The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-01-21
MAJOR BARBARA, A DISCUSSION

Iea0lng part;
The play opens with delightful con-
versation between Lady Britomart I'm
dershaft and her son Stephen. Lady
Brttomart daughter Of a Wing Earl
firm in the principles of mid-Victorian
Liberalism and fond of ordering every
body about asks Stephen for advice.
debating to him what he shall advise.
Her difficulty is to get money to pro-
vide doWTies for her two manageable
daughters, Sarah--who is colOrless, and
engaged to an ordinary society fool
without final gs, Charles Lomax-and
Barbara-a SalvatiOnist major engaged !
to AdOlphus Cusins, a professor Of
| Greek, who has joined the Salvation I
Army Gas big drum in order to be near
| his beloved. Greek scholars, we are
! told, are privileged; few of them know
Greek and none of them knows any
thing else; but Professor Cusins knows
how to win the way to Barbara's
heart). Lady Britomart in the end ad-
vises herself to apply for the necessary
funds to her husband, Andrew, MIL
lionaire and manufacturer Of tOrpedoes.
guns, aerial battleships, explosives and
all known implements of destruction.
She has separated from Andrew be-
cause she cannot agree with him as
| to the future disposal of the Under I
shaft business. Stephen is her candi- /
date, but Andrew feels bound by the |
time-honored tradition Of the Under /
shafts, which is to leave the busineSsi
to an adopted founding. In this he
proudly lilxens the line Of Understands /
to the Antoine emperors, who always /
adopted their successors. Another |
cause Of dissension between husband /
and wife is Andrews queer attitude in !
regard to morality. While all the rest !
Of the world practice immortality, but !
own themselves in the wrong by
preaching morality Andrew practices
is only the Wing and mid-VictOTian
way Of stating that Andrew, as we
shall by and by see, is a, Nietzschean.
Andrew visits Lady Brftomart at her
| invitation. and is introduced to the
| family. which has grown up In his abb
sence. OF course, he takes every gen
| tleman In the room for his son except
the right one Cthis is Mr.. Shaw's little
gibe at the old voiX du sang), and finds
the right one quite embarrassing when
he does know him. His interest IS, in
fact, concentrated on Barbara. Him
self the master of a vast concern, he
would like TO know all about the organ
ization of the Salvation Army Bar
| bara, or her side, catches fire at the
idea of Saving" her fathers soul"
and invites him to the barracks.
Agreed; provided that, in return, she
viii visit her fathers workshops. And
the question is: VIII Barbara convert
Andrew to SaIvationism or Andrew
convert Barbara TO the gospel Of Pow
er. Barbara is confident of success.
Act II passes in the West Ham shell
ter Of the Salvation Army. We are
presented to various types OF converts.
There are a pair of hypOcrites who in
vent past wickedness in order to get
more credit for the present regeneTa-
ton. Where would they get the
money from If we were TO let on as
we're no worse than other peOple?"
The male hypOcrtte has the glory Of
"confessing'' on platforms The fe-
male one jealousy deplores that "our
confession as to be whispered" A
third convert is a free thinker and an
honest workman, turned out Of his job
because his hair is (prematurely) gray;
he accepts charity only as loan, but
cannot help admiring the missionary
zeal of the Salvation major. "Ah. if
you'd only read Tom Paine in a proper
spirit!" A fourth cOnverG is a drunken
brute who "baSheS" women before our
eyes-so brutally that we wish Profess
sOr Cusins had inculcated Mr.. Shaw
with a certain Aristotelian principle.
Well, the Salvationist lasses, cruelty
Sm1tten, turn the other cheek, and
pray for the smiter, and Professor
Cusins, "a sort Of collector OF religions,
and inclined to believe in them ALL" de-
liVers a panegyric on Salvationism,
which he compares to the worship Of
Dionysos. Andrew Understand, not to
be outdOne by a wealthy distil1er, gives
the army a check for G5 900, and is
even preparing to join the procession
with q trOmbOne-when Barbara sud-
denly stops the way. She has seen the
army, in terrible straits for money,
take aims from the diStiller and the
gun manufacturer. 1t is in vain that
her father breaches the beneficent IN
fiuences Of war. It is in vain that he
defends aIcokol-alcohol which cen
ables parliament to do at IL O'Clock al
night what no sane person would do at.
II O'clock in the morning" Barbara,
cannot believe in a religion even indi-
1ectly based on drunkenness and MUIR
der.
In the third we start with a discus
cussiOn between Lady Britomart and
her husband as to their son Stephens
future profession. He knows nothing
and thinks he knows everything"
THAT clearly" says Andrew, points
to a political career" But Stephen in
terpOlates some fine stereOtyped
phrases about the British character.
All, says Andrew, now we know
what to do with you, my boy; you are
born journalist" Whereupon they
all depart to inspect the Understand
machine shops and model town with
everything up to date, including ethical
societies and a William Morris Labor
speeches from Understand himself on
the Armorer's Faith, the Gospel Of
Power, and other NietzSchean GIN
cracks. We learn how poetry is the
worst Of all crimes, how rent land half
a dozen other economic things which
We forgot are the Seven Deadly Sins.
and how we ought to treat the old
morality as Undershaft treats worn
out battleshiDs or obsolete guns. Mo
rality that doesn't 1T the facts-'scrap
it,! Finally, when they have all
talked themselves out Git was at this
stage that we began to feel so tired),
Professor Cusins is taken into the I'm
dershaft business Cf not exactly a
founding he is the next thing to it.
as his father married his deceased
wife's sister,, and gets the hand of Bar
bara Though Barbara has renowned
SalvatiOniSm, we are to understand
that she still retains her missionary
zeal She will convert her fathers
model town TO some faith or other, We
know not exactly what For as she