Part 3
CHANG-SUT-YEN--May your golden finger nails grow, and grow, and grow, until they grasp all wealth and honor. (_Singing._) _Bor lo un doy, bor lo un doy, chin lo, chin lo, bor lo un doy._
(_Exit Chang, singing._)
MANDARIN--He is a faithful dog, who begs but a kick to make him lick my hand. I have given him too many tasks. He is bereft of his toad mind. I dislike a man who sings as he works. Life does not plan it so.
CHORUS--Kwen-lin, Bright Water-Lily, comes to meet her lover.
(_Enter Kwen-lin, singing. Property Man hands her a branch of blossoms._)
KWEN-LIN--(_Singing._) _Bor lo un doy, bor lo un doy, chin lo, chin lo, bor lo un doy._
MANDARIN--The mad one croaked that. (_Turns back and sings._) _Bor lo un doy, bor lo un doy, chin lo_,--
KWEN-LIN--(_Clasping him._) Supreme lover! The happy breezes dance when your voice is the lute.
MANDARIN--My important ears to be so assailed! The world box collapses, and tumbles round me.
KWEN-LIN--Noble father! I thought it was my--
MANDARIN--Your?
KWEN-LIN--My singing bird.
MANDARIN--A Cherry Blossom, and a singing bird! An illustrious choice for a man of high position.
KWEN-LIN--You sound very like a singing bird.
MANDARIN--Something has broken in their heads. Spring has tangled the brain threads. It must be Spring!
KWEN-LIN--It is Spring, and soon it will be superb Summer, then Fall, then Winter. The year gone pff! like that, and miserable life flower desolated.
MANDARIN--Before the honorable year goes pff! like that, you will be an exalted wife.
KWEN-LIN--A wife! I, a wife?
MANDARIN--For seventeen years of moons, your nurses and teachers have polished you into a state of passable excellence. You are very wonderful as foolish little girls go. You are something of a somebody.
KWEN-LIN--But to what impressive man are my charms to be presented?
MANDARIN--(_Looking at invisible garden._) This late frost will surely steal the jewels in my garden. The servant Chang must cover the iris. I can trust Chang.
KWEN-LIN--You marry me to Chang-sut-yen?
MANDARIN--Do I throw my child of five thousand and one delectable graces into the arms of a servant? I was speaking of my garden.
KWEN-LIN--If I am to wed, let us speak of husbands.
MANDARIN--Ah, many men have sought to wed you, but I have turned their eyes away, until the sublime one should ask.
KWEN-LIN--To whom do I go?
MANDARIN--To the greatest of all! To be dazzled, to be petted, to be surrounded by every superior luxury.
KWEN-LIN--(_Impatiently._) To whom do I go?
MANDARIN--There is honor and eminence the alliance will give me, and money it will add to my already considerable store. We will not, as a matter of policy, show we are flattered. We will be proud, we will be haughty, we will drive a shrewd bargain when the wealthy Ta-yin of Canton would make you his bride.
KWEN-LIN--The Ta-yin of Canton! I will not marry the Ta-yin of Canton!
MANDARIN--What strange words do your lips produce? Does my daughter oppose her insect mind to mine?
KWEN-LIN--I will not marry the Ta-yin of Canton. He's ugly, he's bold, he's yellow as--
MANDARIN--Gold!
KWEN-LIN--He shakes when he walks--
MANDARIN--He's a--
KWEN-LIN--Hundred years old! My heart would crack with grief were I to marry him.
MANDARIN--I never yet heard that any maiden died of grief at the prospect of being a bride.
KWEN-LIN--Br-r-r-r!
MANDARIN--(_Jumping._) What was that?
KWEN-LIN--My heart cracking. Death is clutching for me.
MANDARIN--(_Wearily._) Go away, Death. Take her, if you must, after she is wed. The wealthy Ta-yin can better bear the sad expenses.
KWEN-LIN--I'm dying now, dying, dying. It's quite delicious! (_Lies down. Property Man puts a blue cushion under her head._) I'm almost dead!
MANDARIN--You can't die like this. It's most absurd, besides being unbeautiful.
