Excerpt
OVERTURE
The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the
fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.
Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good
as dead, and his eyes are dimmed.
—Albert Einstein
On Friday, August third, 1923, the morning after President Harding’s death,
reporters followed the widow, the Vice President, and Charles Carter, the
magician. At first, Carter made the pronouncements he thought necessary: "A
fine man, to be sorely missed," and "it throws the country into a great crisis
from which we shall all pull through together, showing the strong stuff of
which we Americans are made." When pressed, he confirmed some details of his
performance the night before, which had been the President’s last public
appearance, but as per his proviso that details of his third act never be
revealed, he made no comment on the show’s bizarre finale.
Because the coroner’s office could not explain exactly how the President had
died, and rumors were already starting, the men from Hearst wanted quite
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