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The Americans

Chapter 10: FOOTNOTE:
By Edwin Davies Schoonmaker
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Plays/Films/Dramas

About This Book

A stage drama portrays an escalating industrial conflict in a timber-and-mill region, following owners, workers, union delegates, militia, clergy, and state officials as a labor strike unfolds. Scenes move from a mountain mine and a mill to the owners' mansion and communal settings, tracing attempts at negotiation, intimidation, and political intervention, and examining loyalty, class tension, and moral responsibility. Family ties and personal loyalties complicate public roles, while a mixture of grassroots organizing, corporate power, and legal force culminates in confrontation and reflection on the social consequences of industrial modernization.

Isn't it wonderful!

Mrs. Egerton.

It's mother, Harry!

Harry Egerton.

And here's a little doll and here's a sled!
 I brought them down over the chimney tops!

(Laughs. A little boy remains after the other children have gone back to their parents)

Harry Egerton.

A little horn?

Harvey Anderson.

Partner!

Harry Egerton.

What golden hair!

(The little boy returns to the others)

Harry Egerton.

(Advancing and shaking hands with the men and women, who file by him and pass out rear)

Next year, my friends, if everything goes well,
 We'll have some homes to hang up on the tree
 With big yards where the little ones can play.
 But this is children's day.

(Last in the line comes a figure in the garb of a workman, but with the tender, bearded face of the Christ)

Harry Egerton.

(Looking at his brow)

Have you been hurt?

(The figure holds out both hands to him)

Harry Egerton.

(At first wildly, but with growing calmness)

Harvey! Buck! Mother!

(The figure looks back one moment, then vanishes. Harry Egerton is seen falling into the arms of Harvey Anderson, who carries him into the bedroom. His mother and the Nurse follow. Sam Williams and Chris Knudson stand staring across at the door)

Sam Williams.

Our leader's gone, Chris.

Chris Knudson.

Yes, I fear so.

Harvey Anderson.

(Coming in and closing the bedroom door after him)

Partner's gone.

A Guard.

(Pushing open the outside door)

Egerton's come.

(Donald Egerton enters, followed by the Doctor and two strange men, apparently surgeons, one of them carrying an instrument case. Egerton glances about and instinctively locates the bedroom, and at once goes toward it)

Harvey Anderson.

(To the Doctor)

Too late.

Doctor.

Dead!

Harvey Anderson.

Just this moment.

Voice of Mrs. Egerton.

(As Egerton opens the bedroom door)

Donald! Donald!

(The Doctor follows Egerton into the bedroom)

Chris Knudson.

(Looking toward the door that the Doctor has shut)

Peace and good will on earth.

Harvey Anderson.

He stood for that.

(They stand silent about the stove. Anderson picks up two chairs, which he takes over to the two strangers, who are standing by the table)

Chris Knudson.

There's things about us here that we don't see.

Sam Williams.

(Looking toward the bedroom)

I'm sorry—for his sake.

Chris Knudson.

What will we do?

Sam Williams.

You'll not desert us, comrade, now he's gone.

Harvey Anderson.

'For all time; shall we say it?'

Chris Knudson.

That last day.

Harvey Anderson.

'And give our lives, if need be?'

Sam Williams.

He gave his.

(Takes up the lantern)

Harvey Anderson.

He hasn't left the Cause, Sam.

Sam Williams.

True.

Chris Knudson.

That's true;
 He hasn't left the Cause.

Harvey Anderson.

Here just last week,
 Sitting about the table, planning things,
 'The Cause will be here, Harvey, when we're gone,
 A beautiful river flowing through the land.'

Chris Knudson.

There was the noblest boy this land's brought forth.

Harvey Anderson.

And we must make it wider, Sam.

Sam Williams.

Yes, yes.

Harvey Anderson.

Till the whole land is free. That's our work now.

Sam Williams.

Yes, we must keep right on.

Harvey Anderson.

That was his wish,
 That we should keep right on; and his mother's, too.
 Tell the boys that.

Sam Williams.

We will.

Chris Knudson.

There ought to be
 A public funeral so the men could march.

Harvey Anderson.

I'll speak to Mr. Egerton.

First Stranger.

(Indicating Anderson)

That's him.

(The two workmen go out)

Harvey Anderson.

Stop by the cabins and tell Buck. Good-night.

(He shuts the door and walks about, stopping occasionally by the stove, absorbed in thought)

Second Stranger.

He'll hardly use us now.

First Stranger.

Probably not.

(They take up pieces of the ore)

First Stranger.

(To Anderson, who is walking about)

How much does this assay?

Second Stranger.

He didn't hear you.

