DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

FERDINAND LASSALLE

PRINCE YANKO RACOWITZA

HERR VON DONNIGES

HERR HOLTHOFF

KARL MARX

DR. HAENLE

JACQUES

HELENE VON DONNIGES

FRAU VON DONNIGES

FRAU HOLTHOFF

HILDA VON DONNIGES

Servants, maids, butler, landlord, ladies and gentlemen.

FERDINAND LASSALLE AND HELENE VON DONNIGES ACT I.

Scene: Parlors of Herr and Frau Holthoff at their home in Berlin.

[An informal conference of the leading members of the Allied Working Men's Clubs. Present various ladies and gentlemen, some seated, others standing, talking.]

Enter DR. HAENLE

HERR HOLTHOFF. Hello, Comrade Haenle, I am very glad to see you here.

DR. HAENLE. Not more glad than I am to be here. [They shake hands cordially, all around.]

HERR HOLTHOFF. [To his wife] My dear, you see Dr. Haenle has come-I win my bet!

DR. HAENLE. I hope you two have not been gambling!

FRAU HOLTHOFF. Yes, Doctor, we made a bet, and I am delighted to lose!

DR. HAENLE. You mystify me!

HERR HOLTHOFF. Well, the fact is that Madame had a dream in which you played a part; she thought you had been-what is that word, my dear?

FRAU HOLTHOFF. Expatriated.

HERR HOLTHOFF. Yes, expatriated-sent out of the country for the country's good.

DR. HAENLE. It would be a great compliment! HERR HOLTHOFF. True, you could then join our own Richard Wagner in Switzerland!

LITTLE DR. HAENLE. Could I but write such songs as he JOURNEYS does, I would relish the fate!

FRAU HOLTHOFF. But the people who sent him into exile never guessed that they were giving him the leisure to write immortal music.

DR. HAENLE. People who persecute other people never know what they do.

HERR HOLTHOFF. It is n't so bad to be persecuted, but it is a terrible thing to persecute.

DR. HAENLE. It is often a good thing for the persecuted provided he can spare the time-how does that strike you, Herr Marx ?

KARL MARX. I fully agree in the sentiment. There seems to be an Eternal Spirit of Wisdom that guides man and things, and this Spirit cares only for the end. FRAU HOLTHOFF. Nature's solicitude is for the race, not the individual.

KARL MARX. Exactly so!

HERR HOLTHOFF. Get that in your forthcoming book, Brother Marx, and give credit to the Madame. KARL MARX. I surely will. Most of my original thoughts I get from my friends.

HERR HOLTHOFF. You may not be so grateful
when the book is published.

KARL MARX. You mean I may sing the Pilgrims'
Chorus with Richard across the border?

HERR HOLTHOFF. Yes, the government is growing
very sensitive.

DR. HAENLE. Which has nothing to do with the publication of "Das Kapital"-eh, Herr Marx?

KARL MARX. Not the slightest. The book will live,
regardless of the fate of the author.

FRAU HOLTHOFF. You do not seem very sanguine
of immediate success of the working men's party!
KARL MARX. We will succeed when the ditches are
even full of our dead-then progress can pass.
FRAU HOLTHOFF. And that time has not come?
KARL MARX. I hope we are great enough not to de-
ceive ourselves. We work for truth-whether this
truth will be accepted by the many this year, or next,
or the next century, we cannot say, but that should
not deter us from our best endeavors.

HELENE VON DONNIGES. [Golden haired, en-
thusiastic, needlessly pink and gorgeously twenty]
Men fight for a thing and lose, and the men they fought
fight for the same thing under another name, and win!
[All turn and listen] Life is in the fight not the
achievement. Oh, I think it would be glorious to suffer,
to be misunderstood, and fail-and yet know in our
hearts that we were right-absolutely right, and that
the wisdom of the ages will endorse our acts and on
the tombs of some of us carve the word "Savior!"
KARL MARX. Grand, magnificent! That sounds just
like Lassalle!

HELENE. There-that is the third time I have been told I talk just like Lassalle. Now let me say I never saw Lassalle.

DR. HAENLE. Then you have something to live for. HELENE. Perhaps, but I echo no man. When one speaks from one's heart it is not complimentary to

LITTLE JOURNEYS

LITTLE

have people suavely smile and say, "Goethe," "VolJOURNEYS taire," "Rousseau," "Shakespeare," "Lassalle!" FRAU HOLTHOFF. Just see the company in which she places our Ferdinand!

HELENE. [Wearily] Oh, I am not trying to compliment Lassalle. The fact is, I dislike the man. His literary style is explosive; about all he seems to do is to paraphrase dear Karl Marx. Besides he is a JewKARL MARX. Gently-I am a Jew!

HELENE. But you are different. Lassalle is aggressive, pushing, grasping-he has ego plus and [with relaxing tension] all I want to say is that I am a-weary of being accused of quoting Lassalle-that I do not know Lassalle, and what is more, I

FRAU HOLTHOFF. Oh, you 'll talk differently when you see him!

HELENE. But surely you, too, do not make genius exempt from the moral code?

DR. HAENLE. Oh, some one has been telling you about Madame Hatzfeldt

HELENE. I know the undisputed facts.

KARL MARX. Which are that Ferdinand Lassalle at nineteen years of age became the legal counsel for Madame Hatzfeldt; that he fought her case through the courts for nine years; that he lost three times and finally won.

HELENE. And then became a member of the Mad-
ame's household.

KARL MARX. If so, with the Madame's permission.
HELENE. [Sarcastically] Certainly.