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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Moral, by Ludwig Thoma
+
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+Title: Moral
+
+Author: Ludwig Thoma
+
+Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4963]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on April 5, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MORAL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Franks, Nicole Apostola
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+Moral
+
+
+Ludwig Thoma
+
+
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+Dr. Ludwig Thoma, perhaps better known to his Bavarian countrymen
+as Peter Schlemiehl, was born in Oberammergau on January 21, 1867.
+After graduating from a gymnasium in Munich, he studied at the
+School of Forestry at Aschauffenburg. He did not finish his course
+there, but entered the University at Munich and received his
+degree as Doctor Juris in 1893.
+
+A year later Dr. Thoma began to practice law; but he abandoned
+that pursuit in 1899 to follow a career for which his inclinations
+and talents so happily fitted him.
+
+He had been writing humorous verses for Simplicissimus for several
+years under the pen name of Pete Schlemiehl, with such success
+that the paper almost became identified by that name. These poems
+were later published in book form under the title--Grobheiten.
+
+His prose writings in Bavarian dialect as well as his boyhood
+experiences entitled, Lausbubengeschichten, won a large and warm
+audience. In 1899 he became the editor of Simplicissimus. From
+then on his renown grew. The foremost critics of German letters
+began to take notice of this "Bavarian Aristophanes" and to
+compare him to Heine and the classics.
+
+When Moral and Lottchen's Birthday appeared, while the reviewers
+shook their heads and stated that Dr. Thoma was shocking (so in
+original) they concluded that their author was "casting a long
+shadow." To-day Dr. Thoma is a recognized figure in Germany. Prof.
+Robert F. Arnold in "Das Moderne Drama" (Strassburg, 1908) ranks
+him next to Hauptmann. His writings are numerous. A vein,
+satirical and humorous, with a conception of the pathetic, makes
+him more than an equal to Mark Twain. In addition he is possessed
+of a message, which he delivers in the Moral.
+
+First produced in 1908 the play soon became a part and parcel of
+the repertoire of the leading theatres in Germany. It was put on
+for the first time in New York, in German, at the Irving Place
+Theatre in the spring of 1914, through the efforts of the late
+Heinrich Matthias and the writer. Mr. Matthias then played the
+part of Beermann. Mr. Christians, the director, repeated the
+performance a number of times that season, each performance
+meeting with a warm response.
+
+The late Percival Pollard was the first American critic to
+emphasize the importance of Dr. Thoma's work in his excellent
+resume of contemporary German literature: Masks and Minstrels of
+Modern Germany. He pointed out "that no country where hypocrisy or
+puritanism prevail as factors in the social and municipal conduct
+should be spared the corrective acid of this play."
+
+H. L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan for many years have sung
+praises of the Moral in the Smart Set. But its production on the
+English speaking stage still remains an event eagerly to be
+awaited. Briefly, the play is a polemic against the "men higher
+up," churchmen, reformers, and social hypocrites.
+
+The translation follows the text implicitly. Four different
+versions were made all varying in a degree from the original, and
+although Dr. Thoma wrote to the writer "bin auch damit
+einverstanden dass Sie in der Ubersetzung meines Schauspieles
+'Moral' etwaige Aenderungen oder Adaptiereungen, die durch die
+englisch-amerikanischen Verhaltnisse und den Geschmack des
+amerikanischen Theatrepublikums geboten erscheinen, in
+entsprechender Weise vornehmen ..." it was deemed best for
+purposes of publication to try to preserve the original atmosphere
+without an attempt to even transpose such phrases as Gnadige Frau,
+or Herr Kommerzienrat.
+
+CHARLES RECHT.
+
+New York, October, 1916.
+
+
+
+
+PERSONS OF THE PLAY
+
+
+     FRITZ BEERMANN, a wealthy landowner and banker.
+
+     LENA BEERMANN, his wife.
+
+     EFFIE BEERMANN, their daughter.
+
+     KOMMERZIENRAT ADOLPH BOLLAND, capitalist and manufacturer
+
+     CLARA BOLLAND, his wife.
+
+     DR. HAUSER, an ex-judge.
+
+     FRAU LUND, an old lady.
+
+     HANS JACOB DOBLER, a poet.
+
+     FRAULEIN KOCH-PINNEBERG, an artiste.
+
+     PRIVATDOZENT DR. WASNER, a gymnasium professor.
+
+     FREIHERR VON SIMBACH, the Police Commissioner of the Duchy.
+
+     ASSESSOR OSCAR STROEBEL, a police official.
+
+     MADAME NINON DE HAUTEVILLE, a lady of leisure.
+
+     FREIHERR GENERAL BOTHO VON SCHMETTAU, also known as Zurnberg,
+     A Gentleman-in-waiting and Adjutant to His Highness, the
+     Duke.
+
+     JOSEPH REISACHER, a clerk of the Police Department.
+
+     BETTY, a maid at Beersmann's.
+
+     Two man-servants and a policeman.
+
+
+
+
+THE PRESUMPTION
+
+
+The esteemed, sensitive public will assume that the action takes
+place in Emilsburg, the capital of the Duchy of Gerlestein. The
+first and third acts occur in the house of Herr Fritz Beermann;
+the second act, in the Police Headquarters. It all happens between
+Sunday afternoon and Monday evening.
+
+To be free from blame, the producers will please note that:
+
+BEERMANN is in the fifties; jovial; lively; with gray side-
+whiskers and chin carefully shaved.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN is in the late forties, though youthful looking for
+her age.
+
+FRAU LUND. sixty-eight; a woman of impressive appearance; her
+manner is energetic; her mass of white hair is carefully
+coiffured.
+
+FRAU BOLLAND. about forty-five; stout; talkative.
+
+DR. WASNER. a tall German professor with full blond beard; deep
+voiced; wears pince-nez with black tortoise shell rim and broad
+black cord.
+
+HANS JACOB DOBLER. is a poet; he is dressed in a poor fitting cut-
+away coat; unkempt mustache and Van Dyke beard.
+
+FRAULEIN PINNEBERG, a feminist, wears a loose fitting gown.
+
+DR. HAUSER. fifty; smooth shaven; wears gold rimmed spectacles,
+
+VON SCHMETTAU, sixty; remains stately looking with effort;
+military bearing.
+
+MADAME DE HAUTEVILLE--indefinitely twenty; her ultra-fashionable
+Parisian gowns invite the cloak and suit patrons.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+"MORAL"
+
+ACT I
+
+FURTHER APOLOGY
+
+
+(Card room in Beermann's house. In the background a swinging door
+opens into the dining room. To the right a smaller door leads to
+the music room. On the left side another door opens into the
+entrance hall. To left upstage in a corner a small card table with
+chairs. To right upstage a large sofa and comfortable chairs.
+Parallel to background down stage, tea table with coffee service
+thereon; near it to right, smaller table, on it a humidor.
+
+A butler is engaged at the tea table, another man servant is
+holding swinging door open. [Business of getting up from table.]
+Many voices and rattle of chairs are heard from dining room.
+Through swinging doors enters Bolland and Frau Beermann, Beermann
+with Frau Bolland, Dr. Hauser with Effie, Dr. Wasner with Fraulein
+Koch-Pinneberg, Dobler alone.)
+
+General greeting of "Mahlzeit."
+
+Dr. Wasner is vigorously shaking hands--going to Frau Beermann
+says, "Ich wunsche Gesegnete Mahlzeit."
+
+The servants pass around coffee--Beermann conversing with Bolland
+comes down stage ...
+
+BOLLAND. You will receive two thousand votes more than the
+Socialists. That's certain.
+
+BEERMANN [skeptical]. No,--no.
+
+BOLLAND. If all the Liberals combine with the Conservatives, the
+result cannot be in doubt.
+
+BEERMANN [taking coffee from the servant]. If ...
+
+BOLLAND. Fusion is here. It's the logical development. I am an old
+politician. The time for discussion is over. Now it's a straight
+fight to a finish.
+
+DR. WASNER [coming nearer]. The German fatherland is rallying to
+the support of the national flag.
+
+BEERMANN. But there are controversies everywhere. I know best. I
+always am told by campaign managers: don't say this and don't say
+that.
+
+BOLLAND. In what way?
+
+BEERMANN. For instance, I'm to speak at the Liberal Club the day
+after to-morrow. You would not expect me to say the same things I
+told the Conservatives last night ...?
+
+BOLLAND. Your details, of course, must differ. But fundamentally
+it amounts to the same thing.
+
+BEERMANN. The same thing? Believe me, all this masking confuses
+me. [Drinks.]
+
+EFFIE [calling across the tea table where she has been standing
+with others]. Papa! Listen to Frau Bolland. She also says that the
+Indian Dancer is so interesting.
+
+FRAU BOLLAND. Positively won--derful, Herr Bolland! You can
+conceive the entire spirit of the Orient,
+
+EFFIE. Why haven't we gone to see her?
+
+FRAU BOLLAND. You surely ought to go. Professor Stohr--you know
+him--told me he never in his life saw anything so gorgeous.
+
+FRAULEIN KOCH-PINNEBERG. She's so picturesque in her greenish
+gowns.
+
+FRAU BOLLAND. I did not know that the Hindoos could be so
+charming.
+
+BEERMANN. We'll have a look at her some night.
+
+EFFIE. But to-morrow night is her last appearance.
+
+BEERMANN [going to the humidor]. Very well darling. Will you
+remind me of it to-morrow? [Taking a box of cigars offers one to
+Dobler who is standing near him.] Smoke?
+
+DOBLER [taking one]. Thanks. But I am not accustomed to the
+imported ones.
+
+BEERMANN [patronizingly]. You'll get used to high living soon
+enough.
+
+BOLLAND [to Dobler]. How long have you been in the city now?
+
+DOBLER. Two years.
+
+BOLLAND. And before that you were in ... eh?
+
+FRAU BOLLAND. You must excuse him Herr Dobler. Why in
+Unterschlettenbach, dear ... You know that!
+
+BOLLAND [correcting himself]. Certainly. Bit of literary history.
+Mighty interesting place that Unterschlettenbach ... eh?
+
+DOBLER. Hardly, Herr Kommerzienrat. Poor and unsanitary. Most of
+its inhabitants are miners.
+
+BOLLAND. Fancy that! And I never knew it. Full of miners! Tell me
+though, what do you think of our set here ...? How do you like
+this well-to-do circle ... the big city ... wealthy surroundings?
+
+DOBLER [lighting a cigar]. I like it well enough. But I think I
+will always feel out of place here.
+
+BOLLAND. Can't get used to it?
+
+DOBLER. Everything is so different. It seems to me at times as
+though I had suddenly entered a beautiful house while outdoors my
+old comrade was awaiting me patiently--the open road.
+
+FRAU BOLLAND. Isn't that won--derful? So very re-a-lis-tic-ally
+put! I can just picture it. Oh Herr Dobler ... I must tell you:
+your novel--my husband and I talk about it all day long.
+
+BOLLAND. Tell me though--did you yourself experience the life of
+that young man you describe?
+
+DOBLER. It's the story of my youth.
+
+BOLLAND. But it's somewhat colored by poetic imagination?
+
+DOBLER. N---o.
+
+BOLLAND. For instance, you have never actually starved?
+
+DOBLER. Oh, yes. There's no imagination in that.
+
+BOLLAND. Just the way you describe it--so that everything turned
+red?
+
+DOBLER. Everything had a pink color. On one occasion I did not eat
+anything for four and one-half days.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN [compassionately]. You poor thing!
+
+FRAU BOLLAND. That's exceedingly interesting!
+
+BOLLAND. Do tell us all about it! Then you saw dancing fires?
+
+DOBLER. Yes. Everything danced before my eyes, and I saw it all
+through a hazy veil, and towards the end my hearing was affected.
+
+BOLLAND. You don't say so? Your hearing also?
+
+DOBLER. When any one spoke to me it sounded as if he stood a great
+distance off--a great distance.
+
+FRAU BOLLAND. Our set never dreams of such things.
+
+BEERMANN. How did it all turn out?
+
+DOBLER. What do you mean?
+
+BEERMANN. Well, in the end you got something to eat again?
+
+DOBLER. Finally I fainted; I was found lying in a meadow, and was
+taken to the hospital.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN [sighing]. Are such things still possible in our
+day?
+
+FRAU BOLLAND. What can you expect--of these idealists! DR. HAUSER.
+They deserve nothing better.
+
+BEERMANN. And after you were in the hospital--how did you get
+out?
+
+DOBLER. As soon as I got stronger. Later on I became a printer--
+found a position--studied and published my book.
+
+BEERMANN. That's all in your novel, I know. But the part where you
+describe how you were a tramp--that's not true?
+
+DOBLER. Yes, I "hoboed" almost a whole year.
+
+FRAU BOLLAND. "Hoboed!" Fancy that! How unique!
+
+FRAULEIN KOCH-PINNEBERG. I can just picture it. Tramping along the
+railroad tracks.
+
+DOBLER. Yes. You folks think you can picture it with four square
+meals a day. But it's quite different, I assure you. There were
+three of us at that time. We worked our way from Basel upwards--
+sometimes on the left--sometimes on the right bank of the Rhine.
+In Worms we spent the last of our money and we had to PEDDLE for
+HAND-OUTS.
+
+FRAU BOLLAND [not understanding him]. "Handouts?" What is that?
+
+DOBLER [with pathos]. To beg for something to eat, gnadige Frau,
+for our daily bread.
+
+[They all remain silent. Only the voice of the butler who is
+serving liqueur can be heard.] "Cognac monsieur! Chartreuse!
+Champagne?"
+
+BEERMANN [taking a glass]. To a man of refinement, such an
+existence must have been quite unbearable.
+
+DOBLER [taking a glass of cognac from the butler]. Unpleasant.
+[Drinking.] But you lose your sensitiveness. At first it is hard--
+but one learns. In one hot day on the road ... when you get fagged
+out--and with every stone hurting your feet--you'll learn. The
+dust blinds you--but you've got to go on just the same. In the
+evening you come to a small hamlet with smoke curling above the
+house-tops and the houses themselves look cozy--then you have to
+hold your hat in your hand and beg for a plate of warm soup. [A
+short pause.]
+
+DR. WASNER [deep bass voice]. Home sweet home!
+
+BOLLAND. The story reminds me exactly of my late father.
+
+FRAU BOLLAND. But, Adolph!
+
+BOLLAND. Indeed, I say it does!
+
+FRAU BOLLAND. How can you draw such a comparison? Herr Dobler has
+become a celebrated poet.
+
+BOLLAND. My father also achieved something in life. At his funeral
+four hundred employees followed the coffin.
+
+FRAU BOLLAND [impatiently]. We've heard that before ... Herr
+Dobler, did you write poetry in those days?
+
+DOBLER. No, Frau Bolland. Much later.
+
+FRAU BOLLAND. I'll have to read your novel all over again, now
+that I know it is all autobiographical.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN [to Dr. Wasner]. You were going to sing, Herr
+Professor?
+
+DR. WASNER. I promised ...
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. Yes, do, Effie will accompany you.
+
+DR. WASNER. If Fraulein will be so kind ... but I don't know how
+my voice is to-day ...
+
+FRAU BOLLAND. You sing so beauti-ful-ly.
+
+DR. WASNER. So much campaign work. Politics corrupts even the
+voice.
+
+FRAULEIN KOCH-PINNEBERG. Do oblige us.
+
+[Frau Bolland, Frau Beermann, Dr. Wasner, Fraulein Koch, Effie go
+out into the music room.]
+
+BEERMANN. It's a pity that the professor is going to sing. We
+could have started a game of skat. Have some more cognac?
+
+DR. HAUSER. No, thanks.
+
+DOBLER. Thanks. No more for me.
+
+[Bolland seats himself on sofa; Dr. Hauser and Dobler sit in
+chairs; Beermann lights a fresh cigar. The butler goes into the
+music room and as he opens the door, the sound of the piano is
+heard.]
+
+BOLLAND. As I said before Herr Dobler, your story reminded me very
+much of my late father.
+
+DR. HAUSER. Of the well known Kommerzienrat Bolland?
+
+BOLLAND [sinks deep into chair; crosses legs]. Never mind he was
+not always a wealthy Kommerzienrat. [Turning to Dobler.] Picture
+to yourself a winter landscape--it's bitter cold--a gray sky--it
+is snowing and everything is wrapped in snow. Through all this we
+see a youth walking--rather staggering--along the forest road
+from Perleberg. A half starved young man. [He pauses and brushes
+ashes from his cigar. The butler enters from the music room to get
+a glass of water; then he goes out again. While the door is open,
+the trembling bass baritone voice of Prof. Wasner is heard.]
+
+"In deinen Augen hab ich einst gelesen Von Lieb' und--Gluck--von
+Lieb' und Gluck den Schein...."
+
+[Footnote: (Translated):--"In thy dear eyes I once read the story
+Of love and Joy--of Love, And Joy agleam...."]
+
+[The door closes and the sound is shut off.]
+
+BOLLAND [now continues his speech]. And now the snow falls faster
+and faster. This poor young man had par tout nothing to eat since
+the morning. He becomes very weak; sits down on a bundle of twigs
+and falls asleep. Just by sheer chance it happens that a man from
+Perleberg passing by sees this dejected, snowed-in figure and
+takes the young fellow home with him. [He pauses.] And this young
+man later became my father ...
+
+HAUSER. And Herr Kommerzienrat Bolland.
+
+BOLLAND. Yes. Herr Kommerzienrat Bolland. [To Dobler.] Now don't
+you consider it quite remarkable? Wouldn't that make a fine novel?