Egerton.

(Enters with the Doctor and speaks with him aside)

Drive down a mile or so and wait for me.

(Mrs. Egerton and the Nurse come in. Both are dressed for travelling)

Mrs. Egerton.

(Walks toward the outer door, then suddenly turns)

O Donald, Donald, this is Christmas Eve!
 Think of this night in years gone by!

Egerton.

(Tenderly)

Mary!

Nurse.

'Thy will be done.'

Harvey Anderson.

It's all right, mother.

Mrs. Egerton.

Harvey!

(She embraces him and goes out with the Nurse)

Egerton.

(To the Doctor)

And you'll attend to everything?

Doctor.

Yes, Colonel.

(The Doctor goes out. Egerton shuts the door and stands for a moment apparently waiting till those who have just left get farther from the cabin. He then starts pacing to and fro as though he were undecided what to do. As he walks left toward Harvey Anderson his brow darkens. But as he turns right and draws near the bedroom the hard lines of his face relax. It is clear that a terrible struggle is going on within him)

Egerton.

(To Harvey Anderson)

You here alone?

Harvey Anderson.

Yes, Mr. Egerton.
 But that don't matter if there's anything——

(Egerton stands for a moment, then resumes his walk)

Harvey Anderson.

Is there something I can do?

Egerton.

(Stopping midway between the bedroom and Anderson, to the strangers)

What do you say?

First Stranger.

We'll do the best we can.

(The Second Stranger removes his overcoat. The First lifts the instrument case upon the table and begins to open it. Egerton walks toward the bedroom)

Harvey Anderson.

(Following him)

I don't believe—
 I don't believe, though, Mr. Egerton,
 It's any use.

First Stranger.

(Suddenly covering Anderson with pistols which he has taken from the case)

Keep those hands where they are.
 Bolt that door, Ned.

(The Second Detective bolts the outside door. He then comes to the table and takes from the case two pairs of handcuffs, a long black mackintosh, and a black cap)

First Detective.

Search him.

Second Detective.

(Feels about Anderson's hips and sides)

Slip on this coat.

Harvey Anderson.

(To Egerton, while the detective puts the coat on him)

Well, partner, I've seen men where Hell was loud
 Shoot from behind dead bodies but, by God,
 I've never seen them shoot from such as him.

(Nodding toward the bedroom)

First Detective.

Quick now.

Egerton.

You know the way?

Harvey Anderson.

You beat them all.

First Detective.

We keep the road to the left.

Egerton.

Over the mountains.
 You'll probably have some trouble.

First Detective.

We'll get there.

Egerton.

I'll have the Express wait for you at Lucasville.
 You ought to reach there——

(Looks at his watch)

It's now five o'clock——
 By ten or eleven.

First Detective.

At the outside.

(The Second Detective hands to Egerton his son's will, which, in buttoning the coat up about Anderson, he has found in the latter's pocket)

Egerton.

(Looks into it a moment)

Um!

Second Detective.

The guard will be off duty?

First Detective.

I think so,
 But we've no time to lose.

(The Second Detective handcuffs himself to Anderson on the left side. The First Detective puts the cap on Anderson so that with the high collar of the coat turned up, only his eyes are visible under the poke)

Harvey Anderson.

The black cap, eh?

(The First Detective then handcuffs himself to Anderson on the right side)

Egerton.

You wire me when you reach the Capitol.

First Detective.

Yes, Mr. Egerton.

Egerton.

Go briskly now.

First Detective.

(Showing Anderson his pistol)

Now not a word from you, you understand.

(He puts the pistol in his side overcoat pocket and keeps his hand on it)

Egerton.

'Twill soon be morning.

Harvey Anderson.

Yes, you'd better leave
 Before the land wakes up.

(The detectives, with Anderson between them, go out)

Egerton.

We'll see, my man—

(Puts the key on the outside of the door)

How you'll shake down the pillars of this land.

(He goes out and locks the door after him. A few moments pass. Suddenly at some distance outside a shot is heard. Again a few moments pass. Then, with a crash, the door is broken in and Buck Bentley, with the will in his hand, pulls himself hurriedly through the hole. He staggers to the table and seizes the bugle and blows a loud blast, then reels and, trying to steady himself, falls dead upon the floor, taking the table down with him. There is a clattering of the ore samples and a breaking of glass, and the lamp goes out, leaving the room in darkness. A half mile or so away, in the direction of Foreston, a bugle is heard, then, farther away, another, and fainter, another, and still another. And out through the window in the starlight of the Christmas morning soldiers with rifles in their hands are seen running rear left through the snow)

FOOTNOTE:

[*] Stolen cattle