say nay to their
humblest request? No! I have never seen my people. Is this young woman,
whom you have placed by my side, my mate who loves me? No--She is a
heifer that you have let into my stall; she is an imp who is to shoot
branches on the genealogical tree; she is an administration's candidate
who makes happy her spouse with a tariff treaty. You call us happy
because we pretend to be; but we are most unhappy, for we stand near the
brink of a crime, which, praise God, we shall never commit. I curse you,
palace! dedicated as a temple of lies. Down in the dust with you, false
family tree! [Genealogical chart drops from wall and rolls up on floor.]
Break into shatters, crown and sceptre, tyranny's symbols! [Crown and
sceptre come down with a crash.] Tumble throne, where unrighteousness
is seated! [Throne collapses. Thunder, lightning, storm.] Scatter like
decoys, fortune hunters and outcasts that have placed yourselves between
noble and commoner! [All but bride disappear. To bride.] You lamb of
sacrifice, be free like myself! Now I want to go out into Nature and see
if honor and decency do not still live! [Bride vanishes; Pehr remains
standing, hands to face, until scene is changed.]

SCENE TWO.

Seashore with wreckage of cast up seaweed, etc. To left an up-rooted
oak-stump, fishing tackle and hulk of a wrecked vessel. Background: open
sea; seamews float on waves. To right cliff-shore with pine woods; lower
down is a hut.

PEHR. Where am I? I breathe freer--All evil thoughts flee! I sense a
perfume as of old romances; I hear a murmur, like far-away streams; the
ground under me is soft as a bed. Ah--it is the seashore!

O Sea! Thou Mother Earth's good mother! Be greeted by an old and
withered heart Which comes that it may be by thy moist winds Swept clean
and freshened; Which comes to thy salt waves for cleansing baths And
healing for the sores the world's lies and madness gave to it.
Blow wind, and fill with thy pure air My lungs, that breathed in
pois'n-filled vapours; Sing wave, and let mine ear be soothed By the
harmonies of thy pure tones, As I stand here 'mongst the wreckage on the
strand, A wreck myself, which the breakers cast upon the sand When the
vessel crashed 'gainst the sharp cliff-rocks! Be greeted, Sea, that
nurses healthy thoughts And recreates the soul in shrunken body When
every spring thy billows break And gull and swallow chatter 'bove thy
wave, To wak'n anew the joy of life, and strength, and