The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann, Volume I
Chapter 22
An' the devil hisself can't go an' prove nothin' against you.
[_A protracted silence._
FIELITZ
If it was as simple as all that! But that ain't noways as easy as you thinks. First of all there's got to be air-holes in here. O' course this here awl--: that'll do for a drill. That thing's got to have a draught, if you want it to catch! If there ain't no draught, it just smothers! Fire's gotta have a draught or it won't burn. Somebody's got to lend a hand here as knows somethin'.
MRS. FIELITZ
Well, that'd be an easy thing for you!
FIELITZ
[_Forgetting his point of view in his growing zeal._] There's gotta be a draught here an' another here! An' it's all gotta be done just right! An' then sawdust an' rags here. An' then you go an' pour some kerosene right in.--There ain't nothin' new in all that. I was out in the world for six years.
MRS. FIELITZ
Well, exactly. That's what I been sayin'.
FIELITZ
You c'n do that with a sponge an' you c'n do that with a string. All you gotta do is to steep 'em good an' hard in saltpetre. An' you c'n light that with burning glasses. It c'n be done twenty steps away!--All that's been done before now. There ain't nothin' new in all that to me. I know all about it.
MRS. FIELITZ
An' Grabow's built up again. If he hadn't gone an' taken his courage in both hands, he'd ha' been in the street long ago.
FIELITZ
That's all right, if a man's in trouble like water up to his neck an' is goin' to be drowned. Maybe then ...
MRS. FIELITZ
An' there's many as lets the time slip till he is drowned.
[_The doorbell rings._
FIELITZ
Go an' put the box away an' then open the door.
_JUSTICE VON WEHRHAHN enters, wearing a thick overcoat, tall boots and a fur cap._
WEHRHAHN
Evening, Fielitz! How about those boots?
FIELITZ
They's all right, your honour.
MRS. FIELITZ
You better go an' get a little light so's Mr. von Wehrhahn can see somethin'.
WEHRHAHN
Well, how is everything and what are you doing, Mrs. Wolff?
MRS. FIELITZ
I ain't no Mrs. Wolff no more.
WEHRHAHN
She's grown very proud, eh, Fielitz? She carries her head very high? She feels quite set up?
MRS. FIELITZ
Hear that! Marryin's gone to my head? I could ha' lived much better as a widder.
FIELITZ
[_Who has drawn the lasts out of WEHRHAHN'S boots._] Then you might ha' gone an' stayed a widder.
MRS. FIELITZ
If I'd ha' known what kind of a feller you are, I wouldn't ha' been in no hurry. I could ha' gotten an old bandy-legged crittur like you any day o' the week.
WEHRHAHN
Gently, gently!
FIELITZ
Never you mind her. [_With almost creeping servility._] If you'll be so very kind, your honour, an' have the goodness to pull off your right boot. If you'll let me; I c'n do that. So. An' if you'll be so good now an' put your foot on this here box.
MRS. FIELITZ
[_Holding the burning lamp._] An' how is the Missis, Baron?
WEHRHAHN
Thank you, she's quite well. But she's still lamenting her Mrs. Wolff ...
MRS. FIELITZ
Well, you see, I couldn't do that no more reely. I washed thirty years an' over for you. You c'n get enough o' anything in that time, I tell you. I c'n show you my legs some day. The veins is standin' out on 'em, thick as your fist. That comes from the everlastin' standin' up at the tub! An' I got frost boils all over me and the rheumatiz in every limb. They ain't no end to the doctorin' I gotta do! I just gotta wrap myself up in cotton, an' anyhow I'm cold all day.
WEHRHAHN
Certainly, Mrs. Wolff, I can well believe that.
MRS. FIELITZ
There was a time an' I'd work against anybody. I had a constitootion! You couldn't ha' found one in ten like it. But nowadays ... O Lord! Things is lookin' different.
FIELITZ
You c'n holler a little louder if you want to.
WEHRHAHN
I can't blame you, of course, Mrs. Fielitz. Any one who has worked as you have may well consider herself entitled to some rest.
