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Try to make the aim good, will you!
Sensible—Now!
Duty (pulls the trigger, and after the shot
staggers back)—Tell her—God Is In bis
.Heaven and I— (Falls dead.)
Valor (appears top of trench and meets
Courage, with venom)—Courage, eh?
Courage (same)—Yes, Valor!
Valor (quieter)—I suppose that I—(his
mood changes)—no, no; this fever surging
through my veins won't let me say It. There
were no distant days—there Is nothing hut
now I now!
Valor—Oome on—why do we wait?
Let us try to put the mark of Cain
upon each other’s brow. All
my memories of the sun
light are blotted out In
WHITB • N Y
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Mat
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*U S— • ' •' V
How Senseless Discontent Came
Into Content's Peaceful Valley
sand How Famine and Death
I
Followed in His Wake—George
V. Hobart's Impressive and
Timely Allegory Through Which
America's Foremost Organization
of Actors Vividly Pictured
War's Miserable Futility.
hate—In never-dying hate!
Courage—May every friend Incarnate sing
your welcome home.
Valor—Come then; Death Is lurking near
to one of us—and now may all the furies
of hell possess my soul! (They wrestle and
fall behind the battlements.)
Famine (chters with Death)—Look, O
Death! it Is your harvest moon!
Death—Yes, Famine! my harvest moon.
Famine—And I have helped you, Death!—
I have helped you to gather in the sheaves!
Death—Yes, Famine—you have done well.
But all your work were unavailing if the
hearts of m6n were tuned to gentleness and
peace. Then must I wait c.i Nature for my
toll and be content. -Evil passions swarms
beneath the stars, making that distant orb
of light my harvest moon, Indeed. Brother
against brother, the wise and the unwise,
the poor and the rich, they fall about my
feet, like leaves upon the winds of Autumn
—unready and unshriven. And so I stand
and smile and watch and wonder—why?
(Lights fade out.)
SCENE IV.
Where the storm is clearing.
A roadway running through a rural land
scape.
Returning soldiers are walking along with
out guns.
F IRST SOLDIER (as he comes on—points
off at right)—Home, you see! there it
is—come on! (The soldiers cross, followed
by Sensible and Boastful, who walk on in
their torn and tattered uniform, but with
out guns. Boastful is minus an arm.)
Sensible—Here we are at last. Boastful!
In sight of home.
Boastful—Home! Won’t I have a lot to
tell them—In the evening around the flre
side! Remember how I lost this arm?
Sensible—Well, I’m not quite sure. You
know you have eight different versions of
the story all ending In the capture of a
fort, single-handed. 1 think the fact la that
you were run down by a motor car.
Boastful—No, no; why, I killed eleven
men before they got this arm away from me.
(Enter from right Fidelity, with a baby in
her arms—she stands, waiting.)
Fidelity (going to (sensible)—What—what
message do you bring me? Many of them
have come home, but though I wait and lis
ten I do not hear his eager footsteps.
Sensible—No, Fidelity; you’ll never hear
again those eager footsteps.
Fidelity—I know—I’ve known it for
weary weeks. And now—now there will be
no wedding day for me—and look! (Holds
out the baby.) No wedding for me!
Sensible—Yes, there was a wedding for
you. When he fell, sobbing your name on
the battlefield, God, the High Priest, heard
the cry .frorft his wounded heart and read
the wedding service then, Himself.
Fidelity—Yes, I believe that—but the
world—what will the world say?
Sensible—The world wiU say. ‘‘Shame!”
and condemn you to darkness, but God will
remember reading the wedding service and
He will look down and smile, and His smile
will be a light across your pathway.
• • •
Sensible—Well, Energy—it’s great to get
home again.
Energy (not so robust as when he left)—
Yes, I’ll give my vitality to my work now.
(Enter Devotion with a little girl—this is
Innocence, grown-enough to be able to talk.)
Devotion (to Sensible)—Duty—he—he Is
not with you?
Sensible—1N0, Devotion.
Devotion—And you have his last message
to me?
Sensible—Yes, he told me to tell you God
Is in His heaven.
Devotion—-Then if He is, why, why is my
husband out there? (Pause.) You don’t
answer.
Sensible—I ramvot answer. Only this I
may gay, look ever up to your favorite star
—he may be better able now to send you
messages of love and hope. (Exit Sensible
at right.)
Innocence—-When is Daddy coming
home?
Faith, Content, Discontent and Valor.
DISCONTENT I don’t want to be happy. Happiness means peace and
quiet and inactivity, and I couldn’t stand that. * * ♦ This world wasn’t
made for happy people.
Devotion—Never, never—he is never
coming home.
