who did climb a tree,
And Jesus said: “Come down”? junket

Why, bless your souls!
I’ve got no money; I but came to see
What all this noisy babble is about,
Make a report and file the same away.

Nozzle
Ringdivvy
Feegobble
Hayseed

How’ll that help us? Reports are not our style
Of provender!

Junket

Well, you can gnaw the file.

Curtain.

“Peaceful Expulsion”

Dramatis Personae

  • Mountwave, a politician

  • Hardhand, a workingman

  • Tok Bak, a chinaman

  • Satan, a friend to mountwave

  • Chorus of Foreign Voters

Mountwave

My friend, I beg that you will lend your ears
(I know ’tis asking a good deal of you)
While I for your instruction nominate
Some certain wrongs you suffer. Men like you
Imperfectly are sensible of all
The miseries they actually feel.
Hence, Providence has prudently raised up
Clear-sighted men like me to diagnose
Their cases and inform them where it hurts.
The wounds of honest workingmen I’ve made
A specialty, and probing them’s my trade.

Hardhand

Well, Mister, s’pose you let yer bossest eye
Camp on my mortal part awhile; then you
Jes’ toot my sufferin’s an’ tell me what’s
The fashionable caper now in writhes⁠—
The very swellest wiggle.

Mountwave

Well, my lad,
’Tis plain as is the long, conspicuous nose
Borne, ponderous and pendulous, between
The elephant’s remarkable eye-teeth Enter Tok Bak.
That Chinese competition’s what ails you.

Both

Singing.

O pig-tail Celestial,
O barbarous, bestial,
Abominable Chinee!
Simian fellow man,
Primitive yellow man,
Joshian devotee!
Shoe-and-cigar machine,
Oleomargarine
You are, and butter are we⁠—
Fat of the land are we,
Salt of the earth;
In God’s image planned to be⁠—
Noble in birth!
You, on the contrary,
Modeled upon very
Different lines indeed,
Show in conspicuous,
Base and ridiculous
Ways your inferior breed.
Freak of biology,
Shame of ethnology,
Monster unspeakably low!
Fit to be buckshotted,
Brickbatted, boycotted⁠—
Vanish⁠—vamoose⁠—mosy⁠—go!

Tok Bak

You listen me! You beatee the big dlum
An’ tell me go to Flowly Kingdom Come.
You all too muchee fool. You chinnee heap.
Such talkee like my washee⁠—belly cheap! Enter Satan.
You dlive me outee clunty towns all way;
Why you no tackle me Safflisco, hay?

Satan

Methought I heard a murmuring of tongues
Sound through the ceiling of the hollow earth,
As if the anti-coolie ques⁠—ha! friends,
Well met. You see I keep my ancient word:
Where two or three are gathered in my name,
There am I in their midst.

Mountwave

O monstrous thief!
To quote the words of Shakespeare as your own.
I know his work.

Hardhand

Who’s Shakespeare?⁠—what’s his trade?
I’ve heard about the work o’ that galoot
Till I’m jest sick!

Tok Bak

Go Sunny school⁠—you’ll know
Mo’ Bible. Bime by pleach⁠—hell-talkee. Tell
’Bout Abel⁠—mebby so he live too cheap.
He mebby all time dig on lanch⁠—no dlink,
No splee⁠—no go plocession fo’ make vote⁠—
No sendee money out of clunty fo’
To helpee Ilishmen. Cain killum. Josh
He catchee at it, an’ he belly mad⁠—
Say: “Allee Melicans boycottee Cain.”
Not muchee⁠—you no pleachee that:
You all same lie.

Mountwave

This cuss must be expelled. Draws pistol.

Mountwave
Hardhand
Satan

Singing.

For Chinese expulsion, hurrah!
To mobbing and murder, all hail!
Away with your justice and law⁠—
We’ll make every pagan turn tail.

Chorus of Foreign Voters

Bedad! oof dot tief o’ze vorld⁠—
Zat Ivan Tchanay vos got hurled
In Hella, da debil he say:
“Wor be yer return pairmit, hey?”
Und gry as ’e shaka da boot:
“Zis haythen haf nevaire been oot!”

Hardhand

Too many cooks are working at this broth⁠—
I think, by thunder, ’twill be mostly froth!
I’m cussed ef I can sarvy, up to date,
What good this dern fandango does the State.

Mountwave

The State’s advantage, sir, you may not see,
But think how good it is for me.

Satan

And me.

Curtain.

Aspirants Three

Dramatis Personae

Quick:

  • De Young, a brother to mushrooms

Dead:

  • Swift, an heirloom

  • Estee, a relic

Immortals:

  • The Spirit of Broken Hopes

  • The Author

Miscellaneous:

  • A Troupe of Coffins

  • The Moon

  • Various Colored Fires

Scene⁠—The Political Graveyard at Bone Mountain.

De Young

Solus.

This is the spot agreed upon. Here rest
The sainted statesman who upon the field
Of honor have at divers times laid down
Their own, and ended, ignominious,
Their lives political. About me, lo!
Their silent headstones, gilded by the moon,
Half-full and near her setting⁠—midnight. Hark!
Through the white mists of this portentous night
(Which throng in moving shapes about my way,
As they were ghosts of candidates I’ve slain,
To fray their murderer) my open ear
Engulfs a footstep. Enter Estee from his tomb.
Ah, ’tis he, my foe,
True to appointment; and so here we fight⁠—
Though truly ’twas my firm belief that he
Would send regrets, or I had not been here.

Estee

O moon that hast so oft surprised the deeds
Whereby I rose to greatness!⁠—tricksy orb,
The type and symbol of my politics,
Now draw my ebbing fortunes to their flood,
As, by the magic of a poultice, boils
That burn ambitions with defeated fires
Are lifted into eminence. Sees De Young. What? you!
Faith, if I had suspected you would come
From the fair world of politics wherein
So lately you were whelped, and which, alas,
I vainly to revisit strive, though still
Rapped on the rotting head and bidden sleep
Till Resurrection’s morn⁠—if I had thought
You would accept the challenge that I flung
I would have seen you damned ere I came forth
In the night air, shroud-clad and shivering,
To fight so mean a thing! But since you’re here,
Draw and defend yourself. By gad, we’ll see
Who’ll be Postmaster-General!

De Young

We will⁠—
I’ll fight (for I am lame) with any blue
And redolent remain that dares aspire
To wreck the Grand Old Grandson’s cabinet.
Here’s at you, nosegay!

They draw tongues and are about to fight, when from an adjacent whited sepulcher, enter Swift.
Swift

Hold! put up your tongues!
Within the confines of this sacred spot
Broods such a holy calm as none may break
By clash of weapons, without sacrilege. Beats down their tongues with a bone.
Madmen! what profits it? For though you fought
With such heroic skill that both survived,
Yet neither should achieve the prize, for I
Would wrest it from him. Let us not contend,
But friendliwise by stipulation fix
A slate for mutual advantage. Why,
Having the pick and choice of seats, should we
Forego them all but one? Nay, we’ll take three,
And part them so among us that to each
Shall fall the fittest to his powers. In brief,
Let us establish a Portfolio Trust.

Estee

Agreed.

De Young

Aye, truly, ’tis a greed⁠—and one
The offices imperfectly will

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