The Americans

That's true. I hope she can't.
She died a-thinkin' Willie would be rich
Some day, if they ever found the mine.

Bill Patten.

(Bitterly)

Give 'em your apples and expect the core.

Silas Maury.

It came so quick, though, Bill; he didn't think.

Bill Patten.

If he had just kept still and called to Chris
And had him help and roll the log aside
And then at night let some of us men know,
We could have slipped it out and hidden it,
And gone to Egerton and said, 'See here,
We've found the log that you've been lookin' for
These years and haven't found it——'

Cap Saunders.

You don't mean——

Bill Patten.

'And if you'll do the square thing we'll cough up;
If not, we'll go and find the mine ourselves.'

Cap Saunders.

You don't mean 'twas the boy that found the log!

Silas Maury.

Willie here found it.

Cap Saunders.

Well, well, well! H-u-rrah!
Hurrah, I say!

(Throws his hat into the air. Harry Egerton comes through the darkness rear right)

Cap Saunders.

If I could call the men,
Call up the men, my son, who've spent their lives
Tryin' to get a peep of that there trunk—
You hear that, boys, you up there in the air?

Bill Patten.

He'd come to terms, all right, you bet your life.

Harry Egerton.

Good evening, men. I'm turned around a bit,
Or seem to be. Just where is Foreston?

Harvey Anderson.

You see those lights down there?

(He walks back, left. Harry Egerton joins him, going across rear)

Harry Egerton.

That's east?

Harvey Anderson.

Correct.

Harry Egerton.

And how far am I from it?

Harvey Anderson.

About six miles.

Harry Egerton.

From Foreston, I mean?

Harvey Anderson.

Six miles or more.

Harry Egerton.

So far!

(He walks back a little way, then stops and looks off up the valley. Harvey Anderson comes forward and begins to break some brush to replenish the fire)

Cap Saunders.

Who is it, Harvey?

Harvey Anderson.

I don't know.

Cap Saunders.

And it had the sign cut in the bark, eh?

Silas Maury.

Yes.

Willie Maury.

Two X's and a spade.

Cap Saunders.

That's it, that's it!
'Two X's and a spade, then dig nine feet.'
There's two bits, son. How did it happen, dad?

Silas Maury.

It came up into the mill with the other logs,
Lookin' just like 'em, but Willie spied the sign—

Willie Maury.

Just as it was goin' into the saws.

Silas Maury.

And shouted to Chris Knudson. Chris shut down;
There was a crowd; and then Aug. Jergens come
And had it hauled away.

Cap Saunders.

If you and me
Had been out here, son, when all these were trees
And you'd a-spied that sign, I tell you what,
I'd hung some nuggets round this little neck.

Harvey Anderson.

You'd better wait until the moon comes out.
It's a rough road back there.

Harry Egerton.

There is a road?

Harvey Anderson.

A logging road.

Harry Egerton.

(Coming forward, notices the casts upon the ground)

You're searching for the mine?

Harvey Anderson.

Cap and I here. These men are from the mill.

Harry Egerton.

(With interest)

From the mill down in Foreston, you mean?

Harvey Anderson.

Leaving in search of work.

Harry Egerton.

Are things so bad
Down at the mill, my friends, that you must leave?
Are others leaving? Have the men gone back?

(The men glare at him)

Cap Saunders.

They'll have to soon, they say; their grub's give out.

Harvey Anderson.

The Company has given them till to-morrow night
To come to work or be shut out for good.

Harry Egerton.

Have they brought in more men?

Harvey Anderson.

They're arranging to.

Harry Egerton.

I do not see, friends, what you hope to gain
By leaving Foreston and wandering off
In search of work. In the first place I know,
As you perhaps do not, that Egerton
Has given orders to the neighboring plants
To take on no more men until this strike
Is settled, till it's won. And, as you know,
For forty miles around the mills are his,
The camps are his. And where his power ends,
Others begin that work in harmony
With Egerton and Company. They are one,
And have an understanding in some things
Far more than you suspect.