+
+DOBLER. Yes ... Yes.
+
+BOLLAND. That could be worked up very nicely, couldn't it? A poor
+young man--the snow covered landscape ...
+
+HAUSER. And that bundle of twigs.
+
+DOBLER. Fortune has her unique whims and likes to turn the tables.
+
+BOLLAND. That's it exactly. Fortune delights in turning the
+tables.
+
+HAUSER. Unique whims? No. That sort of thing happens every day.
+
+BOLLAND. What happens every day?
+
+HAUSER. The story of a poor young man who becomes a millionaire.
+Every large factory boasts of a like progenitor.
+
+BOLLAND. Do you think so?
+
+HAUSER. And the poor young man grows poorer with each telling.
+Your son, Herr Bolland, in his description will have his
+grandfather freeze to death on the bundle of twigs.
+
+BOLLAND. Upon my word the story is gospel. [To Dobler.] I'd make
+use of that plot ... How he founded his business and how it grew
+and grew ...
+
+[As Frau Beermann enters from the music room, the tremulous voice
+of Prof. Wasner is heard.]
+
+"Behuet dich Gott, es hat nicht sollen sein." [Footnote: God guard
+thee well, it was but a dream.]
+
+[The closing of the door shuts off the sound.]
+
+DOBLER. In one respect you are right. The character of the SELF
+MADE MAN [Footnote: So in original.] has hardly been treated in
+contemporary German literature.
+
+BOLLAND [with enthusiasm]. That's just what I claim. Always about
+the poor people only. But take a man who has a large income--one
+who makes a success of his business, that also is poetry.
+
+HAUSER. I'd have my ledger novelized, if I were you, Holland. [A
+maid opens door, admitting Frau Lund.]
+
+FRAU BEERMANN [welcoming Frau Lund]. Mama Lund, how good of you.
+
+FRAU LUND [vivaciously]. Always glad to come here. Good afternoon,
+gentlemen. Where is my little Effie?
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. In the music room. [To the maid.] Please tell my
+daughter ...
+
+FRAU LUND. No, no, don't disturb her.
+
+BEERMANN. Permit me. [Introducing.] ... Herr Hans Jacob Dobler,
+our famous poet ...
+
+FRAU LUND [taking his hand]. A famous poet? Delighted.
+
+BOLLAND. Author of "Life Story of Hans." ...
+
+FRAU LUND [pleasantly to Dobler]. If I were younger, Herr Dobler,
+I would certainly make believe that I read your book. But at my
+age I find that sort of thing too tiresome. What is the "Life
+Story of Hans"?
+
+DOBLER. It is a novel, gnadige Frau.
+
+BOLLAND. A masterpiece.
+
+FRAU LUND. Then my ignorance is unpardonable. I'll soon make
+reparation.
+
+[Frau Bolland followed by Effie, Dr. Wasner and Fraulein Koch
+hurry out of the music room.]
+
+FRAU BOLLAND. I am off for the Arts Club. I'll be late, I fear.
+[To Frau Lund.] Oh, how do you do, Frau Lund?
+
+EFFIE [hurries over to Frau Lund and kisses her hand]. Mama Lund!
+
+FRAU LUND. How is my little mischief maker? When are you coming to
+see me?
+
+EFFIE. I would glady come ... but, I am so busy with music lessons
+and Professor Stohr's lectures ...
+
+FRAU LUND. And this and that and your eighteen years. You are
+quite right, my dear.
+
+FRAU BOLLAND [to Frau Beermann]. May Effie come along? They say
+there are very won-der-ful paintings at the Arts Club.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN [turning to Frau Lund], I don't know if ...
+
+FRAU LUND. Of course, let her go along. She has such a pretty
+little dress. Why should she be here with us old people? The
+gentlemen will entertain us ...
+
+FRAU BOLLAND. But then we'll have to hurry. It is quite late.
+Goodbye, Frau Beermann. I enjoyed myself so much. Goodbye, my dear
+Frau Lund. So glad to have seen you again. Goodbye, goodbye ...
+Adolph!
+
+BOLLAND. Yes, Mother.
+
+FRAU BOLLAND. You won't forget the theatre tonight? At eight. The
+Viennese actor is so fine. [Off to left. Followed by Effie and
+Fraulein Koch. Frau Bolland in the doorway.]
+
+FRAU BOLLAND. Will you come with us, Herr Dobler? You can explain
+so many things.
+
+DOBLER. I'll be glad to. [Shaking hands with Frau Beermann and
+bowing.]
+
+BEERMANN. Come soon again, Herr Poet.
+
+BOLLAND. And think over the story I told you.
+
+[Dobler goes out left, following Frau Bolland, Effie, and Fraulein
+Koch.]
+
+FRAU LUND [to Frau Beermann]. I'll just have a cup of coffee.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. I'll tell them to make a fresh cup for you. A fresh
+cup of coffee. [To the butler who is clearing the table.] Tell the
+chef--[Butler goes out through the middle door. In the meantime
+Frau Holland again appears through left.]
+
+FRAU BOLLAND. Adolph!
+
+BOLLAND. Yes--wifey?
+
+FRAU BOLLAND. Thursday the circus comes to town, don't forget to
+reserve seats.
+
+BOLLAND. All right!
+
+FRAU BOLLAND [while going out]. I'm still a child when the circus
+comes.
+
+[Frau Lund seats herself on sofa. Next to her on the right Frau
+Beermann; Beermann and Bolland sit opposite in large leather
+chairs. Hauser is standing behind the sofa leaning against it.]
+
+FRAU LUND [to Hauser]. Tell me Judge, where have you been keeping
+yourself all this time?
+
+HAUSER. In my office, Frau Lund, only in my office. But I hear
+that you were on the Riviera.
+
+FRAU LUND. Four weeks in Monte Carlo. Children, I gambled like an
+old viveur.
+
+BEERMANN. What luck?
+
+FRAU LUND. I lost, of course--I'm too old to set the world on
+fire. But, Beermann, I hear all sorts of surprises about you. You
+are a candidate for the Reichstag?
+
+BEERMANN. Yes, they nominated me.
+
+FRAU LUND. Who are "they"?
+
+BEERMANN. The combined Liberals and Conservatives ...
+
+HAUSER. And the Conservatives and Liberals combined.
+
+FRAU LUND. Formerly these were distinct parties.
+
+HAUSER. Formerly,--formerly.
+
+BEERMANN. Now there is fusion.
+
+FRAU LUND [to Frau Beermann]. You never told me that your husband
+was in politics.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. He never was--up to two weeks ago.
+
+FRAU LUND. How quickly things change! And of all the people ...
+you!
+
+BEERMANN. What's so startling in that?
+
+FRAU LUND. You told me that you never even read the newspapers.
+
+BOLLAND. We all are cordially grateful to Beermann that in an hour
+of need he made this sacrifice.
+
+FRAU LUND. The way you talk about the "hour of need" and
+"sacrifice" Herr Kommerzienrat, it seems to me that you would have
+been the better candidate.
+
+BOLLAND. Oh, I am too pronouncedly Liberal.
+
+HAUSER. And that's an incurable disease!
+
+BOLLAND. At any rate it makes my nomination impossible. A man was
+needed who was not known as a party-man.
+
+FRAU LUND. It would seem then that our friend Beermann has become
+a politician because he ... is no politician?
+
+HAUSER. That's what is known as "fusion."
+
+BEERMANN. Allow me to ask a question. Why should I not become a
+Reichstag deputy?
+
+HAUSER. Quite right! Frau Lund--tell him--why shouldn't he?
+
+BEERMANN. Because I am a novice in politics? We all have to make a
+start.
+
+HAUSER. It's the only calling where one can start any day, Frau
+Lund, without being called upon to produce qualifications.
+
+BOLLAND. There you can tell the lawyer. You'd like to establish a
+civil service examination for members of the Reichstag?
+
+HAUSER. You are not afraid that it might hurt them?
+
+BEERMANN [with importance]. Let me tell you, Judge. What a person
+achieves in real life is far greater than all your book wisdom. We
+have too many lawyers anyway. It's one of our national
+misfortunes.
+
+FRAU LUND [merrily to Frau Beermann]. Look! He's beginning to
+debate already.
+
+BOLLAND [careless pose]. As you know, I run a soap factory where I
+employ four hundred and sixty-two workmen ... let me repeat it,
+four hundred and sixty-two workmen. Their livelihood and welfare
+lies in the palm of my hand; don't you think that requires brains?
+
+HAUSER. But ...
+
+BOLLAND [interrupting]. Do you realize what the amount of detail
+and the management of the whole factory means?
+
+HAUSER. But friend Beermann never even worked in a soap factory.
+How can that apply to him?
+
+BEERMANN. Oh, what's the use of discussing things if you're
+joking.
+
+HAUSER. Really, I can't see the connection.
+
+BEERMANN. At any rate, I'm a better candidate than the book-binder
+whom the Socialists have put up against me.
+
+BOLLAND. Beermann has had greater experience and has a broader
+point of view.
+
+FRAU LUND. Then there's something else I heard about Herr
+Beermann, that I don't like at all.
+
+BEERMANN. About me?
+
+FRAU LUND. Yes, I bear that you are the President of the new
+Society for the Suppression of Vice. What makes you do such
+things? That isn't nice.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. I fully agree with you.
+
+BEERMANN. You do? For what reasons? When honest men select me as
+their President, is that mere flattery?
+
+FRAU LUND. It is not becoming to you, and you are insincere in it.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. It's as false as anything can be, and you speak
+about problems which you have never understood.
+
+BEERMANN. Pardon me! I ought to know best what is becoming for me.
+
+FRAU LUND. There's no one in the world I dislike as much as a
+preacher. But if a person wants to be one ... then, according to
+the gospel he ought to live on bread and water. It doesn't go well
+with champagne and lobster.
+
+BEERMANN. Do the Scriptures command that we must be poor to be
+honorable?
+
+FRAU LUND. No, Beermann, but if I still remember, they speak of a
+camel and a needle.
+
+BOLLAND. The ladies evidently are not acquainted with the purposes
+of our new society. I am sure they would subscribe to every one of
+the principles which are incorporated in our By-laws.
+
+FRAU LUND. I certainly would not.
+
+BOLLAND [feeling in his side pocket]. At least read our "Appeal to
+the Public."
+
+FRAU LUND [refusing]. No, thank you.
+
+BOLLAND. Every woman will rejoice when she reads it.
+
+FRAU LUND. Do you think so? How exceedingly amusing your societies
+are! So, cards and bowling no longer offer sufficient
+entertainment. You have to moralize.
+
+HAUSER. I can't help thinking of the notorious starvation freak at
+the circus who gets his meals on the sly everyday.
+
+DR. WASNER. Of course, every conviction can be made ridiculous
+once it's regarded as insincere. You shouldn't accuse without
+proof.
+
+HAUSER. Herr Professor, politeness requires that each individual
+be regarded as the exception--but not an entire club.
+
+BOLLAND. It is a pity, indeed, that a great movement like ours is
+disposed of by a few trifling remarks. That embitters our task of
+curing the nation of social diseases.
+
+FRAU LUND. Where did you get your Doctor's license to cure?
+
+DR. WASNER. It's sad enough that the cure is left to only a few of
+us.
+
+HAUSER. Well, I'll remain a patient. You'll need a few anyway to
+keep up your business.
+
+BEERMANN. I consider all this a very cheap kind of humor. I used
+to joke about these matters myself, but if you will only look upon
+this problem from a serious point of view, when your eyes are
+opened to the ...
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. ... Your newly acquired ways of talking are quite
+unbearable.
+
+BEERMANN. Please, don't make a scene.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. We have been married for twenty-six years; have
+been very fortunate with our own children. Why worry about other
+people?
+
+BEERMANN. You are not logical, my love. The mere fact that I
+brought up my children properly is all the more reason for my
+joining this movement. ...
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. You didn't lose much sleep about their education.
+
+BEERMANN. Evidently I didn't neglect anything.
+
+FRAU LUND. I'm afraid you pride yourselves on a degree of
+willpower you never exercised.
+
+BEERMANN. Never exercised? My dear Frau Lund, what do you know
+about the temptations which confront us men. What does a woman
+know about them?
+
+FRAU LUND. The only thing we women don't know about is the manner
+in which these temptations terminate.
+
+BEERMANN. Our movement intends to do away with these very
+deceptions. We want to protect the traditions of the home which
+women treasure.
+
+FRAU LUND. No. We, women also treasure modesty. We dislike to see
+men pretend to have better morals than they actually have.
+
+BEERMANN. Seriously, Frau Lund. Public immorality must hurt you
+more.
+
+FRAU LUND. You arc mistaken. It requires a genuine manly feeling
+to sympathize with misery.
+
+DR. WASNER. Misery and vice are different problems.
+
+FRAU LUND. They're not. And that is why we will never agree.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. All the more reason why my husband should not set
+himself up as an example. He knows nothing of worry or care.
+
+BEERMANN. We can never subscribe to Frau Lund's principles.
+
+FRAU LUND. No principles, please!
+
+BOLLAND. Out of sheer opposition you will say that you hold
+different ones from us.
+
+FRAU LUND. No. I will say that I hold none at all.
+
+BOLLAND. and WASNER [together]. But, gnadige Frau!
+
+FRAU LUND. I can't help it. I lost them some place on my journey
+through life. I have learned that all your principles have loop
+holes through which people can conveniently slip out and take
+their friends along with them. So I had my choice of either
+surrendering them or dishonestly preaching them to others.
+
+DR. WASNER. Real principles of life are never given up.
+
+HAUSER [with sarcasm]. Cheers from the gallery!
+
+BOLLAND. Principles of morality are the laws of nature--they are
+her dictates.
+
+FRAU LUND. Is that the reason you have started your Society for
+the Suppression of Vice? Do you imagine your by-laws are stronger
+than the laws of nature?
+
+DR. WASNER. May I make just one remark?
+
+BEERMANN. What is it?
+
+DR. WASNER [stroking his beard]. In summing up the matter we can
+come to this decision: women have a beautiful privilege. Certain
+facts in life remain a closed book to them. We, men, unfortunately
+have to come into contact with them.
+
+HAUSER. Did you say UNFORTUNATELY?
+
+DR. WASNER. Please don't interrupt. I maintain "unfortunately"!
+For the last four years, I have been persistently following
+obscene literature, and to-day I have gotten together a collection
+of it, which I dare say is pretty complete. So I am speaking of
+matters about which I am thoroughly informed. [With importance.]
+The degree of vulgarity our people have reached is incredible.
+
+FRAU LUND. And you have been the "persistent collector" of this
+vulgarity?
+
+DR. WASNER. Let me assure you that I took upon myself this task
+with loathing.
+
+HAUSER. Herr Professor, in all my life I have never met a man who
+for four years voluntarily did something which was loathsome to
+him.
+
+DR. WASNER. You have no business to make such a remark.
+
+HAUSER. Have you derived no satisfaction from it at all?
+
+DR. WASNER. Satisfaction--if you mean the satisfaction of
+participating in the uplift of our people.
+
+FRAU LUND. Uplift? Our reformers capitalize our national lack of
+good taste. Good proof of that are the moral works of art which
+you patronize.
+
+DR. WASNER. The matter we are discussing is more serious than
+reforming bad taste.
+
+FRAU LUND. There is nothing more serious.
+
+DR. WASNER [knowingly]. If you but knew, Frau Lund!
+
+FRAU LUND. I don't have to call and see your collection. Frankly,
+to me, the most obscene picture in your gallery could not be more
+disgusting than the talk you carry on in your meetings.
+
+BEERMANN. Oh! Oh!
+
+FRAU LUND. The nudity of the human body is not disgusting. It is
+the nudity of your mind. No vice is as repulsive as that virtue of
+yours which loudly uncovers itself in public--in market places.
+Vice has at least the shame to hide itself.
+
+BEERMANN [to Bolland]. Can you understand her?
+
+BOLLAND. I must admit, I can't.
+
+DR. WASNER. Gnadige Frau stated that vice hides itself. But in
+spite of that it exists.
+
+BOLLAND. Yes, she admitted that it exists.
+
+DR. WASNER. Shall we tolerate it merely because it crawls into
+dark nooks and corners?
+
+FRAU LUND. You reformers! Let more sunshine into this world and
+vice will not find so many dark corners and nooks to hide in.
+
+BOLLAND. You would not be as opposed to us if you had a son who
+would be exposed to the temptations of our great cities.
+
+FRAU LUND. I would be ashamed of myself if for personal reasons I
+became narrow-minded.
+
+BEERMANN. But just stop to think! Picture a healthy young man in
+his prime falling into the hands of one of these abominable
+creatures!
+
+FRAU LUND. I could picture something worse than that.
+
+BEERMANN. Still worse?
+
+FRAU LUND. For instance, if he should, with all the credulity of
+youth, enter into the work of your society.
+
+BOLLAND. Well! Well!
+
+BEERMANN. You don't seem to take anything seriously to-day.
+
+FRAU LUND. Very seriously; this young man perhaps does reach the
+stage where he sincerely pities your so-called abominable
+creature. Then he has really advanced in his morality. Let the
+pity impress itself deeply upon him and your abominable creature
+has preached better to him than all your high-sounding phrases.
+
+BOLLAND. I am simply dumbfounded.
+
+DR. WASNER. Then you even believe that our society exerts a bad
+influence?
+
+FRAU LUND [very positively]. Yes.
