Part 4
Not a great deal.
UNCLE GEORGE
Peyton has some rather interesting ancestors, Miss Mason. There’s Captain John Peyton. That’s his picture. He helped win one of the battles which made this country possible--the country in which you are living. And a descendant of John Peyton--Richard Peyton [_Points out the picture_] gave the money which founded this university--the university in which you are now acquiring your education.
JHANSI
[_Lightly._] Perhaps it would be quite as well if this university--and this country--never had existed.
MRS. ROOT
I don’t see why Bessie _doesn’t_ come!
JHANSI
Of course I look at it as an outsider. I am not a part of your society.
UNCLE GEORGE
Peyton is.
MRS. ROOT
There’s Bessie!
[_Bessie rushes in._
BESSIE
Grandmother! [_Swiftly kissing her._] How wonderful to have you with us again! Dear Uncle George!
UNCLE GEORGE
Glad you got here, Bessie. Your mother has been looking for you.
BESSIE
[_A movement of greeting to JHANSI._] Isn’t it beautiful to all be together? A real family party! And now--we have a moment or two before dinner, mother?
MRS. ROOT
The man who brought the turkey in from the country had a runaway, so it was a little late in arriving.
BESSIE
How fortunate! Oh, it does seem that all things work together for the best. Mother, I have had a completely successful day!
GRANDMOTHER
Where’ve you been, Bessie?
BESSIE
I’ve been fifty miles to the north--in Baxter County. Does that mean anything to you, Jhansi?
JHANSI
Not a thing.
BESSIE
[_Still breathlessly._] Dear uncle, I hope you will understand what I am about to do. It might seem unrestrained--not in the best of taste, but it’s just because you stand for so much in Peyton’s life that I want you to hear our good news as soon as we hear it ourselves. You knew that these two children were in love and going to be married. [_A bow from UNCLE GEORGE._] You know--Jhansi dear, I may speak very freely, may I not?
JHANSI
I believe in free speech.
BESSIE
Yes--how dear of you. Jhansi has endured in proud silence a great grief. And now, dear child, because of the touching dignity with which you have stood outside and alone, it is a moment of special joyfulness to me when I can say--Welcome Within!
PEYTON
What are you talking about, Bessie?
BESSIE
You must not stand outside society! You belong _within_ the gates. You are one of us!
JHANSI
I’m _not_.
BESSIE
Dear child you are as respectable as we are.
JHANSI
[_Rising._] I am _not_.
BESSIE
Of course, you can’t grasp it in an instant. But I have looked it all up, dear. I have the proofs.
PEYTON
Well it wasn’t your affair, Bessie.
BESSIE
I made it my affair because I love my brother. Jhansi dear, [_As one who tells tremendous good news_] your father was Henry Harrison, a milkman in the town of Sunny Center--an honorable and respected man. Your parents were married in the Baptist Church!
JHANSI
I deny it! I deny this charge!
BESSIE
[_Stepping to the hall._] Dear Senator and Mrs. Byrd, will you come now?
[_Enter STATE SENATOR BYRD and MRS. STATE SENATOR BYRD, MRS. BYRD carrying a large book._
BESSIE
Jhansi dear, you are about to enter upon the happiest moment of your life, for State Senator Byrd, one of our law-making body, is a cousin of your dear dead mother.
SENATOR BYRD
Aggie’s little girl!
[_He goes to JHANSI with outstretched hands. But AGGIE’S little girl stands like a rock._
BESSIE
And here, Jhansi, is your cousin Mrs. Byrd, who has come all this way to assure you you have a family.
MRS. BYRD
Indeed you have! There’s Ella Andrews, one of our teachers--a lovely girl. She’s your first cousin. We are second cousins. You may have some little family pride in knowing that I was last spring elected President of the Federated Clubs of Baxter County. Just last week I entertained the officers of all the clubs at our home--our new home, erected last year after your cousin Ephraim completed his first term in the upper house of the State Legislature. Your cousin Ephraim has been re-elected. He is on the Ways and Means Committee.
UNCLE GEORGE
[_Approaching SENATOR BYRD._] I have heard of Senator Ephraim Byrd of the Ways and Means Committee. That was good work you fellows--
[_They talk of this._
MRS. ROOT
And to think, Jhansi, that your cousin Mrs. Byrd is a prominent clubwoman!
GRANDMOTHER
[_After a look at JHANSI._] Her cup runneth over.
MRS. ROOT
Isn’t Bessie wonderful, mother? How did you find it all out, Bessie?
