr. McMasters what do you write Francis usual thing I suppose refuse essay some poetry the sort of things that never sell here lad try some of this tobacco it's an Irish mixture thanks light when you go to school Francis oh sure it's about four miles from Durham and you were studying I wanted to enter the priesthood I failed I'm sorry strange when you come to think of it I'm 28 you know you think that in 28 years a man will be able to win well to win one victory you think that but it isn't true after I was rejected for the priesthood my father sent me to Manchester to study medicine six years examinations every two years I failed all of them defeat for me was like a web I seemed to be caught into it woven into its pattern after a while I became afraid afraid to try anything at all for fear I'd fail at it that's why I came to London you break the pattern no to lose myself to crawl into the darkest corner of the city and hide laddie laddie and how long have you two years come November two years on the streets and doorways how could you live how I don't know maybe it's because I prayed I'd say that only sometimes there was even no belief in my prayers I felt as if I were not being heard you see living the way I did in hunger at a sort of nervous condition loneliness you can't think clearly sometimes you don't your own mind's power to think and then you can pray right only I went on praying and I'm still alive that's all I know and God willing you'll stay alive Francis where you have a roof over your head now and a job and maybe time to write maybe time to write something great and good be a pleasant thing to be able to say that Francis Thompson settled down to an ordered life and turned out a great work of literature that he rewarded his benefactor in some generous way but the truth is quite different Thompson was useless around the cobbler shop oh he was willing but he was clumsy and inefficient he scribbled verses when he should have been working and his few earnings were spent to satisfy the craving for opium which constantly tortured him he spent three months with McMasters and then one day he disappeared McMasters waited for him to return that night he waited many nights as the autumn months passed into winter but Francis Thompson never came back of the many McMasters had befriended and given jobs Thompson alone proved a disappointment he was my only failure McMasters wrote he was my only failure here you where do you think you're going stay away from that church there's other places I wasn't going in I'm drunk and dirty and I'm gonna crawl into that church where it's warm a thought no one would see you go on get on your way the church yes and I get along I guess that's where I can go oh yeah you you come along with me I'll take you to the place mercy upon us mercy upon me Christ have mercy upon us Christ have mercy upon me the Lord have mercy upon you Francis Thompson mercy upon your weakness and failure mercy and through you on all the poor and broken who walk in the city street help us all oh God from the city itself from the cruelty of stone and the horror of the pavement defend me oh God from the arms house and prison from the makeshift bed in the doorway send me oh God from the hunger in the day and wakefulness at night from the torn coat and the broken shoes from the stairs of pity and the stairs of contempt deliver me oh God from the man whose hand is against us from his anger in his cleansed fist from the sudden blow against the mouth deliver me oh God and give us this day our daily bread give me this day my daily bread but more than bread alone oh God give us the strength to earn our bread hear me oh God Christ have mercy on us Christ have mercy on me time to go Francis church is empty the sexton is putting out the candles one by one I can't go if I leave I forget how to pray you must where somewhere a doorway perhaps there's that green warehouse and cock lane if you could force a window the rats always the embankment it's snowing then what I don't know perhaps this is the end of all my running death death comes slowly to the afflicted but not to me a loaf of bread mother coffee and three is it four days the dizzy spells fever can't be far off now even to me do you want to live this way do you not know Francis that while you live your body is the temple of God God doesn't live in me God is perfection and health and beauty can God live in a broken body in a mind that doubts its own reason no I lost God sometime after I left the cobbler shop I lost him somewhere in the alleys of peace cheap but as God lost you Francis has he lost you if I deny him how can he find me listen do you hear that the footsteps the footsteps of the hound do you remember Francis footsteps yes yes they always follow me but there's something inside me oh God forgive me some fear some dread that keeps me running from those footsteps what you're running for it's nothing somebody help me please it's alright what happened you've been quite sick sick don't you remember how long have I been three days don't you remember you were running along the street oh yes yes I remember now and you were the girl I brought your ear to this boarding ass I'm afraid I've put you to a lot of trouble I think I'd better go can't you're sick the doctor said you got to rest and eat he says you was down from salvation you called a doctor I had to well that cost money I've got nothing I don't say it what's your name and who are you I mean what sort of work do you do nothing very much nothing important I didn't mean to just wondered yes maybe you haven't done anything important as you say I don't know who you are what you are but I've been wandering across a plane of fever and delirium three days you tell me dreams came up like clouds over those three days but in the end it seemed that I heard footsteps behind me they were after me and I ran and ran and far on the edge of a plane I saw a cross standing and I thought if I can reach that cross I'd be safe so I ran toward it only when I got there it wasn't a cross it was you you understand you mean you don't care what I am no no I only wonder what I can ever do for you in return and so once again through the kindness of a stranger this time an outcast much like himself the healing of Francis Thompson began to him this girl gave of the little she had food clothing encouragement but more than that and ease from loneliness to her he gave things unknown in her life tenderness and reverence and respect and then at last Francis Thompson began to write the passion of Mary a poem paganism older new an essay two things finished actually finished it's hard to believe that I have the power the sheer mental power to work them through this Thompson's work was good and Wilfred Menel editor of the magazine Mary England published the pieces sought out the author and extended to him the hand which would lift him from obscurity but Francis Thompson about to reach for the hand suddenly withdrew himself for what about and I sold to mr. Menel and he's interested me he wants me to come and live with them to do my work at his home I mean he