a parody outline of history · 2
recovered her composure, and smiling sweetly at the guest of honor, gave
orders to the servants to remove the wine glasses.
But General Grant did not hear her; he was looking at Ella Flowers.
And as he gazed at the sweet beauty of her countenance he seemed to feel
rising within him something which he had never felt before-- something
which made everything else seem petty and trivial. And as he looked into
DONALD OGDEN STEWART
her eyes and she looked into his, he read her answer-- the only answer true
womanhood can make to clean, worthy manhood.
"Shall we go a la salle-a-manger?" sounded a voice in his ears, and
Geraldine's sinuous arm was thrust through his.
General Grant took the proffered talon and gently removed it from
him.
"Miss Rhinelander," he said firmly, "I am taking this young lady as my
partner," and suiting the action to the word, he graciously extended his
arm to Ella who took it with a pretty blush.
It was General Grant's turn to blush when the other guests, with a few
exceptions, applauded his choice loudly, and made way enthusiastically as
the handsome couple advanced to the brilliantly lighted dining room.
But although the hostess had provided the most costly of viands, I am
afraid that the brave general did not fully appreciate them, for in his soul
was the joy of a strong man who has found his mate and in his heart was
the singing of the eternal song, "I love her-- I love her--I love her!"
It was only too apparent to the other guests what had happened and to
their credit be it said that they heartily approved his choice, for Mrs.
Rhinelander and her scheming daughter Geraldine had made countless
enemies with their haughty manners, whereas the sweet simplicity of Ella
Flowers had won her numerous friends. And all laughed merrily when
General Grant, in his after dinner speech, said "flowers" instead of "flour"
when speaking of provisioning the army--a slip which caused both the
general and Miss Flowers to blush furiously, greatly to the delight of the
good-natured guests. "All the world loves a lover"--truer words were
never penned.
After dinner, while the other men, according to the usages of best
society, were filling the air of the dining room with the fumes of nicotine,
the general, who did not use tobacco, excused himself--amid many sly
winks from the other men-- and wandered out into the conservatory.
There he found Ella.
"General," she began.
"Miss Flowers," said the strong man simply, "Call me Ulysses."
And there let us leave them.
DONALD OGDEN STEWART
CHAPTER EIGHT
CUSTER'S LAST STAND
In the Manner of Edith Wharton
It was already late afternoon and the gas street lamps of the Boul'
Mich' were being lighted for Paris, or at least for Paris in summer, by a
somewhat frigid looking allumeur, when Philip Custer came to the end of
his letter. He hesitated for an instant, wrote "Your----," then crossed that
out and substituted "Sincerely." No, decidedly the first ending, with its, as
is, or, rather, as ordinarily is, the case in hymeneal epistles, somewhat
possessive sense, would no longer suffice. "Yours truly"-- perhaps;
"sincerely"--better; but certainly not "Your husband." He was done, thank
God, with presences.
Philip sipped his absinthe and gazed for an instant through the Cafe
window; a solitary fiacre rattled by; he picked up the result of his
afternoon's labor, wearily.
"Dear Mary," he read, "When I told you that my employers were
sending me to Paris, I lied to you. It was, perhaps, the first direct lie that I
ever told you; it was, I know now, the last. But a falsehood by word of
mouth mattered really very little in comparison with the enormous lie that
my life with you had become."
Philip paused and smiled, somewhat bitterly, at that point in the letter.
Mary, with her American woman's intuition, would undoubtedly surmise
that he had run off with Mrs. Everett; there was a certain ironical humor in
the fact that Mary's mistaken guess would be sadly indicative of her whole
failure to understand what her husband was, to use a slang expression,
"driving at."
"I hope that you will believe me when I say that I came to Paris to
paint. In the past four years the desire to do that has grown steadily until it
has mastered me. You do not understand. I found no one in America who
did. I think my mother might have, had she lived; certainly it is utterly
incomprehensible to father."
