You'll keep me posted? If anything goes wrong, I've got to have time to get from under. You'll surely keep me posted?
taney
Get your man Maynard on the string. I'm hanged if I'll be your office boy.
grosvenor
[Beseechingly.
Taney—
[taneygoes out.grosvenortakes a step toward the door, stops, and drawing a cigar from his pocket, begins chewing the end nervously. Then he turns quickly, and crossing to the right, picks up the telephone instrument again.
Office of the "Morning Bulletin," please.
[Pause.
Mr. Pollen, please. Out? This is Mr. Grosvenor. On his way to the Club? Thanks.
[mr. conroyenters, right. He is a short, stockily-built man with a belligerent chin covered by a close-cropped, grizzled beard.
conroy
Hello, Grosvenor.
[With a sharp glance and not entirely pleasant smile.
I might have known that I'd find you on the job. What is it this time—canned goods, uniforms, hospital supplies—or just general enthusiasm?
grosvenor
A little business, but mainly enthusiasm. A great time to be alive, Conroy! Any news?
conroy
Maynard's making a rousing speech. Spread eagle. Our honor as a nation. The dearest, sweetest flag that ever waved over a noble, invincible people. Damned rot. But the brethren from the rural districts lap it up like cider in October. He's gaining votes. Protégé of yours, ain't he?
grosvenor
Yes. Used to be my office boy. Clever chap. Has a sensible view of things. Realizes that our national honor and our property must be defended at all hazards.
conroy
[Sitting down at the desk and beginning to write. With a cynical laugh.
You meanproperty. You don't give a damn about nationalhonor. You know you don't. What's the use of trying to fool me?
grosvenor
Conroy, do you mean to impugn my patriotic motives?
conroy
[Without looking up, good-naturedly.
Grosvenor, we've known each other thirty years. I don't try to bluff you because I know that you know too much about me. You made the beginnings of your pile out of one big war and you've been playing up a lot of little republics against each other ever since, harvesting a neat little fortune every time. Now it's a real world-war you're after. If it comes, you're made, if it don't, you're broke. It's a cinch. Mind you, I'm not throwing stones. Only I don't want you to think you can pull the noble patriotic guff on me.
grosvenor
I have certain investments, of course, which might possibly be promoted by a war. But I am not thinking of that. I am thinking of the honor of my country, that honor which has never yet been stained, and shall not be stained if I can do aught by my own efforts and by my prayers to God, to keep it pure.
conroy
[Rising.
You carry it off well. I couldn't bluff the way you can. I haven't your religious feeling. I know why I want war. It's because I'm a manufacturer of guns. Everybody knows my business, and they know that if there wasn't war or a fear of war constantly, I and my wife and children would starve. War is my work and it's been my work most of my life. And I've worked for this war because it was the biggest thing in sight. I've worked for it with all the brains I've got, just as I'd have worked for two-hundred-egg hens if I'd been a chicken farmer. I'm not a sentimentalist. Besides, war's a good thing occasionally. I believe that absolutely. It quiets down your socialists, cuts down your superfluous population, increases the moral stamina of the nation. A lot of this talk of war being hell is mush. A few people get shot up, but no one forced 'em to go. It's their own funeral.
grosvenor
No, Conroy, no. I don't agree with you. I may possibly not lose financially by this war, but nevertheless, war is terrible, awful. The Christian sense balks at it. Only, I feel this way, sometimes when the honor of the nation demands—
conroy
You damn bluff!
grosvenor
[Confronting him.
Conroy! If you please!
[pollen,a tall, thin man in the late forties, enters left. He has an impassive, intellectual face, interesting though unsympathetic. His manner is calm and quietly alert, suggestive of reserve power.
pollen
[Without cordiality.
Hello, Conroy. Hello, Mr. Grosvenor.
grosvenor
[Obsequious at once.
Mr. Pollen!
conroy
I was just going to send a note round to you, Pollen. Couldn't get you on the phone. What d'ye think? Yes or no?
pollen
[With a faint, ironic smile.
Yes.
grosvenor
[Excitedly.
What?
conroy
[Deliberately.
Are you sure?
grosvenor
How can you be sure?
pollen
I have two reasons. One, because the biggest banker in the country told me so. That's unimportant. He may have been lying. The other, because—
[He smiles quietly.
my papers tell me so.