BESSIE
From clue to clue I worked my way to Sunny Center. I would say to myself--Do this for Peyton; do this for Jhansi. And so, I heard of an old minister who had been there years and years. I went to him and--he had married Jhansi’s father and mother! Dearest child, your mother taught in his Sunday-School!
SENATOR BYRD
Oh, yes, Aggie loved the Baptist Sunday-School!
JHANSI
It’s very strange that my mother--I am referring to Mrs. Mason--never told me of this!
BESSIE
But she never told you you were a gypsy, either, did she? No; she just wanted you to think you were their own child. And then I suppose you heard some foolish tale at school.
MRS. BYRD
You see Jhansi’s mother and father--her real ones--died of typhoid fever before she was two years old. They got it from the cows. Well, the Harrisons were friends of the Mason’s--they all worked together in the church--and so they took Jhansi, and soon after that they moved away and we lost track of them. You know what a busy world it is--particularly for people who have duties in their community.
JHANSI
I haven’t accepted this story! You can’t prove it!
[_MRS. BYRD impressively hands her husband the book._
SENATOR BYRD
“Iowa descendants of New England families.”
MRS. ROOT
Oh, yes; that is _one_ of the books in which our family is written up! [_To PEYTON._] My dearest boy, from my heart I congratulate you!
SENATOR BYRD
Pages fifty-seven to sixty-one--inclusive, are devoted, Jhansi, to our family.
MRS. BYRD
My own family appears on page 113.
[_SENATOR BYRD holds the book out to JHANSI, who once more stands like a rock. UNCLE GEORGE steps forward to look at the book._
UNCLE GEORGE
Oh, you are a descendant of Peter Byrd.
SENATOR BYRD
One of those dare-devils whose leg was shot under him at Bull Run.
BESSIE
You heard that, Jhansi?
MRS. ROOT
A descendant of Peter Byrd!--whose leg was shot _under_ him--
JHANSI
So _this_ is what I was brought here for, is it? To have my character torn down--to ruin my reputation and threaten my integrity by seeking to muzzle me with a leg at Bull Run and set me down in the Baptist Sunday-School in a milk-wagon! I see the purpose of it all. I understand the hostile motive behind all this--but I tell you it’s a _lie_. Something here [_Hand on heart_] tells me I am not respectable!
UNCLE GEORGE
Reaction.
JHANSI
I am Jhansi--Jhansi--a child of the gypsies! I am a wanderer! I am an outlaw!
MRS. BYRD
Yes, you are Jhansi. And did you ever stop to think how you came by that outlandish name?
JHANSI
It has always assured me of my birthright.
MRS. BYRD
Well, you’d better look in your geography. You were named after a town in India where your mother’s missionary circle was helping to support a missionary.
SENATOR BYRD
Aggie was crazy about the missionaries.
JHANSI
[_Falling back, breaking._] Peyton, I release you from our engagement.
PEYTON
No. N-o; don’t do that. [_Stoutly._] I love you for yourself alone--in spite of anything that may be true. But I must say Bessie--!
JHANSI
[_Beginning to sob._] I can’t bear it. I can’t bear it! And to think that _Peyton’s_ mother was an illegitimate child.
MRS. ROOT
[_Dazed._] What’s that?
GRANDMOTHER
[_Rising._] Yes; what is that?
MRS. ROOT
Am I to understand--?
GRANDMOTHER
Am I to be told--at my age--that I gave birth to an illegitimate child? This is a surprise to me--and not a pleasant one!
PEYTON
[_To JHANSI._] It would have been better not to have mentioned that.
UNCLE GEORGE
This _is_ reaction. I think perhaps we need a physician.
JHANSI
I don’t need a physician. Peyton certainly told me that his mother was an illegitimate child. Of course, Peyton, if you were just _boasting_ about your family--say so.
UNCLE GEORGE
What have you to say, Peyton?
GRANDMOTHER
Before he says anything, Bessie, you bring me that portfolio from the lower right-hand corner of my desk. Key in the upper left hand pigeon hole.
[_Bessie goes._
MRS. ROOT
Peyton!
PEYTON
Why I didn’t mean any harm, mother. I certainly didn’t mean anything against you, or grandmother. Quite the contrary. I was just anxious that Jhansi should have a little respect for our family. It didn’t seem to have a leg to stand on.
JHANSI
So you made it up--out of whole cloth?
PEYTON
No, not out of whole cloth.
GRANDMOTHER
Out of what cloth, then? Kindly tell me, out of what cloth?
MRS. ROOT
Peyton is not himself.