Philip stopped. Ay, there was the rub--General Custer, and all that he
DONALD OGDEN STEWART
stood for. Philip glimpsed momentarily those early boyhood days with his
father, spent mainly in army posts; the boy's cavalry uniform, in which he
had ridden old Bess about the camp, waving his miniature sabre; the day
he had been thrown to the ground by a strange horse which he had
disobediently mounted, just as his father arrived on the scene. Philip had
never forgotten his father's words that day. "Don't crawl, son,--don't whine.
It was your fault this time and you deserved what you got. Lots of times it
won't be your fault, but you'll have to take your licking anyway. But
remember this, son--take your medicine like a man--always."
Philip groaned; he knew what the general would say when the news of
his son's desertion of his wife and four year old boy reached him. He knew
that he never could explain to his father the absolute torture of the last four
years of enervating domesticity and business mediocrity-- the torture of
the Beauty within him crying for expression, half satisfied by the stolen
evenings at the art school but constantly growing stronger in its all-
consuming appeal. No, life to his father was a simple problem in army
ethics--a problem in which duty was "a", one of the known factors; "x,"
the unknown, was either "bravery" or "cowardice" when brought in
contact with "a". Having solved this problem, his father had closed the
book; of the higher mathematics, and especially of those complex
problems to which no living man knew the final answer, he had no
conception. And yet----
Philip resumed his reading to avoid the old endless maze of subtleties.
"It is not that I did not--or do not--love you. It is, rather, that
something within me is crying out-- something which is stronger than I,
and which I cannot resist. I have waited two years to be sure. Yesterday, as
soon as I reached here, I took my work to the man who is considered the
finest art critic in Paris. He told me that there was a quality to my painting
which he had seen in that of no living artist; he told me that in five years
of hard work I should be able to produce work which Botticelli would be
proud to have done. Do you understand that, Mary--Botticelli!
"But no, forgive me. My paean of joy comes strangely in a letter which
should be of abject humility for what must seem to you, to father, and to
all, a cowardly, selfish act of desertion-- a whining failure to face life. Oh
DONALD OGDEN STEWART
dear, dear Mary if you could but understand what a hell I have been
through--"
Philip took his pen and crossed out the last line so that no one could
read what had been there.
"Materially, of course, you and little George will be better off; the
foolish pride with which I refused to let your parents help us now no
longer stands in their way. You should have no difficulty about a divorce.
"You can dispose of my things as you see fit; there is nothing I care
about keeping which I did not bring.
"Again, Mary, I cannot ask you to forgive, or even to understand, but I
do hope that you will believe me when I say that this act of mine is the
most honest thing I have ever done, and that to have acted out the tragi-
comedy in the part of a happy contented husband would have made of
both of our lives a bitter useless farce. Sincerely, Philip."
He folded the pages and addressed the envelope.
"Pardon, Monsieur"--a whiff of sulphur came to his nose as the waiter
bent over the table to light the gas above him. "Would Monsieur like to see
the journal? There is a most amusing story about---- The bill, Monsieur?
Yes--in a moment."
Philip glanced nervously through the pages of the Temps. He was
anxious to get the letter to the post--to have done with indecision and
worry. It would be a blessed relief when the thing was finally done beyond
chance of recall; why couldn't that stupid waiter hurry?
On the last page of the newspaper was an item headlined "Recent
News from America." Below was a sub-heading "Horrible Massacre of
Soldiers by Indians--Brave Stand of American Troopers." He caught the
name "Custer" and read:
"And by his brave death at the hands of the Indians, this gallant
American general has made the name of Custer one which will forever be
associated with courage of the highest type."
He read it all through again and sat quietly as the hand of Polyphemus
closed over him. He even smiled a little-- a weary, ironic smile.
"Monsieur desires something more, perhaps"--the waiter held out the
bill.
DONALD OGDEN STEWART
Philip smiled. "No--Monsieur has finished--there is nothing more."
Then he repeated slowly, "There is nothing more."
