You can indeed, and so can I, wherever
I like. Even to the stockyards.
And as for the edifice of sweat and money
That we’ve constructed in these cities, it’s
As if someone has put up a building
The biggest, most expensive, most efficient
In all the world
But by some oversight and to save money
Has built it out of dogshit, making it
A horrid place to stay in, so that in the end
His only claim to glory was that he had
Produced the biggest stink in all the world. The
Man who escapes from such a building
Has every reason to be happy.
ONE OF THE DETECTIVES (as they are leaving): Well, that’s the end of him.
MAULER:
Misfortune crushes common men. They therefore fear it.
Not I, for it will raise me to the realm of spirit.
i
A deserted section of the stockyards.
Mrs Luckerniddle meets Joan in the snow storm.
MRS LUCKERNIDDLE: So there you are! Where are you going so fast? Did you deliver the letter?
JOAN: No. I’m leaving.
MRS LUCKERNIDDLE: I should have known it. Give me that letter!
JOAN: No, you can’t have it. Don’t come near me. I know it’s just another call for violence. Now everything has been straightened out, and you people want to keep right on.
MRS LUCKERNIDDLE: Oh, you think everything’s been straightened out, do you? And I told them you were honest, or they wouldn’t have given you the letter. But you’re a cheat and you belong on the other side. You’re trash! Give me the letter they trusted you with. (Joan vanishes in the snow storm.) Hey, you! She’s gone.
j
Another section of the stockyard district.
Hurrying towards the city, Joan hears two passing workers.
THE FIRST: First they launched a rumour that the packing plants were going to start up again and put everybody to work. Now that some of the workers have gone home so as to be ready to report tomorrow morning, it suddenly comes out that the packers aren’t opening at all because P. Mauler has ruined them.
THE SECOND: The Communists were right. The masses shouldn’t have broken ranks. Especially considering that every factory in Chicago would have struck tomorrow.
THE FIRST: Nobody told us that.
THE SECOND: That’s bad. Some of the couriers must have lain down on the job. A lot of workers would have stayed on if they’d known. No amount of police brutality would have stopped them.
Joan, wandering about, hears voices.
VOICE:
For not getting there
You have no excuse. The cobblestones
Do not excuse those who fall.
Even if you get there
Don’t bother us with talk of difficulties
But silently present
Yourself or what was entrusted to you.
Joan has stopped still and started walking in a different direction.
VOICE (Joan stops still):
We sent you on a mission.
Our situation was critical.
We didn’t know who you were. Possibly
You would carry out our mission and possibly
You would let us down.
Did you carry it out?
Joan hurries on and is stopped by a new voice.
VOICE:
When someone awaits you, you must arrive.
Looking around for an escape from the voices, Joan hears voices on all sides.
VOICES:
A net with one torn mesh
Is useless.
The fish swim through it at that point
As if there were no net at all.
Suddenly
All the meshes are useless.
MRS LUCKERNIDDLE’S VOICE:
I vouched for you.
But when they gave you a letter with the truth in it
You didn’t deliver it.
JOAN (falling to her knees):
O Truth, bright light, unseasonably darkened by a snow storm!
Never more to be seen! Oh, what force in a snowstorm!
Oh, weakness of the flesh! O hunger, what can withstand you?
What can outlive you, frost of the night?
I must turn back!
She runs back.
10
PIERPONT MAULER HUMBLES HIMSELF AND IS EXALTED
The Black Straw Hat Mission.
MARTHA (to another Black Straw Hat): Three days ago a messenger from Pierpont Mauler the meat king came and told us that Pierpont Mauler himself promised to pay our rent and help us to do something big for the poor.
MULBERRY: It’s Saturday night, Mr Snyder. Would you kindly pay the rent, which is very low, or vacate my premises?
SNYDER: Mr Mulberry, we are expecting Mr Pierpont Mauler any minute; he has promised to help us.
MULBERRY: Hey, Dick, hey, Albert, put their furniture out on the street.
Two men start carrying the furniture out.
THE BLACK STRAW HATS:
Oh, they’re taking the penitents’ bench away
Already their rapacious claws are threatening
Harmonium and pulpit.
And all the more loudly we scream:
If only the rich Mr Mauler
Would come now and save us
With his money!
SNYDER:
For seven days now in the rusting stockyards
The masses have been standing, freed at last from work.
Delievered from all shelter they are standing
In rain and snow
While over them hangs an unknown fate.
Dear Mr Mulberry, some hot soup now
Hot soup with music and we’ve got them. In my mind’s eye I see
The kingdom of heaven complete.
If only we can scare up a band and some decent soup
With some body to it, all God’s worries are over
And Bolshevism will give up the ghost.
THE BLACK STRAW HATS:
The dykes of faith have burst
In our city of Chicago
And the muddy waters of materialism
Are threatening to engulf its last temple.