KWEN-LIN--Have no fear, my death will be magnificently beautiful. I have practiced many times, and know.
MANDARIN--Get up, fox soul!
KWEN-LIN--(_Sitting up._) Have respect for my solemnly departing life. My heart will not throb longer. (_Lies down._) I am dead!
MANDARIN--(_Prodding her with foot._) Get up, get up, get up! I must carry her! (_Stoops, and puts arms under Kwen-lin._) Oh, for the strong muscles of my lusty young arms. We have fed her too well. She weighs many pounds. (_Stands up, and claps hands. Chang-sut-yen enters._)
CHANG-SUT-YEN--My serene mind presents itself to you, great master.
MANDARIN--Sleep should be gathering up the ends of your serene mind, but it is as well. My daughter's honorable body has persuaded itself to seek its illustrious ancestors--
CHANG-SUT-YEN--(_Kneeling beside Kwen-lin._) Kwen-lin dead, dead! Then let the lady moon fall from the mighty loft of Heaven, and burn my life to ashes of wistaria!
MANDARIN--Your overwhelming grief at my bereavement becomes a servant, but let not the pockets of your eyes fill with tears. Bear her to the house. She shall be whipped alive! (_Kwen-lin shudders._) The sublime wasp shakes at that?
CHANG-SUT-YEN--(_Bending over Kwen-lin, and looking into her wide open eyes._) It was a death throe, exalted one.
MANDARIN--Can your arms support her?
CHANG-SUT-YEN--I lift a Cherry Blossom with more effort.
MANDARIN--Speak not of Cherry Blossoms. Pick her up. (_Chang starts to lift Kwen-lin._) No, no, that is not wise. How shall we do it?
CHANG-SUT-YEN--(_Craftily._) I can guard the crystal vase of her departed soul, while you go for help.
MANDARIN--It had not penetrated my disturbed brain. I go for help.
(_Exit Mandarin._)
KWEN-LIN--(_Sitting up._) Superb love mate!
CHANG-SUT-YEN--(_Hurriedly._) Augustly enter the world of the venerable dead again, luscious one, your honorable father looks this way.
KWEN-LIN--(_Lying down._) Do your eyes grow pearls that I am with my ancestors?
CHANG-SUT-YEN--The love butterflies are winging in the happy recesses of my heart. My breath will smother me with joy.
KWEN-LIN--(_Sitting up._) Joy, when my father is going to marry me to the Ta-yin of Canton?
CHANG-SUT-YEN--Exalted joy, because before that can happen my father will have the Ta-yin beheaded.
KWEN-LIN--An orphan has no father.
CHANG-SUT-YEN--I have a celestial now and then father, who does these necessary but disagreeable things. I think he will dispose of the wealthy Ta-yin if I ask him.
KWEN-LIN--It must be a wonderful convenience. We will make a list of all those superbly annoying persons we do not like, and have your celestial now and then father, behead them.
CHANG-SUT-YEN--We will ponder it, Bright Water-lily, when we are not serenely happy.
KWEN-LIN--I do not like being whipped alive! My teeth chatter when I think of it, and I can't be happy.
CHANG-SUT-YEN--A base whip to touch you! Nay, my lips shall make you live. (_Kisses her._) I am gloriously versed in lip magic. (_Kisses her again._)
KWEN-LIN--Let us fly on our illustrious legs, and be married with the six ceremonies, before my father returns. I like that lip magic. It makes singing here.
(_Kwen-lin touches heart. She and Chang-sut-yen exeunt. The Property Man looks around the stage slowly, glances in the property box, then saunters casually off._)
(_CURTAIN_)
CHORUS--I bow.
(_Chorus leaves stage followed by Gong-bearer._)
_Scene II_
(_Chorus again appears before the closed curtains, and raises his left hand, while the Gong-bearer, who has walked to his original position at the right side of the stage strikes the Gong once._)
CHORUS--Many perfumed months have passed since Chang-sut-yen wedded Kwen-lin, and each has added a white hibiscus blossom to the garland of life. But now bitter winter comes, snow is on the paeony hill, the hosts of evil are abroad. The Mandarin, with never ending rage, has spent the months searching throughout the Empire to discover their dwelling place. Now he has learned where it is, and pursues Chang-sut-yen with a death dealing thong, which he will wield with dire results. It is the pleasure of the illustrious author that the villain act in a supremely unpleasant manner, in order to bring out the tenderness of the play. Our lovers, not knowing this is a comedy, (and therefore must conclude with smiles and feasting), are overwhelmed with fear. I beg you not to share this fear, except inasmuch as it may make the after enjoyment of the happy ending more piquant and superbly satisfying.
