Free STRANGE SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY OMNIBUS by Benson Grayson Page A

the chimpanzee.
    The situation was repeated several years later, when James typed out a near perfect rendition of the first two acts of “Macbeth.” This time, Letherton instructed his researcher to spur James on by lengthening his working day to thirteen hours. Years passed. James had obviously aged. He typed much more slowly, his hands, handicapped by rheumatism. Letherton too had aged. He now was obliged to spend many months a year away from the project, on vacation in Florida.
    Then one day success came. The researcher, who had replaced his now retired predecessor, rushed into Letherton’s office, crying “”Eureka!” James had finally succeeded. There on the desk next to him was a complete, perfectly typed manuscript of the King James Bible. Letherton was naturally, overjoyed. He had finally obtained the proof he desired, that the Bible was not written through the involvement of divine inspiration and that God perforce did not exist.
    Letherton carefully made the arrangements for the announcement of his findings. He hired a large room at the National Press Club in the nation’s capital and invited as many media representatives as he could. With the spotlight on him, he strode to the podium and announced that an ape had typed out the Bible and that this was irrefutable proof that God does not exist. Cameras clicked, and the news was spread throughout the world. Letherton settled back to reap the expected congratulations, possibly even the award of the Nobel Prize. Gratefully, he retired James to a farm in the country where he was provided with whatever delicacies he desired to eat.
    Alas! The reaction was not what Letherton had expected. All the major religious groups interpreted the event as proving the existence of God. After all, they reasoned, only divine intervention could have led a chimpanzee to re-create the King James Bible. This conclusion was accepted by the media. Instead of closing, the various churches enjoyed a significant revival.
    Letherton was crushed. He took to his bed, a broken man, and died a few months later. Ironically, his wife, who had never shared Letherton’s atheistic views, prevailed upon him to be baptized and accepted into the Episcopal Church. He mumbled his acceptance wearily, and died a Christian. The moral of this story is inescapable. Letherton’s experience neither proves nor disproves the existence of God, or of divine inspiration in the writing of the Bible. It does, however, provide irrefutable proof that you can spend vast sums of money without obtaining the ends you seek.

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT
    The sign on the wall of the Quality Meat Market in Bayonne, New Jersey proclaimed in large letters “You Are What You Eat.” It was put there to persuade prospective customers that it made sense to pay the higher prices charged by the butcher shop to purchase and eat the premium meats it sold. Bayonne was largely a working class town. Although the large navy base had terminated most of its operations since the end of the war, the majority of the men still worked at blue collar jobs in plants around Bayonne, many of them in the nearby petroleum refineries.
    Jerry Sullivan had opened the shop when he returned from military service. With hard work and a little luck, the butcher shop thrived. Wages were good for the factory workers living in Bayonne, and they had the money to purchase the premium meats the Quality Meat Market sold. Jerry hired several workers to help him at the shop, and purchased a van to deliver meat to his customer’s homes. He joined a local golf club and played golf every Wednesday afternoon; his wife Marry received a fur coat from him one Christmas and his son, Michael, was sent off to Notre Dame, the first member of the Sullivan family to go to College.
    Over the years, however, the situation changed. Many of the factories around Bayonne closed their operations in New Jersey, moving their plants to lower wage states. Then the large supermarket chains moved