+
+BOLLAND [with irony]. Fancy! University Professors,
+philanthropists and a general who are with us in this work--they
+are, of course, the ones who are likely to corrupt the morals of
+the younger generation. Frau Lund, no doubt, would like to send
+our young men to the good Ladies of the Pavement.
+
+DR. WASNER. In what way is our influence bad?
+
+FRAU LUND [with warmth]. The young man who joins your society does
+it only to ape you and to advance his own ends and vainglory. He
+forever deprives himself of understanding the meaning of life and
+of becoming helpful to those who suffer.
+
+BOLLAND. Well what do you think of such statements?
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. They are splendid. I would be very thankful if my
+boy would embody the ideals of Frau Lund.
+
+BEERMANN. Lena, I simply forbid you to say such things.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. Really?
+
+BEERMANN. Everybody knows that Frau Lund is a radical, but I don't
+want you to fall into that habit.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. I don't acquire new habits as rapidly as you.
+
+HAUSER [to Beermann]. Don't get excited. A politician must give
+everyone an opportunity to express his views.
+
+DR. WASNER. I teach young people and I heartily wish they'd
+continue to seek their ideals among high minded men and not in the
+dark city streets.
+
+BOLLAND. Right! And not in the dark city streets.
+
+FRAU LUND. Nor there, Herr Kommerzienrat, where the veil of shame
+is rudely torn from inborn sensitiveness and it is shorn of every
+secret charm.
+
+DR. WASNER. Correct! We do want to deprive it of its charm.
+
+FRAU LUND. You succeed in doing that; no tenderness can survive
+the brutal frankness of your meetings.
+
+DR. WASNER. It is not a national German trait to sugar-coat sin.
+
+FRAU LUND. Why do you confound all lack of refinement with the
+national character?
+
+DR. WASNER. Because it is good German to call a spade a spade.
+
+BEERMANN [getting up]. Why argue to no purpose? Let's start our
+game of skat.
+
+BOLLAND. Because it appears to be a conflict of two different
+philosophies.
+
+BEERMANN [rises, goes to card table, opens a drawer, takes out a
+deck of cards and opens them]. It's always the same old story.
+Never start anything with women! They must have the last word.
+[Sits down at card table. Bolland gets up and sits beside him.]
+
+FRAU LUND [laughing]. Spoken again like a typical reformer.
+
+DR. WASNER [rising]. I don't want to continue this argument, but
+if by any chance you have gained the impression that I regard this
+matter from a prejudiced view point, I will cheerfully admit it. I
+do.
+
+BEERMANN [calling]. Oh, do come on, Herr Professor.
+
+DR. WASNER [turning to card table]. I'm coming. [To others.] I
+admit with pride that I am prejudiced. For me there exists only
+one question: How can I best serve my fatherland?
+
+BOLLAND. Herr Professor!
+
+DR. WASNER [turning to table]. Just a moment. ... [To others.] Let
+the sturdy qualities of our people be conserved. That stand is
+unassailable. Then I will be sure that my efforts have at least
+...
+
+BEERMANN [loudly]. But, my dear Wasner!
+
+WASNER [not dismayed, continuing]. ... at least a national scope.
+
+HAUSER. Wouldn't you rather play skat, professor?
+
+WASNER [going over to card table]. There remains only one thing
+for me to say. If I have used sharp words, I want to apologize.
+[Takes a seat.]
+
+BEERMANN. You deal, Professor.
+
+DR. WASNER [shuffling the cards and talking at the same time]. For
+me there exists but one ideal. That which Tacitus described as it
+once prevailed among the old Teutons. Quamquam severa illic
+matrimonia nec ullam morum partem magis laudaveris. [He lets
+Bolland cut and then deals.] The most praiseworthy trait of the
+Teutons was the strictness of their marriage customs. Nam prope
+soli Barbarorum singulis uxoribus contenti sunt. They were almost
+the only barbarians to content themselves with a single wife.
+
+BEERMANN [loudly]. Tournee!
+
+BOLLAND. I'll go you!
+
+BEERMANN. Twenty!
+
+BOLLAND. I'll better that!
+
+BEERMANN. Take it! Gras-Solo!
+
+[They play.]
+
+[Hauser, Frau Lund, Frau Beermann remain sitting at right.]
+
+FRAU LUND. At last the Fatherland is saved.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. It's the only occupation for which nature intended
+them. They should not tinker with national problems.
+
+HAUSER. Have patience. Political ambition dies out after the first
+defeat.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. ... which I hope will happen.
+
+HAUSER. That's as certain as fate. Else he never would have been
+nominated.
+
+BEERMANN [calling from the card table]. I have pretty sharp
+hearing!
+
+HAUSER. A very fine acquisition, Beermann, when you grow old.
+
+BOLLAND [throwing a card on the table]. Fifty-nine and four make
+sixty-three! The rest you can take.
+
+(They throw down their cards; Bolland collects them and shuffles.)
+
+WASNER [half turning to Hauser], And then there is the celebrated
+passage, "Ergo septa pudicitia agunt, nullis ... spectaculorum
+illecebris corruptae."
+
+BEERMANN. I have six cards.
+
+BOLLAND. The bottom one belongs to the Professor.
+
+WASNER [as before, continuing]. So the wife lived surrounded by
+tenderness and care ... and so forth, "Literarum secreta. ..."
+Secret communications were not tolerated by either husband or
+wife.
+
+BEERMANN. Please drop that Tacitus. It's your chance to lead. ...
+
+WASNER. I pass. ...
+
+HOLLAND. So do I.
+
+BOLLAND [loudly and enthusiastically]. That's the way to get at
+them! Trumps! And trumps again.
+
+WASNER [murmuring]. "Paucissima adulteria in tam numerosa gente.
+..." [Gradually lapses into silence and then continues to play
+with energy.]
+
+FRAU LUND [with a glance towards the card table]. Why do we take
+our principles so seriously. ... It's really ridiculous how our
+every opinion soon turns into religious beliefs.
+
+WASNER. The matter is dead serious.
+
+FRAU LUND. Who will think of it to-morrow?
+
+HAUSER [nodding towards card table]. Not they, of course. But
+there are cleverer people. The so-called thinking public in
+Germany must have some national problem to solve. It finds some
+such, readily enough in order to play with it. Meanwhile they take
+no notice that the party in power [Footnote: Men with the brass
+buttons.] are lining their pockets.
+
+FRAU LUND. Haven't they always been doing that?
+
+HAUSER. Yes, but not with such. ease. Here and there they were
+rapped over the knuckles. But nowadays they could cart away the
+entire capitol.
+
+FRAU LUND. There's not so much left to-day.
+
+HAUSER. A couple of pieces anyhow to take along as keepsakes.
+
+FRAU LUND. In my days I saw one reform after another on the
+bargain counter; but we women remain mere spectators while ideals
+come and go; we can not realize how much they mean to men.
+
+HAUSER. My dear Frau Lund, if a real reform should effectively
+rise among us some day, then you women will have to lend a helping
+hand. With those [nodding towards card-table] kindergarten heroes
+nothing can be accomplished.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. What influence can we exert so long as men organize
+their societies for the protection of women's virtue!
+
+HAUSER. These henpecked gentlemen always nominate themselves
+chastity's guardians.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. They are of importance only when they can get some
+one to listen. I'd like to go to their meetings and tell them
+that.
+
+HAUSER. Their meetings--bosh! Their sort only couple their
+nonsense with a few self-evident generalities which no one would
+really oppose. No, first of all they must be educated and that you
+women alone can accomplish.
+
+FRAU LUND. You say that as if we had any influence on public
+opinion.
+
+HAUSER. You do all the applauding. The whole game is played for
+you. If you withdraw your applause not a single one of the
+peacocks of virtue will open up his gospel feathers for
+exhibition. It is indeed of great importance to you that they do
+not banish all refinement from our social life.
+
+FRAU LUND [citing].
+
+     [Footnote: in original "FRAU LUND [zitierend].
+        "Ja, da eur Wonnedienst noch glanzte,
+         Wie ganz anders, anders war es da!
+         Da man deine Tempel noch bekranzte. ...
+
+         DR. WASNER [hat beim Zitieren der Schillerischer Verse
+         heruber gehorcht und fallt nun mit tiefen Basse ein]. ...
+         Venus Amathusia."]
+
+"Yes, while still thy sanctuaries of pleasure
+Crowned this earth like in Arcadia
+Joy had no penalty nor trader's measure. ..."
+
+DR. WASNER [when the citation began listened over his cards, now
+falls in with deep bass]. "... Venus Amathusia."
+
+BOLLAND [angrily breaking in]. Man alive, why didn't you play your
+Ace of Spades? If you had brought out that Ace you'd have a trump-
+-then you'd beat this with a trump ... and then another trum. ...
+
+BEERMANN. Now, beloved friends and countrymen, no post-mortem
+speeches. [While dealing cards.] You cut, Bolland.
+
+BOLLAND [cutting cards]. Make use of your trumps, Herr Professor.
+I am trying to play into your hands.
+
+DR. WASNER. I thought ...
+
+BOLLAND. You didn't. If you had you'd play differently.
+
+BEERMANN [speaking to Frau Lund, while dealing]. How far have you
+gotten with your moralizing? Have we agreed yet--[Laughing.] Yes;
+yes; these women folks!
+
+WASNER [arranging cards in his hand]. They were citing Schiller a
+moment ago. We must not forget, ladies, that it was Schiller
+himself who awakened the national spirit of our race.
+
+HAUSER. Your national spirit unfortunately found its way into the
+strangest kinds of containers.
+
+DR. WASNER. I decidedly protest against such a poor opinion. If
+the sincere religious sentiment of the German element ...
+
+BOLLAND [interrupting him]. We are waiting for you, Herr
+Professor. Are you finally going to announce your cards?
+
+DR. WASNER [continuing his pathetic tone]. I pass.
+
+HAUSER. The steady contact with school children keeps our
+educators refreshingly naive. That man still believes in the
+superiority of the Teutonic element.
+
+FRAU LUND. And in the stability of our special German moral
+standard.
+
+HAUSER. Until some little scandal crops up again. By the way, we
+shall soon have one right in our city.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN [with interest]. Here?
+
+HAUSER. To-morrow you'll read all about it in the newspapers. The
+police have made a discovery which may prove more than they
+bargained for.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. Here? [Beerman, head sideways, listens over his
+cards.]
+
+HAUSER. Last night the police arrested a woman who kept a very
+open house. She colored it by going under a fancy French name, and
+they say only entertained the best of society. She kept a diary
+which fell into the hands of the police.
+
+BEERMANN [he leaves his seat, comes forward, right]. A diary?
+
+BOLLAND [drops his cards and rises]. What sort of a diary?
+
+HAUSER. Oh! Just a naughty little inventory of all of her
+visitors.
+
+BEERMANN. What is the name of the lady?
+
+HAUSER. Some French name which sounds to me like rouge.
+
+BEERMANN. I can't understand how you could forget her name.
+
+BOLLAND. I can't either as long as you seem to know all about it.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN [to Beermann]. But, Fritz, why should you worry
+about it?
+
+BEERMANN. Well ... am I the President of the Vice Suppression
+Society or, am I not ...?
+
+CURTAIN
+
+
+
+
+ACT II
+
+
+(An office at Police Headquarters. To rear on the left stands the
+Assessor's desk. To the right against the wall, the desk of
+Reisacher, the police clerk. Left front is a sofa with two chairs.
+On the right wall is a telephone. Side entrance left. Another
+entrance in the middle. Stroebel and Reisacher are seated with
+their backs to one another. Stroebel is reading a newspaper;
+Reisacher is writing. Short pause.)
+
+STROEBEL [half turning]. Reisacher!
+
+REISACHER [also turning]. Yes, Herr Assessor.[Footnote: An
+assessor is a petty police official.]
+
+STROEBEL. Are you familiar with the expression "those higher up"?
+
+REISACHER. Yes, Herr Assessor.
+
+STROEBEL. What do you understand by it?
+
+REISACHER. Those are the folks who are something and have money
+somewhere.
+
+STROEBEL. Is it used to express contempt or class hatred?
+
+REISACHER [eagerly]. Well ... well! "The higher ups" are
+respected.
+
+STROEBEL. Are you certain?
+
+REISACHER. Absolutely.
+
+[They both turn around to their former positions; Stroebel
+continues to read, and Reisacher to write. Short pause.]
+
+STROEBEL [half turning]. Reisacher!
+
+REISACHER [does likewise]. Yes, Herr Assessor.
+
+STROEBEL. After all, it means class hatred.
+
+REISACHER. No, no.
+
+STROEBEL. Pay attention. Here it says [he reads]: "Of course, for
+those higher up there are no laws." That means, I take it, that
+the rich are beyond the control of the law. By "control of the
+law," I wish you to understand I am attacking the humiliating and
+anarchistic notion that the law does not apply equally to rich and
+poor. Also I want to besmirch the rich, by designating them by a
+slang expression.
+
+REISACHER. Yes, Herr Assessor.
+
+STROEBEL. Then how can you say it does not express class hatred
+and contempt?
+
+REISACHER. Because, then again, you see, people who have money are
+respected anyway.
+
+STROEBEL. You will never learn to think precisely, Reisacher.
+
+REISACHER. Yes, Herr Assessor.
+
+[Both resume their former positions. Short pause. Police
+Commissioner, Freiherr van Simbach, enters left. Stroebel lays
+aside his paper, rises and salutes. Reisacher writes hurriedly.]
+
+COMMISSIONER [Footnote: President of Police, in original.]
+'Morning, Herr Assessor. [To Reisacher.] Take your work outside,
+Reisacher, until I have finished. [Reisacher exit through middle
+door.] I want to ask you a few questions, Herr Stroebel. [Stroebel
+bows. The Commissioner during the conversation takes center of
+stage and speaks nonchalantly and somewhat drawingly.] I read your
+report. Day before yesterday, that was on Saturday, you ordered
+the arrest of a certain woman.
+
+STROEBEL. Yes, Commissioner.
+
+COMMISSIONER. Well, what about her?
+
+STROEBEL. According to the report of Lieutenant Schmuttermaier, we
+have in our hands a very dangerous person.
+
+COMMISSIONER. Is that so!
+
+STROEBEL. Within a short time she has almost demoralized our city.
+
+COMMISSIONER. She has been in the city about three or four years. ...
+
+STROEBEL. She has, according to the report.
+
+COMMISSIONER. In what way has she been dangerous? Did bald headed
+gentlemen loosen up a bit in her house or are there special
+charges against her?
+
+STROEBEL. No special ones, but her whole behavior. She had a
+beautiful apartment in the best residential district. According to
+the report, the neighbors began to talk about her. She dressed in
+a rather fast and fashionable manner. ...
+
+COMMISSIONER. Then because she did not cater to the common people,
+you consider her so terrible?
+
+STROEBEL. No, Commissioner.
+
+COMMISSIONER. I thought not. Remember, please, I don't want you to
+get any of the popular ideas about the corruption of our best
+society. Slit skirts cause as much harm. [Stroebel bows.] What is
+her name?
+
+STROEBEL. Ninon De Hauteville. But her real name is Therese
+Hochstetter.
+
+COMMISSIONER. H-a-u-t-e V-i-l-l-e?
+
+STROEBEL. She comes of a good family. Her father was a Peruvian
+consul. When he lost his money, she married a consular secretary.
+He divorced her four years ago.
+
+COMMISSIONER. Indeed. So she is a person of refinement.
+
+STROEBEL. But she has ...
+
+COMMISSIONER. ... A demoralizing influence. I know all about that.
+Tell me, what made you arrest her?
+
+STROEBEL [with importance]. Eight days ago, I received a letter
+severely rebuking the police because her place was tolerated. ...
+
+COMMISSIONER. Who was the letter from?
+
+STROEBEL [hesitatingly']. It was ... really ... anonymous.
+
+COMMISSIONER. I hope that you are very careful about anonymous
+communications.
+
+STROEBEL. Generally, I pay little attention to them. But this
+letter was so full of details, I simply had to consider it. Of
+course, only as a hint and I intended to get proof. I gave it to
+Schmuttermaier and told him to keep the Hochstetter woman under
+strict surveillance. Saturday at noon we obtained positive
+evidence,
+
+COMMISSIONER. Then?
+
+STROEBEL. Then I ordered Schmuttermaier to raid the place ...
+
+COMMISSIONER. ... During which you found a diary in her
+apartments?
+
+STROEBEL. Yes, Commissioner; a diary with the names of her
+visitors. The dates and their social standing. Everything.
+
+COMMISSIONER. Have you finished reading it?
+
+STROEBEL. No, sir. I just glanced at it. I only got it from
+Schmuttermaier an hour ago. I was not in the office yesterday.
+
+COMMISSIONER [thoughtfully]. It's too late to do anything to-day.
+[Consulting his watch.] Let me see. Bring me an exact report of
+all important names contained in the diary ... at ten to-morrow
+morning.
+
+STROEBEL. Yes, Commissioner, at ten o'clock.
+
+COMMISSIONER. And remember, it's very important that you make this
+report personally. Don't let the clerk see the diary. It has not
+yet been in his hands?
+
+STROEBEL [going to his desk]. No. It's locked up in my desk.
+
+COMMISSIONER. Time enough to bring it to me tomorrow morning when
+you make your report.
+
+STROEBEL. How do you want me to get my data, Commissioner? Shall I
+summon the important people involved?
+
+COMMISSIONER [with emphasis]. Only ... the important ... names ...
