d the proper field for his
energy. Never has Bjoernson written anything more convincing,
penetrating, subtly satirical. He cuts deep; every incision draws blood.
A Norwegian who reads the play cannot well rid himself of a startled
sense of exposure that is at first wounding to his patriotism. It is
mortifying to have to admit that things are thus in Norway. And the
worst of it is that there appears to be no remedy. The condition is,
according to Bjoernson, inherent in all small states which cripple the
souls of men, stunt their growth, and contract their horizon.

The first act opens with a conversation between the civil engineers
Kampe and Ravn, and the former's son Hans, who has just returned from a
prolonged sojourn abroad. The keynote is struck in the sarcastic remark
of Ravn, that in a small society only small truths can be tolerated--of
the kind that takes twenty to the inch; but great truths are apt to be
explosive and should therefore be avoided, for they might burst the
whole society. This is _a propos_ of a book which Hans Kampe has
written, exposing the wastefulness and antiquated condition of the
so-called "new system" of railway management introduced, or supposed to
have been introduced, by Kampe's and Ravn's brother-in-law, the
supervisor-general Riis. The way for Hans to make a career, declares the
worldly wise Ravn, is not to oppose the source of promotion and power,
but to be silent and marry the supervisor-general's daughter. Ravn has
learned this lesson by bitter experience, and hopes that his nephew will
profit by it. All talk about duty to the state and society he pretends
to regard as pure moonshine, and he professes not to see the connection
between the elder Kampe's drunkenness and the artificial bottling up to
which he has been subjected, the curbing and jailing of Titanic powers
which once sought outlet in significant action. The same mighty force
which in its repression drives the men to the brandy-bottle makes the
women intoxicate themselves with fictitious narratives of high courage,
daring rescues, and all kinds of melodramatic heroism. Extremely amusing
is the scene in which Karen Riis (who loves Hans and is beloved by him)
goes rowing with her friends Nora and Lisa, taking with her a stock of
high-strung novels, and when a drowning man cries to them for help they
row away posthaste, because the man is naked.

The second act shows us the type of the successful man of compromise,
who takes