The Temple

This article was written by John Logie Baird after his visit to the Panopticon.

And I heard a voice calling “Shibna! Shibna! Shibna!” and I answering said “Who art thou that calleth me thus untimely in the night season?” And there came again a voice saying “I am he whom men call Sweeny Todd from the netherworld and I am come to show thee many things whereof thou wottest not. And first will I show thee that temple of vaudeville; even the panopticon, which lieth hard by the gate called Tron.”

And immediately I heard a great voice calling: “Enter ye in, enter ye in, and behold Miss McPhee of Port Dundas. The hairs on her head be six cubits long or thereby, notwithstanding the days of her life be three score and 17 years.”

And we, with a multitude, entered in at the door of the temple, and they took of us shekels of silver, of every man a shekel, for so do they in all the temples of this land. And we, entering in, beheld a great sheet let down from heaven, covered with signs and writing in many colours, and I saw portrayed very large in the centre of the sheet a man goodly of countenance and beside him letters stating him to be an exemplar of the virtues of one Beecham, his pills, the same curing all ills and imparting new life to the aged.

And as me- thought how blessed must the name of Beecham, behold the screen was raised again into heaven, and in the place where it had been I beheld a forest, and the trees of that forest were not like unto the trees of the earth, but flat, like unto I know not what. Now there came suddenly out of the forest a woman, and she began to sing very loudly how that she cared neither for the heavens above nor the earth beneath  - “Love me,” quoth she “and the world is mine,” an exceeding loud and bitter cry.

Now, there sat before me in the temple an old man, and his head was void of hair, being smooth and of a brilliant whiteness like unto the egg of a dove, and the skin thereof was of the finest of costly silk, and, wheresoever the light met it, it did shine very brightly. Now, neither in all Jerusalem, nor among the priests of the temples, nay, not even among the priests of mine own order, have I seen an head so exceeding smooth and white, for although indeed mine own head hath those many years been void of hair by nature, so that, no longer does the stubble which ever rougheneth the shaved head corrupt the smoothness, yet with the beating of the sun it hath become browned and withered. Wherefore, observing the head of this man that it was smooth and glossy as polished porphyry, I put forth my hand that I might feel the texture of the skin thereof. But the man, as soon as I had touched him, turned upon me, and crying very loudly, in great wrath, “Whittheelluryedean,” smote me violently in the midriff. And there arose the tumult of many voices and a great blackness and a rushing sound as of many waters, and I heard the voice of Sweeny from very far away crying “Alas! Alas!” And again above the tumult the sound of many voices crying “Pitimoot! Pitimoot! Pitimoot!” And slowly the noise of the tumult faded away and a great silence fell and a gross darkness brooded over all. H2O.