I bow to you, and conduct you to the home of Chang-sut-yen, and Kwen-lin, his wife.
(_Gong-bearer strikes gong. Chorus walks to his place at the left of stage. The Curtains are drawn apart, and reveal Chang-sut-yen, and Kwen-lin. The Property Man is at the back of the stage, as before._)
KWEN-LIN--Is my august father yet stamping on the road? Peep out of the door, heroic one, and show but part of one eye, lest the radiance from both light the world like stars, and he swoop upon us.
CHANG-SUT-YEN--(_Looking out of imaginary doorway._) I see not his angry body.
KWEN-LIN--I would not face him here. Let us go outside, and sit neath the eaves of the pagoda. He may miss our presence, and leave without shattering this temple of our love dreams.
(_Property Man opens invisible door, they descend two steps and sit down, and Property Man closes the door._)
CHANG-SUT-YEN--Little humming bird, your heart wings beat wildly against my solemn breast.
KWEN-LIN--His fiery breath will wither our blood. Feel how it scorches the grey veil of night. He is coming to consume us, he is coming to consume us! I fear his terrible rage.
CHANG-SUT-YEN--Nay, tremble not, for I, your lover, shelter you in my heart.
CHORUS--The Mandarin comes.
KWEN-LIN--(_Sadly._) The wine cup is drained, the love songs all are silenced.
(_Enter Mandarin._)
MANDARIN--Base thief and destroyer, at last I have found the hole in which you hide!
CHANG-SUT-YEN--A lover seeks only food for his love. If he destroys or thieves what matter? Love is first.
MANDARIN--My tongue sends flame into your viper soul. Go to your ancestors, they beckon you.
KWEN-LIN--Let us escape across the bridge!
(_Property Man holds bamboo stick horizontally for bridge._)
CHANG-SUT-YEN--Why should we flee?
KWEN-LIN--Why should we perish? To the bridge! We will outrun him.
(_They run onto bridge._)
CHANG-SUT-YEN--(_Grasping bamboo._) The bridge shakes. Its ribs are rotten. We will fall into the water.
KWEN-LIN--(_Off stage._) I fall, I drown!
CHANG-SUT-YEN--Bright Water-lily, float upon the water's face.
MANDARIN--I pull down your star from Heaven's dome.
CHANG-SUT-YEN--My star dropped to Earth, when the light of hers failed.
(_Property Man hands whip to Mandarin._)
MANDARIN--I strike with my exalted whip. By the God of Fate, you die!
(_Strikes Chang with whip. Chang falls. Gong-bearer strikes gong. The God of Fate, wearing grotesque mask, enters._)
FATE--Who calls me to the world of men?
MANDARIN--What unknown fear are you?
FATE--I am the God of Fate.
MANDARIN--I have sent a dog to death. (_Stoops and takes a small red bag from Chang's breast._)
FATE--Chang-sut-yen is mine! He must not die.
MANDARIN--My exulting mind does not record your meaning.
FATE--(_Stooping over Chang, and putting the red bag back._) Chang-sut-yen, son of Chang-won-yin, the Great, I give you back your heart! (_Gong-bearer strikes gong._)
MANDARIN--Chang-sut-yen, son of Heaven! I bow in the dust three times. (_Prostrates himself._)
FATE--(_To Chang._) Arise, and continue your exalted life.
CHANG-SUT-YEN--(_Rising._) My path is lost in crookedness until I join her. Let me go.
FATE--The gods have not yet dried the ink on the pages of your book of life. You must live, to live upon a Willow plate.
CHANG-SUT-YEN--And be broken by the heavy hand of august Time, and unkind Chance. (_Property Man hands knife to Chang._) With this frosty blade, I cut the circle of life, and press my lips to the jade cup of nothingness. I am a lover bereft of my mate.