* * * *
Philip watched his son George blow out the twelve candles on his
birthday cake.
"Mother," said George, "when I get to be eighteen, can I be a soldier
just like grandfather up there?" He pointed to the portrait of Philip's father
in uniform which hung in the dining room.
"Of course you can, dear," said his mother. "But you must be a brave
boy".
"Grandfather was awful brave, wasn't he father?" This from little Mary
between mouthfuls of cake.
"Yes, Mary," Philip answered. "He was very, very brave."
"Of course he was," said George. "He was an American."
"Yes," answered Philip, "That explains it.--he was an American."
Mrs. Custer looked up at the portrait of her distinguished father-in-law.
"You know Philip, I think it must be quite nice to be able to paint a
picture like that. I've often wondered why you never kept up your art,"
DONALD OGDEN STEWART
CHAPTER NINE
"FOR THE FREEDOM OF THE WORLD"
A DRAMA OF THE GREAT WAR
Act I: In the Manner of Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews
Act 2: In the Manner of Eugene O'Neill
ACT ONE
(Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews)
SCENE I
A principal street of an American city in the spring of 1918.
At the rear of the stage, representing the opposite sidewalk of the street,
are gathered many people come to bid farewell to the boys of the Blankth
regiment who are soon to march past on their way to France.
Extending across the "street", from footlights to "sidewalk", is a large
white plaster arch, gayly decorated with the Allied colors.
On this arch is the inscription "For the Freedom of the World."
At the rising of the curtain, distant march music is heard (off stage,
right); this constantly grows louder during the ensuing dialogue which
takes place between three elderly women crowded together at the edge of
the sidewalk. These women, although, before the war, of different stations
in social rank, are now united, as are all mothers in the Allied countries, by
the glorious badge which each proudly wears pinned over her heart--the
service star.
The Professor's Wife--I hear them coming.
The Street-cleaner's Wife--So do I. I hope my boy Pat sees me.
The Pawnbroker's Wife--I told my Jean where to look.
The approaching music and the cheering of the spectators drowns out
further conversation.
Enter (right) the regimental band playing the "Stars and Stripes
Forever." They march through the arch and exit left. Following them
comes the flag, at the sight of which all the male spectators (young boys
DONALD OGDEN STEWART
and men too old to fight) remove their hats. After the colors come the
troops, splendid clean faced fellows, in whose eyes shines the light of
civilization's ideals, in whose ears rings the never forgettable cry of heroic
France and brave little Belgium. The boys are marching four abreast, with
a firm determined step; it is as though each man were saying to himself
"They shall not pass."
After the first few squads have marched through the arch and off left,
the command is issued off-stage "Company--HALT." A young lieutenant
repeats this order to his men, and the column comes to a stop. The men
stand at attention until given the command "Rest", when they relax and a
murmur of conversation arises from the ranks, in which characteristic
sentences "German ideals are not our ideals" and "Suppose it was your
own sister" show only too well what the boys are thinking of day and
night.
As the column halts, the three service star mothers rush out from the
curb and embrace their sons who happen to be in this company. At the
same time a very attractive girl runs up to the young lieutenant.
The Lieutenant--Ellen! His Fiancee--John! The Professor's Son} The
Streetcleaner's Son } Mother! The Pawnbroker's Son }
The Professor's Wife } The Streetcleaner's Wife } My Boy! The
Pawnbroker's Wife } Voice off stage--Company--Atten SHUN!
The farewells are said, the men come to attention.
Voice off stage--Forward--MARCH
The Lieutenant--(Pointing with his sword to the inscription on the
arch)--Forward for the Freedom of the World--MARCH.
The men's teeth click together, their heads are thrown back, and with a
light in their eyes that somehow suggests Joan of Arc the Crusaders move
on.
SCENE 2
Three months later.
A section of an American front line trench now occupied by the
Blankth regiment.