[He picks up one of the papers off the floor.
I see you have been honoring me by reading them. Don't my papers tell you that there's going to be war?
conroy
No one pretends, Pollen, that your papers are wonders of undecorated truth.
pollen
Well, this time, trust them. What if they do lie about facts occasionally? I am not interested in facts. Facts are always misleading. But I know something about psychology—
conroy
And you're sure?
grosvenor
How can you be sure?
pollen
[Standing at the window.
Because the people are smelling blood. That's why. And now they won't let up till they're satisfied. I've watched the war-feeling growing for a year. I tried 'em out on headlines and editorials, first little mild fellows to set them thinking. Then, when their thoughts were set toward trouble, well, we increased the percentage of oxygen.
[Thoughtfully.
It's been extremely interesting. The psychology of crowds is one of the most satisfying subjects I have ever studied. Say, fifteen, twenty millions, that individually hate you, but as a crowd, a body of readers, unconsciously, perhaps, even against their will, do exactly what you say. We're going to have war, because the people have now got to a state in which they believe that nothing short of war will save them from utter ruin. They want war. I know it. The circulation of my papers has mounted by the hundred thousand daily. And it isn't only because the people want the news. They want the excitement. It's the gambling instinct in them. They've seen the ball rolling, and they can't keep out of the game. The very bigness of the thing lures them on; the bigger the issue, the bigger the fascination. The millions of men and the billions of dollars—that lures them. And the awfulness—the dead, the wounded, the horrors, that lures them like nothing else. There was one thing missing until tonight.
grosvenor
[Fascinated.
What was that?
pollen
Fear. They were too cocksure. But I gave them fear in the eight o'clock extra. There was a rumor that the rest of Europe would take part.
grosvenor
[With a malicious glance.
That looks well for your business, Conroy.
conroy
I'm not complaining.
pollen
We're playing the thing up in the late editions all over the country. It'll give the people a queer catch in the throat. They'll see the possibility of a fierce struggle, even of defeat. There'll be a wonderful wave of patriotism. You watch. The people'll rise right up. In twenty-four hours there won't be a man in the country that'll be able to tell black from white. All they'll see will be red.
[Pointing out of the window.
Look at the people out there, standing round. They can't stay indoors. They're waiting for the extras. They won't believe 'em when they read 'em, but they can't resist the excitement. Well, the bonfire's ready. Nothing lacking now except the match.
grosvenor
[Striding up and down.
That's all very well, Mr. Pollen. But suppose the King over there backs down?
pollen
He won't. The people won't let him.
conroy
Hispeople? They don't want war.
pollen
Nothispeople.
[Pointing.
Ours. I tell you, they've smelt blood.
[From a distance, faintly, but growing louder, boys are heard calling, "Extra! Extra!"
grosvenor
[Excitedly.
Extra! I wonder—
conroy
[Going to the balcony, and calling down.
Here, boy!
pollen
[Laughing softly.
There you go.
[He presses a bell-button on the wall, bends over the writing-desk and writes a line which he encloses in an envelope.
You're easy. And there are a hundred million like you. When it comes to war, reason goes to sleep. You both of you knew perfectly well that I had absolutely no later news than you, but you let yourself be hypnotized like children. I can do anything I want with you.
[Enterpage.
page
Ring, sir?
pollen
Take this to the news-stand in the hall.
page
Yes, sir.
[Exit.
pollen
[At the window again.
The edition is going like hotcakes. It has Maynard's speech in it. Did either of you hear it?
conroy
Yes. Damned rot, but effective.
pollen
He keeps the patriotism hot.
grosvenor
[Proudly.
I trained that young man in patriotism.
[Enterrepresentative maynard,left; a young man, conceited and with a swagger.
maynard
Good evening, gentlemen.
grosvenor
Maynard!
conroy
Great boy!
[They all clap him on the shoulder and shake his hand.
pollen
A wonderful speech, my boy. We're playing you up for Governor of the State in tonight's late editions.
maynard
I'll sweep the State. It's patriotism, it's the flag, that gets the rubes. You should have seen the whiskers of the rural sections waving in the wind!
[Shouts of newsboys outside: "Bulletin! War! All about the war!"
conroy
Eh?
maynard
[To Pollen.