Look, it’s tottering; look, it’s sinking!
But stand fast, for the rich Mr Mauler is coming!
He’s on his way with all his money!
A BLACK STRAW HAT: Where do we put the public now, major?
Three poor men come in; Mauler is one of them.
SNYDER (shouts at them): All they want is soup! There’s no soup here! Only the word of God! That’ll get rid of them!
MAULER: Here stand three men who have come to their God.
SNYDER: Sit down over there and keep quiet.
The three sit down.
A MAN (enters): Is Pierpont Mauler here?
SNYDER: No, but we’re expecting him.
THE MAN: The packers went to speak to him and the stockbreeders are yelling for him. (He goes out.)
MAULER (front stage):
I hear they’re looking for one Mauler.
I knew the man: a fool. And now they’re searching
Heaven and hell, the heights and depths, for this
Mauler who all his life was stupider than
A dirty drunken bum.
(Stands up and goes to the Black Straw Hats.)
A certain man I knew was asked for
A hundred dollars. And he had ten million.
He didn’t give the hundred dollars, but threw
The ten million away
And gave himself.
(He takes hold of two of the Black Straw Hats and sits down with them on the penitents’ bench.)
I’ve come here to confess.
No one as base as I am, friends
Has ever knelt here.
THE BLACK STRAW HATS:
Don’t give up hope!
Be not
of little faith!
Surely he will come, even now he is near
With all his money.
A BLACK STRAW HAT:
Is he here?
MAULER:
A hymn, I beg of you. For I am light
Of heart, yet bowed with sadness.
TWO MUSICIANS:
One number, no more.
They strike up a hymn. The Black Straw Hats sing absently, looking towards the door.
SNYDER (over his account books):
Trying to figure something out. I’m not saying what.
Quiet!
Bring me the account book and the unpaid
Bills. Yes, it’s come to this.
MAULER:
I have been guilty of exploitation
Misuse of force, expropriation of
Everyone in the name of property. For seven days
I held this city of Chicago by the throat
Till it croaked.
A BLACK STRAW HAT: That’s Mauler!
MAULER:
I plead however in extenuation
That on the seventh day I cast everything
Away, and stand here penniless.
Not indebted, but repentant.
SNYDER:
You’re Mauler?
MAULER:
Yes, and ravaged by remorse.
SNYDER (screaming): Without money? (To the Black Straw Hats:) Pack up our stuff. I hereby suspend all payments.
THE MUSICIANS:
If that’s the man you were expecting money from
To pay us with, we might as well shove off.
Good evening.
They leave.
CHORUS OF THE BLACK STRAW HATS (at the departing musicians):
With prayers we awaited
Mauler the rich, but in walked
Mauler the penitent, bringing us
His heart
But not his money.
Therefore our hearts are moved, but
Our faces are long.
(Sitting on their last chairs and benches, the Black Straw Hats sing their last hymns confusedly.)
By the waters of Lake Michigan
Here we sit and weep.
Take the mottoes off the walls
Wrap the hymn books in the unvictorious flag
For we can pay our bills no longer
And against us rise the snowstorms
Of gathering winter.
In conclusion they sing: ‘March Straight Into the Fight’. Mauler looks over the shoulder of one of the Black Straw Hats and joins in the singing.
SNYDER:
Quiet! And now get out, the whole lot of you (to Mauler:) and especially you!
Where are the forty months’ rent from the unconverted
That Joan cast out? And instead brought this guy in!
Joan, give me back my forty months’ rent!
MAULER:
I see, you thought you’d build your house beneath
The shade I cast. To you a man is one
Who helps you, just as to me a man was someone
To prey on. But even if none but those whom I helped
Deserved the name of man, it would be no different.
Then you’d need drowning men, and you’d be straws.
Thus in the mighty circuits of the stars
As of commodities, all remains unchanged.
Such wisdom, Snyder, would embitter some.
But I am willing to accept the fact
That in my present shape I’m not the man you need.
Mauler starts through the door. The meat kings enter and push him back. They are chalky-white.
THE PACKERS:
Exalted Mauler! Do forgive us for
Seeking you out and interrupting the complex
Tergiversations of your giant brain.
But we are ruined. Chaos blows around us
And over us unknown intention threatens.
What are your plans for us, Mauler? What
Are you going to do next? For
We are the victims of your rabbit punches.
Enter the stockbreeders in great agitation. They too are chalky-white.
THE STOCKBREEDERS:
Accursed Mauler! So this is where you’re hiding.
Pay for our livestock instead of getting converted.
We want your money, not your soul. You wouldn’t
Have to relieve your conscience here if you
Hadn’t relieved our pockets of their contents!
Pay us for our livestock!
