The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-04-07

BILE pillars.' The floor is Of marble.
Scattered about are rich rugs. Trop-
ical plants, bronze ornaments, fountains,
and images Of Canaanitish gods are
placed here and there. Thru a lattice
window at the back Is a view of the
city Of Jericho. The rising curtain dis
closes men and maidens who dance to
the music of harps and citherns, and
then one. OF the women sings: ~.
Rahab is queen Of love; her dress
Betrays the beauty clasped within;
Her mouth is made for tenderness;
Men lose their souls, her grace to win;
She stands like a pomegranate tree, ~
Straight, beautiful and proud to see.
The warm dusk-splendor OF her eyes ,@-.
Might wreck the councils Of king .
Not stateliecA the Jordan flies - ~ 1888
is Than do her feet in .pleasuring; < So -
She doth enthrall with magics three;
With doubt, and hope, and glamory.
Then strike rich chords Of pain and bliss
For Rahab. rose of Jericho; 49,.
A regal flower to pluck and kiss,
And woman's bitter-sweet to knows
In all the lists of coQuetry, r..
None walks so wonderful as she. -.
Then enters a soothsayer who fore
sees strange things for woman Of such
a house: .. -....-s.. .......
ALL about her. ranged in ranks,
Throng saints and sages, and mighty ones
Whose deeds make nations; and they hail and
hail -, '-'
The woman. ..-. ...-. ...s g.. IF. 49,
The strange conduct Of Rahab Of late
suggests her as the woman meant, but
one of the men cries:
s yRahnb the wanton ranged about by saints!
: Rahab.. enters, but the revelry dis
pleases her and she disnlisses all but
her maid, to whom she tells dream, in
which she has seen Jericho destroyed.
Soon enter two Israelitish spies who
ask refreshment. This is provided. Sal
mon, the leader Of the spies, after par
taking of the food, declares the COM
ing doom Of the city, but, as In the
Biblical story, says Rahab and her fam
ily shall be spared for harboring Israel s
spies. At the same moment he declares
his love for the woman. The author
saves the scene from bathos and makes
it one of marked beauty and feeling.
Then come Canaanitish guards in search
Of the spies who, on the approach of
the searchers, heralded by trumpets, are
successfully concealed by Rahab. The
guards finally go away. their trumpets
lance, according to the parenthetical
stage directions.
| The second act is in the garden of
Rahab, Rahab waiting anxiously for
the coming Of her parents and sister
for whom she has sent in order that
they may be saved from the destruction
of the city which impends. The close OF
the act is marked by minor climax OF
power, which shows the woman Of Jer
icho to have made progress in her sep
aration from her old life. The curtain
goes down to s'the minor strain from
Rahab 8 song with triumph in it, YET
unrest and struggle
The scene for the third and final ac1
is the same as that for the first act
| The time for the fall of the walls O:
| the city to the blast of the Israelitisl
trumpets ana the shouting of the people
lis near.
The wounded in the garden lie about
In WRITTEN heaps; MANNED by the missiles hurle
I Over the walls. they groan and sicken and die
j Rahab has succeeded in getting he
/ father. who is q high officer of tn
Canaanite King, her mother, and he
sister, to her home. But the father like
not his surroun dings, neither the pas
life Of his daughter nor her treason
His departure Is delayed by Rahat
however, until the walls crumble at tn
|
rael; and the motif of Rahab.'s song i
heard once more, this time in triumph
ant major.
4 The unfolding Of the plot is ad1nira
bly, simple and direct. The incident
| thru which this is accomplished ar
well graduated and logically arranged
4 The drama has unity. But in Salmon
4 love scene with Rahab, as also in til
scene when the father tries to brea
away, near the major climax, to retur
to the king, there is a lack Of that il
tensity Of feeling that one looks fo
under such circumstances. Restraint i
such scenes is desirable, but restrain
may be overdone and a certain fatnes
result. Somewhat Of such fairness
noticeable in both the scenes mentioned
tho it is far better SO than that passio
4 should have been torn to tatters.
Rahab appears as a more satisfactor
character on q second reading, yet sh
still lacks fire in certain scenes. He
! father seems either too little or ia