Innocence—Why, Mamma, why? (Lights
out.)
SCENE V.
Where the etorm dies.
The same locality as In 8ceno I.—but It
shows the terrible effects of the war. The
roses are trampled down and the land
scape In the distance is laid bare and
waste. It is gloomy and semi-dark, as
though the sun were behind a cloud.
Faith it standing looking off across the land
scape. Enter Content. He la tottering
and looks old and worn with the struggle.
C ONTENT—Faith, help me! (She goes
quickly to him—helps him to rustic gar
den chair at righhj
Faith—Oh, father, now worn you are and
weary! But now It ia over—It is over—and
you’ll be yourself again—you must be your
self again!
Content—No, daughter, I am wounded—
wounded to the heart. Courage Is gone—
and I am but a shadow—and I must leave
my suffering people and go Into the land of
shadows—because without Courage I can
never more be content (Enter Discontent.
He, too, is worn with the struggle, but his
nature won’t let him shoto how feeble he is.
He salutes Content. Content rises feebly
and salutes Discontent—then drops into rus
tic chair at left. Faith stands behind Con
tent.)
Content—You—you have come to taunt
me?
Discontent—Taunt you—no! I hove taunt
ed you—isn't that enough? What matters
it who wins? He who loses—loses! And
he who wins—loses! And win or lose, still
am I Discontent.
Content (feebly)—Yes, yes, he who wins
loses! but my boy—my boy! Courage is
gone and I—I am not myself.
Content (feebly)—Why should he be taken
from me? Oh, let me go! Let. me go! —
I can do nothing without Courage.
Faith—Father, can you hear me? It is
Faith calling you! (Enter Valor and Cour
age, the latter wearing his torn and tattered
re helped yciifDeath!—I have helped you to gather in
'amine—you 4vo done well. But all your work were
rts of men wt i tuned to gentleness and peace. Brother
vise and the l vise, the poor and the rich, they fall about
pon the winds f Autumn—unready and unshriven. And
and watch arJ wonder—why?
All Photographs on
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Posed Exclusively
for This
Newspaper.
uniform. Courage goes to Content—kneels
there—Faith kneeling by her father at right.
Valor watches them.)
Courage—Father! Father! II to Cour
age calling you. Cant you hear me? Look,
father—across your bridge of sorrow I am
running to meet you. Please, father, Couiw
age ts with youl
Content (opening his eyes slowly, sees
Courage)—Oh, my boy! my boy! Faith and
Courage hare called me back from the land,
of shadows and I am Content again. (The
three speak in pantomime. When Discontent
speaks Valor turns and goes quickly to him
and kneels by his chair.)
Discontent—Why la it ao dark! I don't
like 1L All around me I hear women weep
ing and walling! What for?—what are they
weeping for? Pm not weeping.
Valor—Father! (ft prows darker.)
Discontent—Who Is that? Oh, yes, yes—*,
my son—all right—you've suffered—you’ve
suffered—well, you paid the price for being
my son—you’ve paid It—now forget—forget
your father’s name—and be grateful you
don’t Inherit my—my ways! Go and walk
with Faith, and through her forget the price'
I made you pay for being my son! (Dies.
As Discontent dies the sun comes quickly
from behind the dark cloud. Valor folds Dis.
content's hands across his breast and stands
looking down at him. The roses are now
discovered to be standing up.)
Faith—Look, father; the sun of hope to
shining on us once more.
Courage—And, look! the roses that were
tramped In the dust—they bloom again! A
miracle!
Sensible—No miracle—It Is but a sign
from God and Nature that in their scheme
if things the evil passions of mankind are
but a storm in the night. (Turns to Valor.)
Valor, he told you to walk with Faith.
(Valor kisses his father on the forehead and
goes to Faith, who meets him at centre.)
And Faith will help you—help you over
every mountain of doubt, while Content
should be your guest at your fireside for
ever.
Content—With friend end neighbor Sen
sible to be your guide—for his is the wisdom
of the ages.
Sensible—And .perhaps beneath some dis
tant moon, your chiidres’s children will be
come so versed in the ways of peace and
gentleness and love that when they read of
these black days, and know no reason
wherefore, they will look at each other with
wide and staring eyes and aek with injpilt#
pity—Why, Oh! Why!
THE END OF THE PLAT.
Venture,
Energy,
Boastful,
Courage,
Patriotic,
Sincerity,
Sensible,
Phlegmatic,
Indifference
and
Duty
Holding the
Trench.
DUTY—Tell her—
God is in His Heaven—
and I (Falls dead).
COURAGE — Stand
by! Come on, men,
let’s meet ’em in th«
open.