It is early morning and the three soldiers mentioned in Scene 1 are
conversing together for perhaps the last time, for soon they are to be given
DONALD OGDEN STEWART
the chance which every American man desires more than anything in the
world-- the opportunity to go "over the top".
The Professor's Son--Well fellows, in a few minutes we shall be able
to show the people at home that their boys are not cowards when the fate
of civilization is at stake.
The Pawnbroker's Son--Here's a newspaper clipping mother sent me.
It's from a speech made the other day in Congress. (He reads) "And we
and our children--and our children's children will never forget the debt we
owe those brave boys who are now in France."
The Streetcleaner's Son--That makes a fellow feel pretty good inside,
doesn't it? It makes me glad I'm doing my bit-- and after the war I hope the
ideals which have inspired us all will make us better citizens in a better
world.
The Professor's Son--Not only will we be better citizens-- not only will
the torch of liberty shine more brightly--but also each one of us will go
back to his job with a deeper vision.
The Pawnbroker's Son--That's right I am a musician--a pianist, you
know--and I hope that after the war I shall be able to tell America, through
my music, of the glory of this holy cause.
The Professor's Son--I didn't know you were a pianist.
The Pawnbroker's Son--Yes--ever since I was a boy--I have had no
other interest. My father tried to make me go into his shop but I couldn't
stand it. He got angry and refused to support me; I had a hard time until I
won a scholarship at a New York musical college. Just before the war I
had a chance to play the Schumann concerto with the Philharmonic; the
critics all said that in another year I would be-- but fellows--you must
think me frightfully conceited to talk so, and besides what matters my
musical career in comparison with the sacrifice which everyone is
making?
The Streetcleaner's Son--And gladly making, too, for it is easy to give
up all, as did Joan of Arc, for France. Attention, men! here comes one of
our officers.
The three stand at attention.
Enter the Lieutenant.
DONALD OGDEN STEWART
The Lieutenant--Well, men, do you feel ready?
The Three--More than ready, sir--eager.
The Lieutenant--Brave men! (To the Professor's Son) Come here a
minute, Keating. I have something to ask you before we go over the top.
The Professor's Son and the Lieutenant go to one side.
The Lieutenant--(To the other two in a kindly manner)--At ease!
The Streetcleaner's Son--Thank you, sir.
They relax from their rigid posture of "attention".
The Lieutenant--(To the Professor's Son)--Keating, when we "go over",
we--may--never come back, you know. And I want to ask a favor of you. I
am engaged--to a girl back home--here is her picture (he draws a
photograph from his inner breast pocket and shows it to the Professor's
Son.)
The Professor's Son--She is beautiful, Sir.
The Lieutenant--(Putting the photograph back in his pocket)-- Yes very
beautiful. And (dropping his eyes)--I love her. If--if I should "go west" I
want you to write her and tell her that my last thoughts were of my
country and--her. We are to be married-- after the war--if (suddenly
clearing his throat). Her name is Ellen Radcliff--here, I'll write the address
down for you.
He does so, and hands the slip of paper to the Professor's Son, who
discreetly turns away.
The Lieutenant--(Brusquely)--That's all, Keating.
A bugle sounds.
The Lieutenant--Attention men! At the next bugle call you go over the
top-- remember that you are Americans and that Americans know how to
fight and die in the cause of liberty and for the freedom of the world. The
Three Soldiers--We are ready to make the supreme sacrifice if need be.
The bugle sounds.
The Lieutenant--(Climbing up the ladder to the top of the trench)--
Follow me, men--
The Three Soldiers--(Climbing up after him)--Lafayette--we come,
though poppies bloom in Flanders field.
They go "over the top".
DONALD OGDEN STEWART
SCENE 3
A section of a Hun trench a minute later. Two Hun soldiers are
conversing together; another Hun is reading a copy of Nietzsche.
First Hun Soldier--And then we cut the hands off all the little children-
- oh it was wonderful.
Second Hun Soldier--I wish I had been there.
A Hun Lieutenant rushes in.
