Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1890-09-19
UNDER THE WHEEL,
uamlin Garlands New Piay-The Single
Tax Idea In the Drem

hafnlih Safidhus new PfaS-The single
Tax Idea In the Dire ina.
In the July mum Der of the Arena Me-
Hamlin Garland's new play, Under the
Wheel" is printed in fall 1t is a play
with a purpose, iSnd thatypurpose is the
demonstration that under existing
economic conditions there is no escape
for the honest toiler from grinding pow
erty.
The play opens with q scene in Bos-
ton tenement house, where Jason Ed
wards, his wife and two daughters have
their home Edwards is a man who,
having learned mis- trade and married,
began life with Ihe hope of securing
modest competence. His eldest daugh-
ter, Allie, evidently received good cd
1cation, and at the time the play opens
is studying music with a view to becom-
ing singer. A second daughter, Lin
ME, much younger than her sister, APP
pears from her talk not 10 have had Al
lies educational advantages, but she is
an important figure in the drama. Allie
is introduced to AS as already engaged
10 young newspaper man named
Reeves, and the first glimpse we have
of the social problem is in a converse
ton between these two in scene 1. Mrs.
Edwards invites the young man to stay
to supper and the following colloquy
takes place.
Reeves-No, thank you, I've got a
little work at the office, and then I've
got to go ont and report an anti-pov-
erty meeting at the Tempe. Special
job.
Alice-Whatki ndof meeting is that,
for PHYS sake?
Reeves preparing to go)-Oh, a
cranky kind. Henry George started it.
Some absurd idea about abolishing pow
erty.
Alice with profound sigh}-I wish
it wasn't SO absurd. 1 don't see why
poverty is so persistent in this age of
invention.
Reeves las if struck by her words)-
Come to think of it, it is more absurd to
think the abolition of poverty absurd.
Why shouldn't it be abolished? What's
the good of progress if it don't? Gle
muses. with bent head.) l don't see
whore the laugh comes in myself. DO
you know, I've been thinking and writ
ing on these things of late? l don't
know why; it's in the air, / guess
Everybody's got some cure. cleans his
elbow on a,cnair. speaks in slow, deep,
musing voice. l stood on the Brooklyn
bridge the other day and looked down
on New York. Over me scared and
sung those stupendous cables, the
marvel of mans skill, etched on the
sky, delicate as a spiders web
stood there looking down at the sea
of grimy roofs, lava-like, hideous
flood of brick and mortar. cracked and
scanned, and monstrous for its lack of
line or touch of beauty-a modern city.
j saw men running 20 and fro, like ants,
lost in the tumult of life and death
struggle. | saw pale girls sowing there
in dens reelSing with pestilence. saw
myriads of homes where the children
could play only in the street or on the
sooty roof, colonies of hopeless settlers
sixty feet from their mother earth. And
over me scared the bridge to testify to
the inventive genius of man. And / said
then what | say now, that men have in
vented a thousand ways of producing
wealth. but not one for properly disbut-
ing it. l don't know where the trouble
is. If we once knew the trouble, some
body'd find a cure. Abolition of proper
ty. (He muses. a moment, then starts.)
Well, goodbye, I'll write this up in a
leader. with a return to his cheerful
manner, takes her hand, makes an elab-
crate obeisance.) await your pleas
ure. Farewell, my queen. Goes out
without looking bacll)
Alice-(Looks after him smilingly.
AS she comes back the smile fades from
her face.) Isn't it terrible to be poor
mother?
Mrs. Z. with quiet pathos)-Yes, dear;
but I've kind o got used to it. l don't
look FIR any thing else now. l don't care
s. much FIR m'self, but I'd like t. see my
children safe from 1T.
Alice SEATED with bent head)-Oh.
how sweet it must be to be free from the
fear Of poverty! To feel that you don't
need to scrimp and pinch, and turn
dresses and dye feathers, and wear old
shoes; to feel that food will come when |
you need it; to have the soul set free for
art Ueaping up, her face aglow.) But |
I'll win yet, mother; | feel in my soul |
that have the gift. I'll take you out |
of this
Prese ntly Ed wards returns, who, after
some chaff with Linnie, remarks to his |
wife that it seems very hot and that it |
is absolutely worse than the shop. The |
conversation between them gives an |
idea of the financial condition Of the |
family and the rooms in which they are |
compelled to live, and incidentally intro |
duces some other characters, ending |
with the resolution on the part Of Ed
wards and his family to go west
Edwards-Why don't you open the
door?
Mrs. Ell can't stand the noise and |
smell might, my head aches. Some
times it seems IS If l couldn't bear it,
but | think O people who don't have as
much as we do, and so keep a-goin'.
Edwards walking about That's
al o1lt thn only L, 10 r,ntiarA La