Life — June 22, 1911 — page 18: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

CE An ordinary library fur- nished in the usual way. In a@ pot « large practical rubber plant is growing. Discoveren: Rudolph, sitting at table, working on a manuscript, Freda, his wife, enters, with a watering pot and begins to water the plant. A pause. Frepa: May I speak to you for a moment? Ruvotrit: You know how I dislike being disturbed when I am working. Freva: But it is about our daughter Emma. She has the measles—I think she is going to die. Rupoten (putting his arms about her): Never mind, wife, we still have our son Paul. Frena: Rudolph—you force me to tell you the truth, We have no son. Rupotru: No son? Frepa: No; Paul died a month ago. Ruvoten (sinking into a chair): Paul dead! Why was I not told? Freva: You were finishing a chapter —I did not like to disturb you. Ruporen: Yes—you did right—but it is hard sometimes to be faithful to the higher life. Why are you watering the rubber plant? Frepa: It hasn't been growing as it should. Rupoten: Strange. You remember I planted it while you were giving birth to our daughter Emma! Frepa: Yes. Rupotrn: And as the child grew, the rubber plant grew, until it seemed to me that it must be Nature's symbol for the physical life of our child. Freva: She was always so fond of it. Revoir: And now that the child is sick, the plant is fading. Ah! we can- not understand these things. Why should the child be sick? c Frepa: I don’t know. Ruporre: We must some law—transgressed tom—. Freva: Or it may be—because I for: got her yesterday and left her out on the lawn all night in all that rain Rupoten: You forgot her? Frepa: Yes; I—I was thinking of my soul. Did I do wrong? Ruvotrw: No; if you were thinking of your soul, Nature would protect the child. No—there’s some deeper cause why punishment should rest upon our house—. Freva (in confusion): Perhaps some- one has sinned in this house and then broken cus- have some “4 IRAE The Rubber Plant A Bit of Ibsonian Realism moved away, leaving us to bear the re- sult of his crime. Ruponeu: No, it never works that way. You must in some way have been untrue to the higher law—. (Freda sinks to the floor). Ah—I thought so—. Frepa: Oh, forgive me—. Rupotrn: Tell me all. Frepa (in a voice broken with sobs): When—when you married me, I de- ceived you; you thought I was Freda von Bahnreich, Rupotrn : Go on, Freva: I—I deceived you—. Rupotrn: Deceived me, how? are you then? Frepa: No one. Rupotrn: I do not understand. Frepa: You know the law of Norwa As soon as a child is born the parents must obtain a birth certificate. Ruponrn: That certificate gives the child legal existence. Freva: Yes—. Rupotru: But I do not understand. Our child had her birth certificate and, oh, my God, you—you haven't lost it? It has not been destroyed? Woman, you know what the law says: “If a cer- tificate be destroyed, the birth of the child is canceled.” Freva: I know, but it is not Emma’s certificate I speak of, but my own. Rupoteu: Your own! Frepa: Yes; you know there is a tax on birth certificates. Ruvotru: Four crowns—sixty—. Freva: Yes; well, my parents were too poor to pay this tax, so they con- cealed my birth. Afterwards, when I grew up, they were afraid to tell what they had done. Rupotru: Freda, what are you telling me? Frepa: Rudolph, my husband, I have no birth certificate. (Rudolph sinks weakly into a chair. The lights change suddenly to red.) Rupoten: And this is the mother of my children: y Frepa: No, Rudolph, let us face the truth. I cannot be the mother of your children, for legally I do not exist. Rupotrn: And our whole life has been a crime against society. Frepa (taking a huge pistol from the mantelpiece): Here is my grandfather's pistol, Rupotrn: It is useless. me,” forgive Who You cannot kill yourself for you have never been born. (Freda sits by table, looking with a blank gaze into the fire.) Frepa: I have felt sorrow and pain. I have awakened in the morning, dressed, made the fire, cooked and eaten three meals a day. I felt the same as if I had a birth certificate. Rupvoteu: The physical life is noth- ing, Freda. It is the higher life you have never lived. The social life, which only those can enjoy who have birth cer- tificates, Oh, trusting fool that I was, I never asked you. . Frepa: I have suffered, Rudolph. You do not know the agony of going on day by day, knowing that you do not exist. ; Rupotru: And what of our child? Frepa: Emma? Rupotrn: You—you have your child of the right to live. Frepa: No—no- . Rupoten: The law says every child must have two parents, and our little Emma has only one. Freva: No one knows. ceal it. Rupoteu: No. We must do our duty to society. Suppose it became the cus- tom for children to have only one par- ent? Do you not see the evil that would result? Frepa (moaning) : hard. Rupoten: It is Nature's law. will avenge herself. Frepa: What can chil Rupoteit: Stop—look—look there! Frepa: What? Ruporu: The rubber plant! Freva: Merciful heavens—is it? No —no—. Rupotrn: Yes, Nature has avenged herself. (The rubber plant wilts, shrinks and dies, hanging limp over the edge of the pot.) Freva: It is Emma—. Rupotrn: Yes. You robbed her of the right to live, and now I am alone in the world. Freva: And I—. Ruvotrn: You are only an optical il- lusion. Go! (Going to the rubber plant and tenderly lifting it in his arms.) Poor little life. You couldn’t help it. You were born to expiate another's wrong. It is the law. Curtain, William C. De Mille. deprived We can con- Oh, the law is She we do? Our comicbooks.com