Life, 1928-04-05 · page 21 of 59
Life — April 5, 1928 — page 21: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This one-act play satirizes the obsessive dependence of suburban commuters on train schedules in early 20th-century America. Mr. Pringle's entire existence revolves around precise train times—he discusses them constantly, timing household tasks (like the furnace) by them, and measuring his wife's activities by which trains she caught. The crisis erupts when their maid Hulda misses the 8:27 train, catastrophically disrupting the family's rigidly scheduled evening. The Pringles respond with genuine despair, treating it as tragedy requiring them to "start all over again" with alternative train times (9:04, 10:19, 11:26). The satire targets the dehumanizing effect of industrial punctuality on suburban middle-class life—people reduced to train schedules, emotional well-being contingent on timetables, and a loss of flexibility or spontaneity. The exaggerated melodrama (the wife kneeling beside her husband in anguish) amplifies the absurdity of treating a missed train as domestic catastrophe.
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Life The Old Order Changeth An O'Neillish Drama of Suburban Life Scene: Cozytoes, the Pringles’ Home in the Suburbs. R. PRINGLE: Yes, sir, either the 7:56 or the 8:13 will get me to my office in twenty-eight minutes. ... Tue Rapiator: CLANK! CLANK! CLANK! Mus. Princte: John, hadn't you better see to the furnace? Mr. PrinGie (taking out his watch): I saw to the furnace at It doesn’t get seen to again until 9:04. It is now exactly Mrs. Princie: That's nice. Mr. Prince: What did you do to-day? Mrs. Prinoze: I went into town on the 4:14, I was too late for the 3:49 A Mr. Prine The 4:14 is a good train. ( 1 come back on Mr. Princve: Yes, it is a good train. But it stops 1 the 8: at Cedarmont. OW, ‘GLE? Mr. Prince: Yes, but not at 125th Street. (Me Yes. But it ar- sighs heavily.) I don’t feel so good to-night. y rives at 8:49. Mrs. Princue: Maybe it is the biscuits. } Mr. Pringur: them in at 5:45 and took them out at 6:11. Pe: Then she should haps I should have taken them out at 6:13. be here now. Mr. Prince: Perhaps. (4 silence ensues, Mas. Prinore: What during which a piece of plaster is heard to jj can be keeping her? The drop from the ceiling in the next room.) ¢ children want her to hear Mrs. Prinote: I wonder how that play ‘ them say their evening we saw the other evening came out. é time-table. (There is a noise Mr. Princte: We came out on the , i at the front door and Hulda 10:42, enters.) Mrs. Prince: We always come out ; /, Mr. Prince: Well, Hulda, on the 10 (x \ did you come out on the 8:27? Mr. Prinor That's the last | Hepa: Ay come out by das train. ere. Ford. Das 8:27 ban took off. ite: I wonder how ° y (Mr. Pringle blanches.) Das 10.42 that play : is % ban das 10:41, Das 5:53 don’t run Mr. Pr : I think the = § aturdays and no dogs ban allowed on man threw his wife in the Th : Das schedule all changed. furnace. (Silence, in which \ Mrs. Pri : The schedule changed ! asp rin g gives way / . 4 Horrors! The Idren must never know. in the davenport with BRO (Silence. Hulda goes out. Far, far off a @ musical “ping.” ) / . faucet can be heard dripping.) Mrs. Prinoie: I won- Fai 4 Mr. Princre (in a racked voice): The der what is keeping ‘ V/ 7:56, the 8:13, the 8:38. ..all, all are gone. Hulda, Mas. Prinoue (slipping on her knees beside Mr. Prinoue: ; her husband and taking him in her arms): Come, Wasn't she to / dear, be brave. It was a nice schedule. But... we can start in all over again, Mr. Prince hisper): The 9:04, the 10:19, the 11:26... (We ) Yes...yes...we shall have to start in a wets: Tue Curtain Farts, Henry William Hanemann. Woodcraft Note I OW to tell time by the sundial: ; Stick a twig in the ground and outline a circle about it. Then, when the sun casts a shadow, look at it very carefully and try to imagine what it’s all about... .Throw away the twig and “shoot” the sun... .Stop “shooting” the sun and turn the gun on the author, if he’s around,...Estimate the longitude and the lati- tude, with reference to Greenwich, and see where that gets you.... .-Call up the Western Union. Bernard Teran. comicbooks.com