Freedom, Truth and Beauty | Page 9

wilderness,?And shaped it into hills of hope for man,?Must providence its beautiful creation?With altruistic love and tenderness;?So that all tribes of man, what'er their hue,?Have each a hill where it can touch the star?That it has followed with its mental growth."
Such a program is rendered imperative by the inexorability of the law of race, which nullifies any attempts to force assimilation:
"It is a foolish, futile thing?To try to shape society by codes,?Vetoed by Nature. Nature trumpets forth?No edict, through the instinct of a race,?Proclaiming certain territory hers?And warning all encroaching powers therefrom,?Without the ordering out of her reserves?To see to it the edict is enforced.?Let politics keep off forbidden shores."
If any powers preserve in a policy of oppression, our duty is plain:
"To teach the barbarous tribes throughout the globe,?Christian or Turk, that all humanity?Is territory sheltered by our flag;?That butchery must cease throughout the world;?That, having ended human slavery,?Old glory has a mission from on high?To stop the slaughter of the smiling babe,?The pale, crazed mother, weak, defenseless sire,?All places on the habitable globe."
Finally to render feasible the ideal development of all peoples, and put an end to war, America must bring about a league of all nations. It develops on us--
"To get the races by degrees together?To talk their grievance over, in a voice?As gentle as a woman's....?There is no education in the world?Like human contact for mankind's advance;?All differences, then, adjust themselves;?But when two races are estranged by hate,?They grow so deaf to one another's rights,?That it soon comes to pass that either has?To use the trumpet of artillery?In order to be heard at all."
Recently, Doyle wrote the following lines. Their application is obvious:
"Vault Godward, Poet. What though few may climb?The mountain and the star on trail of thee??Thy wing-flash beams toward man, and if it be?True inspiration--whether thought sublime,?Or fervor for the truth, or liberty--?Thy light will reach the earth in goodly time."
What wonder that from so lofty an outlook his searching eye should pierce the tragedy of "The Jews in Russia"--or elsewhere--should pierce even the revenges that Time would ring in, and rest on a vision of righteous peace!
DAVID KLEIN, Ph.D.
_AUTHOR OF LITERARY CRITICISM, from the Elizabethian Dramatist._
GENEVRA
(_From the "Independent," May 30, 1912._)
The scene of Mr. Edward Doyle's new play is the Florence of 1400; the atmosphere that of a plague stricken city in a time when man was helpless, authorities hopeless, social life in shreds and patches. The plot of the play founded on this state of affairs is rich in incident, varied and sufficiently complex in color, passion and character to furnish material for an exciting spectacular representation. The tragic element is strong, but supported and shaded by the company of roysterers, a jester, whose foolery is a compound of bluff of that period and bluff of modern politics and athletics. The jester, the black company and the penitents, together with the roysterers, form now the foreground, now the background, of action, which in itself is never without the dolorous sound of the death bell. The doomed city is under a spell comparable to that set forth so vividly in Manzoni's "I Promessi Sposi." Says the villain of the plot as he listens from his seat at the festive board:
"It bodes ill for the black Cowled company?To make a visit to a festive house.?'Tis like death looking in and whispering 'Next.'?Fool, call the servants. Bid them fetch the wine--?A cask of it--the best varnaccio!?Here come my friends to help me drown the Plague."
Pictures like this as sharply defined are frequent and throw in shadowed blackening on shadow. The author defends the use of a meteorological phenomenon translated in the spirit of the time as supernatural by quoting Dante as recognizing it, but the authority of Dante was not necessary to justify the dramatist in introducing the "Crimson Cross." It was a part of the pyrotechnics of the church propaganda. Though the advance of scientific discovery has laid a heavy hand on thaumaturgy of the sort, it would no doubt, have its use when properly handled on a modern stage. The action of the drama is rapid and natural, the characters well drawn and individualized, the dialogue spicy, forceful and varied.
Price $1.00.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
DEDICATION
TO THE DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
I
What lineage so noble as from Sires,
Laureled by Freedom? For, who, but the brave?Have glory to transmit? The Hero's grave?Blooms ever. It is there the spring retires?To dream to flowers, her heart and soul desires,
When winter's whitening wind, like wash of wave,?Sweeps mauseleums of the skulk and knave?From mounts of glare off to Oblivion's mires.
The bloom, for which mere wealth lacks length of arm,
And fainting Time takes for reviving scent,?Fame, with bright eyes from heart and soul content,?Forms wreaths for Valor's Daughters--crowns that charm?Not with death-smells from Human welfare rent
But breath of Country's rescue from dire harm.
II
Those crowns,