(Patten and Maury rise and walk aside and whisper together)

And they all know
Whatever be the outcome of this strike
The effect of it will reach them all at last.
If you men win, mill-workers everywhere
Will take new heart and stand for better things.
But if the Company wins, others will say—
And with no little weight—'We cannot pay
The present scale of wages and compete
With Egerton and Company.' So it will go
Until the farthest mill in all this land
Puts in its hand and takes a ten per cent
Out of the wages of its workingmen.
And there's no power on earth that can prevent it.

(Willie Maury rises and joins his father and Patten)

But even were this not true, were places open,
The same conditions would confront you there
As now confront you here. At any time
Those who employ you have you in their power
And can reduce your wages when they choose,
Lay on you what conditions they see fit,
And you must either yield or be turned forth
To wander on again. I do not know
Whether you men have families or not,
But others have, and their cause is your own.
You cannot wander on for evermore,
Picking up here and there a chance day's work
And hoping that to-morrow things will change,
For changes do not come except through men.

(The men return to the fire)

And so I do not see just what it is
You hope to gain by leaving Foreston.
You cannot spend your lives on highways, friends.
Where will you go? Have you some place in mind?

Bill Patten.

It's none of your damn business where we go.
We don't wear no man's collar.

Silas Maury.

Bill is right.

Bill Patten.

Nor Egerton's, nor no man's on this earth.

Harry Egerton.

I beg your pardon, friends, I did not mean——

Bill Patten.

We're twenty-one years old and we're free men.

Harry Egerton.

I did not mean you had no right to go.
You have.

Bill Patten.

You bet we have.

Silas Maury.

You can't get men
And want to scare us back, that's what you want,
Talkin' as how the mills will shut us out.

Harry Egerton.

I have no wish to scare you back, my friend.

Bill Patten.

Then what's your proposition?

Harry Egerton.

I have none.

Bill Patten.

Come up to shake hands, eh, and say, Good-bye?

Harry Egerton.

I chanced upon you here.

Bill Patten.

'Chanced' hell! We know.

Silas Maury.

If it's my rent you're after, if it's that,
I think you might at least let that much go
For what my boy did, findin' of the log.

Harry Egerton.

Friends, you misunderstand me if you think
That I am here to speak for any man,
Or round you up, or lift one hand to stay
Your coming or your going. You are free
And can do what you please.

Bill Patten.

You bet we can,
For all your bayonets.

Harry Egerton.

My bayonets?

Bill Patten.

Yes.

Silas Maury.

Think we don't know you, eh?

Harry Egerton.

I do not know,
I do not know what I can say to you.
I understand just how you——

Silas Maury.

(Plucks him by the sleeve and points off up the valley)

There's your home,
Off there in that big mansion on the hill.
Go there and live your life; you're none of us.

Harry Egerton.

My father is my father; I am I.

(The men prepare to leave. Cap Saunders rises and begins to pack up the things)

Harry Egerton.

We do not choose the gates through which we come
Into this world, my friends. Nor you nor I
Selected who should cradle us nor what home
Should give us shelter. 'Tis what we do that counts,
Not whence we come. Do not misjudge me, friends.
Because I am a son of Egerton
Deny me not the right to be a man.

Silas Maury.

You wear our sweat in your fine clothes all right.

Harry Egerton.

I wear, my friend, what my own hands have earned.
Where will you go?

Silas Maury.

We'll go where we can find——

Bill Patten.

Don't tell him, Si. Don't you see through his game?
Keeps askin' where we're goin'. Don't you see?
He's a spy of the Company.

Harry Egerton.

Ah, you do not know
Why I am here. God knows I did not come——

Willie Maury.

Thought we wouldn't know him.

Silas Maury.

Poor men are fools.

Willie Maury.

He's been
Doggin' our footsteps.

Bill Patten.

You've been followin' us
To find out where——

Cap Saunders.