+that's all. By the way, how far have you gone in the case? Have
+you taken any further steps?
+
+STROEBEL. No. I will examine the Hochstetter woman in a little
+while. ...
+
+COMMISSIONER. And Schmuttermaier? Has he orders to make any
+further raids?
+
+STROEBEL. Not yet. I want to read the diary first.
+
+COMMISSIONER. Above all, I do not want him to act without
+instructions. People of no importance like to do important things.
+
+STROEBEL. Yes, Commissioner. Your orders will be carried out.
+
+COMMISSIONER. Orders? I never give orders. You have your duties to
+perform. I don't care to tell you what to do. ... But there must
+be no further raids until I have seen the diary.
+
+STROEBEL. Certainly, Commissioner.
+
+COMMISSIONER. At the same time, don't neglect your duty.
+
+STROEBEL. I will do everything necessary for the promotion of
+public decency.
+
+COMMISSIONER [who has been pacing the room, turns suddenly.]
+Public decency? Very well, very well. ... [Short pause.] We occupy
+a most peculiar position Do we not, Herr Stroebel? [Stroebel
+bows.] We know fully the existing difference between official ...
+and let me say ... personal sensitiveness, do we not? [Stroebel
+bows in accord.] I mention this merely because you spoke of public
+decency. There is a decency about which you and I privately might
+have most interesting discussions. As far as I am concerned, such
+decency can be without limits. But there is another--the public
+decency--which it is our business to police. This has its very
+precise limits. For example, a scandal. Scandal of any
+description. Am I right, Herr Assessor?
+
+STROEBEL [clicks his heels together]. Certainly, Commissioner.
+
+COMMISSIONER. That brings me to another matter. For the past few
+weeks, there has been in the city, a so-called Society for the
+Suppression of Vice. Have you any sympathy with these people?
+
+STROEBEL. I know of their aims ...
+
+COMMISSIONER. Their aims do not interest me a bit. I mean, do you
+personally cooperate with them?
+
+STROEBEL. Not ... yet.
+
+COMMISSIONER. Not yet? ... Hem! ... This Society is likely to
+interest itself in this case. If someone comes to see me, Herr
+Stroebel, I will refer him to you. [Stroebel bows.] Kindly bear
+this one thing in mind. These men have political ambition, and are
+playing to the press. On the whole the thing shows conservative
+tendencies.
+
+STROEBEL. Certainly, Commissioner.
+
+COMMISSIONER. Welcome them with open arms. Agree gratefully to
+every suggestion for the betterment of the people, et cetera.
+Listen with respectful appreciation but do nothing further.
+
+STROEBEL [uncertain]. Nothing further? ...
+
+COMMISSIONER. No ... nothing further.
+
+STROEBEL. Yes, Commissioner.
+
+COMMISSIONER. These people must remain assured that they wield a
+great influence. As a matter of fact, they have none at all and
+it's a good thing they haven't.
+
+STROEBEL. So, I may ...
+
+COMMISSIONER. ... Do everything you can be responsible for. As a
+matter of principle, I do not like to give orders. You will submit
+that report then [consulting his watch] at ten to-morrow? Good
+morning! [Goes toward the door left, remains standing a moment,
+then turns around.] You have been rather zealous in your work, I
+must say. [Stroebel bows slightly.] To arrest a woman on the
+strength of an anonymous letter shows excessive zeal. [Stroebel
+bows slightly.] I like to see my men energetic but [clears his
+throat] bear in mind what I just said. Careful of a scandal! Good
+morning! [Exit.]
+
+(Stroebel sits down and stares at ceiling. He swings his chair
+around, then whistles. Reisacher comes in through middle door and
+seats himself at his desk. He coughs.)
+
+STROEBEL [half turning]. Reisacher.
+
+REISACHER [does likewise]. Yes, Herr Assessor.
+
+STROEBEL. How long have you been in the police department?
+
+REISACHER. It will be eighteen years this fall.
+
+STROEBEL. You have seen many a change, no doubt?
+
+REISACHER. Surely.
+
+STROEBEL. Tell me, how long has our Commissioner been in office?
+
+REISACHER. The Commissioner? Oh ... it's seven. No, let me see,
+it's eight years. ...
+
+STROEBEL. Hem ... do you really suppose he wants us to keep our
+eyes wide open all the time?
+
+REISACHER [eagerly]. Certainly. That's what he wants.
+
+STROEBEL. Does he? ... [Short pause.] I had an idea he didn't want
+us to be too strict for fear of notoriety.
+
+REISACHER [eagerly]. No, no. He certainly would not like that.
+
+STROEBEL [turns around completely]. Listen, Reisacher, you
+contradict yourself all the time.
+
+REISACHER [turns around likewise]. I beg your pardon, Herr
+Stroebel. May I suggest ...
+
+STROEBEL. But you are always contradicting yourself. First you say
+yes, and then you say no.
+
+REISACHER. I beg your pardon, Herr Assessor Stroebel. I wanted to
+say that in the Police Department it is like this: Everything you
+do is all right, if it turns out all right.
+
+STROEBEL [turns back to his desk]. You will never learn to
+formulate a thought precisely.
+
+REISACHER [also turns]. All right, Herr Stroebel.
+
+(Short pause. Stroebel reads. Reisacher writes. A commotion is
+heard through the middle door, which, is thrown open and Ninon De
+Hauteville enters. Behind her a policeman, who holds her tightly
+by the arm. She tries to free herself.)
+
+HAUTEVILLE. [she wears a large picture hat, and is highly
+perfumed]. Keep your hands off me. I haven't killed anyone.
+Please, let me go.
+
+STROEBEL [he has risen]. What's the matter?
+
+POLICE OFFICER. [releasing her, stands at attention]. Have the
+honor sir, to report this disreputable woman--the Hochstetter
+person.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. Please, help me, sir. I am being handled like the
+commonest criminal.
+
+STROEBEL. Why do you keep that hat on? You are not paying us a
+visit?
+
+HAUTEVILLE. Indeed not! I am not paying a visit. If I lived to be
+a hundred, it would never occur to me to pay you a visit.
+
+STROEBEL. Don't talk so much. Do you understand? [To Reisacher.]
+Get your report book ready.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. Is this the complaint office? I demand to know at
+least why I was arrested.
+
+STROEBEL. Oh, here you'll find that out soon enough. [To the
+officer.] You can go now. [Officer exit through middle door.]
+
+HAUTEVILLE. Oh, Monsieur, what shameful treatment. I was locked up
+in a cell with two ordinary street walkers. You will help me,
+won't you?
+
+STROEBEL [who has crossed over to Reisacher]. Please don't be so
+familiar.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. I am so helpless. No one will listen to me. No one
+answers me. An awful looking woman brought me a cup of yellow
+broth and a rusty spoon--[indicating with her hand] so big. "Eat!"
+she said, and threw it down and left. You will see to it, sir,
+that my friends are notified, won't you?
+
+STROEBEL [glancing over Reisacher's shoulder]. Your friends cannot
+help you here. [To Reisacher.] Don't make the margin so wide. You
+are wasting good paper. [To Hauteville.] Your friends can do
+nothing at all for you.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. You think so, do you? One single word and I'll be set
+free.
+
+STROEBEL [contemptuously]. Indeed!
+
+HAUTEVILLE. Before the day is over everyone of you will have to
+apologize to me. Yes, before this day is over.
+
+STROEBEL. Certainly. [To Reisacher.] The word "Assessor" has two
+"s" in all cases.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. If you people had the least idea whom you disturbed.
+If you knew whom you compelled to hide in the wardrobe.
+
+STROEBEL [turning quickly to Hauteville]. In the wardrobe? So! [To
+Reisacher.] Make a note of that, Reisacher. [With emphasis.] So
+someone escaped us by hiding in the wardrobe.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. Yes, someone escaped you by hiding in the wardrobe.
+
+STROEBEL [suddenly very friendly.] Upon my word, Madame, I believe
+that we understand each other fully. You are a clever woman. You
+will not try to deny the facts.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. Not one solitary thing. I am most anxious that you
+should try to find out all.
+
+STROEBEL. Bravo! I came near saying that I respect you for that.
+[Benevolently.] You know, Hochstetter, every man is liable to make
+a fool of himself now and then.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. Indeed they are! I know best what fools men do make of
+themselves.
+
+STROEBEL. Now and then people violate the law. But they ought not
+to deny it afterwards. That's the sad part of it, because we
+always find out the truth in the end.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. I wish you had it now.
+
+STROEBEL. We have a clue. But you are a woman of character, I
+admit. I take off my hat to you.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. Indeed!
+
+STROEBEL. I certainly do.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. I was afraid I had lost all refinement after spending
+the last two nights in such company.
+
+STROEBEL [benevolently]. No doubt, it was a trifle hard.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. It was terrible. They really do make me pay for
+discreetness.
+
+STROEBEL. Your patrons are the very men who make it so hard for
+you. They get you into trouble and then expect you to protect
+them. Isn't it so?
+
+HAUTEVILLE. What an experience for me! To have my apartment raided
+at night and be simply dragged away myself.
+
+STROEBEL. That is too much.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. I was not even allowed to take along a change of
+underwear. Then I am locked up with women who have every known
+variety of vermin.
+
+STROEBEL. And with all that they expect you to remain silent!
+
+HAUTEVILLE. When I want to comb my hair, the matron gives me a
+comb which these women have been using a whole week.
+
+STROEBEL. That simply can't go on,
+
+HAUTEVILLE. And the air! I never knew that such odors existed on
+this earth.
+
+STROEBEL. Still you are to shield the others! After all, you know,
+I think that discreetness is just talk.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. Talk?
+
+STROEBEL. I mean if anybody ever had a moral right to give things
+away, fully and freely, you are that person; ... after all you
+have suffered.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. That's right. I am that person.
+
+STROEBEL. Well then; did somebody escape into that wardrobe?
+
+HAUTEVILLE. Yes, somebody did escape into that wardrobe.
+
+STROEBEL [eagerly]. Who? [Short pause.]
+
+HAUTEVILLE. [laughs curtly]. Who?
+
+STROEBEL [more sharply]. Who on Saturday night at 10 o'clock
+escaped the search of the police by hiding in the wardrobe?
+
+HAUTEVILLE. [laughs curtly]. It is quite unnecessary for me to
+tell you that.
+
+STROEBEL [sharply]. Why?
+
+HAUTEVILLE. You are certain to find it out ultimately.
+
+STROEBEL. Ultimately?
+
+HAUTEVILLE. Even if I wanted to I could not tell! Lord, when a
+person gets strictly accustomed to never mentioning any name, it
+is almost impossible to do it. I, believe that I would have to
+learn how first.
+
+STROEBEL [shouting]. And you will learn it; I promise you that.
+You ...
+
+HAUTEVILLE. Mais Monsieure!
+
+STROEBEL [shouting]. No "Monsieur" about it. Here you'll talk good
+plain English.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. But why are you getting so excited?
+
+STROEBEL [to Reisacher]. I am nice to this person. I reason with
+her, and she says that she will first have to learn how to expose
+her crowd. [Shouts.] Decency is what you'll have to learn and I'll
+teach it to you.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. Oh, not this very minute.
+
+STROEBEL. I know you. I know your sort! You want to gain time so
+that you can concoct the blackest lies.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. [calmly]. That would be entirely superfluous. The
+cleverest lie could not help me half as much as the simple truth.
+
+STROEBEL. Out with it!
+
+HAUTEVILLE. It's better if you find it out through someone else.
+
+STROEBEL. That's your opinion.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. You would only be embarrassed and I would be guilty of
+a breach of confidence.
+
+STROEBEL [with contempt]. As though people confided in such as
+you.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. I think that they rely upon the fact that our loyalty
+is not "just talk."
+
+STROEBEL [again calm]. Listen to me. I do not think that you
+entirely understand your position. [Hauteville shrugs her
+shoulders.] No, I don't think that you know at all what is
+involved.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. On the contrary it is far worse that you don't seem to
+realize who is involved.
+
+STROEBEL [quickly]. In what?
+
+HAUTEVILLE. In the wardrobe.
+
+STROEBEL. Have you lost your senses? You are a prisoner here. Do
+you want to poke fun at us?
+
+HAUTEVILLE. No.
+
+STROEBEL. Then don't consider yourself so important with those
+meaning insinuations.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. If I did, I'd soon lose my importance after eating
+that yellow broth from those rusty tin plates.
+
+STROEBEL. And that will continue for some time.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. [energetically]. No, it will not. I tell you right now
+that I will not spend another night in that dirty hole. I will not
+be mistreated any longer.
+
+STROEBEL [with sarcasm]. Of course we are going to ask you for
+your kind permission.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. I will not remain here. If they think I will let them
+ruin me, they're very much mistaken. This is an outrage and here
+fair play stops.
+
+STROEBEL. The likes of you and fair play!
+
+HAUTEVILLE. [bitterly]. Yes, the likes of me. Every day we hear
+the confessions of those very people who publicly show contempt
+for us. We know how false are all virtuous words with which they
+condemn us, but we remain silent.
+
+STROEBEL. Of course, you do all this out of pure sense of fair
+play? [He imitates the motion of counting money.]
+
+HAUTEVILLE. Money? ... My dear fellow, with money our patrons pay
+well for that very thing which they later on call indecent. You
+get as much decency from us for money as you get from other
+people, but believe me, we could shatter many illusions.
+
+STROEBEL. Well, make a beginning right here.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. It ought to be impossible here. The police have as few
+illusions as we. That is, provided they are properly instructed.
+
+STROEBEL. That's right now, put us in the same class with
+yourself.
+
+HAUTEVILLE, Why not? We and the police could easily ruin the
+credit of virtue, but neither of us do it. You--you because you
+regard that credit as a good substitute for the principal, and
+we,--Lord, because we need this credit as well.
+
+STROEBEL. Both of us?
+
+HAUTEVILLE. The very moment that public virtue loses its credit,
+the secret vices will drop in market value.
+
+STROEBEL. What are you talking about anyway?
+
+HAUTEVILLE. I'm telling you why both of us must hush things up.
+
+STROEBEL. Then you are not convinced that there is a real public
+morality?
+
+HAUTEVILLE. You mean that morality which you put on with your
+street clothes? I know it well. Gentlemen take it off in my
+apartment and hang it up in my wardrobe, and there I can inspect
+it very thoroughly. It is truly remarkable how our respected
+gentlemen still make formal social visits in costumes which have
+so often been patched.
+
+REISACHER [who up to this point apparently--without paying any
+attention, has been sitting with his back toward them, turns half
+way round]. Pardon me, Herr Assessor.
+
+STROEBEL [impatiently]. Now what do you want?
+
+REISACHER. Pardon me, Herr Assessor, shall I put all this talk
+into the minutes?
+
+STROEBEL. No, I will dictate to you later. [To Hauteville.] You
+know that you are not here to amuse yourself.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. I know that.
+
+STROEBEL. Listen to me quietly. You hinted before that if we kept
+you here another night you would confess everything. Well I tell
+you here and now that we will not keep you here one, but a number
+of nights. You can ease your conscience at once.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. I would only make yours the heavier for it.
+
+STROEBEL. My conscience?
+
+HAUTEVILLE. Yes, if I tell you here, there will be no possibility
+of a mistake, but everything must remain a mistake.
+
+STROEBEL. I have patience with you, but I will not let you fool
+me. Now get yourself together and consider every word. What must
+remain a mistake?
+
+HAUTEVILLE. Everything that has happened since Saturday night.
+
+STROEBEL. All that must remain a mistake?
+
+HAUTEVILLE. It simply must not have happened. No one broke into my
+apartment. No one arrested me. No one compelled anyone to hide in
+the wardrobe.
+
+STROEBEL [shouts.] And no one ever saw such an insolent female.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. This browbeating.
+
+STROEBEL. It is meant for such as you.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. [indignantly stopping her ears]. It reminds one so
+much of the tin plates and the comb.
+
+STROEBEL [angrily pacing the room]. I never heard anything like
+it. Picture it! She makes insinuations as though we had something
+to be afraid of. [He stops pacing and faces her.] You evidently
+imagine that the whole government would run away from you.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. No, but it ran away from your Lieutenant.
+
+STROEBEL. Where?
+
+HAUTEVILLE. Into the wardrobe.
+
+STROEBEL [pacing up and down]. I will bring that fellow out of
+your wardrobe. I will bring him to light. Into bright daylight!
+[Remains standing in front of Hauteville.] What did you say?
+
+HAUTEVILE. Non.
+
+STROEBEL [resuming his pacing']. One of those fine fellows who
+wallow in the mire and then expect us to make exceptions. [Stops
+pacing, facing Hauteville.] What were you saying?
+
+HAUTEVILLE. Nothing.
+
+STROEBEL. Sad enough that now and again a halfway decent person
+strays into your place.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. He can only regret that he was disturbed.
+
+STROEBEL [goes quickly to desk and unlocks a drawer]. Besides, do
+not deceive yourself. We do not need your disclosures. [He takes
+out a rather bulky paper, a school composition book, and holds it
+triumphantly in the air.] There; do you recognize this?
+
+HAUTEVILLE. [quietly, without a single trace of surprise]. It
+looks like my diary.
+
+STROEBEL. It is your book. It was found in your desk.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. [very calm]. The desk was locked,
+
+STROEBEL. It was broken open. Well? What about your loyalty now?
+
+HAUTEVILLE. [shrugs her shoulders]. I kept it. I haven't a fire-
+proof safe.
+
+STROEBEL [contemptuously]. Would you by chance like to show me the
+name?