MRS. FIELITZ
An' then, you see, things keep goin'. We got our livin' right along. [_She give FIELITZ a friendly nudge on the head._] An' he does his part all right now. We ain't neither of us lazy, so to speak. If only a body could keep reel well! But Saturday I gotta go to the doctor again. He goes and electrilises me with his electrilising machine, you know. I ain't sayin' but what it helps me. But first of all there's the expenses of the trip in to Berlin an' then every time he electrilises me that costs five shillin's. Sometimes, you know, a person, don't know where to get the money.
FIELITZ
You go ahead an' ram your money down doctors' throats!
WEHRHAHN
[_Treads firmly with his new shoe._] None of us are getting any younger, Mrs. Fielitz. I'm beginning to feel that quite distinctly myself. Perfectly natural. Nothing to be done about it. We've simply got to make up our minds to that.--And, anyhow, you oughtn't to complain. I heard it said a while ago that your son-in-law had passed his examinations very well. In that case everything is going according to your wishes.
MRS. FIELITZ
That's true, of course, an' it did make me reel happy too. In the first place he'll be able to get along much better now that he's somethin' like an architect ... an' then, he deserved it all ways.--The kind o' time he had when he was a child! Well, I ain't had no easy time neither, but a father like that ...
WEHRHAHN
Schmarowski is a fellow of solid worth. I never had any fears for him. Your Adelaide was very lucky there.--You remember my telling you so at the time. You came running over to me that time, you recall, when the engagement was almost broken, and I sent you to Pastor Friederici:--that shows you the value of spiritual advice. A young man is a young man and however Christian and upright his life, he's apt to forget himself once in a while. That's where the natural function of the spiritual adviser comes in.
MRS. FIELITZ
Yes, yes, I s'ppose you're right enough there. An' I'll never forget what the pastor did for us that time! If Schmarowski had gone an' left the girl, she'd never have lived through it, that's certain.
WEHRHAHN
There we've got an instance of what happens when a church and a pastor are in a place. The house of God that we've built together has brought many a blessing. So, good evening and good luck to you.--Oh, what I was going to say, Fielitz: the celebration takes place on Monday morning. You will be there surely?
MRS. FIELITZ
Naturally he'll come.
FIELITZ
Sure an' certain.
WEHRHAHN
I would hardly know what to do without you, Fielitz. In the meantime, come in for a moment on Sunday, I'm proposing certain points ... certain very marked points, and we must pull together vigorously. So, good evening! Don't forget--we've got to have a strong parade.
FIELITZ
That's right. You can't do them things without one.
[_Exit WEHRHAHN._
FIELITZ
You go an' take that candle out! Will you, please?
MRS. FIELITZ
You're as easy scared as a rabbit, Anton! That's what you are--a reg'lar rabbit.
_She takes the candle out of the little box. Almost at the same moment RAUCHHAUPT opens the door and looks in._
RAUCHHAUPT
Good evenin'. Am I intrudin'?
FIELITZ
-- -- -- --
MRS. FIELITZ
Aw, come right into our parlour!
RAUCHHAUPT
Ain't Langheinrich the smith come in yet?
MRS. FIELITZ
Was he goin' to come? No, he ain't been here.
RAUCHHAUPT
We made a special engagement.--I brought along the cross too. Here, Gustav! Bring that there cross in! [_GUSTAV brings in a cross of cast iron with an inscription on it._] Go an' put it down on that there box.
FIELITZ
[_Quickly._] No, never mind, Edward, that'll break.
RAUCHHAUPT
Then you c'n just lean it against the wall.
MRS. FIELITZ
So you got through with it at last. [_Calls out through the door._] Leontine! You come down a minute!
RAUCHHAUPT
Trouble is I had so much to do. I'm buildin' a new hot house, you know.
MRS. FIELITZ
Another one, eh? Ain't that a man for you! You're a reg'lar mole, Rauchhaupt. The way that man keeps diggin' around in the ground.