Any news I've missed?
grosvenor
How's that? They're shouting "War" already.
pollen
[Calmly.
I told 'em to. That was the message I sent down. That shout gave you a thrill, didn't it? Well, that was what I was after. If I don't hold you down in your chair you'll rush out to buy a copy, even though I should stand here all night, shouting in your ears that it's a fake.
grosvenor
[Shocked.
You are inflaming the people!
pollen
Exactly. There have been people unkind enough to assert that that was my business. What's yours, Grosvenor?
grosvenor
Eh?
[Hotly.
What d'ye mean?
conroy
You're livin' in a crystal palace, Grosvenor. Don't you go and forget that.
grosvenor
[Indignantly.
I—
maynard
[To Grosvenor.
I've got to get back to the House, Mr. Grosvenor. I just came over to see if you had any—suggestions?
grosvenor
[Testily.
No. Only keep me posted. That's all.
[Expanding again.
And remember, our honor as a nation is at stake.
maynard
They're not forgetting our honor while I'm on the floor.
conroy
[Drawingmaynardaside as he is about to go out, and whispering.
Need any—ready money?
maynard
[Grinning.
There were a half dozen brethren on the steps as I came out, who implied they were broke, and wouldn't object to a loan.
conroy
[Taking a wallet from his pocket and handing it to Maynard, after he has made sure that Grosvenor and Pollen are not looking.
Here. Help the poor devils along.
maynard
Thanks. I will.
[pageenters right, with a card on a salver.
page
Senator Taney?
maynard
No.
[Taking up the card.
Who wants him?
[He whistles softly.
Harradan! No, son, Senator Taney is not here.
[Exitpage,left.
grosvenor
[Excitedly.
Harradan's smelling a rat. He's getting after Taney!
pollen
[Quietly.
Don't you worry. I can finish Harradan up in black-faced letters tomorrow morning. He'll think he's reading his own tombstone.
[taneyenters, right.
taney
Hello, Pollen. Hello, Conroy. Well, Grosvenor, Cottrell is as jumpy as you are.
grosvenor
Have you seen Harradan?
taney
Have I seen Harradan? I should say I had! He's leading the peace party in the Senate. Fighting like a fiend.
[Clearing his throat.
That man has nearly cost me my vocal chords.
[Ruefully.
To see him you wouldn't connect him with the word "peace."
grosvenor
He's in the club. He's asked for you.
conroy
Come on, Grosvenor. This is no place for an honest business-man to be found conversing with a Senator.
grosvenor
[Nervously.
Quite right.
taney
[With a grin.
Well, Maynard, they don't seem to think we're safe company for good little boys. Suppose we get back on the job?
[They move toward the right.pollenremains standing, calm and imperturbable, by the window.
pollen
You people act as though you had a bad conscience. I don't think I'd let a mere Senator interfere with the freedom of my movements, if I were you.
[senator harradanenters, left. He is a soldierly-looking man in the seventies.
harradan
Good evening, gentlemen.
[Pause.
I seem to have tumbled into headquarters.
taney
Hello, Harradan. Looking for me?
harradan
Yes.
taney
You know these gentlemen?
harradan
[Coolly.
Sufficiently.
taney
I'm due back at the Senate. I'll talk with you till the cock crows after we adjourn. Will that do?
harradan
I should like to talk to you now.
maynard
In that case, I'll go back to the House.
grosvenor
We won't intrude—
conroy
The Senators have the floor—
[They are about to beat a retreat.
harradan
I wish you'd stay, gentlemen.
grosvenor
[Looking at his watch, nervously.
I'm sorry I—
harradan
You'll please stay, Mr. Grosvenor. You, too, Mr. Conroy.
conroy
I'm hanged if I'll be dictated to.
harradan
[Quietly.
Do as you please. But if you don't stay, I'll have you both under arrest in fifteen minutes.
conroy
[In disgust.
Oh, come off!
grosvenor
[Indignantly.
What do you mean, Senator?
harradan
[Fiercely.
My God, man, don't make me mad. I'm twenty years older than you, but I could wipe the floor up with you yet!
grosvenor
[Nervously lights a cigar and during the ensuing scene shifts it with his lips from one corner of his mouth to the other in extreme agitation.
I don't know what you're talking about.
maynard
Well, you don't need me.
harradan
I do.