+
+HAUTEVILLE. What name?
+
+STROEBEL. Of the gentleman in the wardrobe.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. [laughs]. His name really is not in it.
+
+STROEBEL. Do not evade but show me.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. Oh, there are parties whose names are not in the Hotel
+Register. They travel incognito.
+
+STROEBEL [persuadingly]. Hochstetter, I have an impression that
+you are not such a stupid girl, and I believe that you would like
+to [pointing to the diary] take good care of your--patrons. If you
+do not immediately reveal the name of that man, I will summon the
+whole bunch.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. [shrugs her shoulders]. That's something I cannot stop
+you from doing.
+
+STROEBEL. What then is your belief in fair play?
+
+HAUTEVILLE. I never submitted that diary to you. You could not
+have gotten it from me voluntarily, but it quite suits me that the
+officer found it in my desk.
+
+STROEBEL. Why?
+
+HAUTEVILLE. Because he might have searched for it in the wardrobe.
+
+STROEBEL. Now my patience is at an end. [Presses the button on his
+desk.] I will have no consideration for anyone.
+
+HAUTEVILLE. After all, perhaps you will. For yourself.
+
+[Police officer enters.]
+
+STROEBEL. Take this woman downstairs, [The officer leaves with
+Hauteville. Stroebel sits down, pushes the chair angrily to the
+desk, then gets up and throws the diary and several other books on
+the desk, saying to himself:] Never heard anything like it! Such
+impudence!
+
+[Reisacher looks at him with amusement. A knock at the door.]
+
+STROEBEL [formally]. Come in!
+
+BEERMANN [enters hastily from the left. He breathes heavily. He
+has a handkerchief in his hand, with which he frequently mops his
+brow]. Is this the proper department at last? I am being sent all
+around the building. [Breathing heavily.] I hope I am finally in
+the proper bureau.
+
+STROEBEL. What do you want?
+
+BEERMANN. Pardon me for a moment while I catch my breath. I
+climbed twice to the third floor and again down to the ground
+floor. The Commissioner sent me to room 147 and there they told me
+to go to room 174.
+
+STROEBEL. Who sent you?
+
+BEERMANN [taking a deep breath]. The Commissioner. I really wanted
+to speak to him personally, but he told me I should go to the
+gentleman who has "Morality." Are you the gentleman who has all
+the morality?
+
+STROEBEL. Certainly.
+
+BEERMANN. At last. [Mopping his braze.] Good God? when a matter is
+so urgent and so much depends on it they ought not to chase one
+all over the building. I must rest a bit. All this excitement and
+running up and down stairs. ... So you are the gentleman who has
+the matter in hand.
+
+STROEBEL. What matter?
+
+BEERMANN. On Saturday night a lady was arrested. A Madam de
+Hauteville, and certain papers were taken from her. Have you those
+papers here?
+
+STROEBEL. What business is that of yours?
+
+BEERMANN. My name is Beermann; Fritz Beermann, the banker. I am
+the Chairman of the Society for the Suppression of Vice.
+
+STROEBEL [very politely]. Oh, indeed! Pardon me! I didn't recall
+your name immediately, but I was expecting you.
+
+BEERMANN [startled]. You--were expecting--me?
+
+STROEBEL. The Commissioner said that you would undoubtedly call on
+us.
+
+BEERMANN. He said that I undoubtedly would call? But he never
+mentioned a word to me about that, and I saw him just a moment
+ago. Perhaps after all it will be better if I go down to see him
+again?
+
+STROEBEL. That is not necessary. I have full charge of the matter.
+
+BEERMANN. Oh, yes, quite right; you have charge of the matter. And
+you have those writings here too?
+
+STROEBEL. The diary? [He indicates the desk.] Here it is.
+
+BEERMANN [peeps anxiously over]. Then it is a regular diary?
+
+STROEBEL. Quite correctly kept. Gives date and names. Even little
+jesting remarks about the people concerned.
+
+BEERMANN [shouts]. But that is an unheard of insolence!
+
+STROEBEL. Yes.
+
+BEERMANN. Why does she write such things? To what purpose? Can't
+she herself realize how dangerous it is? Fancy, a woman whose
+whole stock in trade is secrecy, keeping an address hook of her
+patrons. Confound her!
+
+STROEBEL. But to us as evidence it is priceless.
+
+BEERMANN. I ask you--why does she record such things?
+
+STROEBEL. We can only be glad of it, Herr Beermann.
+
+BEERMANN. We?
+
+STROEBEL. She'd lie. I tell you she'd deny everything, and that
+puts an end to the case. [Holding the diary in the air.] But here
+we have the whole bunch.
+
+BEERMANN. As though she wanted to turn State's evidence ...
+
+STROEBEL. Let her just come to court with her confounded fine
+talk. [Imitating Hauteville's manners.] "It simply must not have
+happened." I will drive her to the wall with what happened. We
+will simply bring up those fellows, one after the other.
+
+BEERMANN [dismayed]. To court!
+
+STROEBEL. Certainly, and that means; hand on the Bible and swear.
+Then we shall see if "no one compelled anyone to hide in the
+wardrobe."
+
+BEERMANN. How?
+
+STROEBEL. They will not commit perjury.
+
+BEERMANN. That's utterly impossible!
+
+STROEBEL. I will make it quite warm for that man, in any event.
+
+BEERMANN. But, Counselor!
+
+STROEBEL [clinking heels]. Assessor Stroebel.
+
+BEERMANN. But, Assessor, that is simply impossible. You do not
+want to ruin the family life of the entire city, do you?
+
+STROEBEL. In what way?
+
+BEERMANN. Do you expect a respectable gentleman to appear in court
+and in the presence of all people to say, yes; it is true that I
+... and so forth?
+
+STROEBEL. Why not?
+
+BEERMANN [shouting]. But they are all respectable fathers of
+families!
+
+STROEBEL. But, my dear Herr Beermann, what difference does that
+make to me?
+
+BEERMANN. It must make a difference. It makes a difference to
+everybody at all times.
+
+STROEBEL. I assure you that I am not a bit sentimental.
+
+BEERMANN [glancing over to Reisacher]. Could we have a few words
+together, alone?
+
+STROEBEL. If you wish it. Reisacher, finish your police report in
+the outer office.
+
+REISACHER. Certainly, Herr Assessor.
+
+(Takes several sheets of paper and goes out through the middle
+door.)
+
+STROEBEL. Do have a seat, Herr Beermann.
+
+(Beermann sits down on the sofa. Stroebel does likewise.)
+
+BEERMANN [mopping his brow]. A personal question, Herr Assessor,
+are you married?
+
+STROEBEL. No.
+
+BEERMANN. I thought not. If you had a family you would not speak
+in that fashion of sentimentality.
+
+STROEBEL. If I had a family, I would not, to begin with, be
+involved in this.
+
+BEERMANN. But ...
+
+STROEBEL. My name would not appear in the diary of Hauteville.
+
+BEERMANN. You never can tell.
+
+STROEBEL. Excuse me. What is there left of family life when such
+things happen?
+
+BEERMANN. What do you mean? If nobody finds it out?
+
+STROEBEL. But such a man must live constantly under a deception.
+
+BEERMANN. My dear Assessor. If the white lie ceases in married
+life, the couple drifts apart.
+
+STROEBEL. I cannot believe that!
+
+BEERMANN [persuadingly]. Take my word for it. In every happy
+marriage the parties lie to each other to keep their affection
+from cooling.
+
+STROEBEL. But both of them remain faithful.
+
+BEERMANN. Not in the least.
+
+STROEBEL. Don't say that!
+
+BEERMANN. Not in the least; anyhow not to the very letter. A
+husband is true to his wife even if he ... and so forth.
+
+STROEBEL. Your views surprise me.
+
+BEERMANN. This is what I mean. He is true in his own fashion. He
+remains kind to his wife, takes a good care of his family, and
+that is the principal thing. That other which you have in mind is
+only an ideal.
+
+STROEBEL. Ideals are lived up to.
+
+BEERMANN. Well, yes. But if we don't live up to them, we at least
+respect them.
+
+STROEBEL. Herr Beermann, I am astounded. You are the President of
+the Society for the Suppression of Vice?
+
+BEERMANN. Can I help it that I was elected?
+
+STROEBEL. But at least you represent the views of your Society. I
+thought you came here for that reason.
+
+BEERMANN. For what reason?
+
+STROEBEL. To express your satisfaction at our discovery of the
+business of this person.
+
+BEERMANN. You thought I came here on that account?
+
+STROEBEL. Didn't you?
+
+BEERMANN [mopping his brow with his handkerchief]. You'll have to
+pardon me, Herr Assessor; I am still affected by that running up
+and down stairs.
+
+STROEBEL. Perhaps our conversation tires you?
+
+BEERMANN. Don't mention it. I simply cannot follow you so quickly,
+A moment ago you mentioned a diary, didn't you?
+
+STROEBEL. Of this Hauteville woman.--Yes.
+
+BEERMANN. Have you been through this diary?
+
+STROEBEL. No. I have not had time yet.
+
+BEERMANN. But you just spoke about some jesting comments in it.
+
+STROEBEL. Only those I noticed in glancing through it.
+
+BEERMANN [relieved]. Ah!
+
+STROEBEL. Besides, I must tell you, Herr Beermann, that the
+contents of this book must remain a secret to you. My orders are
+not to show it to anyone.
+
+BEERMANN. No, no. I don't want to know anything about it.
+
+STROEBEL. You will find out everything later when the matter comes
+up in court.
+
+BEERMANN [dismayed]. Will it be read there?
+
+STROEBEL. Certainly. To-day I can only tell you that we will
+proceed vigorously. You can satisfy your society on that point.
+
+BEERMANN [rising]. But that doesn't satisfy me at all. Think of
+the consequences.
+
+STROEBEL [rising also]. What do you care about the consequences.
+Your society has its very high aims. Your propaganda states that
+you will prosecute the outcast of society with iron energy and now
+you see your ideals realized.
+
+BEERMANN. Our propaganda states that we will intervene from
+national, moral and social viewpoints, to protect the marriage
+vows. If this scandal becomes public the marriage relationship
+will be undermined.
+
+STROEBEL. What sort of moral viewpoint do you call that?
+
+BEERMANN. It is the Society's. Don't you understand that the
+influential class of society will be involved!
+
+STROEBEL. Then that class will have only itself to blame.
+
+BEERMANN. That's out of the question. We must find a loop-hole.
+
+STROEBEL. Within the scope of the law there are no loop-holes.
+
+BEERMANN. Don't tell ME that. Well then, go around the law.
+
+STROEBEL [surprised]. Herr Beermann!
+
+BEERMANN. Of course! I have lived long enough to know that.
+
+STROEBEL. I shall do my duty.
+
+BEERMANN. Am I interfering with your duty? I belong to that class
+of people who respect the police only because the police respect
+our social position.
+
+STROEBEL. I appreciate that.
+
+BEERMANN. I also take part in political life. I am a candidate for
+the Reichstag and as such I have a decided opinion about these
+matters.
+
+STROEBEL. Without doubt, Herr Beermann.
+
+BEERMANN. Well then, there are, in extreme cases, ways around the
+law, and there must be.
+
+STROEBEL. I am of a different opinion.
+
+BEERMANN. God knows, it is not the business of the police to
+provoke this enormous scandal. All authority will be destroyed. It
+will shatter the respect of the masses for the people higher up.
+
+STROEBEL. But this scandal was provoked--[knocking on the diary
+with his finger]--by these very people.
+
+BEERMANN. If a man once in a while goes into a certain room--that
+is no scandal. It only becomes a scandal when the story is made
+known to every Tom, Dick and Harry. That's what must be prevented!
+
+STROEBEL. I value the humane motive which evidently is prompting
+you, Herr Beermann. But you must admit that we are acting entirely
+in accord with the views of the classes you mention.
+
+BEERMANN. You are not!
+
+STROEBEL. Yes, we are. Two weeks ago the good people here founded
+a Society because they felt it was necessary to proceed more
+severely against public immorality ...
+
+BEERMANN. ... Against immorality in the lower strata where it
+easily degenerates into licentiousness. As the President of this
+Society, I, at least ought to know what was intended.
+
+STROEBEL. Even Frau Hochstetter belongs to the lower strata. If we
+are now stepping on anybody's corns, I am very sorry. ...
+
+BEERMANN. The police have no business to do anything they will be
+sorry for later on. Good Lord, had the Commissioner only listened
+to me. An affair like this should not be treated in such a purely
+business-like way.
+
+STROEBEL. The Commissioner can only tell you the same thing. He
+cannot change the law.
+
+BEERMANN. Anything can be done.
+
+STROEBEL. Not at this stage. We could probably have prevented it
+had we known that this case would have such far-reaching
+consequences, but now here are the proofs. [Pointing to the
+diary.] No one in the world can destroy them, not even the
+Commissioner.
+
+BEERMANN. Then what do you propose to do with them?
+
+STROEBEL. They are going down to the District Attorney's office.
+The avalanche is on its way.
+
+BEERMANN. And we have simply to wait and watch what it hits?
+(Telephone bell rings.)
+
+STROEBEL. Pardon me a moment.
+
+(Goes to the right to the telephone. While Stroebel is answering
+the telephone, and has his back to Beermann the latter crosses to
+the desk and tries to look into the diary. Timidly he opens it
+several times but shuts it again quickly, when he fears that
+Stroebel will turn around.)
+
+STROEBEL [answering the telephone]. Police Department. ...
+Assessor Stroebel speaking. Who is this please ... yes, this is
+Assessor Stroebel. ... Yes, Commissioner ... [pause] I understand
+you, I will remain in the office ... Yes, I examined the
+Hochstetter woman. ... Yes, this Madame Hauteville [pause] I will
+remain in the office until you call. ... Yes, Commissioner. Good-
+bye. [He hangs up the receiver.]
+
+BEERMANN [Energetically closes the book and tries to appear
+indifferent.]
+
+STROEBEL. Now you can convince yourself, Herr Beermann, the
+Commissioner himself is following up this matter. He wants to have
+another conference with me about it to-day.
+
+BEERMANN. Am I to wait helplessly until the catastrophe happens?
+
+STROEBEL. You must be consistent. ...
+
+BEERMANN. It is possible that my best friends, acquaintances or
+relatives are involved ...
+
+STROEBEL. You must remain consistent. Doesn't this splendidly
+justify the founding of your Society?
+
+BEERMANN [in a rage]. Oh, leave me alone with your stupid Vice
+Society. Are we not all human, after all!
+
+STROEBEL. I do not understand you.
+
+BEERMANN. Do you realize what severe pangs of conscience I suffer?
+Last night as I pictured to myself all that is about to happen,
+all these family misfortunes, I asked myself this question: What
+really is morality? And ... I could not find the answer.
+
+STROEBEL. Although you are ...
+
+BEERMANN. Although I am Chairman of the Society for the
+Suppression of Vice, yes, sir. Then I asked myself this: which is
+the more important: that we are moral, or that we seem moral?
+
+STROEBEL. Have you found the answer?
+
+BEERMANN. I have. I have become fully convinced that it is far
+more important for the people to believe in our morality.
+
+STROEBEL. But you didn't need a Society for that.
+
+BEERMANN. Yes, we did. Just to be moral is something that I can
+accomplish in my room by myself, but that has no educational
+value. The important thing is to ally one's self publicly with
+moral issues. This has a beneficial effect on the family and
+state.
+
+STROEBEL. I daresay that this side of the question has not
+occurred to me.
+
+BEERMANN. Just consider. Morality holds exactly the same position
+as religion. We must always create the impression that there is
+such a thing and we must make each other believe that each of us
+have it. Do you suppose for one moment that religion would last if
+the church dealt publicly with our sins? But she forgives them
+quietly. The State ought to be just as shrewd.
+
+STROEBEL. Many a thing you say seems quite true.
+
+BEERMANN. It is true, you can depend upon it.
+
+STROEBEL. Theoretically perhaps. But that docs not change it one
+bit. As long as the law prescribes it, these offenses [pointing to
+the diary] must be dealt with publicly.
+
+BEERMANN. Although you know that thus public decency will be
+undermined. [Stroebel shrugs his shoulders.] Although the State
+will suffer by it?
+
+STROEBEL [again shrugs his shoulders]. Well ...
+
+BEERMANN. The Administration knows very well the sort of
+conservative element there is in the Society for the Suppression
+of Vice.
+
+STROEBEL. Yes, and values it highly.
+
+BEERMANN. Let us suppose--I do not know if it be so--but let us
+just suppose that only one member of the Society once had a weak
+little moment and his name were in this book ...
+
+STROEBEL [energetically]. Then he would be summoned to court
+without regard or mercy.
+
+BEERMANN. And the whole Society would be made ridiculous and would
+go up in the air.
+
+STROEBEL [shrugs his shoulders]. Well ...
+
+BEERMANN [shouts]. That is the height of folly, I tell you!
+
+STROEBEL [instructively]. It is the fulfilment of our duty. You
+are a layman. With you sentiments play an important part. We, the
+police, on the other hand are compelled to sacrifice our feelings
+to our duty.
+
+BEERMANN [holding his hands to his ears]. Oh, stop that!
+
+STROEBEL. Official duty blocks our way.
+
+BEERMANN [angrily]. But even a jackass can jump over blocks.
+
+STROEBEL [offended]. Her? Beermann, I did not hear that remark.