RAUCHHAUPT
A man feels best when he's doin' that. That's what we're all made of--earth: an that's what we're all goin' to turn to again. Why shouldn't we be diggin' around in the earth? [_He helps himself from the snuff-box which FIELITZ holds out to him._] That's got a earthy smell, too, Fielitz. That smells like good, fresh earth.
_LEONTINE enters. A pair of scissors hangs by her side; she has a thimble on her finger._
LEONTINE
Here I am, mama. What's up?
MRS. FIELITZ
He just brought in papa his hephitaph.
_LEONTINE and MRS. FIELITZ regard the cross thoughtfully._
MRS. FIELITZ
Light the candle for me, girl. [_She hands her the tallow-candle with which she has been experimenting._] We wants to study the writin' a bit.
RAUCHHAUPT
I fooled around with that thing a whole lot. But I got it to please me in the end. You c'n go an' look through the whole cemetery three times over and you'll come away knowin' this is the finest inscription you c'n get. I went an' convinced myself of that.
[_He sits down on the low platform and fills his nose anew with snuff._
_MRS. FIELITZ holds the lighted lamp and puzzles out the inscription._
MRS. FIELITZ
Here rests in ...
LEONTINE
[_Reading on._] In God.
RAUCHHAUPT
That's what I said: in God. I was goin' to write first: in the Lord. But that's gettin' to be so common.
MRS. FIELITZ
[_Reads on with trembling voice._] Here rests in God the unforgotten carpenter ... [_Weeping aloud._] Oh, no, I tell you, it's too awful! That man--he was the best man in the world, he was. A man like that, you c'n take my word for it, you ain't likely to find no more these days.
LEONTINE
[_Reading on._] ... the unforgotten carpenter Mr. Julian Wolff ...
[_She snivels._
FIELITZ
--Don't you be takin' on now, y'understand? No corpse ain't goin' to come to life for all your howlin'. [_He hands the whiskey bottle to RAUCHHAUPT._] Here, Edward, that'll do you good. Them goin's on don't.
[_He gets up and brushes off his blue apron with the air of a man who has completed his day's work._
RAUCHHAUPT
[_Pointing with the bottle._] Them lines there I made up myself. I'll say 'em over for you; listen now:
"The hearts of all to sin confess" ...
'Tain't everybody c'n do that neither!--
"The hearts of all to sin confess, The beggar's and the king's no less. But this man's heart from year to year Was spotless and like water clear."
[_The women weep more copiously. He continues._] I gotta go over that with white paint. An' this part here about God is goin' to be Prussian blue.
[_He drinks._
_The smith LANGHEINRICH enters._
LANGHEINRICH
[_Regarding LEONTINE desirously._] Well now, look here, Rauchhaupt, old man, I been lookin' for you half an hour! I thought I was to come an' fetch you, you chucklehead.--Well, are you pleased with the job?
MRS. FIELITZ
Oh, go an' don't bother me, any of you! If a person loses a man like that one, how's she goin' to get along with you jackasses afterwards!
FIELITZ
Come on, man, an' pull up a stool. You just let her get back to her right mind.
LANGHEINRICH
[_With sly merriment._] That's right, I always said so myself: this here dyin' is a invention of the devil.
MRS. FIELITZ
We was married for twenty years an' more. An' there wasn't so much as one angry word between us. An' the way that man was honest. Not a penny, no,--he never cheated any man of a penny in all his days. An' sober! He didn't so much as know what whiskey was like. You could go an' put the bottle before him an' he wouldn't look at it. An' the way he brought up his children! What _d'you_ think about, but playin' cards and swillin' liquor ...
LEONTINE
Gustav is poking out his tongue at me.
RAUCHHAUPT
[_Takes hold of a cobbler's last and throws himself enragedly upon GUSTAV, who has been making faces at LEONTINE and has poked out his tongue at her.] You varmint! Ill break your bones!--That rotten crittur is goin' to be the death o' me yet. I just gets so mad sometimes I think it's goin' to be the death o' me.
