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
Is I goin' to let myself be put up to things like that?...
MRS. FIELITZ
A whole lot o' thinkin' over you'd ha' done! You ain't done any thinkin'
all the days o' your life. A great donkey like you ... an' thinkin'.
Well! A fine mess would come of it if you took to thinkin'.
FIELITZ
Mother, I axes you to consider that ...
MRS. FIELITZ
Put you up? To what? What is I puttin' you up to?--This here old shed is
goin' to burn down sometime. It's goin' to burn down one time or 'nother,
if it don't first come topplin' down over our heads. It's squeezed in
here between the other houses in a way to make a person feel ashamed, if
he looks at it.
FIELITZ
Mother, I axes you to consider ...
MRS. FIELITZ
Aw, I wish you'd clear out o' the front door this minute! I'm goin' to
pack up my things pretty soon too. An' you c'n go over to the justice for
all I care. I been puttin' you up to things, you know!
FIELITZ
Mother, I axes you to consider that ... Look out that you don't go an'
get a black eye! 'Cause I, if I ...
MRS. FIELITZ
[_With a gesture as though about to push him out._] Get out! Just get
out! It'll be good riddance! The sooner the better! What are you dawdlin'
for?
FIELITZ
[_Beside himself._] Mother, I'll hit you one across the ... You're goin'
to put me out, eh? What? Outta my shop? Is this here your shop? I'll
learn you! Just wait!
MRS. FIELITZ
Well, I'm waitin'. Why don't you start? You're that kind of a man, are
you? Come right on! Come on now! You got the courage! I'll hold my breath
or maybe I'd blow you right into Berlin.
FIELITZ
[_Hurls a boot against the wall in his impotent rage._] I'll break every
stick in this here shop! To hell with the whole business: that's what I
says! I must ha' been just ravin' mad! There I goes an' burdens myself
with a devil of a woman like that, an' I might ha' lived as comfortable
as can be! She killed off one husband an' now I'm dam' idjit enough, to
take his place! But you're goin' to find out! It ain't goin' to be so
easy this time! I'll first kick you out before I'll let you get the best
o' me! Not me! No, sir! You c'n believe that!
MRS. FIELITZ
You needn't exert yourself that much, Fielitz ...
FIELITZ
Not me! Not me! You c'n depend on that! You ain't agoin' to down me! You
c'n take my word for it.
[_He sits down, exhausted._
MRS. FIELITZ
Maybe you might like throwin' some more boots. There's plenty of 'em
around here--I s'ppose you married me for love, eh?
FIELITZ
God knows why I did!
MRS. FIELITZ
If you'll go an' study it out, maybe you'll know why. Maybe it was out o'
pity? Eh? Maybe not.--Or maybe it was the money I had loaned out?--Well,
you see! I s'ppose that was it.--You c'n live a hundred years for my
part! But it's always the same thing. 'Twasn't much different with Julius
neither. If things had gone his way, I wouldn't have nothin' saved this
day neither. The trouble is a person is too good to you fellers.
FIELITZ
An' outta goodness you want me to go an' take a match an' set fire to the
roof over my head?
MRS. FIELITZ
You knew that you'd have to go an' build. I said that to myself right
off, an' buildin' costs money. There ain't no gettin' away from that
fact. An' the few pennies we has ain't more'n a beginnin'. If we had what
you might call a real house here ... Schmarowski, he'd build us one
that'd make all the others look like nothin' ... you could have a fine
shop here. We might put a few hundred dollars into it an' sell factory
shoes. If you'd want to take in repairing you could get a journeyman an'
put him here. An' if you wanted to go an' make some new shoes yourself,
you could take the time for all I care.
FIELITZ
I don't know! I s'ppose I ain't got sense enough for them things. I
thought I'd get hold o' a bit o' money ... I thought I'd be able to lay
out a bit o' money! Buildin' a little annex of a shop--that's good fun. I
thought it all out to myself like--with nice shelves and things like that
... an' I planned to hang up a big clock an' such. An' now you sit on
your money bag like an old watch dog.
MRS. FIELITZ
That money--it ain't to be thrown away so easy. 'Twas earned too bitter
hard for that.
FIELITZ
... You forgets that I've been in trouble before. Is I to go an' get
locked up again?