FATE--You must live! (_Touches Chang's arm with staff. The knife falls to the ground. Property Man picks it up, and puts it back in the property box._)
CHANG-SUT-YEN--Kwen-lin, I leap across the river of Heaven to your arms!
FATE--She is not dead. She dreams, and smiles upon the bosom of the water.
(_To Kwen-lin._) Awake! Awake!
(_Kwen-lin enters, and goes to Chang._)
FATE--Your sublime father, Chang-won-yin, has gone to his ancestors. You are Chang-sut-yen, the Great, ruler of this province.
(_Gong-bearer strikes gong._)
CHANG-SUT-YEN--I renounce my rule. I am a lover, not a ruler.
FATE--You are a turtle dove. (_To Mandarin._) To your home, and set forth majestic feasting. Chang-sut-yen will honor your house. He rules.
CHANG-SUT-YEN--I rule not. I am a lover.
KWEN-LIN--Exalted one, a lover is a turtle dove.
FATE--It is sometimes given to women to know the truth. Thus Fate is fulfilled, and Chang-sut-yen, the turtle dove, will live upon a Willow plate.
(_Gong-bearer strikes the gong twice._)
(_CURTAIN_)
CHORUS--For your eager ears, for your shining eyes, for your smiling faces, I bow, I bow, I bow.
(_Chorus followed by the Gong-bearer goes behind the curtains._)
THIS YOUTH--GENTLEMEN!
A FANTASY
CAST
A MAN. A BOY.
This Youth--Gentlemen!
_Scene I--A narrow lane sharply ascending the hill-side. In the distance a lake shimmers in the sunlight. As the curtain rises the BOY is discovered sitting on a huge boulder. He curiously watches the approaching MAN._
MAN--The road is narrow.
BOY--(_Curtly._) I like it so.
MAN--I have followed you from the valley.
BOY--(_Moving aside._) I'll follow you up the hill.
MAN--(_Smiling._) I may wait here.
BOY--I may play. (_He throws a stone across the waters, and laughs as it strikes the surface._)
MAN--(_Sharply._) Now! You have disturbed the frogs and hidden green things!
BOY--A ripple on the waters! It's the smile that quick adorns my lady's face when I tell.... A little ripple--it whispers of spring and youth to the hidden green things. I am glad I flung the stone!
MAN--Youth! A braggart word employed by fools and poets who have not lived.
BOY--Youth! A magic word, the talisman of those who seek the promised land!
MAN--(_Slowly._) I seek the world of yesterday!
BOY--We left it ... yesterday. Your road lies back in the valley.
MAN--I carry a chart in my breast, it marks the place where yesterday stands. This lane leads there.
BOY--It leads to the land of promise.
MAN--I carry a chart in my breast....
BOY--Your chart, it lies! I'm going on; follow if you like.
MAN--What shall you, who have not lived, do when we reach the world of yesterday?
BOY--Show you my land of promise.
MAN--Then haste!
BOY--Never fear. My feet are swift.
_Scene II--A ledge between a deep ravine and the mountain. Night._
MAN--Dear lad, let us rest here.
BOY--(_Laughing._) This is the edge of the world.
MAN--Sit not too near, I beg you.
BOY--I'll dangle my legs over the cliff, and watch the shadow of the devil diminish.
MAN--(_Lying wearily on the ground._) To flutter like a feather from the wing of a soaring eagle--to lie unseen and forgotten among the dead leaves of the forest.
BOY--Come, and see the shadow.
MAN--I feel it on my heart.
BOY--The devil made that chart you boast about!
MAN--And locked it in my breast.
BOY--It has taken away your peace.
MAN--Peace! To hear that name on all men's lips, to search and search and never know its habitation.
BOY--They say: He that pursueth, never shall overtake!
MAN--(_To himself._) Desires die, ideals are forgotten, love passes away. The mantel of eternal snow envelops all men, what shall escape?
BOY--Youth!
MAN--Which knows not life.
BOY--Must one experience to know?... Do I not feel?