wants us us yes you see I told him we were to be married and that I'd come only if you were with me I want you to marry me and not worthy of your Francis you know that you're great and good I might only hurt you I might keep you from it's been good what we add together Francis but you'll have to go on alone now you'll have to go on alone so the girl who had lifted him from the streets vanished from his life all that day he searched for all the next and the next she had disappeared he turned away from the extended hand of Menel in his search for and the days passed into weeks weeks into a month then two months as he tramped the mighty labyrinth of London but he never found among the millions of faces he looked into none was hers and then at last one day sitting on a bench in Covent Garden barren from the grief that drained him he heard the familiar sound of footsteps Francis yes she's gone you'll never find her again I know and now there's nothing left nothing but the footsteps you hear them I hear them think back Francis think back isn't it strange how each time you've cried each time the horror of life has risen up to crush you you've heard the footsteps yes each time I've lost the sense of God I've heard only in those times I begin to hear them faintly on my faith through weaker and my prayers and then at last when I had lost the sense of God they beat like thunder in my ears as they are beating now yes and as they beat the night and came to you yes and the night McMaster's found yes yes what are you driving at don't you know think Francis think is it possible you could touch God by the hand and not know it the footsteps of God in Charycross no matter where I fled they followed down the nights and days the twisted lanes and passageways of all London down the years months and days they followed God's love pressing in on me when I denied him God's love hounding me through the swamps of despair God who wouldn't let me go even though I had denied him God looking at me out of her eyes and touching with her hands yes I know now I know these footsteps and such out your soul Francis and put what you find into words the hunger and pain and loneliness of these tortured years right it Francis I fled him down the nights and down the days I fled him down the arches of the years I fled him down the labyrinthine ways of my own mind and in the mist of tears I hid from him right it for all to read Francis for the poor the beaten the hungry the tempted the weak for those like you all over the world I hid from him from those strong feet that followed followed after but with unhurrying chase and unperturbed pace deliberate speed majestic instancy they beat and a voice beat more instant than the feet all things betray thee who betrays me put into words the streets and the sleepless nights the cold sweats and the agony of thought put McMasters into them and and and put the losing of God into words the awful although I knew his love who followed yet was I saw a dread less having him I might have not beside and Francis put into words the joy that came when God had found you once again and pass those noise at feet a voice comes yet more fleet a fondest blindest weakest I am he whom thou seekest put all this into words that others may draw courage from them and find their way to peace for it is you Francis Thompson who went down to make a bed in hell but found God's love following you even there he who thou seekest and so Francis Thompson who today ranks among the great poets went on to build a new life for himself aided by the kindness of the mental family went on to complete the hound of heaven and give the world one of the most inspiring poems of all literature the story of God's love and this is the ready young again hound of heaven marks a very special occasion special because with this program family theater celebrates its four hundredth broadcast over the mutual network it was my privilege to appear on the very first family theater program it was broadcast on February the 13th 1947 and since that first broadcast the great continuous generosity of the mutual network has made this program possible week after week and year after year so family theater has been on the air for a long time because the men behind mutual are convinced of the efficacy of family theater's dedicated program a program devoted to the betterment of family life through the inspiration and practice of family prayer more than 300 stars of Hollywood and New York have appeared time after time on family theater giving their talents to prove that they too believe in the efficacy of prayer now on behalf of all these stars and players I want to express appreciation to our special guest Mr. Thomas F. O'Neill chairman of the board of the mutual broadcasting system thank you Mr. O'Neill for making it possible for family theater to be heard every week over the mutual network thank you and all of your associates for this repeated opportunity to tell millions of listeners week after week the simple truth the family the praise together stays together thank you Loretta in a way we in the entertainment world feel a real kinship to family theater we like to think of ourselves as members of this family too and today it is a kind of special family celebration this has been family theater's 400th broadcast and we have mutual want to thank family theater and all the stars who for the past seven and one half years have helped to make it a program that we can be proud to present to our listeners anyone who has been a steady listener to family theater can vouch for the high wholesome quality of its entertainment and any American who has the well-being of his country at heart must agree that the basis of our nation strength lies in the strength and unity of the family and that the family that prays together stays together more things brought by prayer than this world dreams of family theater has brought you a hound of heaven starring Dan O'Hurley he and Raymond Burr Loretta young was your hostess and mr. Thomas F. O'Neill chairman of the board of the mutual broadcasting system was our special guest others in our cast were Jean Bates Ben Wright and Richard Peele the script was written by Frederick Lipp and was directed and transcribed for family theater by John T. Kelly with music composed and conducted by Harry Zimmerman this series of family theater broadcasts is made possible by the thousands of you who feel the need for this type of program by the mutual network which has responded to this need and by the hundreds of stars of stage screen and radio who gives so unselfishly of their time and talent to appear on our family theater stage for them and to you our humble thanks this is Tony Lafranco expressing the wish of family theater that the blessing of God may be upon you and your home and inviting to be with us next week when family theater will present the cliff starring John Lund Debbie Reynolds will be your hostess join us won't you theater is broadcast throughout the world and originates in the Hollywood studios of the world's largest network this is mutual the radio network for all America