PEYTON
Well, it just came into my head that it was possible. You see, grandmother, your having moved--I do wish you could see that I meant nothing against your character. Absolutely the contrary. But your having _moved_--
GRANDMOTHER
My having moved where?
PEYTON
Your having moved from New York State to Ohio at just that time--
GRANDMOTHER
I always did like to travel. Is that anything against a person’s character?
PEYTON
I was claiming that you _had_ character.
GRANDMOTHER
I’ll stick to my own, thank you. I’ve had it quite a while and am used to it. But I’d like to know right now what there is so immoral in moving from one state to another--even if you are going to have a baby?
JHANSI
[_Raising her head._] There is nothing immoral in anything.
GRANDMOTHER
Fiddlesticks. [_BESSIE hands her the folio._] You found it, Bessie? The key? Here, Peyton; come here. [_Opens portfolio, takes out a rolled paper._] Happily preserved for this defense of my character in my old age, is my wedding certificate.
MRS. BYRD
This is painful.
[_With ostentatious tact she turns and looks at a print on the rear wall; motions SENATOR BYRD to join her._
GRANDMOTHER
I want you to look at the date--right there beside that pink cupid--cherub, perhaps it is--anyway, read aloud the figures you see.
PEYTON
[_Sullenly._] 1869.
GRANDMOTHER
And here, in this other document, very fortunately at hand to meet the attacks of my only grandson upon my integrity, what do you read there?
PEYTON
Clara--aged six weeks.
GRANDMOTHER
And the date?
[_MRS. ROOT, BESSIE, UNCLE GEORGE, all listen a little anxiously._
PEYTON
December, 1871.
[_A sigh of relief._
GRANDMOTHER
I trust now, Peyton, you will admit that a woman may move from one state to another without being dissolute.
[_At this word MRS. ROOT is unable to bear more and hides her face in her handkerchief._
UNCLE GEORGE
[_As one saving the situation._] Genealogy is interesting. One is democratic, of course, but when there is behind one what there is behind us, Senator, it enhances one’s powers--responsibility--obligation. [_He has taken up the book and been running through the pages._] Descendants of John Peyton. Here, Peyton, are some things about your ancestors. Read them. Perhaps then instead of tearing down you will have an impulse to build up. I commend this book to you young people for study. It will do you no harm to think a little of those worthy men from whom you come.
[_Marks the place with a card and gives the book to PEYTON._
JHANSI
[_Springing up._] I shall waste no time thinking of the worthy men from whom I come! If I am related to a law-maker--I owe it to my soul to become a law-breaker!
MRS. ROOT
You see, Bessie, what you have done.
JHANSI
When I thought there was in me no taint of civilization, I could put up with your silly conventions, but if in a material sense I am part of your society, then I have a spiritual obligation to fulfil in leaving it! Peyton, respectability threatens to wall us in and stifle us. Are you ready to walk from this house with me tonight, entering upon a free union that says that--[_A snap of the finger_] for law?
PEYTON
Why--certainly.
MRS. BYRD
_Well_, if it comes to a matter of not caring to claim relationship, _we_ certainly hesitated some time. Those Harrisons were not all they should be.
JHANSI
[_A note of hope in her voice._] No?
MRS. BYRD
I said to Senator Byrd, now that the girl is marrying into one of the best families in the state--not that that influenced us especially, but I said, if she is trying to make something of herself, we must stand by her, and we will mention only pleasant things. We will not allude to what her grandfather did!
JHANSI
What did he do?
SENATOR BYRD
He burned down his neighbor’s house because that neighbor chased home his pigs.
JHANSI
_Really?_ Yes!--my grandfather would do that!
PEYTON
Were any of the family found in the charred remains?
SENATOR BYRD
The family, I believe, escaped.
MRS. BYRD
But no thanks to old man Harrison.
JHANSI
No!--I’m sure grandfather _meant_ them to burn. [_Seizing book._] I wonder if grandfather’s protest is recorded in this book!
MRS. BYRD
That book does not emphasize unfortunate occurrences.
MRS. ROOT
And how right it is! One should think only of the _good_ in human nature.
PEYTON
[_Looking with JHANSI._] What is this fine print at the bottom of the page?
MRS. BYRD
[_Hastily._] That is not important.
SENATOR BYRD
It is in fine print because it is not important.
PEYTON
One of the descendants of Peter Byrd. [_To JHANSI._] The leg at Bull Run, you know. He--
MRS. ROOT
Peyton, remember that you are in your own house.
PEYTON
“Unfaithful to the high office of treasurer of the Baxter County Cemetery Association.”