MAN--In all these days we have been together, what have you felt for me?
BOY--That you sowed wisely, but knew not how to garner. You speak of ideals lost--
MAN--I am not sure I ever had them.
BOY--Is it work or play, love or life, your ideal of yesterday?
MAN--Yesterday! Did it ever exist?
BOY--It died the night of its birth, and vanished in rose smoke, making incense to the gods who once reigned.
MAN--Who told you all this?
BOY--My lady--in the twilight.
MAN--Your lady?
BOY--She sent me to find the promised land. She will come when I am there. My heart is strong, and I can wait for her.
MAN--My heart was strong and passionate; it pulses no longer like a man's, but serves to beat out the unconsidered tickings of the ashen days.
BOY--Then sit with me, be a child, and laugh at the shadow. So faith may come again.
MAN--The day is breaking.
BOY--(_Whimsically._) Alas, the shadow's gone, and you have not seen it! Look yonder at the little stream, it leaps like a white flame down the grey old rocks.
(_They peer over the cliff together._)
MAN--I smell the living earth.
BOY--I want to climb the mountain side. Who knows what treasures may be there?
MAN--(_Slowly._) I know the place--the place above.
BOY--Have you been there?
MAN--No.... I dreamed and thought to reach it once, but lost the way.
(_They climb together._)
BOY--Why do you laugh?
MAN--My blood has turned to flame. I feel it burning in my body.
BOY--The morning sun is in your veins. I know.... What do you see?
MAN--(_Whispering._) Your land of promise!
BOY--It is not so! My land of promise is more beautiful than anything one may imagine!
MAN--This is more beautiful.
BOY--I would know if this were it.
MAN--This is the land I say. Laugh with me and shout. The shadow of the devil has gone. I have found the place and myself.
BOY--Not so! The place is farther off, and higher. I am not content with this!
MAN--Come with me, youth, to the summit!
BOY--(_Eagerly._) I'll climb with you.... I'll climb ... to the summit!
(_CURTAIN_)
THE STRIKER
CAST
JOHN QUINN, _A mortorman on strike_. MRS. QUINN, _His wife_. MOLLY, _His daughter_. BILL MARTIN, _A neighbor, also on strike_. MRS. MARTIN, _His wife_.
The Striker
_Scene--A dining room in a workman's home. Plain but scrupulously neat and clean. Door L leads to kitchen. Door R leads to front door. Mrs. Quinn is seated at centre table darning socks and talking to her neighbor, Mrs. Martin._
MRS. MARTIN--(_Dropping a few pennies into a purse, and shutting it with a snap._) Seven weeks, and not one cent coming in. I don't know how we'll live, if it keeps up much longer.
MRS. QUINN--A strike's a bitter thing Mrs. Martin, and no one knowin' how it will end.
MRS. MARTIN--Why can't they talk it out? It seems to me if the motormen and conductors sent a committee to the company, they might arrive at an understanding.
MRS. QUINN--But the company don't take stock in the Union, and a committee of men would be a Union committee, or nothin'.
MRS. MARTIN--Let them arbitrate, I say, let them arbitrate.
MRS. QUINN--It's a nice soundin' word, is arbitrate, but no one wants to do it, save them as ain't interested. A man hits with his fist first, and arbitrates afterwards,--in the police court.
MRS. MARTIN--Men are queer creatures. There's my Bill, a more religious man never walked, if I do say it myself, and yet he's as bitter as poison against the company.
MRS. QUINN--Religion don't always kill bitterness--
MRS. MARTIN--This morning I wakened up before five o'clock, and he wasn't in bed. I went down stairs to see what had happened, and found him sneaking in the back gate like a thief. Heaven only knows what he was doing outside at that time in the morning. Mischief, I'll bet.
MRS. QUINN--Aye, it was mischief, and my old man in it too. I got it out of John when he came back. They had been out before the dawn, pryin' up trolley tracks with a crow-bar.
MRS MARTIN--A fine mess if they'd been caught.
MRS. QUINN--Locked up, that's what would have happened, nice pair of old fools that they are!
MRS. MARTIN--It must be devilish though, to have strike breakers come in and run the cars, while the men are sticking out for a principle.