The Hun Lieutenant--(Kicking the three men and brandishing his
revolver)--Swine--wake up--here come the Americans.
The three spring to their feet and seize their guns. At the top of the
trench appears the American lieutenant, closely followed by the three
soldiers.
The American Lieutenant--(Coolly)--We come to avenge the sinking
of the Lusitania.
The Hun Lieutenant--Hoch der Kaiser! Might is stronger than right!
He treacherously tries to shoot the American but the Professor's Son
disarms him with his bayonet. The three Hun soldiers offer a show of
resistance.
The Streetcleaner's Son--(To first Hun soldier)--Your hands are
unclean with the murder of innocent women and children.
First Hun Soldier--(Dropping his gun)--Kamerad!
The Pawnbroker's Son--(To the other Hun soldiers)-- Prussianism has
destroyed the Germany of Bach and Beethoven and you fellows know it,
too.
Second and third Hun Soldiers--(Dropping their guns)--Kamerad!
The American Lieutenant--Men--you have kept the faith. I am proud
of you. Forward!
An explosion (not too loud to annoy the audience) is heard off stage
right.
The Professor's Son--(Sinking to the ground) Fellows, I'm afraid
they've got me.
The Streetcleaner's Son--What a shame!
The Lieutenant--Is there anything we can do to ease the pain?
The Professor's Son--(Weakening rapidly) No--go on, boys, carry the--
DONALD OGDEN STEWART
banner of--civilization's ideals--forward--without me-- Tell mother I'm
glad--I did--my bit--for the freedom-- of the world--fellows, the only--
thing--I regret--is that I won't-- be able to be with you--when you--go
back--to enjoy the gratitude-- of America--good-bye, fellows, may you
drink--to the full-- the rewards of a grateful nation.
He dies. The others regretfully leave him behind as they push on after
the fleeing Huns.
The stage is slowly darkened--the noise of battle dies away.
Enter an Angel in the uniform of the Y.M.C.A. She goes up to the
fallen hero and taking him in her arms tenderly carries him off the stage.
CURTAIN
TWO YEARS PASS
ACT TWO
(Eugene O'Neill)
SCENE I
The bedroom of a bachelor apartment in New York City in the Fall of
1920.
There is about the room an air of neglect, as though the occupant did
not particularly give a damn whether he slept in this room or in hell. This
is evidenced in a general way by the absence of any attempts at decoration
and by the presence of dirty laundry and unopened letters scattered about
the room.
The furniture consists of a bed and a bureau; at the foot of the former
is a trunk such as was used by American army officers in the recent war.
Although it is three in the morning, the bed is unoccupied. The electric
light over the bureau has been left lighted.
The lamp flickers and goes out for a minute; when it again flashes on,
the Angel and the Professor's Son are seen standing in the room, as though
they had come there directly from the close of the preceding act; the Angel,
however, has completely removed all Y.M.C.A. insignia and now has a
beard and chews tobacco; from time to time he spits out of the window.
The angel--Why the hell weren't you satisfied to stay in heaven?
The Professor's Son--Well, I just wanted to see my old buddies once
DONALD OGDEN STEWART
more-- I want to see them enjoying the gratitude of the world.
The Angel--Hmmmm--well, this is where your Lieutenant now lives--
and I think I hear him coming.
They step behind a curtain. The noise of a key rattling in a lock is
heard, then a light flashes on in the next room. The sound of unsteady
footsteps--a vase is knocked over--a curse-- then enter the Lieutenant.
He wears a dinner-coat, one sleeve of which hangs empty. His face is
white, his eyes set, his mouth hard and hopeless. He is drunk--not
hilariously--but with the drunkenness of despair.
He sits down on the bed and remains for several minutes, his head in
his hands.
The Lieutenant--God, I'm drunk--(after a pause)-- drunk again--well,
what of it--what the hell difference does it make--get drunk if I want to--
sure I will--get drunk-- that's the dope DRUNK--oh Christ!--
He throws himself on the bed and after lying there a few minutes sits
up.