JHANSI
[_Gasping, then beaming._] Why--why!--a _grave_ robber! Was he a _near_ relative?
MRS. BYRD
I must say, Miss Root, that we did not come here to have our family inquired into as far back as ancient history!
MRS. ROOT
No, Mrs. Byrd, I quite agree with you that it is not necessary to go too far back in any family.
GRANDMOTHER
Neither necessary nor desirable.
BESSIE
Those early days must have been very trying.
PEYTON
Jhansi! The fine print of your family is _thrilling_. Here is a man--
MRS. ROOT
Peyton, stop reading from that tiresome and obsolete book. It is not hospitable.
MRS. BYRD
Turn to your own family history and read a little fine print in it!
[_The other members of the PEYTON-ROOT family give each other startled, nervous glances._
PEYTON
Why what a lovely idea. Uncle has marked it for us. [_After looking._] Fine print in our family?
MRS. BYRD
It’s there.
BESSIE
Genealogy is so confusing. I never could understand it.
MRS. ROOT
And I don’t see why one should _try_ to understand it. Live well in the present--that is sufficient.
GRANDMOTHER
It looks to me as if that book was not thoughtfully edited. I’m surprised it has sold.
PEYTON
[_Snatching book from JHANSI._] Jhansi! I don’t want to boast! I hope I shall not become a snob. You too have a family--and they had their impulsive moments--but what was the most _largely_ low-down thing a man of early days could do? [_PEYTONS and ROOTS draw together anxiously; the BYRDS wait complacently._] As uncle has pointed out, Jhansi, I am a descendant of Captain John Peyton. But when you have a remote ancestor, you also have his less remote descendants--a fact sometimes overlooked. Well, Stuart Peyton--
BESSIE
Mother, I wonder if the turkey isn’t ready now?
MRS. ROOT
It’s time for it to be ready.
[_She hurries out._
PEYTON
Stuart Peyton--“convicted of selling whiskey and firearms to the Indians.”
[_Assumes an overbearing attitude._
MRS. BYRD
I guess the early days were trying, in more than one family.
PEYTON
[_Peering into the book._] And what is this? What is _this_? Stuart Peyton was the father of _Richard_ Peyton--
JHANSI
Who founded this university!
PEYTON
[_In the voice of UNCLE GEORGE._] The university in which you are now acquiring your education.
MRS. BYRD
Oh, I have no doubt that inducing the Indians to massacre the whites was _profitable_.
PEYTON
A good sound basis for the family fortune.
UNCLE GEORGE
Young man, you go too far!
PEYTON
[_Holding book out to UNCLE GEORGE._] In thinking of these worthy men from whom I come? [_Turns to the wall on which hang portraits of John and Richard Peyton._] We don’t seem to have Stuart’s picture. Jhansi, I don’t know that we need to leave society. There seems little--crevices in these walls of respectability.
JHANSI
And whenever we feel a bit stifled we can always find air through our family trees!
MRS. BYRD
I think, Senator, that we will not remain longer.
[_MRS. ROOT returns._
MRS. ROOT
Mary was just coming. Now we’ll have dinner!
BESSIE
Yes, a little family party to celebrate the happy--
PEYTON
[_Again bent over his family history._] Grandmother! Here’s something about your ancestor, Gustave Phelps.
GRANDMOTHER
[_Rising. With weight._] Peyton--close that book.
(CURTAIN)
* * * * *
THE OUTSIDE
A PLAY IN ONE ACT
* * * * *
First Performed by the Provincetown Players, December 28, 1917
ORIGINAL CAST
CAPTAIN _of “The Bars” Life-Saving Station_, ABRAM GILLETTE BRADFORD, _a Live-saver_ HUTCHINSON COLLINS TONY, _a Portuguese Live-Saver_ LOUIS ELL MRS. PATRICK, _who lives in the abandoned Station_ IDA RAUH ALLIE MAYO, _who works for her_ SUSAN GLASPELL
THE OUTSIDE
SCENE: _A room in a house which was once a life-saving station. Since ceasing to be that it has taken on no other character, except that of a place which no one cares either to preserve or change. It is painted the life-saving gray, but has not the life-saving freshness. This is one end of what was the big boat room, and at the ceiling is seen a part of the frame work from which the boat once swung. About two thirds of the back wall is open, because of the big sliding door, of the type of barn door, and through this open door are seen the sand dunes, and beyond them the woods. At one point the line where woods and dunes meet stands out clearly and there are indicated the rude things, vines, bushes, which form the outer uneven rim of the woods--the only things that grow in the sand. At another point a sand-hill is menacing the woods. This old life-saving station is at a point where the sea curves, so through the open door the sea also is seen._ [_The station is located on the outside shore of Cape Cod, at the point, near the tip of the Cape, where it makes that final curve which forms the Provincetown Harbor._] _The dunes are hills and strange forms of sand on which, in places, grows the stiff beach grass--struggle; dogged growing against odds. At right of the big sliding door is a drift of sand and the top of buried beach grass is seen on this. There is a door left, and at right of big sliding door is a slanting wall. Door in this is ajar at rise of curtain, and through this door BRADFORD and TONY, life-savers, are seen bending over a man’s body, attempting to restore respiration. The captain of the life-savers comes into view outside the big open door, at left; he appears to have been hurrying, peers in, sees the men, goes quickly to them._
CAPTAIN
I’ll take this now, boys.