Don't quarrel, men.

Bill Patten.

It's a good thing
Your old man crushed me till I pawned my gun,
Or, God, I'd kill you. Do you understand?

Harry Egerton.

Hold on there, pard.

Bill Patten.

So he could have the mills
Blacklist us. Curse you! And curse all your kind!
You've ground us down until we're dogs, damn you.

Silas Maury.

Come sneakin' round to——

Harry Egerton.

Friend, I did not come
To spy on any man or seek you out
Here on the mountains. For my hope has been——

Bill Patten.

We'll blow you up some day, you mark my word.

Harry Egerton.

That never one of you would leave the ranks
In your great struggle in the valley there,
But that you would stand fast, and somehow win
In spite of everything, starvation, death.
And I have done all that I could to help you.
But you, my friends, O you must understand,
As there are some things that you cannot do,
So there are things I cannot.

Cap Saunders.

Get the pot.

(The boy picks up the coffee pot)

Harry Egerton.

How I came here I do not know myself.
Some Power has led me though I know not why.
I half remember that I could not sleep
For voices round me in my father's hall,
And rose and wandered forth, fleeing from something
That seemed to follow me across the waste,
A sighing and a thundering of men.
All day, it seems, I've wandered over the mountains
And all last night. Then from afar I spied
Your fire here and came to learn my way.

Silas Maury.

Your way lies that way and our way lies this.

(Patten, Maury, Cap Saunders and the boy go off through the darkness, right rear)

Harvey Anderson.

You must be hungry, pard.

Harry Egerton.

No, thank you, no,
Nothing to eat.

Harvey Anderson.

'Tain't much, but what it is
You're welcome to it.

Harry Egerton.

(Calling after the men)

And you will go away
And leave this great cause hanging in mid air?

Voice of Silas Maury.

Tend to your business and we'll tend to ours.

Harvey Anderson.

Don't mind them; they're damn fools.

Harry Egerton.

You understand
What I have tried to say unto these men;
You understand, I know.

Harvey Anderson.

I think I do.

Harry Egerton.

And something tells me we shall meet again.

Harvey Anderson.

Who knows? I'm tramping round, to-day one place,
To-morrow another. I'm a rolling stone.
I never have been one to keep the trails.
Just knock about the States and watch the plains
For something—I don't know—and yet 'twill come,
And when she comes she'll shake her good and hard.
I don't know what you're rolling in your mind,
But, as you say, it's a great land we've got.
I like to lie and feel her under my back
And know she tumbles to the double seas
Up to her hips in mile on mile of wheat.
Beyond that moon are cities packed with men
That overflow. The fields are filling up.
They're climbing up the mountains of the West——

Harry Egerton.

(Looking after the men)

And going on beyond them.

Harvey Anderson.

It's all right.
They'll reach the coast off there or reach the ice,
And then they'll have to turn or jump on off.
And they won't jump off. It's too fine a land.
Men throw away the hoofs but not the haunch.
I sometimes see them in the dead of night
Crawling like ants along her big broad back,
With axe and pick and plow, building their hills
And pushing on and on. It's a great land.
And bread tastes good that's eaten in her air.
And there's enough for all here——

Harry Egerton.

Yes, ah, yes!

Harvey Anderson.

If we could just turn something upside down.
I don't know what you've heard along the waste,
But when you think it's time to ring a change,
And when you draft your men and call the roll,
Write Harvey Anderson up near the top.
And here's my hand, pard. You can count on me.

Harry Egerton.

We'll meet again.

Harvey Anderson.

Hope so. I like your face,
And like the way you talk. Good-night.

Harry Egerton.

Good-night.

(Harvey Anderson takes up his pack and cast and goes off through the darkness after the other men. For a long time Harry Egerton stands looking after him. The fire has burned low)

Harry Egerton.

Not that, not that! And yet I know 'twill come.
My God! my God! Is there no way, no way?

(Walks left and looks off up the valley)

My father! O my father!

