The Globe-republican., 1890-09-17

UNDER THE WHEEL.
AamlIn Garland's New Play-The Single
Tax idea In the Drama.

damlIn Garland's New Play-The Single
| Tax idea In the Drama.
[coNTINUED FROM LAST IssUE.]
Reeves (tenderly. smiling)-Yes,
thirsty for the sight of you. (Alice goes
into the house. Reeves walks about.
glancing keenly 1t all points Of the
plain.) So this is the reality Of the en-
igrants dream! The homestead in the
free West, the house beside the river
EMPOWERED in trees!
A wide dun land where the fierce suns smite,
| And the wind is \ furnace breath;
Where the beautiful sky has . sinister light,
And the earth lies dread and dry as death;
| Where the sod lies scorching. and the wan
| grass siskA
And the hot red morning has no birds
My God. what place for my beautiful
girl-for anybodys girl-a wide-walled
grave.
(Alice enters with a glass. which she
fills and hands to him. He drinks, say
ing): In land like this the gift of
water must mean as it does with the
Arabs, the highest hospitality.
| Alice-I can't say how much I-wc-
shall
Reeves quitting his arm about herr
Don't try. If had only known your
real feelings-but how could l from
those letters? looking off left What
in the world is that girl doing? She's
unhitching my team! I'll stop her. (Ex.
l, talking.)
Alice walking sbout)-How can l let
him go again? Have the strength?
But must, Unjust! can't leave father
now. at the height of his terrible strug-
gle. must stay.
Walter (re-enters with Linnie, hold
ing her by the hands)-I suppose this is
Linnie-anyhow the little witch was
unhitching my team; another minute
and she might have had a runaway.
Linnie ornfully)-Runaway moth
ing! What do you take me for? Allie
and hitch up the horses and go out in
the felds-we pillow. and drive the har-
vester-and we help shock the wheat
don't we, Allie?
Reeves (surprised) DO you do that?
With this hand, that used to love to
watch on the piano? o horrors,
(Strolkes it, Poor bruised little hand.
Kisses it,
Linnie (goes Off in mock disgust
Girls like me don't count Ny hand can
get well itselft'r all you care. Wal n
so it goes. Goes into the house,
Reeves-And you live there: point
ing at the house,
Alice-Yes, with my people.
Reeves - Through your horrible
winters?
Alice (quietly)-Yes. and there are
days when that hut, poor as it is. seem:
like palace. Last winter it seemed as
if the snow would never tire of sliding te
and fro on the plains. Days and days
we were shut up here.
Reeves deeply affected) u Heavens
what prison. And yet saw dozens not
so good as came along.
Alice (quietly)-We lived in that sod
shanty year.
Reeves Qifting his head)-And this
is the free and glorious west! Oh, il
makes me wild to think of you living
there-it's worse than the tenemen,
house.
Alice firmly but sweetly)-There was
NO other way. They couldn't have lived
without me. My little teaching has
kept US in groceries. and beside. there
have been days when father was too
lame to work and have worked in the
fields. and taken care of the cattle in
the barn
Reeves (seizing her hands)-Don't tell
me any more-l'll rage-Tll swear.
Alice-We must bear it.
Reeves (savagely)-Bear it. ! won't
bear it. I'll expose the whole internal
matter in four column leader. I'll
smash the next boomer that says free
land to me. Free land! if this is free
land, what the devil
Alice stopping him)-Hush. hush,
Reeves freeing himself)-I say. ii
this is free land what in the devil would
you call high-priced land? The settler
pays for his free land all that makes
life worth living: these families have
purchased their bare and miserable
acres with blood and sweat and tears
Free land. bah! For a century there
has been no free land in America.
Alice trying to be calm)-I know it,
but it only makes it worse to think Of it
neutrality-suspicious. it then. for I've
come to take you out of it Hush. now,
not word. I've let you spoil FIVE of
the best years Of my life. You shan't
say a world must be heard now
Then follows a struggle between Alice
and her lover, in which she refuses to
leave her parents and go with him to
the East, at the end of which he retires,
angered at her obstinacy.
| The fourth scene describes the terri
BILE droughts that is destroying the crops
and reducing Edwards to despair, since
another failure will insure the fore
closure of his mortgage and leave him
without even his miserable home. The
storm ends with terrible tornado, ac-
companied by hail, which absolutely de-
stroys the crops and wrecks the build
ings. Edwards himself receiving severe
injuries from which he barely escapes
with his life to find himself, in the end.
paralyzed. Walter Reeves, who has not
left the country, returns and successful
4