+
+BEERMANN. Let me tell you something! Do you know what we have been
+doing for the past three weeks? ... Talking ourselves hoarse in
+order to bring about an election friendly to the present
+administration. For the past three weeks it has been nothing but
+Fatherland, and the state and religion! And this is your
+gratitude! In the devil's own name--just picture it to yourself--a
+man who has been fighting the opposition in thirty different
+political meetings might be involved in this.
+
+STROEBEL [shrugs his shoulders]. What can I do?
+
+BEERMANN. Is the Administration going to deliver him over to his
+opponents?
+
+STROEBEL. We would be very sorry for him, but we would have to
+summon him to court.
+
+BEERMANN. Without regard or mercy--? [Telephone bell rings
+loudly.]
+
+STROEBEL. Pardon me for a moment. [Stroebel goes to the telephone
+and this time he turns completely around so that his back is
+toward Beermann.] Police Department ... yes ... Commissioner; this
+is Stroebel at the telephone. ... [Short pause.] When she was
+arrested? ... When she was arrested there was Lieutenant
+Schmuttermaier and an officer. ... [Short pause.] Just one
+policeman ... [Pause.] ... Yes, Commissioner [short pause] I
+should tell that Lieutenant [short interruption] jackass
+Schmuttermaier to come over to the office immediately. ... [Short
+pause.] I shall wait for you until you come. ... Yes,
+Commissioner. (During this telephone conversation Beermann steps
+near to the desk. With a shaking hand he takes up the diary but
+quickly puts it down again. Then he picks it up again and with a
+rapid and energetic movement puts it into his breast pocket.
+Stroebel with a rebuked demeanor goes from the telephone to the
+desk. Beermann turns around so that Stroebel cannot see his face.
+He is disturbed and coughs in order to hide his embarrassment.
+Stroebel presses a button on Reisacher's desk.)
+
+BEERMANN [while coughing]. I realize now that nothing more can be
+done. I shan't take up your time.
+
+STROEBEL [anxiously]. No, no, please remain. The Commissioner
+himself will be here in a moment. Then you may talk to him.
+
+BEERMANN. But you just told me that there was no use waiting. ...
+[Reisacher enters through center door.]
+
+STROEBEL [urgently to Reisacher]. Reisacher, go and look for
+Lieutenant Schmuttermaier immediately. If he is not in the
+building, send to his home or telephone for him. Leave word that
+he must come over immediately.
+
+REISACHER. Yes, Herr Assessor.
+
+[Goes out quickly through center door.]
+
+BEERMANN. You said yourself that there would be no use. I guess
+I'd better go.
+
+STROEBEL [perturbed]. But do wait for the Commissioner.
+
+BEERMANN. There is no use in my waiting. I ... I did all I could
+... there seems to be no use ... well then. ... Good-bye!
+
+[About to go through door on left but the door is quickly opened
+and the Commissioner appears with Baron Schmettau. The former
+holds the door open for the Baron. After they have come in, he
+shuts the door.]
+
+COMMISSIONER [to the Baron]. If you please, Herr Baron. ... [To
+Beermann]. Ah ... here is our President of the Society for the
+Suppression of Vice. [Beermann bows slightly--Commissioner
+continuing contemptuously.] Well, have you accomplished your
+mission? [Beermann nods.] Are you satisfied with this arrest or
+would you like to have us do more? [Angrily.] Once for all, Sir, I
+forbid you to meddle with the affairs of this office. You can
+preach your principles wherever else you like, but here I will
+stand for no interference. [Beermann timidly creeps along the
+wall, and bows himself out.] [Commissioner to Baron Schmettau.]
+Whenever the police bungle anything, look for reformers.
+
+SCHMETTAU. [with a glance at Stroebel]. Will you introduce me?
+
+COMMISSIONER. Assessor Stroebel,--Freiherr von Schmettau, Adjutant
+to his Highness, Prince Emil. [Stroebel clicks his heels together
+and bows deeply. Schmettau thanks him curtly.]
+
+COMMISSIONER [sharply]. Herr Assessor, I have asked Herr Baron
+Schmettau to come with me in order that in his presence I might
+correct a pitiable lack of tact, which to my regret, and contrary
+to all my intentions, was perpetrated by Lieutenant
+Schmuttermaier.
+
+SCHMETTAU. It was abominable.
+
+COMMISSIONER. What orders did that man have?
+
+STROEBEL [nervously]. Do you mean in the case of Hochstetter,
+Commissioner?
+
+COMMISSIONER. Yes, sir, Madame de Hauteville, Who made the raid on
+her apartment?
+
+STROEBEL. The raid?
+
+COMMISSIONER. I hope before you arrested her you informed yourself
+exactly with whom you were dealing.
+
+STROEBEL. Certainly ...
+
+COMMISSIONER. ... And the result?
+
+STROEBEL. I ascertained that this woman was violating public
+decency.
+
+COMMISSIONER. I am going to ask you, Assessor, as my inferior in
+office, to confine yourself to more direct answers, PLEASE. What
+did the investigation disclose?
+
+STROEBEL. That she received questionable visits from gentlemen.
+
+COMMISSIONER. Questionable? Then does Schmuttermaier know who
+these gentlemen were?
+
+STROEBEL. He does not ...
+
+COMMISSIONER. No? Didn't he investigate a matter which seemed so
+questionable to him?
+
+STROEBEL. He just wanted to ascertain that these visits were meant
+for Hauteville.
+
+COMMISSIONER. So--? I have some truly competent officials. And who
+and what it was did not bother the man at all?
+
+STROEBEL. I myself thought that that would be found out later.
+
+COMMISSIONER. There are certain things in the world you would not
+be likely to look for and less likely to find. You have been
+treating this thing as though you were dealing with a common
+ordinary pickpocket. [To Baron Sckmettau.] You see it is just as I
+told you ... the man did not have the slightest idea. ... [To
+Stroebel.] Did this fellow, Schmuttermaier, see anyone in the flat
+or did he hear if anyone was there?
+
+STROEBEL. No, Commissioner.
+
+COMMISSIONER [to Baron Schmettau]. It is just as I told you. ...
+
+STROEBEL. Furthermore, I have heard since that there was somebody
+in the apartment.
+
+COMMISSIONER [quickly]. Who?
+
+STROEBEL. That, I have been unable to find out yet, but Hauteville
+made several insinuations as though someone had been hidden in a
+wardrobe.
+
+COMMISSIONER.[to Baron Schmettau]. To be sure--someone--was--To
+my profoundest regret, His Highness, our beloved Hereditary Prince
+Emil.
+
+STROEBEL [crushed]. I ... didn't have the slightest idea ...
+
+COMMISSIONER. You people ought to have an idea once in a while. If
+this Schmuttermaier had any ability, it would not have happened.
+But it is the old story, not a trace of independent ability and
+tact.
+
+STROEBEL. I don't know what apology I can offer.
+
+COMMISSIONER. Neither do I. Besides Herr Baron Schmettau himself
+was obliged to go through this very unpleasant incident.
+
+SCHMETTAU. [Schmettau speaks very precisely but puts a slight
+emphasis on his s.] I was completely dumfounded. I cannot
+understand how it could happen. Just picture it ... Lord knows ...
+I was and am of the opinion that our young Highness must learn to
+know life. Faith, it is not my business to act as his pastor. ...
+
+COMMISSIONER. If you please, Herr Baron, that goes without saying.
+...
+
+SCHMETTAU. That of course is merely my opinion. I am a man of the
+world and of affairs. I consider it fitting that his Highness
+should learn to know life. ...
+
+COMMISSIONER. But I entirely share your opinion.
+
+SCHMETTAU. A moment ago the word "decency" was used. In my
+position I can listen to such words from the pulpit, but outside
+of the church I deem them entirely out of place.
+
+COMMISSIONER [to Assessor]. You used that expression.
+
+SCHMETTAU. If anyone wants to claim that my bearing is not a
+proper one, he will have to prove it with a revolver in his hand.
+
+STROEBEL. I did not think that the word would offend you.
+
+SCHMETTAU. It did offend me. Such expressions are fitting in an
+asylum for feeble-minded people. They should never be used to
+characterize the recreation of Cavaliers.
+
+COMMISSIONER. May I put in a good word for my Assessor? It
+certainly was not his intention to offend you.
+
+SCHMETTAU. It was not his intention. [To the Assessor.] Then I
+will assume that it was never said. [The Assessor clicks his
+heels.] I am somewhat nettled but you cannot be surprised at that.
+You can imagine with what care I undertook this task. This Madame
+de Hauteville was recommended to me by reliable parties. She has
+good manners and does not talk.
+
+COMMISSIONER. In her way, she certainly seems a very decent
+person.
+
+SCHMETTAU. Absolutely. Since it was my belief that His Highness
+must learn to know life, I could not find a better place. [To the
+Commissioner.] We understand each other?
+
+COMMISSIONER. Certainly.
+
+SCHMETTAU. Every guarantee against vulgarity; everything tip-top.
+Now picture it to yourself. I do all a man possibly can and this
+inconceivably awful scandal happens.
+
+COMMISSIONER. It is the old story. These people have no tact.
+
+SCHMETTAU. That doesn't help me any. I am not trying to mix in
+your business. That never occurred to me. But this does not help
+me one bit. The whole blame attaches to me. I simply will be told
+that such things should not have happened. That is an unheard of
+business.
+
+COMMISSIONER [to Assessor]. For which you are to blame.
+
+SCHMETTAU. Had I a suspicion that this was contemplated, I would
+have informed you.
+
+COMMISSIONER. If you only had!
+
+SCHMETTAU. Who would think of such things? We all take it for
+granted that the police first of all respect protection!
+
+STROEBEL. On my word of honor Herr Baron. Not even in my dreams
+did I think of an occurrence like this.
+
+SCHMETTAU. [squares his shoulders]. Is it so difficult for you to
+think?
+
+COMMISSIONER. That's just what I say. If a man knows his work
+thoroughly these things come to him. But people who are interested
+in the uplift movements are always in the clouds.
+
+SCHMETTAU. This Lieutenant or whatever that fellow was, behaved as
+though he was collecting material for a socialist newspaper. His
+Highness was hardly in the house five minutes when there was a
+loud ringing. Then, someone in heavy shoes ran up against the door
+like a drunken sailor. Madame de Hauteville breaks into the room
+and cries, "Your Highness, how unfortunate I am. The police are
+here," she says. "Leave them alone," I say, "they will go away
+presently." "Impossible," she says, "I can never permit His
+Highness to be found by the police in my place. I will take the
+blame upon myself entirely." Fancy the tact of that woman!
+"Impossible," she says, "that His Highness should be caught in my
+place."
+
+COMMISSIONER. Really, very decent!
+
+SCHMETTAU. Indeed it is. Immediately it dawns on me that she is
+right. The situation is getting terrible. That policeman is likely
+to demand His Highness' identification. What shall we do? Madame
+says, "For Heaven's sake hide in the wardrobe!" Outside, that fool
+is making quite a rumpus. He knocks, rings, shouts and barks. The
+neighborhood is getting aroused and heads are popping out from
+right and left and in the midst of this terrible commotion, there
+we stand--Highness and I. What shall we do? A few moments later,
+His Highness is cramped beside me in the wardrobe, in between
+different pieces of woman's apparel. With great difficulty we are
+able to draw our breath.
+
+STROEBEL. If I had only had an inkling about it.
+
+COMMISSIONER [angrily]. The police are expected to grasp
+conditions.
+
+SCHMETTAU. Then what followed? In heavy-nailed shoes the men go
+from room to room. Doors are opened and slammed. The fellows use
+loud and coarse language, and three or four times they stand in
+front of the wardrobe. Upon my word, I actually feel how His
+Highness is perspiring. Just picture to yourself the situation if
+that brute had opened the closet! Just picture that and you can
+realize how much courage I had!
+
+COMMISSIONER. You must have suffered terribly.
+
+SCHMETTAU. What I suffered does not matter. In such moments one
+does not think of anything else but Highness. What an outrage!
+Finally the steps disappear. Madame Hauteville, who throughout
+behaved most decently and whose conduct was above reproach, is led
+away and Highness and I can leave the wardrobe where we spent an
+entire twenty minutes. And now I ask again, "How can such mistakes
+happen?"
+
+COMMISSIONER [to Assessor]. You shall find the answer to this.
+
+SCHMETTAU. Upstairs the woman is still in her cell. The newspapers
+are full of the scandal, and Highness suffers agonies when he
+realizes the possibilities which can develop at any moment.
+
+COMMISSIONER. Herr Baron, you need not worry any longer. Now I am
+taking the matter entirely into my hands. [Consulting his watch,
+he speaks with affected calmness.] It is now a quarter to one.
+This evening at eight o'clock Madame de Hauteville will be set
+free and everything will be so arranged that her discharge will
+arouse no suspicion.
+
+STROEBEL. But how are you going to do it ...?
+
+COMMISSIONER. The details of this arrangement are your affair.
+
+CURTAIN
+
+
+
+
+ACT III
+
+
+(Beermann's library. Elegantly furnished. A desk is backed up
+against a large bay-window on the right. Opposite is a large book-
+case, and next to this a sofa. A long double door with small
+French panes somewhat to the left. On the left of stage a small
+table and a few comfortable leather chairs. On the right a simple
+door.
+
+Beermann enters through the middle door. He goes to the desk,
+unlocks a drawer and takes out the diary of Hauteville. He looks
+carefully about him, then picks out a volume of an encyclopedia
+from the book-case, opens it quickly and places the diary inside.
+He seats himself and begins to read. At this moment the center
+door is opened slowly, and Frau Beermann stands on the threshold.)
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. Are you alone, Fritz?
+
+BEERMANN [frightened, slams the book so that the diary is
+concealed in it]. Goodness, you did frighten me!
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. I did not know how nervous you were until
+yesterday.
+
+BEERMANN. Oh, what, nervous? I am over-worked and irritable. Every
+single day, I have to prepare a new speech.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. Is it in that work that I disturbed you? Pardon me.
+
+BEERMANN. Do you want anything?
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. I just wanted to have a few serious words with you.
+
+BEERMANN. But not necessarily at this moment. To-morrow or ...
+
+EFFIE. [opening the glass door, calls in]. Oh, papa, did you
+forget?
+
+BEERMANN [uneasily]. Forget what?
+
+EFFIE. [entering]. Weren't we to see the Indian dancer to-day?
+
+BEERMANN. Well, it can't be done to-day.
+
+EFFIE. That's a shame; I wanted so much to see her and to-night is
+her last appearance.
+
+BEERMANN. Then we will wait until the next one comes along.
+
+EFFIE. I don't see why just we have to have this bad luck.
+
+BEERMANN [with emphasis]. Because I have more important things to
+do than to watch your hop, skip and jump.
+
+EFFIE. [jolly]. Oh, aren't you cranky?
+
+BEERMANN. I am not at all disposed for such nonsense.
+
+EFFIE. [going over to the desk, picks up the volume of the
+encyclopedia.] All this comes from your politics; now I will
+simply confiscate your ammunition.
+
+BEERMANN [excited]. Give me that book.
+
+EFFIE. [jumping away]. No, no, papa, you will only get sick.
+
+BEERMANN [shouts]. I forbid these stupid jokes. Put that book
+down.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. What is the matter?
+
+BEERMANN. I never could tolerate disobedient children, that's all.
+
+EFFIE. [placing the book on the desk]. Oh, pardon me, papa.
+
+BEERMANN [grasps the volume tightly and places it in the book-
+case]. All fooling has its limits; don't forget that.
+
+EFFIE. Now I suppose as a punishment, we can't see the dancer.
+
+BEERMANN. Really I would rather go with you than--sit here, but
+it is absolutely impossible.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. Go now, darling; I must talk to papa alone.
+
+BEERMANN. But I haven't the time.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN [positively]. That much of it you have.
+
+EFFIE. Good-bye, papa dear. [Goes out.]
+
+FRAU BEERMANN [Seats herself on the sofa next to the book-case.
+Beermann stands leaning with his back against the desk. Through
+the large window the evening sun can be seen so that Beermann's
+face is in its light, while Frau Beermann sits in the half-dusk.]
+
+BEERMANN. Lena dear, do we really have ...?
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. We do.
+
+BEERMANN. Can't it be postponed?
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. I have postponed it many a year, but now it is high
+time.
+
+BEERMANN. [disturbed]. Many a year? What are you referring to?
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. I have a request to make to you.
+
+BEERMANN. With pleasure. ...
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. Don't make a laughing-stock of your family.
+
+BEERMANN. In what way?
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. Don't make a laughing stock of your family, I beg
+you.
+
+BEERMANN. Please don't talk in riddles.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. These are not very great riddles to you.
+
+BEERMANN. Speak plainly, won't you?
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. No. I am not going to speak more plainly.
+
+BEERMANN. As your husband, I demand it.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. N-no.
+
+BEERMANN. That is very sad. There should be no secrets at all
+between husband and wife.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. Is this a principle again? Fancy all these great
+secrets! [Beermann shrugs his shoulders.] No. Now take it for
+granted that I know a thing or two about you.
+
+BEERMANN [with anxiety]. You?
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. Several things. Some which you must know only too
+well. After all, that principle of yours has not been violated.
+There remain no secrets whatever between us.
+
+BEERMANN. I assure you I shall not rack my brains about it.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. Nor would I want you to regard me as sitting in
+judgment on your acts.
+
+BEERMANN [with a false pathos]. Instead of telling me freely and
+frankly of the gossip you have heard about me; then I could defend
+myself.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. That is just what I want to avoid. To me it appears
+somewhat childish when a man tries to justify ...