MRS. FIELITZ
Never mind, Fielitz, to-morrow is another day. A person mustn't go an'
take things that serious! I was more'n half jokin' anyhow.--Go over to
Grabow's an' drink a glass o' beer!... We must all be satisfied's best we
can. An' even if you can't go an' open a shoe shop, an' even if you gotta
worry along cobblin' an' can't buy no clock--well, a good conscience is
worth somethin' too.
THE CURTAIN FALLS
THE SECOND ACT
_The smithy of LANGHEINRICH. The little house protrudes at an angle
into the village street. The shed that projects over the smithy is
supported by wooden posts. The empty space below the shed is used for
the storage of tools and materials. Wheels are leaned against the
wood, a plough, wheel-tyres, pieces of pig iron, etc. An anvil stands
in the open, too, and several working stools. From behind the house,
jutting out diagonally, a wooden wagon is visible. The left front
wheel has been taken off and a windlass supports the axle._
_Through the door that leads to the shop one sees smithy fires and
bellows._
_Opposite the smithy, on the left side of the village street which,
taking a turn, is lost to view in the background, there is a board
fence. A small locked gate opens upon the street._
_A cloudy, windy day._
_DR. BOXER, in a slouch hat and light overcoat, stands holding a
heavy smith's hammer at arm's length. EDE has a horseshoe in his
right hand, a smaller hammer in his left, and is looking on._
EDE
[_Counts._] ... twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four an' one makes
twenty-five an' another makes twenty-six.--Great guns, you're ahead o' me
now. An' twenty-seven, an' twenty-eight, an' twenty-nine an' thirty. My
respects, Doctor. That's all right. Is that the effect o' the sea air?
DR. BOXER
It may be. You see I haven't quite forgotten the trick.
EDE
No, you haven't. That's pretty good. Now let's try it with weights,
though. I c'n hold up a hundred an' fifty pounds, Doctor. How about
yourself?
DR. BOXER
I don't know. It remains to be seen.
EDE
What? You think you c'n lift a hundred weight an' a half? You're a little
bit of a giant, ain't you? You didn't learn that on board ship. I thought
you travelled as a sawbones an' not as a strong man!--Look at that little
man over there goin' into Mrs. Fielitz' house. That's her son-in-law.
DR. BOXER
He looks very much like a bishop.
EDE
Right enough! That's what he is--Bishop Schmarowski.--You c'n knock! The
old woman's out and she took her cobbler with her. There won't be nothin'
to get there to-day.--You see, Doctor, when that fellow goes there he
wants money. If he weren't hard up he wouldn't come.
DR. BOXER
The Fielitzes went in to Berlin to-day; I met them this morning at the
railway station. Tell me: _he_ isn't quite right in his mind, is he?
EDE
How so? That wasn't never noticed. He's a pretty keen fellow ... No, I
couldn't say that _he's_ crazy.
DR. BOXER
He talked a mixture of idiotic nonsense and looked away from me while he
was talking. The fellow looked like an evil conscience personified. But I
don't suppose he has a conscience.
EDE
By the way: that time they came down on you an' made a search in your
house--that fellow Fielitz had his hand in it. He helped get you into
that pickle.
[_MRS. SCHULZE puts her head out at the attic window._
MRS. SCHULZE
Ede!
EDE
What?
MRS. SCHULZE
Ain't Mr. Langheinrich back yet?
EDE
Well, o' course he is, naturally. [_MRS. SCHULZE disappears and EDE
withdraws under the shed._] Quick! Take this hammer, will you, Doctor,
an' hammer away a bit. If you kept up your strength the way you have, you
ain't forgot about that neither.
DR. BOXER
I went at locksmith's work like the deuce when there was nothing to do on
board ship. That gave me a very good chance.
EDE
You're a doctor an' you're a smith an' ... I guess you're a sausage maker
too!
DR. BOXER
I even made sausages once.
EDE
Nobody didn't want to eat them, I guess.
DR. BOXER
I wouldn't have advised any one to do so either. The sausages were mainly
filled with arsenic. The rats scarcely left us space to turn around in.
EDE
[_About to set to work._] Ugh! That wouldn't be no kind o' sausage for
me. Come now, Doctor, go at it! We wants the missis to think that two
people is workin' here or she'll never stop axin' questions.
DR. BOXER
Where did Langheinrich go so early?
EDE
That's a secret all right--the kind o' secret that all the sparrows on
the gutters is chirpin'.--Doctor, roll that wheel over here, will you?
You got a chance now to deserve well, as they says, o' the Prussian
state, 'cause this here waggon belongs to the government forester.--That
sort o' thing can't do you no harm.