LANGHEINRICH
The poor crittur ain't got his right senses.
RAUCHHAUPT
I wish to God the dam' brat was dead. I'll get so dam' wild some day, if he ain't, that I'll go an' kill my own flesh an' blood.
FIELITZ
I'd go an' have him locked up in the asylum. Then you don't have the worry of him no more. D'you want me to write out a petition for you?
RAUCHHAUPT
Don't I know all about petitions? What does they say then: he ain't dangerous bein' at large.--The whole world ain't nothin' but a asylum. It ain't dangerous, o' course, that he fires bricks at me, an' unscrews locks and steals house keys--oh, no, that ain't considered dangerous. No, an' it's all right for him to eat my tulip bulbs. I c'n just go ahead an' do the best I can.
MRS. FIELITZ
How did that happen at Grabow's the other day--I mean when his inn the "Prussian Eagle" burned down?
LANGHEINRICH
Aw, Grabow, he needed just that. It wasn't no Gustav that set that there fire. He wasn't needed there.
MRS. FIELITZ
They say he's always playin' with matches.
RAUCHHAUPT
Gustav an' matches? Aw, that's all right. If he c'n just go an' hunt up matches some place, trouble ain't very far off. You know I needs coverin's for my hot house plants; so I built a kind of a shed. I stored the straw in there. Well, I tell you, Mrs. Fielitz, that there idjit went an' burned the shed down. It was bright day an' o' course nobody wasn't thinkin', an' I got loose boards all over my lot. The shed crackled right off. It wasn't more'n a puff! But Grabow--he took care o' his fire hisself.
MRS. FIELITZ
I'd give notice about a thing like that, Rauchhaupt--I mean burnin' down the shed.
RAUCHHAUPT
I don't get along so very well with Constable Schulze. That's often the way with people in your own profession. I was honourably retired. He don't like that. He ain't sooted with that. All right; all that may be so. An' that I own my own lot, an' that my old woman died. Sure, it ain't no use denyin' it! I made a few crowns outta all that. An' that my gardenin' brings in somethin'--well, he don't like to see it. So then it's easy to say: Rauchhaupt? He don't need no help. He c'n take care o' hisself. An' that's the end of it.
MRS. FIELITZ
Fred Grabow, he's all right now!
LANGHEINRICH
[_Eagerly._] An' he's got me to thank for it. Only thing is, I pretty near got into a dam' mess myself that time. You see, I'm captain of the hook an' ladder. Well, I says to my boys, says I:--I don't know but I must ha' had more'n I could carry. The whole crowd was pretty well full!--Well, I says to my boys: Sail right in an' see that there ain't a stone left standin', 'cause if there is, Grabow'll get one reduction of insurance after another an' then the whole thing ain't no good to him. I guess I hollered that out a bit too loud. So when I takes a step or two backward I thinks all hell's broke loose, 'cause there stands Constable Schulze an' stares at me. Your health, says I, your health, captain!--Grabow, you know, was treatin' to beer!--An' then Schulze was real sociable and took a drink with me.
MRS. FIELITZ
It's queer that nothin' don't come out there. That fellow ain't a bit cute. How did he manage to do it?
LANGHEINRICH
Everybody likes Fritz Grabow.
MRS. FIELITZ
He ain't got sense enough to count up to three. An' anyhow he had to go an' take oath.
RAUCHHAUPT
Takin' oath? Aw, that ain't so much! I'll just tell you how 'tis, 'cause you never can't tell. Who knows about it? Anybody might have to do that some day. All you do is to twist off one o' your breeches buttons while you goes ahead and swears reel quiet. You just try it. That's easy as slidin'.
[_General laughter._
MRS. FIELITZ
He's got one o' his jokin' spells again. I won't have to go an' twist off a button, I c'n tell you. Things can't get that way with me.--But tell me this: whose turn is it goin' to be now? It's about time for somebody, you know. Somethin's got to burn pretty soon now.