+
+BEERMANN [just as before]. In this manner, the lowest gossip can
+destroy the happiness of any family.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN [seriously]. Fritz, really, there is no one
+listening to us just now.
+
+BEERMANN. You are not taking me in earnest.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. No, and it is our good fortune that I am not. At
+least, my good fortune.
+
+BEERMANN. You call that good fortune? I might have expected
+something different from you.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. No, sir, you did not. If you will be honest with
+me, you will admit that. This many a year, we have been playing a
+common farce. You acted the true Christian head of the family and
+I the all-believing audience.
+
+BEERMANN. How nice!
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. Not nice but it's true. Perhaps the fault is not
+entirely ours, for we learned it from our parents. You men are
+supposed to impress us with your greatness and we women are to
+stand by and admire.
+
+BEERMANN. Do you find that impossible?
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. Even the best Christian family principles must have
+some foundation. What was I supposed to admire?
+
+BEERMANN. You ask that now?
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. Perhaps I gave it up sooner than others. But that
+is due to our relationship. We were always together. Where is a
+man to get pose and character enough to last him for twenty-four
+hours every day?
+
+BEERMANN. So that is about your conception of our married life?
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. That is it exactly.
+
+BEERMANN. And after all the years ...
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. I acquired it rather early.
+
+BEERMANN. Now, after twenty-six years you declare that you are
+unhappy.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. No, Fritz, it has not led us to unhappiness. There
+has been no sudden shattering of an ideal. Our marriage was not an
+ideal and ... don't feel offended ... your personality was never
+so immaculate, that one stain more or less would spoil the effect.
+
+BEERMANN [excited]. But there must be some sort of reason back of
+all these reproaches?
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. If you think them reproaches, then we do not
+understand each other.
+
+BEERMANN. What else are they?
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. I meant it merely as a request. Do not bring your
+family into ridicule.
+
+BEERMANN. You are playing hide and seek all the time. In what way
+am I likely to do that?
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. With your moral priesthood to which you have
+absolutely no right.
+
+BEERMANN. No right?
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. Not the slightest one. But you are creating enemies
+who will make a laughing-stock of us all, if they find out certain
+things. Those things can be found out whether we like it or not.
+
+BEERMANN [forced laughter]. Lena dear, I believe you are jealous.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN [quietly]. Jealous, of what? [Short pause.] I hope
+that you credit me with at least good taste enough not to be
+jealous of my so-called right, and ... otherwise what can I lose?
+No, Fritz, I am not jealous. [Short pause, it is getting darker.]
+I had to get accustomed to it; that's true. This secrecy, the
+petty lies and the false gravity irritated me a little bit too
+much at first, but I made an effort so that I could still retain a
+feeling of comradeship. I overcame it daily, because--well because
+I never really took you seriously. [Pause.]
+
+BEERMANN [with, a false pathos]. Lena, dear, do you realize what
+things you are saying?
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. Yes, fully.
+
+BEERMANN [as above]. That is dreadful. Every word is a ...
+catastrophe! I have until today, I have until this hour, believed
+in our established quiet happiness. Now shall all this pass away?
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. Nothing but your confidence in my blindness shall
+pass away.
+
+BEERMANN. Think it over. There can be no real family life after
+people lose faith in each other.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. Oh, a person gets used even to that.
+
+BEERMANN. No. Lena, listen. Someone has been telling you tales and
+I cannot defend myself, because I don't know what I am accused of.
+You must tell me everything right now. I demand it of you.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. If I wanted to do that, I would have to begin
+"many, many years ago ..."
+
+BEERMANN. Well, why didn't you do it then?
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. You can well understand, I had my reasons.
+
+BEERMANN. For such silence there can be no reasons.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. I could shut my eyes and remain silent. That was my
+privilege. But if I had spoken out and permitted you to appease me
+... no, that was something beyond me. To do that I would have been
+obliged to lie and for that I, for one, have not the ability.
+[Beermann makes a motion.] No, do not interrupt me. These things
+will have no consequences as long as I do not wish them to, but if
+I should name them, then they would have.
+
+BEERMANN. Then shall I let this suspicion rest upon me?
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. Yes.
+
+BEERMANN. How coldly you speak. If what you suspect were true, you
+could not be so indifferent about it.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. Do the by-laws of your society prescribe that in
+cases like these the wife shall be unhappy?
+
+BEERMANN. Imagine! The many years that you and I have lived
+together and you had these suspicions right along and never said a
+word about them. Why do you speak today?
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. Because you have reached the point where our
+friendship for one another may break. Everything I see and hear
+from you now hurts me. You speak in a tone of strictness, which
+must be unpleasant even to you. For weeks past there has been
+nothing around me but lies. What you say to me, all that you say
+to the children, and what you preached here publicly last night.
+Every word hurts my ears and urges me to contradict you; I am
+silent and by doing that I endorse your lies.
+
+BEERMANN. But, Lena ...
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. Finally when your every glance is artificial, each
+motion of yours is a pose. Then it is unbearable. Add to that my
+anxiety for our children. How shall they still retain faith in us,
+if through an accident their eyes are opened? I had remained
+silent all this time for their sake and now you are inviting the
+whole world to speak. I cannot continue to live this life of worry
+and hypocrisy. All that I have already overcome awakens again and
+appears to me more ugly than ever before. I do not know if I can
+still believe in your good fellowship and remain your friend. [She
+rises and goes slowly to the door.]
+
+BEERMANN. I do not seem to know you any more. During our entire
+married life, you have not spoken as seriously as in the last
+fifteen minutes.
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. That perhaps was my great mistake. But I have paid
+for it. [She opens the door.]
+
+BEERMANN. Lena dear, have you nothing further to tell me?
+
+FRAU BEERMANN. I just beg of you; do not bring your family into
+ridicule. [Exit.]
+
+BEERMANN [For a while remains standing; lost in thought; then he
+turns on the electric light, sighing, goes over to the bookcase,
+takes out the volume of the encyclopedia wherein the diary of
+Madams de Hauteville is hidden, opens it and reads standing. A
+knock on the door. Frightened, he quickly hides the diary in his
+side pocket.]
+
+BEERMANN. Come in. [Justizrat Hauser enters on the left.]
+
+HAUSER. Lord; good evening.
+
+BEERMANN [hurrying toward him]. Lord; how glad I am that you have
+come.
+
+HAUSER. Has anything happened?
+
+BEERMANN. N ... no.
+
+HAUSER. I received your message that you must see me tonight
+without fail.
+
+BEERMANN. Yes, I was at your house twice.
+
+HAUSER. Unfortunately, I was not there. [He has taken off his
+overcoat and is laying it on a chair.] Tell me, you seem to me all
+upset.
+
+BEERMANN. I am upset.
+
+HAUSER. I suppose that is why you sent for me. Well, then, what is
+it?
+
+BEERMANN. Have a seat, please. [They sit down to the left on the
+sofa.] I must begin a little way back. ... Have a cigar? [He goes
+over to the humidor, takes out a box of cigars and offers it to
+Hauser, who takes one.] I must begin a little way back ... Can you
+remember the subject we discussed last night?
+
+HAUSER. The genuinely righteous moral life? [He lights his cigar.]
+Of course, I remember it. Such sermons are not easily forgotten.
+
+BEERMANN. Do you know I got the impression that you have a rather
+liberal viewpoint.
+
+HAUSER. Liberal?
+
+BEERMANN. I mean that you are not a prude.
+
+HAUSER. I am an old lawyer, you know, and just out of sheer habit
+contradict people. I made myself blacker than I actually am. So,
+if you have scruples on my account ...
+
+BEERMANN. I merely mentioned it because you understand life and I
+must speak to someone who judges more liberally than our narrow
+minded bourgeois.
+
+HAUSER. More liberally than you judged last night?
+
+BEERMANN. I was overzealous, but don't let us talk about it. I
+want to ask you for advice. [Short pause.] You lawyers are bound
+to respect professional secrets?
+
+HAUSER. We must respect them.
+
+BEERMANN. What I am about to tell you, you will probably find most
+astounding, but it is to be considered absolutely confidential.
+Even though your client confesses a crime, you are not permitted
+to divulge the information?
+
+HAUSER. What a careful criminal you are!
+
+BEERMANN. It is possible that you will find this information most
+unpleasant.
+
+HAUSER [Bends and talks in a low voice]. Now don't worry about me,
+Beermann. I will know how to protect your interests. The law gives
+me the right to remain silent in any event.
+
+BEERMANN. Well then ... [nervously runs his fingers through his
+hair] I really have to begin a little way back. The last few days
+I have been thinking a great deal about monogamy. I am surely the
+last person to doubt the high moral value of the marriage vow, but
+there is something to be said on the other side. It is indeed a
+very ticklish theme to discuss.
+
+HAUSER. Suppose then that we skip the prologue and the few opening
+chapters and start at once with the affair of Madame Hauteville.
+
+BEERMANN. How do you know ...?
+
+HAUSER. I suspected. You probably are not the first one who has
+come to confess to me. Since last night many consciences have been
+jolted. So you, too, belong to that crowd?
+
+BEERMANN. You ask yourself how such things are possible?
+
+HAUSER. No, sir, I never ask myself such stupid questions.
+
+BEERMANN. You have always believed that an undisturbed happiness
+prevailed in my family.
+
+HAUSER [quickly]. Beermann, I resent that! Do not try to make
+yourself interesting.
+
+BEERMANN. Don't take it the wrong way. I am not blaming anybody. I
+just want to ...
+
+HAUSER. You even want to find moral justification for your
+immorality.
+
+BEERMANN. I know well enough that it is unjustifiable. I have been
+saying that to myself a hundred thousand times. Do not think that
+I overcame my principles so easily.
+
+HAUSER. All you had to overcome was your timidity.
+
+BEERMANN [sighing deeply]. If you only knew.
+
+HAUSER. Of course you did not land on the primrose path with both
+feet, but you climbed carefully over the fence--just as befits a
+man of your embonpoint.
+
+BEERMANN. I expected something better from you than mere mocking.
+
+HAUSER. What do you want me to do? Shall I weep because you have
+sinned? Why? What good would it do you? That is the way of your
+kind. As long as no one has proofs against you, your virtue must
+always be under the spotlight, but the very minute you trip up,
+some peculiar background of justification ought to be invented for
+the smallest sin. No, my dear friend. The world's moral system
+will not go to pieces just because you slipped and broke your
+nose.
+
+BEERMANN. You cannot realize what suffering you are inflicting
+upon me right now.
+
+HAUSER. Now please don't make long speeches. You did not call me
+here to grant you absolution. You want me to help you to quash
+this affair.
+
+BEERMANN [jumps up quickly from his chair]. Yes, you must do that.
+Good Lord, I beg you. I am in a terrible position. You have not
+the slightest idea how nervous I am.
+
+HAUSER. Will you please sit down and stop exaggerating?
+
+BEERMANN [sits down]. No man living can have sufficient
+imagination to enlarge on this. Imagine it! Any moment the police
+are likely to come here and arrest me.
+
+HAUSER [seriously]. Have you been carrying on so badly at
+Hauteville's?
+
+BEERMANN. No. Not there. That is not worth while mentioning.
+
+HAUSER. Why then do you fear the police? That's all nonsense. Now
+just consider everything quietly and calmly. By the way, has your
+wife any suspicions ...?
+
+BEERMANN. Of this affair? I don't think so. She has just a general
+one ... but what's the use of bothering with trifles! You know
+that this stupid woman kept a diary, and that they found it in her
+apartment.
+
+HAUSER. Assuredly I know it. Without that diary we would not have
+so many penitents in the City.
+
+BEERMANN. Imagine my position. I know positively that my name is
+in that book. It means that I am simply done for by the cursed
+thing.
+
+HAUSER. Is it so certain that your name is in the book?
+
+BEERMANN [loudly]. Yes, sir.
+
+HAUSER. It may be possible that ...
+
+BEERMANN. It is not at all possible. My name is there. Shall I
+quietly sit and wait until I am ruined? You know that I would be
+ruined if it became public. Fancy, I, the candidate for the
+Reichstag; I, the President of the Society for the Suppression of
+Vice! All the papers would be full of it.
+
+HAUSER. Oh, yes, it would be quite interesting.
+
+BEERMANN. Then think of the consequences here in the City! In the
+family! Why, I would be killed outright! Lord, how I tried to
+hammer it into the head of that stupid man in the Police
+Department so he could understand what terrible mischief this will
+make.
+
+HAUSER [frightened]. You went to Police Headquarters?
+
+BEERMANN. Of course, I was there.
+
+HAUSER. Did you confess?
+
+BEERMANN. How can you suppose that? [Sits down again.] I spoke for
+the others. I explained to the official that he is showing up the
+influential element; that he is injuring the established order of
+society,--but [he touches his forehead with his palm] that fellow
+has nothing but police ordinances in his head.
+
+HAUSER. Shouting will not help us a bit. Remain cool and
+collected. One thing is important, at this moment. Has the diary
+reached the District Attorney's office?
+
+BEERMANN. No, it has not.
+
+HAUSER. Well, as long as it remains in the Police Department there
+are still possibilities.
+
+BEERMANN. It is not in the Police Department either.
+
+HAUSER. Of course it is there. Where else should it be?
+
+BEERMANN [indicating his side pocket]. Here.
+
+HAUSER [amazed]. What?
+
+BEERMANN [takes the diary out of his side pocket and places it on
+the table]. Here it is.
+
+HAUSER. So, this is the celebrated diary of Madame Hauteville.
+[Beermann nods.] Who gave it to you?
+
+BEERMANN. Nobody. I just took it.
+
+HAUSER. You mean; you sto ...
+
+BEERMANN. ... Stole it, yes, sir.
+
+HAUSER [pulls back his chair and breaks into a loud laugh]. You
+did that! [He laughs.] ... Say, that's pretty good. Now I am
+beginning to respect you. Confound it, I would never have given
+you credit for a stunt like this. [He laughs and slaps his knee.]
+
+BEERMANN. Laugh, while I am dying of fright.
+
+HAUSER. Don't spoil my good impression of you! I am on the point
+of admiring you. [He laughs again.] Let me apologize. I always
+held you as a wishy-washy bourgeois and now you go and pull this
+thing off.
+
+BEERMANN. You had better give me some advice. I have not had a
+quiet moment since I took the book. I want to destroy it but how
+can I? If I tear it up the pieces will be found.
+
+HAUSER. Burn it.
+
+BEERMANN. Where? There is no fire in the house, except in the
+kitchen range. If I hide it, I shall always have to run to and fro
+to see if it is there, and I feel less safe if I have it on my
+person. Then I have always a feeling as though that thing were
+bulging out my pocket; and the police must be missing it by this
+time.
+
+HAUSER. Oh, tear out the page on which your name appears and send
+it back anonymously.
+
+BEERMANN. Impossible. My name appears on almost every second page.
+
+HAUSER. Oh ... so.
+
+BEERMANN. What shall I do when the police ask me for the book?
+
+HAUSER. There is only one way; you know nothing about it.
+
+BEERMANN. But they will be dead certain that I have it.
+
+HAUSER. Remain firm. For Heaven's sake don't fall into the trap
+that by confessing you will improve this fine job. [A loud and
+prolonged ringing of the electric bell is heard.]
+
+BEERMANN [frightened, exclaims]. There, do you hear that?
+
+HAUSER. Some visitor, I suppose.
+
+BEERMANN. This is no time to make visits. [Anxiously picking up
+the diary.] What shall I do with the damned thing? [Takes out a
+volume of the encyclopedia and wants to hide the diary in it but
+hesitates, and then puts the volume back on the shelf.] Lord,
+where shall I put it?
+
+HAUSER. Come, give it to me.
+
+BEERMANN [Gives him the book and Hauser puts it in his side
+pocket.]
+
+HAUSER. No one will search me for it.
+
+BEERMANN. Stay here with me ... please.
+
+HAUSER. If it gives you any pleasure, yes; but man alive, pull
+yourself together. Suppose it really were the police; you are
+trembling all over. [A knock on the door.]
+
+BEERMANN [crouching]. Quiet now. [Another knock.] Come in. [Betty
+comes in from the left and hands Beermann a visiting card.]
+
+BETTY. The gentleman says it is very urgent.
+
+BEERMANN [with a trembling hand Beermann takes up the visiting
+card and reads]. Professor Wasner. [He sighs audibly and then says
+with forced vigor.] Show the gentleman up. [Betty exit.]
+
+BEERMANN. And this has been my state of mind for the past six
+hours.
+
+HAUSER [offering him his hand]. Now be brave, my dear friend, and
+even if they should come to you, just deny it outright. You'll
+know how to lie. A man of such rare abilities. ... Good night.
+[Goes out on the left. In the doorway, he almost collides with
+Professor Wasner. They greet each other.]
+
+WASNER [wears a cape the left corner thrown picturesquely over his
+right shoulder, holds a large slouch hat in his hand. His hair is
+disheveled. His flaxen beard falls on his chest]. I am here in
+regard to the most remarkable matter a man ever came to consult
+another about.
+
+BEERMANN [very nervous]. Must it be today, Herr Professor?
+
+WASNER. The situation permits of no delay.
+
+BEERMANN. But it is getting so late.