DR. BOXER
No. And anyhow I ought to stand in with people.
[_He rolls the wheel slowly along; it escapes him and glides
backwards._
EDE
That ain't so easy. Them people has long memories. [_He catches the
wheel._] Hold on there! No goin' backward! I'm for progress, I am,
Doctor! I'm willin' to fight for that!
DR. BOXER
But you must be careful of your fingers. [_He puts on a leathern apron._]
Is Langheinrich going to be gone long?
EDE
[_Whistles._] That depends on how hard it is!
DR. BOXER
Why do you whistle so significantly?
EDE
That's a gift o' my family. All my eleven brothers an' sisters is
musicians. I'm the only one that's a smith. [_For a space both work at
the wheel in silence. Then EDE continues._] 'Twouldn't be a bad stage
play, I tell you. You wouldn't have to be scared o' riskin' somethin' on
that. You'd make money! That's somethin' fine--specially for young
people! You been away here a good long while, that's the reason you don't
know what's what. I could tell you a few little things that happen around
here in bright daylight.--D'you know that Leontine?
DR. BOXER
Very sorry indeed, but I don't.
EDE
No? An' then you pretend that this is your home an' don't know that girl.
Somethin' wrong with you!
DR. BOXER
Oh, yes, yes, Leontine! Mrs. Wolff's daughter! I once got the deuce of a
flogging on her account.
EDE
Well, I wish you'd ha' been here two hours ago. Well, first of all that
same girl slouched by here ... No! First of all her mother an' father
went away ...'twasn't more'n dawn yet! Then Leontine at about eight. She
looked all around an' waited an' made lovin' eyes in this direction an'
then walked by. You should ha' seen Langheinrich. "Sweetheart, where are
you goin'?"--Then, after a while comes Constable Schulze and goes after
her.--That was too much for Langheinrich. Off with his apron an' there he
goes, quick 's a stag. That's the way it was. You could ha' observed
that: the rest ain't to be observed.--There's Langheinrich hurryin' back
now. [_He at once sets zealously to work and pretends to discover
LANGHEINRICH, who is approaching hastily and vigorously at this moment._]
Well, at last! Good thing you're here! No end o' askin' after you. Did
you catch her?
LANGHEINRICH
[_Brusquely._] Catch what?
EDE
I meant the 'bus.
LANGHEINRICH
Hold your...! I had business to attend to.--Well now, I'll give a dollar
if this here ain't Dr. Boxer! Why, how are you? How are things goin'? An'
what are you doin' nowadays? Did your ship come in? You been away
now--lemme see--that must be three years, eh? Sure. That's ... well, time
passes.
DR. BOXER
I want to settle down here, Langheinrich. That is to say, I have that
intention if it's possible. I should like to try my luck at home for a
change.
LANGHEINRICH
Things is best at home, that's right. O' course, there's one here now, a
doctor I mean, but he ain't good for much. They say somethin' queer
happened to him onct--got his ears boxed too hard or somethin'. An' they
say that made him kind o' melancholious. That ain't much good for his
patients! No sick man can't get well through that. I'll send for you,
Doctor, if I need help.
DR. BOXER
I'll extract my first dozen wisdom teeth free of charge. So you'll be
glad if you don't need me soon.
LANGHEINRICH
Well, I ... fact is ... my wife is sick.
_MRS. SCHULZE comes hurriedly from the house._
MRS. SCHULZE
It's a mighty good thing that you're here. D'you hear? That whimperin'
goes right on.
LANGHEINRICH
Doctor, I'm goin' to ax you somethin' now: d'you know any cure for
jealousy? You see, it's this way: We had a baby, an' I'd be lyin' if I
said I wasn't mighty well pleased. An' why shouldn't I be? But now my
wife is sick. She can't get up an' she don't want me to budge from the
side o' her bed. She screams an' she scolds an' she reproaches me.
Sometimes I reely don't know what to do no more.
MRS. SCHULZE
You better go upstairs a bit first.
EDE
Do give him a chance to get his breath!
LANGHEINRICH
Oh, pshaw! Never you mind! I c'n attend to that right off.
[_After he has taken off his hat and coat and slipped on wooden shoes
he hurries into the house._
EDE
Well, what d'you think o' that?
DR. BOXER
He's a cheerful soul--more so, if possible, than he used to be. It does
one good to find a man that way.