The Lieutenant--Gotta have another drink--can't go sleep, God damn
it--brain too clear--gotta kill brain--that's the dope-- kill brain--forget--
wipe out past--
He opens the trunk in his search for liquor. He suddenly pulls out his
lieutenant's coat and holds it up,
The Lieutenant--There's that God damn thing--never wanted to see it
again-- wound stripes on right sleeve, too--hurrah for brave soldier--arm
shot off to--to make world safe for democracy--blaa--the god damn
hypocrites-- democracy hell--arm shot off because I wasn't clever enough
to stay out of it--ought to have had sense enough to join the--the ordinance
department or--or the Y.M.C.A.
He feels aimlessly through the pockets of the coat. Suddenly, from the
inside breast pocket he draws out something--a photograph--
The Lieutenant--Ellen! Oh God!
He gazes at the picture for a long time.
The Lieutenant--Yes, Ellen, I should have joined the Y.M.C.A.
shouldn't I?--where they don't get their arms shot off-- couldn't marry a
man with one arm, could you?--of course not-- think of looking at an
DONALD OGDEN STEWART
empty sleeve year after year-- children might be born with only one arm,
too--children--oh God damn you, Ellen, you and your Y.M.C.A. husband!
He tears the picture in two and hurls it into the trunk. Then he sinks
onto the bed, sobbing drunkenly. After a few minutes, he walks over to the
trunk and picks up one half of the torn picture. He turns it over in his hand
and reads the writing on the back.
The Lieutenant (Reading)--"I'm waiting for you, dear--when you have
done your bit 'for the freedom of the world'."
He smiles, wearily, and reaches down to pick up the other half of the
picture. His eye is caught by something shiny; it is his army revolver. He
slowly picks it up and looks at it for a long time.
The Lieutenant--For the freedom of the world--
He quickly opens his top bureau drawer and takes out a box of
cartridges. One of these he inserts in a chamber of his revolver.
The Lieutenant--For the FREEDOM--
He laughs.
As the curtain falls he presses the revolver against his temple and fires.
SCENE 2
A bare room in a boarding house. To the left is a bed, to the right a
grand piano--the latter curiously out of keeping with the other cheap
furnishings. The room is in partial darkness.
The door slowly swings open; the Angel and the Professor's Son enter.
The Angel--And here you have the room of your friend the
Pawnbroker's Son-- the musical genius--with a brilliant future.
They hide in a closet, leaving the door partly open.
Enter Jean, the Pawnbroker's Son. He has on a cutaway suit-- a relic of
his first and last public concert before the war. His shoulders sag
dejectedly and his face is drawn and white. He comes in and sits on the
bed. A knock--a determined knock-- is heard at the door but Jean does not
move. The door opens and his landlady--a shrewish, sharp faced woman
of 40--appears. He gets up off the bed when he sees her and bows.
The Landlady--I forgot you was deef or I wouldn't have wasted my
time hitting my knuckles against your door.
Jean gazes at her.
DONALD OGDEN STEWART
The Landlady--Well Mr. Rosen I guess you know why I'm here-- it's
pay up today or get out.
Jean--Please write it down--you know I cannot hear a word you say. I
suppose it's about the rent.
The landlady takes paper and pencil and writes.
The Landlady--(Reading over the result of her labor)-- "To-day--is--
the--last day. If you can't pay, you must get out "
She hands it to Jean and he reads.
Jean--But I cannot pay. Next week perhaps I shall get work--
The Landlady--(Scornfully)--Yes--Next week maybe I have to sell
another liberty bond for seventy dollars what I paid a hundred dollars for,
too. No sir I need the money NOW. Here--
She writes and hands it to him.
Jean (Reading)--Sell my piano? But please I cannot do that--yet.
The Landlady--A lot of good a piano does a deef person like you.
That's a good one--( She laughs harshly). The deef musician--ho ho-- with
a piano.
