Moral | Page 2

banker.
LENA BEERMANN, his wife.

EFFIE BEERMANN, their daughter.
KOMMERZIENRAT ADOLPH BOLLAND, capitalist and
manufacturer
CLARA BOLLAND, his wife.
DR. HAUSER, an ex-judge.
FRAU LUND, an old lady.
HANS JACOB DOBLER, a poet.
FRAULEIN KOCH-PINNEBERG, an artiste.
PRIVATDOZENT DR. WASNER, a gymnasium professor.
FREIHERR VON SIMBACH, the Police Commissioner of the Duchy.
ASSESSOR OSCAR STROEBEL, a police official.
MADAME NINON DE HAUTEVILLE, a lady of leisure.
FREIHERR GENERAL BOTHO VON SCHMETTAU, also known as
Zurnberg, A Gentleman-in-waiting and Adjutant to His Highness, the
Duke.
JOSEPH REISACHER, a clerk of the Police Department.
BETTY, a maid at Beersmann's.
Two man-servants and a policeman.

THE PRESUMPTION
The esteemed, sensitive public will assume that the action takes place
in Emilsburg, the capital of the Duchy of Gerlestein. The first and third
acts occur in the house of Herr Fritz Beermann; the second act, in the
Police Headquarters. It all happens between Sunday afternoon and
Monday evening.
To be free from blame, the producers will please note that:
BEERMANN is in the fifties; jovial; lively; with gray side- whiskers
and chin carefully shaved.
FRAU BEERMANN is in the late forties, though youthful looking for
her age.
FRAU LUND. sixty-eight; a woman of impressive appearance; her
manner is energetic; her mass of white hair is carefully coiffured.
FRAU BOLLAND. about forty-five; stout; talkative.
DR. WASNER. a tall German professor with full blond beard; deep
voiced; wears pince-nez with black tortoise shell rim and broad black
cord.
HANS JACOB DOBLER. is a poet; he is dressed in a poor fitting cut-

away coat; unkempt mustache and Van Dyke beard.
FRAULEIN PINNEBERG, a feminist, wears a loose fitting gown.
DR. HAUSER. fifty; smooth shaven; wears gold rimmed spectacles,
VON SCHMETTAU, sixty; remains stately looking with effort;
military bearing.
MADAME DE HAUTEVILLE--indefinitely twenty; her
ultra-fashionable Parisian gowns invite the cloak and suit patrons.

"MORAL"
ACT I
FURTHER APOLOGY
(Card room in Beermann's house. In the background a swinging door
opens into the dining room. To the right a smaller door leads to the
music room. On the left side another door opens into the entrance hall.
To left upstage in a corner a small card table with chairs. To right
upstage a large sofa and comfortable chairs. Parallel to background
down stage, tea table with coffee service thereon; near it to right,
smaller table, on it a humidor.
A butler is engaged at the tea table, another man servant is holding
swinging door open. [Business of getting up from table.] Many voices
and rattle of chairs are heard from dining room. Through swinging
doors enters Bolland and Frau Beermann, Beermann with Frau Bolland,
Dr. Hauser with Effie, Dr. Wasner with Fraulein Koch-Pinneberg,
Dobler alone.)
General greeting of "Mahlzeit."
Dr. Wasner is vigorously shaking hands--going to Frau Beermann says,
"Ich wunsche Gesegnete Mahlzeit."
The servants pass around coffee--Beermann conversing with Bolland
comes down stage ...
BOLLAND. You will receive two thousand votes more than the
Socialists. That's certain.
BEERMANN [skeptical]. No,--no.
BOLLAND. If all the Liberals combine with the Conservatives, the
result cannot be in doubt.
BEERMANN [taking coffee from the servant]. If ...
BOLLAND. Fusion is here. It's the logical development. I am an old
politician. The time for discussion is over. Now it's a straight fight to a

finish.
DR. WASNER [coming nearer]. The German fatherland is rallying to
the support of the national flag.
BEERMANN. But there are controversies everywhere. I know best. I
always am told by campaign managers: don't say this and don't say that.
BOLLAND. In what way?
BEERMANN. For instance, I'm to speak at the Liberal Club the day
after to-morrow. You would not expect me to say the same things I told
the Conservatives last night ...?
BOLLAND. Your details, of course, must differ. But fundamentally it
amounts to the same thing.
BEERMANN. The same thing? Believe me, all this masking confuses
me. [Drinks.]
EFFIE [calling across the tea table where she has been standing with
others]. Papa! Listen to Frau Bolland. She also says that the Indian
Dancer is so interesting.
FRAU BOLLAND. Positively won--derful, Herr Bolland! You can
conceive the entire spirit of the Orient,
EFFIE. Why haven't we gone to see her?
FRAU BOLLAND. You surely ought to go. Professor Stohr--you know
him--told me he never in his life saw anything so gorgeous.
FRAULEIN KOCH-PINNEBERG. She's so picturesque in her greenish
gowns.
FRAU BOLLAND. I did not know that the Hindoos could be so
charming.
BEERMANN. We'll have a look at her some night.
EFFIE. But to-morrow night is her last appearance.
BEERMANN [going to the humidor]. Very well darling. Will you
remind me of it to-morrow? [Taking a box of cigars offers one to
Dobler who is standing near him.] Smoke?
DOBLER [taking one]. Thanks. But I am not accustomed to the
imported ones.
BEERMANN [patronizingly]. You'll get