BRADFORD
No need for anybody to take it, Capt’n. He was dead when we picked him up.
CAPTAIN
Dannie Sears was dead when we picked him up. But we brought him back. I’ll go on awhile.
[_The two men who have been bending over the body rise, stretch to relax, and come into the room._
BRADFORD
[_Pushing back his arms and putting his hands on his chest._] Work,--tryin’ to put life in the dead.
CAPTAIN
Where’d you find him, Joe?
BRADFORD
In front of this house. Not forty feet out.
CAPTAIN
What’d you bring him up here for?
[_He speaks in an abstracted way, as if the working part of his mind is on something else, and in the muffled voice of one bending over._
BRADFORD
[_With a sheepish little laugh._] Force of habit, I guess. We brought so many of ’em back up here. [_Looks around the room._] And then it was kind of unfriendly down where he was--the wind spittin’ the sea onto you till he’d have no way of knowin’ he was ashore.
TONY
Lucky I was not sooner or later as I walk by from my watch.
BRADFORD
You have accommodating ways, Tony. Not sooner or later. I wouldn’t say it of many Portagees. But the sea [_Calling it in to the CAPTAIN_] is friendly as a kitten alongside the women that live _here_. Allie Mayo--they’re _both_ crazy--had that door open [_Moving his head toward the big sliding door_] sweepin’ out, and when we come along she backs off and stands lookin’ at us, _lookin’_--Lord, I just wanted to get him somewhere else. So I kicked this door open with my foot [_Jerking his hand toward the room where the CAPTAIN is seen bending over the man_] and got him _away_. [_Under his voice._] If he did have any notion of comin’ back to life, he wouldn’t a come if he’d seen her. [_More genially._] _I_ wouldn’t.
CAPTAIN
You know who he is, Joe?
BRADFORD
I never saw him before.
CAPTAIN
Mitchell telephoned from High Head that a dory came ashore there.
BRADFORD
Last night wasn’t the _best_ night for a dory. [_To TONY, boastfully._] Not that _I_ couldn’t ’a’ stayed in one. Some men can stay in a dory and some can’t. [_Going to the inner door._] That boy’s dead, Capt’n.
CAPTAIN
Then I’m not doing him any harm.
BRADFORD
[_Going over and shaking the frame where the boat once swung._] This the first time you ever been in this place, ain’t it, Tony?
TONY
I never was here before.
BRADFORD
Well, _I_ was here before. [_A laugh._] And the old man--[_Nodding toward the CAPTAIN_] he lived here for twenty-seven years. Lord, the things that happened _here_. There’ve been dead ones carried through _that_ door. [_Pointing to the outside door._] Lord--the ones _I’ve_ carried. I carried in Bill Collins, and Lou Harvey and--huh! ’sall over now. You ain’t seen no _wrecks_. Don’t ever think you have. I was here the night the Jennie Snow was out there. [_Pointing to the sea._] There was a _wreck_. We got the boat that stood here [_Again shaking the frame_] down that bank. [_Goes to the door and looks out._] Lord, how’d we ever do it? The sand has put this place on the blink all right. And then when it gets too God-forsaken for a life-savin’ station, a lady takes it for a summer residence--and then spends the winter. She’s cheerful one.
TONY
A woman--she makes things pretty. This not like a place where a woman live. On the floor there is nothing--on the wall there is nothing. Things--[_Trying to express it with his hands_] do not hang on other things.
BRADFORD
[_Imitating TONY’S gesture._] No--things do not hang on other things. In my opinion the woman’s crazy--sittin’ over there on the sand--[_A gesture towards the dunes_] what’s she _lookin’_ at? There ain’t nothin’ to _see_. And I know the woman that works for her’s crazy--Allie Mayo. She’s a Provincetown girl. She was all right once, but--