[maynardsits down, chewing his lips.
pollen
[With an amused, patronizing smile.
You haven't expressed yourself about me yet, Senator. Am I invited to the party?
harradan
You may stay or not as you like.
pollen
Thanks.
[Deliberately.
Do you know, if I were you, I don't think I'd detain these other gentlemen just now.
harradan
[Calmly.
Go to the Devil to whom you belong, Mr. Pollen. I'll do as I see fit.
pollen
I merely advise you. It isn't always considered patriotic when the people want war, for a Senator to want peace too hard. I shall strive to point that out to twenty million people or so tomorrow morning. Make your will, Senator. The avalanche is coming. You'll be the loneliest voice that ever came out of the wilderness. I prophesy your swift demise.
harradan
This is wartime. Most of us are ready to die, if necessary. Only some of us would rather die in the service of peace than in the service of war. You're a very powerful man, Mr. Pollen. I don't doubt at all that you can kill me if you put your mind on it. You have poisoned the whole nation. You are at liberty to kill me outright, but I won't let you slow-poison me.
[Turning.
Taney, I've got information against you, and you've got to listen. You, too, Maynard.
pollen
[At window.
Am I out in the cold again? I'm listening intently.
[He goes to the telephone and takes up the receiver.
News-stand, please.
harradan
[Pleadingly.
Taney—
pollen
[At the telephone.
That you, Burke? Liven up your youngsters outside. They've gone to sleep.
[He hangs up the receiver, and complacently lights a cigarette.
harradan
We were friends in the past, Taney. I always knew you were a jingo, but I thought there was hope. I came here because I still thought so. I didn't know you had lined up with the buzzards.
taney
See here, Harradan. What are you talking about anyway?
harradan
We all know why Grosvenor and Conroy and their kind are here. And a few of us have been wondering who were pulling the wires for them.
grosvenor
You've got me mixed up with somebody else. I'm here attending to—to my regular business.
conroy
[Bluntly.
And why shouldn't we be down here? I'm in a legitimate business. Guns. And I'm looking after my interests. I'm not declaring war. But if there is a war I don't see any reason why I should get left in the scramble.
harradan
War! God, do you know what the word means? I've been in two wars. I've seen and heard and—smelt battlefields. And I've seen women and children waiting at home—and waiting.
pollen
I'll give you a thousand dollars, Senator, for a thousand-word article on the horrors of war. You can't make it strong enough.
maynard
[Laughing.
That's one on you, Senator.
harradan
Taney, you're a man of sense, and you love your country. Now—
taney
Good night, gentlemen, I'm going.
[He turns toward the door.
maynard
Same here.
harradan
[Turning swiftly.
No, you're not. I want a list of names. I want a list of all the people who are paying you to shout for war. Understand?
[Fiercely.
I want that list now.
taney
[Coolly.
Hell may grow buttercups, Harradan. But you don't get any names out o' me.
[Quickly.
Besides, I ain't got any to give. And I'll have you up for defamation of character for saying that there's anybody can buy me!
harradan
[After a pause, quietly.
Taney, you've always been a business-man. You look at things just one way. You aren't bothered much by imagination. Perhaps you don't know what you're doing. War, man! Dead men by thousands, wounded men shrieking for some one to put them out of their misery, fire, ruin, starvation! For what good, for what good, ever?
pollen
I raise my offer, Senator. Make it two thousand.
taney
You ought to go into vaudeville, Senator. Subject, "The Horrors of War."
[The others laugh.
harradan
God, the country stands on the verge of the greatest calamity in its history and you can't do anything but laugh!
maynard
You're an inspiration, Senator. Just like that dago or Dutchman or whoever he was who tried to smash up the windmills. But you haven't a sense of humor.
harradan
[With quiet dignity.
No. My sense of humor died during our last war. Will you give me those names that are going to help me kill this satanic craving for war? Are you?
maynard
You're talking through your hat, Senator. I don't know anything about any names.
harradan
Very well.
[Turning to go.
