Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-06-20
easily be- for the best interest of the
state.

"Friendly + nemies" was the title OF
n powerful dra ma that was presented
by, the Redpathf chautauqua last Fri
day night. The large audience sat
through it with keen interest and
great enjoyment There was much
humor and pathost in it, and not a lit
tie patriotism; butt after it was over
some of those who were present were
cons trained to wonder
the why of it all just at this time.
The evident motive of the play was
to teach the splend id patriotism and
LOYALTY of German American citizens.
Karl Pfeffer and Henry Block had
come to America in the steerage' when
they were young and after getting
hold as shoemakers had gotten along
in the world. When the war broke
out both were middle aged. Block had
become very rich and Pfeffer was
well -to-do. They were great friends.
Paeffer had q son who was in love
with Blocks daughter Block and his
daughter were four-;;Quare American
sympathizers - red blooded Ameri-
cans. So were Mrs. Pfleffer and her
son, william; but the latter were COM
PEELED to hide their feelings from the
father and husband, for he was Ger
man to the core. Much Of the splen-
did humor of the play centered around
the quarrels between Pfieffer' and
Block-Blocks efforts to convince
Pfeffer that the Fatherland with its
Kaiserism was wrong, and Pfeffer's
stubborn refusal TO see anything of
the kind. When old man Pfeffer
learned that his son, William, had
been nine months at Plattsburg in
stead of at college and that his wife
had known it all along, he left home
in q terrible passion that broke his
wife's heart, and he refused to go to
the ship to see his boy leave with his
regiment. In the meantime he had
contributed S50,000 to n German spy
with the understanding that the mon
to help end the war. But that night
came news from the sky that the
troop ship with 5000 soldiers had
been sunk and later he learned that his
own boy was aboard. AS the result
of the conditions that had been
brought about in his family, Pfieffer
To- n and
listening to the persistent and insist
ent arguments and persuasion of
Block he came to his senses and turn
| ed over. Between the two they trap
ped and captured the spy and later it
turned out that the boy had not been
drowned but had put off notifying his
parents because of the first duty he
owed in trying to help his distressed
men. AS stated, it was wonderfully
strong story wonderfully presented; /;
but there is about it all that which i'm
pells one to ask for the why's, the
more especially in the light of the in
formation that the Redpath people
have no less than half 4 dozen compa-
nies presenting this identical play from
five to six nights a week. One Of the
first why's is the motive Of this par
ticular German play, when there is
abundant material for American plays
of the same character and no less stir
ring in their nature. The play un-
doubtedly emph, sizes the perfect quail
ity of German patriotism and loyalty,
even that Of the spy and one is con-
calculated to eXalt German citizenship
above any other. 1t would have SEEM
cd impossible to have intensified the
patriotism of any American over that
attributed to Karl and Henry. 1t is
possible that the effect of all this could
be other than the eXaltation of Ger
man citizenship generally and the
value of such eXaltation just at this
time is so great that even the Redpath
people must surely be able to see 1t.
And with so great propaganda value
to German people there is reason to
wonder whether the Redpath people
are putting on this great play for
purely altruistic reasons. If some
body is paying for all this, who is that
sc melody likely to be? However,
Friendly Enemies is a great play.