Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1890-09-13
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
UNDER THE WHEEL.
Hamlin Garland's Now Play-Tho Single
Tax idea in the Drama.
TcoNrINuEp FROM LAST ISSUE.

hOpNCo ohhiAahSl OH' |
thirsty for the sight of you. (Alice goes
glancing keenly at all points of the
plain.) So this is the reality of the en-
igrants dreaml The homestead in the |
free West, the house beside the river
embowered in trees!
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 sighs,
And the hot, red morning has no birds
My God! what place for my beautiful
girl-for anybody's girl-a wide-walled
grave.
(Alice enters with 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 Two
shall
Reeves quitting his arm about her)
Don't try. If had only known your
real feelings-but how could l from
those letters? (Loolsing off loft. What
in the world is that girl doing? She's
unhitching my team! rllstop her. (Ex.
1, tallling.)
Alice (wallsing about)-How can let
him go again? Have the strength
But must, Imust! 1 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 rnfully)-Runaway moth
ing! What do you take me for? Allie
and hitch up the horses and go out in
the fields-we plow, and drive the har-
vester-and we help shock the wheat
don't we, Allie?
Reeves (surprised) DIDO you do that?
With this hand, that used to love to
watch on the piano? o horrors!
(Strolles it.) Poor bruised little hand.
(Kisses it,
Linnie (goes off in mock disgust)-
Girls like me don't count My hand can
get we'll itself FIR 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, seems
like a 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 y Heavens,
what a prison! And yet 1 saw dozens not
so good as | came along.
Alice (quietlyl-We lived in that sod
shanty year.
Reeves 0ifting his head)-And this
is the free and glorious west! Oh, it
makes 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'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-I'll rage-I'll swear.
Alice-We must bear it.
: Reeves (savagely)-Bear it! 1 won't
bear it, I'll expose the whole internal
3 matter in four column leader. III
3 smash the next boomer that says free
land to me. Free land! if this is free
8 land, what the devil
Alice stopping him)-Hush, hush!
, Reeves (freeiRg himself)-I say, i
: this is free land what in the devil would
you call high-priced land? The settler
pays for his free land all that make!
life worth living; these families have
: purchased their bare and miserable
acres with blood and sweat and tears
q Free land! bah! For a century ther,
u has been no free land in America.
y Alice Crying to be calm)-I know it
J. but it only makes it worse to think of it
y Reeves( Quickly ly)--Forgetit then, for I'v
come to take you out of it. Hush, now
Not word. I've let you spoil five o
A the best years of my life. You shan
say world must be heard now.
Then follows a struggle between Alic
and her lover. in which She refuses t.
leave her parents and go with him t
the East, at the end of which he retires
angered at her obstinacy
l.
BILE droughts that is destroying the crop
and reducing Edwards to despair, sine
another failure will insure the fore
closure of his mortgage and leave hir
without even his miserable home. Th
storm ends with terrible tornado, az
companied by hail, which absolutely dc
stroys the crops and wrecks the build
ings, Edwards himself receiving sever
injuries from which he barely escape
with his life to find himself, in the enc
paralyzed. Walter Reeves who has nc
left tho country, returns and successful
ly presses his suit, and the final sol,
tion of the problem is that he takes tn
broken old man East and cares for hi
family, charity having to be called in {
last, since there is no possibility of fnC
ing a place whore a man by mere indus
try can make way against such obstacle
as have beset Edwards The play enc
L 4 ,lsN., L.