I have five names. They'll do until to-morrow. God willing, they'll bring Congress back to its senses. I thank my God that I found you buzzards out in time. I'll fling your names across the Senate tonight—yours, Conroy, and yours, Grosvenor, and yours, Taney, and yours, Pollen, and yours, Maynard! By Heaven, the country shall hear them from end to end. And there'll be less talk of war then! You and your kind are stirring up the millions to dream of war, to shout about defending our national honor—What honor is there in murder?—stirring their blood with the fifes and drums of your rhetoric! Through your newspapers, you are turning the thoughts of our children to war, our children who should be to us the symbol of a nobler, purer future rising out of the sordid wreckage of the present—you make them drunk with your cant about national glory—glory!—until their innocent faces glow feverishly up to you, hungry for battle. You will not rest until you hear the terrible savage cry from their lips—War, war! You shall not hear it if I can prevent it! I am going to the Senate now. In fifteen minutes your names shall be a byword and a hissing among the nations. The best you can do is to take your vile guns and turn them on yourselves!
[A great shout is heard outside. Then the fifes and drums again. Thepageenters excitedly.
page
Message for Senator Taney.
taney
Here, quick.
[He takes the paper.
Gentlemen, listen to this from the Iberian Foreign Office to the Associated Press: "The King sent for the Ambassador of the Republic this afternoon and outlined a plan that would satisfy the royal government. The Ambassador regretted that he was unable to consider any compromise. The King replied that he could have nothing further to say in the matter."
[grosvenorand the others jump to their feet with excited exclamations.
harradan
[Quickly.
The thing's not true. There's a mistake somewhere. It doesn't fit in with what went before.
maynard
Fit in? Who cares? It's a challenge! They've insulted us!
grosvenor
They've challenged our national honor!
conroy
Now, by God, they can pay!
harradan
[Rushing to the telephone.
Give me the Department of State.
[There are more shouts outside and more bands. Suddenly the door, left, is burst open by a crowd of men, some in dress clothes, some in uniform, shouting "War!"
taney
For God's sake, what's up?
an officer
[Delightedly.
We're off!
grosvenor
What d'ye mean?
a civilian
They've declared war!
harradan
[Turning.
Who has?
officer
Congress!
taney
Senator, you're left.
harradan
[With a sob.
God! You buzzard! You buzzard!
[A band in the distance strikes up the national anthem.grosvenor, conroy, pollen, taneyandmaynardstand.harradansinks into a chair.
maynard
Senator, it's the national anthem. Haven't you gotanypatriotism?
[grosvenoropens the windows. The notes of the anthem are drowned out by shouts and cries and the calls of newsboys.
voices of the crowd
War! War!
[The anthem sounds loud and clear, butharradanburies his face in his hands. The stage is gradually darkened. The music grows fainter as if the band were marching away; and now and then the shouts of the crowd make themselves heard above it. These subside, too, into a low, muffled roar, sullen and ominous.
[The stage grows light again. In the foreground, a black group of trees may be dimly discerned; beyond are indistinct hills and the last glow of a bloody sunset. Smoke and dust blacken the scene. Even before the cloud breaks to reveal the valley for a moment, the low roar is suddenly broken by the rattle of musketry, followed by the booming of artillery and the drumming sound of the machine guns. A trumpet sounds the charge. The dust cloud breaks. A thickly crowded mass of men is vaguely seen through the twilight charging with cries and curses. The rear ranks press over the fallen, waver, shout and fall back. The rattle of musketry continues. The men return to the charge, are repulsed once more with awful slaughter and again return. The dust cloud passes over the scene. It is night now. The wounded are tossing on the field, shrieking. Ghouls prowl about. A flock of buzzards flies across the moon. In the distance is heard a shout of victory, then the national anthem once more, played by a trumpeter. A thousand voices seem to rise out of the ground, moaning, drowning out the music. Then a woman's voice, clear and distinct.
voice
How long, O Lord? How long?
[Cries and wailings answer the cry. Silence. Again the bugle, drowned out by cries, cries, cries.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
Faces in the Dawn
By HERMANN HAGEDORN
Cloth, 12mo, $1.35 net
A great many people already know Mr. Hagedorn through his verse. "Faces in the Dawn" will, however, be their introduction to him as a novelist. The same qualities that have served to raise his poetry above the common level help to distinguish this story of a German village. The theme of the book is the transformation that was wrought in the lives of an irritable, domineering German pastor and his wife through the influence of a young German girl and her American lover. Sentiment, humor, and a human feeling, all present in just the right measure, warm the heart and contribute to the enjoyment which the reader derives in following the experiences of the well-drawn characters.