EDE
Only that I axed after Leontine, that riled him more'n a little bit all
right.
MRS. SCHULZE
[_To EDE, watchfully:_] Where was the boss so early this mornin'?
EDE
In Lichtenberg, attendin' a dance.
MRS. SCHULZE
The treatment that woman's gettin' is all wrong, Doctor. I don't mix in
what don't concern me. But the way she's treated, that ain't no kind o'
treatment, I c'n tell you. I told that Majunke man too that the missis
was goin' to the dogs this way.
DR. BOXER
But Dr. Majunke is very capable. I know him to be an excellent physician.
MRS. SCHULZE
[_Interrupting._] Sure, sure, an' that's true. 'Course he's capable.
That's right, an' so he is. But, you see, he just won't prescribe nothin'
...
DR. BOXER
What should he prescribe? Let the people save their money.
MRS. SCHULZE
But that's just what people don't want to do. It's like this: medicine's
got to be. If there ain't none they says: how c'n the doctor help us?
DR. BOXER
Mrs. Langheinrich never was strong. Even years ago when she used to sew
for us ...
MRS. SCHULZE
That's the way it is. She's a little bit humpbacked; that's right. That's
the way women is, though, Doctor! A seamstress--that's what she was...!
She sewed an' she sewed and saved up a little money...! An' what kind of
a bargain is it she's got now. A handsome feller an' sickness an' worry
an' no rest no more by day or night.
_LANGHEINRICH returns from the house._
LANGHEINRICH
[_Tapping MRS. SCHULZE'S shoulder somewhat roughly._] Hurry now! Go on
up! It's all arranged an' settled. To-morrow I'm goin' to take her to the
clinic.
MRS. SCHULZE
That ain't goin' to be no easy work!
LANGHEINRICH
[_Lifts a great can of water to his mouth._] I can't help that. Things is
as they is. [_He takes an enormously long draught from the tin can.
Putting it down:_] Ede, drive them ducks away!
EDE
[_Acting as though he were driving away ducks, flaps his leathern apron
and rattles his wooden shoes._] Shoo! Shoo! Shoo! Chuck! Chuck! Chuck!
_MRS. SCHULZE retires into the house, shaking her head._
LANGHEINRICH
Them ducks is your regular fire eaters. There don't need nothin' but for
some sparks to fly off an', right straight off, they gobbles 'em down.
Then we gets what you might call roast duck that never meant to be
roasted. An' my old woman she ain't no friend o' that.
_RAUCHHAUPT looks over the fence to the left._
LANGHEINRICH
There's been a big fire again over there behind Landsberg. All the houses
on a great estate is ashes.
RAUCHHAUPT
Did you maybe see Gustav anywhere?
LANGHEINRICH
Mornin', old boy! No, not me! Has he gone an' run off again?
RAUCHHAUPT
I ordered him to go over to the Fielitzes.
LANGHEINRICH
The Fielitzes have all gone in to town.
RAUCHHAUPT
I don't know, but there's a kind o' burned smell in the air ... Ouch!
[_He distorts his face in pain and grasps his leg._] Ain't Leontine here?
LANGHEINRICH
Naw, she had to go to court to-day. Always the same trouble with the
alimony. That confounded feller, he don't pay.
RAUCHHAUPT
[_Calls out._] Gustav! [_He listens and then turns leisurely back to the
little gate. The wind worries and drives him._] Gustav!
LANGHEINRICH
Stiff wind coming up, all right! [_RAUCHHAUPT disappears._] Ede!
EDE
All right.
LANGHEINRICH
Let's get to work now! [_He spits into his hands and sets to work
vigorously._] Well, Doctor, where've you been runnin' about? Did you get
as far as the Chinese? You gotta tell us all about that some day when we
got plenty o' time for it.
DR. BOXER
Surely, I've been all over.
LANGHEINRICH
Did you see the sea-serpent too?
Da. BOXER
Surely, Langheinrich, far down in the South Seas.
LANGHEINRICH
An' it's true that it feeds on dill pickles?
DR. BOXER
Several hundred dozen a day.
LANGHEINRICH
[_Laughing._] That's all right then. An' when, you see that serpent
again, just give her my best regards.
DR. BOXER
I doubt whether I'll ever get so far again in life.
LANGHEINRICH
I guess you got all you wanted o' that? Now you see. Doctor, you just got
to the point where I am exactly an' I didn't have to move from this
spot.--Well, I guess your old mother, she'll be glad. She's gettin' along
all right. Doin' reel well. I always looked in a bit now an' then,
helpin' to see that things was all right.