(He breaks out crying and, staggering about, falls first upon his knees, then face forward upon the ground. Instantly it becomes pitch dark)

THE DREAM VISION

(During the following, a shaft of light, falling upon Harry Egerton, shows him lying near the boulder. As he cries out, he partially rises, his form and face convulsed with anguish)

First Voice.

(From up the mountain, full of pleasure)

Harry! Harry! Come to the heights!

Second Voice.

(From the valley, full of sorrow)

Harry! Harry! Come to the valley!

Third Voice.

(From far back, full of peace)

Harry! Harry! plunge into the darkness,
The abysses and the waterfalls and silence!

The Three Voices.

(In chorus)

We are Realities! We are Realities!

Voice.

(From above)

One life to live!

First Voice.

Come to me, Harry!

Second and Third Voices.

She will grow old.

Voice.

(From above)

One life to live!

Second Voice.

Come to me, Harry!

First and Third Voices.

You cannot help them; you've no power.

Voice.

(From above)

One life to live!

Third Voice.

Come to me, Harry!

First Voice.

(Gayly)

Fool! fool!

Second Voice.

You cannot die; there is no death.

Voice.

(From above)

Decide!

Harry Egerton.

My God!

Voice.

(From above)

Decide!

Harry Egerton.

My God!

Voice.

(As of a drunkard singing)

If you was in the gutter, Bill,
And I was on the roof——

Voices.

You're going mad! You're going mad!

Harry Egerton.

Mother! mother!

(Presently, about twenty feet up in the rear and on either side, faint lights begin to appear and faint sounds of music are heard. Gradually the lights brighten a little and the sounds of music become more and more audible until one becomes conscious that on the left an orchestra is playing and to the right a piano. One also becomes conscious of a vast and beautiful hall over the floor of which, as the music plays, the forms of dancers are gliding. Occasionally from here and there flashes a sparkle as of diamonds, and low rippling laughter is heard. In the foreground for a space of twelve or fifteen feet, cut off from the main hall by the faintest outlines of an immense arch, small groups of elderly people stand about watching the dancers, or saunter right and left into the adjoining apartments. In these apartments also people are seen moving about, and there is a hum of voices as of men and women in conversation. At no time does it become very light, and all that passes seems to pass in a dim shadow world.

It is sufficiently light, however, to enable one to discern the grotesque richness of the hall which, as one sees at a glance, is an elaborate representation of a pine forest, the boles of the trees standing out in beautiful irregularity along the walls, the boughs above in the semi-darkness seeming to disappear in some sort of cathedral roof. There, all about, singly and in clusters, innumerable small globes as though the cones were illuminated. Between the trees, also in relief and life-sized, figures of men at work getting out timber. Forward right, teams dragging logs, and, on the opposite wall, a distant view of a river with rafts floating down. Standing on stumps, huge figures support the arched doorways, of which there is one in the rear wall right, and one centre in each of the side walls. Left rear, the grand staircase with the glow of some hidden lamp shining upon the landing. Here the carved scene upon the wall is that of an inclined trestle-work, with logs going up apparently into some mill above. Below, crouched upon the newel-post and the lower rail, the carved figure of a large mountain lion with a frosted light in its open mouth. Forward from the arched doorway, left, there is no wall from about four feet up, and through this open space, faintly illumined by small hidden lamps, a greenness as of palms and flowers.

The music ceases and the couples break up. Later, the piano begins again, and just inside the main hall Gladys Egerton, in low décolleté and holding her skirts above her ankles, appears dancing ravishingly to the music of the piano)

First Lady.

Isn't she charming!

Second Lady.

And that's George that's playing.

(Holding her skirts high the girl executes a graceful high kick and there is a clapping of hands)

Men's Voices.

Bravo! bravo! Once more like that, my kitten!

Third Lady.

Dear, you may have my Chester!

(Laughter)

Fourth Lady.

You dance superbly.

Gladys Egerton.

About This Book

THE DREAM VISION