MRS. QUINN--A principle's a fine excuse now and then, for a bunch of men to fight behind.
MRS. MARTIN--But this is a principle worth fighting for.
MRS. QUINN--Maybe it is.
MRS. MARTIN--I wish you'd go to the lectures at the Lyceum with me. You'd understand things better. My, I miss your Molly. We heard so many wonderful men talk, and she was so quick getting their ideas, it was just great to be with her.
MRS. QUINN--Well, you know, she'd _tell_ me about them when she got home. I remember that first man who talked of the virtue of humility and self-sacrifice. Molly was that full of onselfishness after hearin' him, that she almost gave her job to Jennie Tubbs, thinkin' _she_ needed the money more than we did.
MRS. MARTIN--That was Prof. William Mason. He was a noble character.
MRS. QUINN--Aye, but he didn't last. He was followed by the moral uplifter one. Sure, we lived on pins and needles then! After him we had a course in sanitation, and pure food, and how to feed a fam'ly of six on $4.00 a week. Oh, them last was wonderful fairy tales. The meals that woman could manufacture out of an old ham bone! It was past belief.
MRS. MARTIN--I tried a few of her receipts, but Bill wouldn't eat the things I made. He said he wasn't a horse yet.
MRS. QUINN--Aw, she was a joker, I'm thinkin', put in the pack to lighten the others up a bit. Lectures is an easy way of gettin' scraps of learnin', but it's done neither of ye lastin' hurt that I can see.
MRS. MARTIN--I heard the walking delegate talk this afternoon. The men got pretty excited listening to him. He told them their rights, and it'll be a wonder to me, if they don't do a good bit of damage to the Company's property before this thing ends.
MRS. QUINN--The walkin' delegate's a smart lad, from all I hear.
MRS. MARTIN--He's smart enough to get paid for the work he does.
MRS. QUINN--He gets paid for startin' strikes, is it?
MRS. MARTIN--He goes all over the country telling the men when to strike, and what to strike for. He gets paid for that.
MRS. QUINN--But the men don't get paid for strikin'.
MRS. MARTIN--That's a silly idea, Mrs. Quinn.
MRS. QUINN--You can have it for what it's worth. Molly used to say I had more ideas than a dog has fleas, but I fancy she was just slatherin' me over with the blarney.
MRS. MARTIN--Well, I believe the walking delegate's right. The men must fight this out to a finish.
MRS. QUINN--It's likely to be our finish, alright, alright.
MRS. MARTIN--(_Unconsciously imitating the delegate._) It's not only for ourselves, but for our children that the war must be waged.
MRS. QUINN--Our children! Sure, it shouldn't be a bequeathment job, this trolley business.
MRS. MARTIN--He says our children will be saved a fight for their rights, if we conquer now.
MRS. QUINN--Whist darlin', our children will have their own notion of rights and fights by the time they grow up. They can blow on their own broth when it bubbles over.
MRS. MARTIN--But the noble way is to consider the ones who come after us.
MRS. QUINN--Maybe that's so, me dear Mrs. Martin, but I'm after lookin' out for the man of to-day. The better off we are, the better off our kids'll be.
MRS. MARTIN--The walking delegate says that's a very selfish way of looking at it.
MRS. QUINN--The walkin' delegate's got the fine words in his mouth.
(_Silence._)
MRS. MARTIN--Have you heard from Molly lately?
MRS. QUINN--Poor darlin', I got a letter from her this mornin'. She's comin' home.
MRS. MARTIN--Does Mr. Quinn know?
MRS. QUINN--I'll have it out with him to-night.
MRS. MARTIN--He's a pretty stubborn man.
MRS. QUINN--I'll bring him around, never fear.
MRS. MARTIN--I think you're a wonderful woman, the way you manage him, Mrs. Quinn.
MRS. QUINN--Sure it's just me knowledge of that, keeps me goin'. When I lose conceit of meself, I'll be fit for no place but--Heaven.
MRS. MARTIN--(_Listens, with finger uplifted._) Sh! That's Bill slamming the back gate. I'll go put the kettle on. A cup of hot tea soon takes all the ugly kinks out of him.