Jean--Madam, I shall pay you surely next week. There has been some
delay in my war risk insurance payment. I should think that you would
trust a soldier who lost his hearing in the trenches--
The Landlady--That's old stuff. You soldiers think just because you
were unlucky enough to get drafted you can spend the rest of your life
patting yourselves on the back. Besides--what good did the war do
anyway-- except make a lot of rich people richer?
She scribbles emphatically "Either you pay up tonight or out you go."
Handing this to Jean with a flourish, she exits.
He sits on the bed for a long time.
Finally he glances up at the wall over his bed where hangs a cheap
photo frame. In the center is a picture of President Wilson; on one side of
this is a crude print of a soldier, on the other side a sailor; above is the
inscription "For the Freedom of the World."
Jean takes down the picture and looks at it. As he replaces it on the
wall he sees hanging above it the bayonet which he had carried through
the war. He slowly takes the weapon down, runs his fingers along the edge
DONALD OGDEN STEWART
and smiles--a quiet tired smile which does not leave his face during the
rest of the scene.
He walks over to the piano and plays the opening chords of the
Schumann concerto. Then shaking his head sadly, he tenderly closes down
the lid and locks it.
He next writes a note which he folds and places, with the key to the
piano, in an envelope. Sealing and addressing the envelope, he places it on
the piano. Then, walking over to the bed, he picks up the bayonet, and
shutting his eyes for an instant, he steps forward and cuts his throat as the
curtain falls.
SCENE 3
Same as Act 1, Scene 1 except for the changes made in the city street
by a year or more of peace.
The arch across the thoroughfare still stands, although it has become
badly discolored and dirty; the inscription "For the Freedom of the World"
is but faintly visible. As the curtain rises workmen are busy at work
tearing the arch down.
Enter the Angel and the Professor's Son.
The Angel--Stand over here, out of the way, and you'll see the last of
your cronies--Pat, the Streetcleaner's Son-- enjoying the gratitude of the
world.
The Professor's Son does not answer.
Enter Pat. He has on an old pair of corduroy trousers, with his brown
army shirt, and shoes out at the heel.
He looks as if he had not slept for days certainly he has not shaved for
a week. He approaches one of the workmen.
Pat--Say buddy any chance for a job here?
The Workman--Hell no. They was fifty applicants yesterday. (Looking
at his army shirt) Most of them ex-soldiers like you. Jobs is mighty scarce.
Pat--I'll tell the world they are. I'd almost join the army again, except
for my wife and kid.
The Workman--God--don't do it.
Pat--Why--was you across?
The Workman--Yes, God damn it--eight months. Next war I'll let
DONALD OGDEN STEWART
somebody else do the fighting.
Pat--Same here. The wise guys were them that stayed at home and
kept their jobs.
The Workman--I'll say they were.
Pat--(Growing more excited)--And while we was over there fighting,
nothing was too good for us--"brave boys," they said, "we shall never
forget what you have done for us." Never forget--hell! In about a year
everybody forgot there ever was a war and a fellow has a hell of a time
getting a job--and when you mention the war they just laugh--why God
damn it, I've been out of work for six months and I ain't no loafer either
and my wife has had to go back to her folks and I'm just about all in--
During this speech the work on dismantling the arch has steadily
progressed. Suddenly there comes a warning cry--"Look out"--as the
supports unexpectedly give way. Pat is too engrossed in his tirade to take
heed, and as the center portion of the arch falls it crushes him beneath its
weight. After the cloud of dust clears, he is seen lying under the mass. By
a curious twist of fate he has been crushed by the portion of the arch
bearing the inscription "For the Freedom of the World." His eyes open for
an instant--he reads, through the mist of approaching death, the words, and
he laughs--
Pat--For the Freedom of the World--Oh Christ!
His mocking laughter is interrupted by a severe fit of coughing and he
sinks back dead.
The Professor's Son--Oh God--take me somewhere where I can't ever
see the world.
The angel--Come to heaven.
CURTAIN