GRAHAM (comes forward):
Permit us, Mauler, to recount in brief
The battle which began this morning
Lasted for seven hours and swept us all
Into the depths.
MAULER:
Oh, eternal slaughter! In this day and age
No different than in times gone by when
Warriors bashed each other bloody with iron!
GRAHAM:
Remember, Mauler, how, through contracts obligating
Us to deliver meat, you forced us to
Buy meat from you, since you alone had meat.
Well, when you left at twelve o’clock, Slift squeezed
Our throats still tighter. With raucous cries he drove
The prices higher and higher, till they stood
At ninety-five. Whereat the dear old Fed
Stepped in and called a halt. Alive to her
Responsibility, that kindly lady threw
Canadian yearlings on the gutted market.
The prices trembled in the balance, but
Insensate Slift, no sooner had he glimpsed
Those yearlings from the distant north, than he
Grabbed them at ninety-five, much as a drunkard
Still thirsty after swilling up an ocean
Gulps avidly at one last drop. The old
Lady looked on in horror. Loew and Levi
Wallox and Brigham, bankers of highest repute
Sprang to her help, pledging their holdings and chattels
Down to the last eraser, in earnest of their promise to
Bring in from Canada, Argentina and so on
Every last quadruped dimly resembling a steer or hog.
‘Not in three days!’ cried Slift. ‘I need them this minute.’
Upward the prices he drove. And bathed in hot tears, the
Banking establishments rushed into the final conflict
Since, to deliver, they were obliged to buy.
Levi in person, sobbing his heart out, poked
One of Slift’s brokers full in the stomach.
Brigham gasped: ‘Ninety-six’ and tore out his beard. At
That point in time if an elephant had chanced to come in, that
Elephant would have been squashed like a berry.
Even the office boys, seized with despair, silently took
Bites out of each other, just as in olden times the fighting men’s
Chargers would sink their teeth into each others’ flanks.
Known for their air of boredom, office boys
Were heard this day to gnash their teeth.
And still we bought because we had to buy.
Slift said: ‘One hundred!’ And in silence
So thick you could have heard a pin drop
The banks collapsed like trampled mushrooms. Once
Mighty and firm, suspending payments as though
Breathing their last. Then old man Levi whispered
So everyone could hear: ‘You’ll have to fall back
On the packing plants themselves now, for we
Are powerless to meet those contracts.’ Then
Morosely, packer after packer laid
His idle, useless plant at your feet and Slift’s
And made his exit, while the brokers closed
Their order books. And at that very moment
Sighing as with relief, because no contract
Compelled its purchase, beef went down
/> And down and down.
Like water hurled from cliff to cliff, the prices
Fell from quotation to quotation, plumbing
Unfathomable depths. They stopped at thirty.
And so your contract, Mauler, is now worthless.
Aiming to lead us by the neck, you strangled us.
How can you lead a dead man by the neck?
MAULER:
So this, Slift, is the way you handled the mission
That I entrusted to you?
SLIFT:
Tear my head off.
MAULER:
What can I do with your head?
Give me your hat, it’s worth a nickel.
What’s to be done
With all this livestock that no one’s forced to buy?
THE STOCKBREEDERS:
Without flying off the handle
We humbly beg you to inform us
Whether, when and wherewith you mean to
Pay for the livestock which
Was purchased but not paid for.
MAULER:
All right. I’ll pay you with this hat and boot.
Here for ten millions is my hat, and here
One shoe for five. I need the other. Are
You satisfied?
THE STOCKBREEDERS:
Ah, when some moons ago
We led our frolicking calves
And lovingly fattened steers by the halter
To the railroad siding in far-away Missouri
Our families with voices cracked by toil
Shouted after us as the trains rolled away
Don’t drink up the money, boys, and
Let’s hope the livestock prices get better!
What can we do now?
How can we go back?
What will we say when they see
Our empty halters
And empty pockets?
How, Mauler, can we go home like this?
THE SAME MAN AS BEFORE (enters): Is Mauler here? A letter from New York.
MAULER: I used to be the Mauler such letters were addressed to. (Opens it and reads it off to one side.) ‘Not long ago, dear Pierpont, we wrote advising you to buy meat. Today our advice is: come to an agreement with the breeders and get them to limit the livestock supply; then the market will recover. We shall be glad to give you all possible help. More tomorrow, dear Pierpont. Your friends in New York.’ No, no. It’s no good.
GRAHAM: What’s no good?
MAULER: I have friends in New York, who claim to know a way out. It doesn’t look possible to me. Here, what do you think?
He hands them the letter.
How very different everything
Seems now. Give up the struggle, friends.
Your wealth is gone. You’ll have to face it: gone.
But not because we are no longer blessed
With earthly goods – which are not within the reach
Of all – but only because we have no feeling