LANGHEINRICH
It could be most anybody. Things is lookin' pretty poor over at Strombergers. The rain's comin' right down into his sittin' room,--Well, good evenin'. A man's got to have his joke.
MRS. FIELITZ
But who's goin' to drink my hot toddy now?
FIELITZ
You stay right where you are!
LANGHEINRICH
Can't be done. I gotta be goin'. [_He puts an arm around LEONTINE, who frees herself carelessly and with a contemptuous expression._]--If mother don't hear my hammerin' downstairs she'll be swimmin' away in tears an' the bed with her when I gets home.
LEONTINE
That's nothin' but jealousy, mama.
MRS. FIELITZ
Maybe it is, an' maybe she's got reason. You go on up to your work.--How is the Missis?
LANGHEINRICH
Pretty low. What c'n you expect?
LEONTINE
You'll be drivin' me to work till I gets consumption.
MRS. FIELITZ
If you get consumption, it won't be your dress-makin' that's the cause of it. You act as much like a ninny as if you was a man.
LANGHEINRICH
[_Putting his arms around MRS. FIELITZ._] Come now, young woman, don't be so cross! Young people wants to have their fling--that's all. An' they'll have it, if it's only with Constable Schulze.
[_Exit._
MRS. FIELITZ
Now what's the meanin' o' that?
RAUCHHAUPT
Wait there a minute an' I'll join you.
[_He gets up and motions to GUSTAV, who lifts the iron cross again._
MRS. FIELITZ
Why d'you go an' run off all of a sudden?
RAUCHHAUPT
I gotta go an' get rid o' some work.
[_Exit with GUSTAV.
MRS. FIELITZ
What's the trouble with you an' Langheinrich again? You act like a fool--that's what you do!
LEONTINE
There ain't no trouble. I want him to leave me alone.
MRS. FIELITZ
He'll be willin' to do that all right! If you're goin' to turn up your nose an' wriggle around that way, you won't have to take much trouble to get rid o' him. He don't need nothin' like that!
LEONTINE
But he's a married man.
MRS. FIELITZ
So he is. Let him be. You got no sense 'cause you was born a fool. You got a baby and no husband; Adelaide's got a husband an' no baby.
[_LEONTINE goes slowly out._
MRS. FIELITZ
If she'd only go an' take advantage o' her chances. There ain't no tellin' how soon Langheinrich'll be a widower.
FIELITZ
I don't know's I like to see the way Constable Schulze runs after that girl.
MRS. FIELITZ
[_Sententiously._] You can't run your head through no stone walls. [_She sits down, takes out a little notebook and turns its leaves._] You got a office. All right. Why shouldn't you have? Things is _as_ they is. But havin' a office you got to look out all around. You just let Constable Schulze alone! Did you read the letter from Schmarowski?
FIELITZ
Aw, yes, sure. I got enough o' him all right. I wish somebody'd given me the money--half the money--that feller's had the use of. But no: nobody never paid no attention to me. Nobody sent me to no school o' architecture.
MRS. FIELITZ
I'd like to know what you got against Schmarowski! You're pickin' at him all the time.
FIELITZ
Hold on! Not me! He ain't no concern o' mine. But every time you open your mouth I gets ready to bet ten pairs o' boots that you're goin' to talk about Schmarowski.
MRS. FIELITZ
Did he do you any harm, eh? Well?
FIELITZ
No, I can't say as he has. Not that I know. An' I wouldn't advise him to try neither. Only when I sees him I gets kind o' sick at my stomick. You oughta have married him yourself.
MRS. FIELITZ
If I had been thirty years younger--sure enough.
FIELITZ
Well, why don't you go an' move over to your daughter then! Go right on! Hurry all you can an' go to Adelaide's. Then they got hold of you good and tight an' you c'n get rid o' your savin's.
MRS. FIELITZ
That's an ambitious man. He don't have to wait, for me; that's sure!--there ain't no gettin' ahead with your kind. Instead o' you fellows helpin' each other, you're always hittin' out at each other. Now Schmarowski--he's a wide-awake kind o' man. No money ain't been wasted on him. You needn't be scared: he'll make his way all right.--But if you knew just a speck o' somethin' about life, you'd know what you'd be doin' too.
