Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1890-09-20
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
UNDER THE WHEEL.
aamlIn oariand's New Piay-The Single
Tax Idea I'm tho Drama.

Reeves (tenderly. smiling)-Yes,
thirsty for the sight o; you. (Alice goes
into the house. Reeves walks about,
CHANGING keenly at oil points OF the
plain.) So this is the reality Of tho en-
igrant's dreaml The homestead in the
free West, the house beside the river
.embowered in trees!
"A wide dun land where the hcrce 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 sighs
And the hot red morning has no birds
My God! what place for my beautiful
girl anybody's girl-a wide-walled
grave.
(Alice enters with glass, which she
fills and hands to him. He drinks, say
ing): In o land like this the gift OF
water must mean as it does with tho
Arabs, the highest hospitality.
Alice-I can't say how much I've
shall
Reeves quitting his arm about her)
Don't try. II had only bnown your
real fcelings-but how could from
those letters? Cooking of left. What
in the world is that girl doing9 She's
unhitching my team! Illstop her. (Ex.
u, talking.)
Alice walking about)-How can let
him 60 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 Liunie, hold
ing her by the hands)-I suppose this is
Linnie-anybow the little witch was
unhitching my team; another minute
and she might have had runaway.
Linnie (scornfully)-Runaway moth
dng! 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!
STROKES it, Poor bruised little hand.
Kisses it,
Linnie (goes of in mock disgust)-
Girls like me don't count Ny hand can
get we'll itself f'r all you care. Wal n
so it goes. Goes into the house.)
Reeves-And you live there? point
ing ut the house,
Alice-Yes, with my people.
Reeves - Through your horrible
winters?
Alice (quietly)-Yos. and there are
days when that hlSt, poor as 1t Is, seems
like palace. Last winter it seemed as
If the snow would never tire Of sliding to
and fro on the plains. Days and days
we were shut up here.
Reeves deeply Affected Heavens,
what prison! And yet saw dozens not
so good as came along
Alice (quietly)-We lived in that sod
ehantya year.
Reeves Qifting his head)-And this
As the free and glorious west! Oh, it
snakes me wild to think Of you living
there-it's worse than the tenement
house.
Alice (firmly but sweetly)-There was
no other way. They couldn'tihave 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-I'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 q four column leader. I'll
smash the next boomer that says free
land to me. Free land! II 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 o 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 1t.
Reeyes(q uickly) Forget 1t 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 q world must be heard now.
Then follows 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,
iangered at her obstinacy.
The fourth scene describes the terri
BILE dronghts that is destroying the crops
and reducing Edwards to despair, since
another failure will insure the fore
alosure Of his mortgage and leave him
without even his miserable home. The
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