DR. BOXER
And that was very good in you, Langheinrich.
LANGHEINRICH
Naw! Pshaw! I ain't sayin' it on that account. By the way, though, before
I forget. I got a little account standin' with your good mother--for
taffeta an' silk an' needles an' thread. Some cloth, too. My wife used
'em sewing. I'll straighten that up very soon.
DR. BOXER
[_Deprecatingly._] Never mind. That matter will be arranged.
LANGHEINRICH
Ede!
EDE
All right?
LANGHEINRICH
Hurry along now! [_He takes up a heavy hammer._] If I don't go right on
workin' I'll end by bustin' out o' my skin.
_EDE approaches with a white hot piece of iron in the tongs and holds
it on the anvil._
LANGHEINRICH
Now we're goin' to start, Doctor! Down on it! Hit it now! [_He and DR.
BOXER beat the iron, keeping time with each other._] Well, you see! It's
got to go evenly. Doctor! Then I tell you the work's smooth as butter.
[_They stop hammering; EDE takes up the iron again, takes it into the
smithy and holds it into the flame._
LANGHEINRICH
[_Takes up the water can again and sets it to his lips._] There ain't
much to this!
[_Drinks._
EDE
Things like that makes you thirsty.
_LANGHEINRICH puts the can down._
LANGHEINRICH
You c'n believe me, Doctor: it was fine anyhow.
DR. BOXER
What was it that was go very fine?
LANGHEINRICH
Lord! I don't know! I don't know nothin' much. But when I met Constable
Schulze I had a devil of a good time--that's what!
EDE
An' now a glass o' beer from Grabow over there. That's what I could stand
fine just now.
LANGHEINRICH
Hurry! Get three steins! Dr. Boxer will pay for 'em.
_EDE wipes his hands on his apron and goes._
LANGHEINRICH
An' so you want to settle down here now! That ain't no bad idea neither.
Only this: you got to be up to all kinds o' tricks here. An' if you want
my advice, Doctor, don't go to people for nothin'.
DR. BOXER
Do you think that I'll be unmolested in other respects?
LANGHEINRICH
Aw, them old stories! Them's all outlawed by now. An' then, nowadays they
can't worry people so much no more as they used to do under the old laws.
DR. BOXER
Well, at all events I'll make the attempt ... My political ardour has
cooled off. If these people annoy me in spite of that, I'll simply trudge
off again. I'll go back to sea, or I'll let myself be engaged ...
LANGHEINRICH
Pretty easy drownin' on water!
DR. BOXER
[_Continuing._] ... Then I'll let myself be engaged to go to Brazil with
the Russian Jews.
LANGHEINRICH
What would you get out o' that?
DR. BOXER
Yellow fever, perhaps.
LANGHEINRICH
Anything else. Doctor? That wouldn't be nothin' for me!
DR. BOXER
I believe that.
LANGHEINRICH
Me go an' wear myself out for other people? Not me! No, sir! I don't do
nothin' like that. An' why should I? Nobody don't give me nothin'. I tell
you people in this world is a pretty sly set. I've had time to find that
out.
DR. BOXER
You're a regular heathen: you're not a Christian at all!
LANGHEINRICH
That kind o' talk don't do much good with me. I'm a Christian just like
all the rest is! The people that sit in the new church here ... 'cause
they built a new church here now!... if them is Christians, the Lord
forgive 'em.
DR. BOXER
That's easily said, Langheinrich. But one ought not to be a Pharisee.
Where is your Christian long-suffering?
LANGHEINRICH
No, I ain't goin' in for long-sufferin'. I'm a sinner myself; that's true
all right. But now you take this Dalchow here for instance! It'd take the
devil to be long-sufferin' where _he's_ concerned! What did he do with
that son o' his. He kicked him out, that's what, by night, in winter.
Then he tied him up and beat him till he couldn't gasp. An' then he
apprenticed the little feller to a butcher so that he had to drive out
the sheep! An' all the time jabbin' at him an' overworkin' him till in
the end the poor little crittur went an' drowned hisself in the lake.
Just shook his head an' kept still an' then dived down an' that was the
end.
DR. BOXER
[_Ironically._] I don't see what you've got against Dalchow,
Langheinrich? He's a man who seems to understand his business
magnificently.
LANGHEINRICH