+
+WASNER. I admit that this is hardly the proper time to make
+visits. Nevertheless, I entreat you to hear me. [Beermann seats
+himself at the desk, takes out a large handkerchief and presses it
+against his forehead. Wasner remains standing and continues.] For
+many years, as you well know, I undertook the task of collecting
+all publications which have been undermining public morals. I
+daresay today, that my collection is most complete and that I have
+unquestionably proven the harm of pornographic literature. What
+corrupting influence this temptation has through suggestion and
+imagination can today no longer be doubted, because--[an
+impressive pause; Wasner lowers his voice]--I myself fell a victim
+to it. [Beermann remains in his apathetic attitude. Pause.] I can
+well understand that you lack words. I, too, became, on account of
+it, much disgusted with my character. I asked myself if I still
+have the right to participate in the moral salvation of our people
+and I have decided affirmatively only after a thorough
+examination. [Pause.]
+
+BEERMANN [absentmindedly]. Yes ... yes ... Herr Professor.
+
+WASNER. You are entitled to know everything. Only spare me the
+details. Briefly stated, one day I could not view my collection as
+objectively as usual and thru a friend I was induced to make a
+most damnable visit. I assure you that I simply loathe that
+fellow.
+
+BEERMANN. But just why are you telling me all this?
+
+WASNER. Because together we have fought against immorality
+shoulder to shoulder. I ask you if you still deem me worthy to
+strive for our common ideal.
+
+BEERMANN. For my part, go as far as you like, I won't stop you.
+
+WASNER. Then you will not deny me your assistance?
+
+BEERMANN. Suppose we discuss all this tomorrow, Herr Professor?
+
+WASNER. Tomorrow will be too late. [Beermann falls back into his
+chair in an attitude of apathy.] After my false step I became
+convinced that it is my duty to protect others from this
+temptation. My feeling of duty became stronger until finally I
+wrote a letter to be exact--an anonymous letter--to the police,
+wherein I demanded emphatically that they put an end to the
+misconduct of this person.
+
+BEERMANN [now attentive.] Really that was not nice.
+
+WASNER. I wanted to assure myself that within I still had the
+right to belong to the Society for the Suppression of Vice.
+
+BEERMANN. I consider that rather mean. You should always be
+grateful.
+
+WASNER. This very feeling would have made me feel still more
+guilty. [Beermann shrugs his shoulders nervously.] But now I come
+to the reason for my being here. My information had results ...
+This creature was arrested and today after dinner my false friend
+comes to tell me that he had not been careful, had mentioned to
+her my name, and I am certainly indexed in the book she kept. This
+book was found in her place by the police.
+
+BEERMANN [jumping up]. What's her name?
+
+WASNER. Hauteville.
+
+BEERMANN. So, it is you to whom we are indebted for this scandal.
+[Angrily.] Do you fully realize what you have accomplished? How
+many respectable fathers of families you have brought to the very
+verge of despair?
+
+WASNER. I know it.
+
+BEERMANN. You don't.
+
+WASNER. I came here for that very reason.
+
+BEERMANN [not understanding him]. What?
+
+WASNER. I came here to request you on behalf of the others to call
+tonight, a meeting of the Executive Committee. The Society must do
+everything in its power to keep this case out of court.
+
+BEERMANN. Why the devil did you write that anonymous letter?
+
+WASNER. Listen to me, I beg of you. Someone is involved in this
+who is very dear to you. As soon as I received the information, I
+hastened to Police Headquarters immediately and wanted to
+intervene there as the representative of the Society for the
+Suppression of Vice. But when I mentioned that name I was very
+formally thrown out. On the steps, whom do you think I met but our
+mutual friend, Kommerzienrat Bolland! He too had been in the
+Commissioner's office and had the same bad luck. I told him my
+troubles and he admitted to me that he also had been lured into
+the den of this Siren.
+
+BEERMANN. Kommerzienrat!
+
+WASNER. Unfortunately. But that is something I can't at all
+account for. He hardly could have been led into temptation through
+a collection of documentary exhibits.
+
+BEERMANN. And what do you want of me now?
+
+WASNER. Our friend sends me to you. He would have come himself but
+the shock threw him into a sickbed. He entreats you urgently to
+call a meeting of the Executive Committee, immediately. We have
+very influential people in our midst who must bring pressure to
+bear on the Department of the Interior in order to hush up this
+affair.
+
+BEERMANN. If only you had not written that anonymous letter.
+
+WASNER. I felt a moral duty to do it.
+
+BEERMANN. And now it is our moral duty to patch up this matter.
+[Betty enters on the left.]
+
+BETTY [hands Beermann a calling card]. The gentleman says it is
+very urgent.
+
+BEERMANN [reads]. "Assessor Stroebel." [Frightened; to Betty.]
+Tell him I am out of town. [Betty about to leave.] No, tell him I
+am sick--or, Betty, show the gentleman up. [Betty goes out.]
+
+WASNER. At what time shall the Executive Committee meet?
+
+BEERMANN [excited]. Oh, leave me alone with your Executive
+Committee.
+
+WASNER. You must not desert us in our hour of peril. A leader's
+fate is bound up with his followers according to German tradition.
+
+BEERMANN [as before]. It is all your fault anyway.
+
+WASNER. Shall I then tell our sick friend that we cannot count on
+your support?
+
+BEERMANN. If I am so situated that I can, I will be over to see
+him in an hour. I can't promise you more now. [Assessor Stroebel
+enters on left and remains standing in the doorway.]
+
+STROEBEL [very seriously.] Herr Beermann, I must speak to you
+privately.
+
+BEERMANN [confused]. You--with me? Well, since you must, I suppose
+you must.
+
+WASNER. Well, I am going. [Wasner exit left.] [Stroebel enters.
+Wasner remains standing on the threshold.] The Executive Committee
+will be called to the sick bed of our friend. We shall await our
+chairman. [He goes. Stroebel and Beermann remain standing, silent,
+facing each other.]
+
+STROEBEL. You are surprised, I presume, that I come here at this
+unusual hour.
+
+BEERMANN. Why should I be surprised?
+
+STROEBEL. You will have to pardon me. The matter which brings me
+here is unusual and urgent.
+
+BEERMANN. Oh, don't mention it. [A short pause. They both clear
+their throats.]
+
+STROEBEL. You were in my office this morning ...
+
+BEERMANN. Was I?
+
+STROEBEL. Why, of course you were in my office this morning.
+
+BEERMANN. Oh, yes, yes. I remember we had a short conference. I
+must ask you to excuse me, Herr Assessor. I am suffering with an
+awful ringing in the ears. It makes me so forgetful.
+
+STROEBEL. But I hope you still remember what we spoke about.
+
+BEERMANN. Very dimly. If you would remind me of it perhaps it will
+not be so difficult.
+
+STROEBEL. You came on account of the Hauteville case.
+
+BEERMANN. So-o?
+
+STROEBEL. Or the Hochstetter ...
+
+BEERMANN. Well, since you say so, it must be so.
+
+STROEBEL. First I thought you came to express your satisfaction
+that we had caught this person ...
+
+BEERMANN. No, that was not my purpose.
+
+STROEBEL. I am sure it wasn't. I was quite surprised that you were
+not satisfied with her arrest.
+
+BEERMANN. Why shouldn't I not be satisfied with her arrest?
+
+STROEBEL [nervously]. But, Herr Beermann, you will recollect how
+we discussed the diary.
+
+BEERMANN [quickly]. A diary? I know nothing about it.
+
+STROEBEL. You even became quite excited about it.
+
+BEERMANN. I know nothing whatever of any diary. You never showed
+me any book at all. Of that I am very positive.
+
+STROEBEL [in despair]. It is just my confounded luck to find you
+in this predicament. You are evidently suffering.
+
+BEERMANN. An awful ringing in my ears--
+
+STROEBEL. I would leave you at once if the least delay were
+possible. But I simply must speak to you about it tonight. Can't
+you get relief by taking medicine?
+
+BEERMANN. No medicine can help me. I can only tell you that I do
+not know anything about any diary.
+
+STROEBEL. Lord, Lord, leave the diary out of it altogether. It is
+absolutely of no importance.
+
+BEERMANN. It is of no importance?
+
+STROEBEL. Of course, it is safely locked in my desk ...
+
+BEERMANN. Is that so? Well, then I can't understand why you
+hurried to see me tonight.
+
+STROEBEL [very embarrassed]. But that is exactly what I wanted to
+explain to you. But how shall I do it? You scarcely remember any
+more than that you were in my office this morning. It is
+incredible how misfortune has been persecuting me since noon.
+
+BEERMANN [greatly relieved]. Well, calm yourself, Herr Assessor.
+It will come out right in the end.
+
+STROEBEL [downcast]. No, it can never come out right.
+
+BEERMANN [soothingly]. Sit down nicely in this chair--so! I'll sit
+next to you here--so! ... And now let us see about it. [They seat
+themselves on the left, upstage.] Do you know, I am beginning to
+feel much better already. So the diary is in your desk.
+
+STROEBEL. For my part, let it be buried a thousand feet deep. For
+God's sake, don't talk of it any more. It takes us away from my
+subject.
+
+BEERMANN. That's right. We shan't talk of it any more. Now let me
+see, I called on you about the Hauteville case. ...
+
+STROEBEL. And on this occasion you demanded that the police
+suppress the matter.
+
+BEERMANN. Quite true, I did that.
+
+STROEBEL. There you are! And that's why I thought you were mostly
+interested in avoiding scandal. BEERMANN. In what way?
+
+STROEBEL. Not personally, but from a wholly humanitarian or civic
+standpoint. You even told me that just because of your position as
+President of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, you regarded
+it as your duty to keep this matter out of the courts.
+
+BEERMANN. Only for the common welfare.
+
+STROEBEL. And out of consideration for public opinion. I had the
+impression that these considerations were of great importance to
+you.
+
+BEERMANN. And still are. Do you think I change my views? I repeat
+to you, that I would consider this court trial a misfortune
+because it would be contrary to the established order of Society.
+
+STROEBEL. Then we are agreed in our principles!
+
+BEERMANN. You too?
+
+STROEBEL. Absolutely.
+
+BEERMANN. I thought that you had ... this forenoon ...
+
+STROEBEL. And I was also mistaken because you didn't seem to
+remember. But at any rate we agree in our principles. [They shake
+hands.] Although that does not accomplish anything still it is a
+great relief to me that we understand each other. I am coming now
+to the real purpose of my visit. [He clears his throat.] Herr
+Beermann, I must demand your word of honor that not a syllable of
+what I tell you will ever pass your lips.
+
+BEERMANN. My sacred word of honor.
+
+STROEBEL. These are official secrets, perhaps even State secrets,
+and a single careless word might have tremendous consequences.
+
+BEERMANN. You can depend on me.
+
+STROEBEL. Not even to your family.
+
+BEERMANN. Not a breath.
+
+STROEBEL. To tell you: Since you were at my office this morning
+there were most remarkable developments, quite unique in their
+way. But I have your word of honor--have I not?
+
+BEERMANN. My sacred word of honor.
+
+STROEBEL [bends low and protects his mouth with his hand and
+whispers]. That very night when Madame Hauteville's apartment was
+raided, without our knowledge a very distinguished person was
+hidden there.
+
+BEERMANN. I can imagine.
+
+STROEBEL [loudly]. You can't imagine it at all. [Whispering.] Our
+young heir, Prince Emil, was there himself.
+
+BEERMANN [surprised, slapping his thigh]. Now what do you think of
+that!
+
+STROEBEL [loudly]. You can understand that I am not telling you
+this as a mere bit of gossip, but certain important reasons compel
+me to. That which you mentioned before about the reasons of state
+was fulfilled. Fulfilled to the very letter. All possibilities of
+prosecuting this person at present have simply gone up in the air.
+
+BEERMANN [starting from his seat]. Then everything is all right.
+
+STROEBEL. There's nothing "all right" about it. Keep your seat,
+Herr Beermann. Of course our desire to prosecute has disappeared,
+but the lady in question is still at headquarters and we don't
+know how to get rid of her.
+
+BEERMANN. Madame Hauteville? [Stroebel nods.] Just forget to lock
+the door and she'll vanish.
+
+STROEBEL [shaking his head]. No, ... for a great many reasons. Do
+you think I did not try hard to find a solution? First, if we
+openly permit her to escape, the whole city will know it tomorrow;
+the press will take it up and there will be a far greater scandal
+than the court proceedings would cause. No, sir, at least the
+letter of the law must be carried out. Madame Hauteville must give
+a bond. She will be set free and then she must escape. That's the
+only way we can protect ourselves from criticism. Do you
+understand me?
+
+BEERMANN. You mean ... about the bail?
+
+STROEBEL. Yes, sir, the bail first of all. But if it were only the
+bail! Just think! She doesn't want to go at all.
+
+BEERMANN. She does not want to ...?
+
+STROEBEL. No. I gave her another hearing this afternoon and told
+her that we don't care to bother with her any more. "Listen," I
+said to her, "you are lucky. Give bail of Five Thousand Marks, and
+you will be free in ten minutes. There is a ten o'clock train for
+Brussels tomorrow morning." [The bell in the hall rings.] What do
+you suppose she said? She laughed. She knows very well why we are
+so humane, but she will not give a bond of five marks, even if by
+luck she had it. She says that she has already prepared for a
+trial. I talked to her politely, then rudely. She will not budge.
+She laughs and laughs and that's all. [Knock at the door. Maid
+enters with a visiting card.]
+
+BEERMANN [to the maid]. What does it all mean to-night, at this
+hour? This is not a hotel. [Takes the card and reads.] Freiherr
+Bodo von Schmettau, Herr auf Zirnberg?
+
+STROEBEL. Do receive this gentleman, please.
+
+BEERMANN. Now, while we are conferring?
+
+STROEBEL. Yes, now, if you please.
+
+BEERMANN [to the maid]. Ask the gentleman to come in. [Betty
+exit.]
+
+STROEBEL. He is Adjutant to the young Prince. I told him I was
+going to see you, and you can realize how upset he is.
+
+BEERMANN. If it affords you pleasure.
+
+STROEBEL. It does. The entire responsibility rests on me and I at
+least must show that I have left nothing undone. [Knock on the
+door.]
+
+BEERMANN. Come in. [Schmettau enters.]
+
+SCHMETTAU. Good evening.
+
+STROEBEL [rising. Beermann rises also]. May I introduce you
+gentlemen? Herr Beermann, the banker--Herr Baron Schmettau.
+
+SCHMETTAU. We have already had a glimpse of each other today.
+
+BEERMANN. Yes, I remember.
+
+SCHMETTAU. You are the President of the Local Morality Club.
+Before we go further I must tell you that I do not at all agree
+with those views ...
+
+STROEBEL [interrupting with anxiety]. Herr Baron, may I call your
+attention to the fact that Herr Beermann, personally, is far above
+these narrow theories.
+
+SCHMETTAU. I am glad to hear it. Besides as theories they're not
+so bad.
+
+BEERMANN. As theories! That's what I say.
+
+SCHMETTAU. Well, there you are!
+
+STROEBEL. Herr Beermann is also the candidate of the local
+Conservative-Liberal Coalition.
+
+SCHMETTAU. Then he is certainly no stickler for high-flown
+notions. I should be right glad if we understood each other. And
+how far are you, gentlemen?
+
+STROEBEL. In principles we are agreed.
+
+BEERMANN. Absolutely.
+
+SCHMETTAU. Then we shall have no difficulty in finding the right
+solution.
+
+STROEBEL. I have taken Herr Beermann into our confidence.
+
+SCHMETTAU. That was a very disagreeable mishap, was it not? Very
+bad. Whoever has any patriotism can realize it.
+
+BEERMANN. Herr Baron was also ...
+
+SCHMETTAU. Locked in the closet.
+
+STROEBEL. Permit me to revert to the facts. I was just telling
+Herr Beermann that this Hauteville woman refuses to leave. She
+boasts that she has not the bail and even if she had it, she would
+not pay it.
+
+SCHMETTAU. Confound her! She controls the situation.
+
+STROEBEL. Now we come to the most difficult part of it. She says
+that if she is compelled to leave the city and is deprived of her
+livelihood, she wants proper damages for it. Of course I told the
+woman that this, to say the least, was an extortionate demand.
+Well then, she says, we will have a trial in court.
+
+BEERMANN. The fox! She knows well that's out of the question.
+
+SCHMETTAU. I am very grateful to you for these sentiments.
+
+STROEBEL. I asked what she considered proper damages. "Ten
+thousand marks," she says. I almost lost my senses. With the
+necessary bail that would make Fifteen thousand marks.
+
+SCHMETTAU. In the end perhaps that is not so gigantic.
+
+STROEBEL. Who is going to pay it?
+
+SCHMETTAU. Not we, of course. Our state is a poor paymaster.
+
+STROEBEL. Here is a fine mess, which I cannot solve--at least not
+I. Herr Beermann, you said yourself that your Society for the
+Suppression of Vice is vitally interested in the undisturbed
+maintenance of the popular belief in morality. For the members of
+your Society, it ought to be quite easy to collect that sum. I
+know of no other way.
+
+BEERMANN [with folded hands he stands in a pensive mood]. The
+Executive Committee is expecting its chairman. And I know of a
+professor who alone ought to pay an extra thousand for a letter he
+wrote. [To the others.] Gentlemen, briefly speaking, I will do it.
+On behalf of the society, I pledge this sum.
+
+SCHMETTAU. Herr von Beermann, I can only say that you have acted
+honorably. The House of Emil the Benevolent knows on whom to
+confer an order. [He offers his hand.]
+
+BEERMANN. But let me assure you, Herr Baron, I did not do it
+expecting a reward.
+
+CURTAIN
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Moral, by Ludwig Thoma
+
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