FIELITZ
Me? How's that? Why me exactly?
MRS. FIELITZ
What was it that there bricklayer boss told me? I saw him one day when he was full; they was just raisin' that church. He says: Schmarowski, says he, that's a sly dog. An' he knew why he was sayin' that. Them plans o' his takes 'em all in.
FIELITZ
I ain't got no objection to his takin' 'em in.
MRS. FIELITZ
He ain't the kind o' man to sit an' draw till he's blind an' let the bricklayers get all the profit.
FIELITZ
Well, I ain't made the world.
MRS. FIELITZ
No, nor you ain't goin' to stop it neither.
FIELITZ
An' I don't want to.
MRS. FIELITZ
You ain't goin' to stop it, Fielitz--not the world an' not me. That's settled.--
[_She has said this in a slightly ironical way, yet with a half embarrassed laugh. She now puts away her little book excitedly._
FIELITZ
I can't get to understand reel straight. I'm always thinkin' there's somethin' wrong with you.
MRS. FIELITZ
Maybe there was somethin' wrong with Grabow too, eh? I s'ppose that's the reason he's livin' in his new house this day.--I wish there'd be somethin' like that wrong with you onct in a while. But if somebody don't pull an' poke at you, you'd grow fast to the stool you're sittin' on.
FIELITZ
[_With decision._] Mother, put that there thing outta your mind. I tell you that in kindness now. I ain't goin' to lend my help to no such thing. Because why? I knows what that means. Is I goin' to jump into that kind of a mess again? No, I ain't young enough for that no more.
MRS. FIELITZ
Just because you're an old feller you oughta be thinkin' about it all the more. How long are you goin' to be able to work along here. You don't get around to much no more now. You cobbled around on Wehrhahn's shoes! It took more'n two weeks.
FIELITZ
Well, mother, you needn't lie that way.
MRS. FIELITZ
That cobblin' o' yours--that ain't worth a damn. I ain't much good no more an' you ain't. That's a fact. I don't excep' myself at all. An' if people like us don't go an' get somethin' they c'n fall back on, they got to go beggin' in the end anyhow. You c'n kick against that all you want to.
FIELITZ
It's a queer thing about you, mother. It's just like as if the devil hisself got a hold o' you. First it just sort o' peeps up, an' God knows where it comes from. Sometimes it's there an' sometimes it's gone. An' then it'll come back again sudden like an' then it gets hold o' you an' don't let you go no more. I've known some tough customers in my time, mother, but when you gets took that way--then I tell you, you makes the cold shivers run down my back.
MRS. FIELITZ
[_Has taken out her notebook again and become absorbed in it._] What did you think about all this? We're insured here for seven thousand.
FIELITZ
What I thought? I didn't think nothin'.
MRS. FIELITZ
Well, there ain't any value to this place excep' what's in the lot itself.
FIELITZ
[_Gets up and puts on his coat._] You just leave me alone, y'understand?
MRS. FIELITZ
Well, ain't it true? You just stop your foolin'. I seen that long ago, before we was ever married. Schmarowski told me that ten times over, that this here is the proper place for a big house. An' anybody as has any sense c'n see that it's so. Now just look for yourself: over there, that's the drug shop! An' a bit across the way to the left is the post office. An' then a little ways on is the baker an' he's built hisself a nice new shop. Four noo villas has gone up and if, some day, we gets the tramway out here--we'll be right in the midst o' things.
FIELITZ
[_About to go._] Good evenin'.
MRS. FIELITZ
Are you goin' out this time o' day?
FIELITZ
Yes, 'cause I can't stand that no more.--If I'd known the kind of a crittur you are ... only I didn't know nothin' about it ... I'd ha' thought this here marryin' over a good bit--yes, a good bit.
MRS. FIELITZ
You? Is that what you'd ha' thought over, eh?
FIELITZ