The woman who could, a play with a purpose

Front matter

L^^r lOv\

^9^

• mO

Act I

Afi afternoon at the home of Mrs. Stetson. The drawing-room is furnished expensively. Mrs. Stetson is seated in an armchair. Mrs. Chester is seated opposite her. At one end of the room is a vestibule contai/ni/ng palms. From this vestibule enter the different guests. The drawing-room is supposed to face the street. Two windows show, and a door, opening into a dvnimg-room.

You have only done, my dear, what hundreds of other women have had to do. It cost me thousands to rise to my present position ; and if I were to tell you who got my money in the first instance you would never believe me. We women always have to pay for the chance to be successful. On the stage, or in politics, we pay one man or another; in the social world we pay a more fortunate woman. And in the latter case we only part with money.

It is a terrible state of affairs. I wonder if it is really worth while?

THE WOMAN WHO COULD Mrs. Stetson

Of course it is worth while. It is a part of the game of life. The democratic spirit is all very well in the country. It consoles the agriculturist for his lack of fine linen ; although I understand the farmers are better off than they would have it generally known.

I am sometimes weary of the whole thing.

Then you should make preparations for a trip to Europe. When Stetson is tired he invariably plunges. It has a better effect on him than surfbathing, and someone else always foots the bills.

But if Chester should find out what I have done.'' Oh, Mrs. Stetson, perhaps I have jeopardized his fortune! And all for what.?

Nonsense, my dear. The bonds are perfectly safe. Stetson will merely put them up as security. From what I understand, they won't pass out of his hands. And before your husband misses them, you shall have them back. They will enable Stetson to put through a deal, and you shall benefit by it. Besides, think what you are getting as a bonus — I think that is what they call it. The Ambassador has arranged for us to entertain the Crown Prince at dinner, only twelve guests to be present. Lord and Lady Monteith will be among the number, and Baroness Stotzenfeldt. When you have met these people the best houses in Europe will be open to you. Your husband has merely to give you the money.

Ah! We Americans never seem to be able to accomplish anything without money.

Well, it is really all we have. With us it takes the place of blue blood ; and as we have chosen to build our social structure thereon, we must see to it that it obtains for us the recognition elsewhere accorded to culture and breeding. Our grandchildren may have the breeding, and welcome. For myself, I am just as proud of my father as if he had been a Duke. Had he lived in England, he might have been knighted. His beer was just as good as Guinness's.

THE WOMAN WHO COULD Mrs. Chester

I wonder what the people to the manner born really think of us ? However rich a woman, if they know her to be common they must despise her for her pretensions.

They take the money, my dear; and if they say anything they say it behind her back, which isn't saying it at all. But you have had advantages, and when you meet these people you can hold your own with any of them. The American woman always can. And in society it is always better to be talked about, even slandered, than never mentioned at all. But you will win out.

Mrs. Chester I only hope the price doesn't prove too dear.

A woman always pays for her ambition ; men pay for their lack of it. You want to succeed socially. You might have taken up literature. You might have gone on the stage, although a scandal is almost a necessity for success in that line. You might have taken up philanthropy, or interested yourself in dogs and cats. But you are going after bigger game, and you must be willing to risk more.

John takes so little interest in society.

The American man never does, my dear. He is essentially a home animal ; and considering what poor homes we women make him put up with, it is a wonder he stays in them at all. I have no sympathy with these women who would close the saloon yet seem incapable of opening homes of their own. If they have children, you will find them on the street or in the back alleys, but never in the nursery or the parlor. I know I'd be dissatisfied if I were a man.

Mrs. Chester (as if to herself ) They are the best men in the world.

Yes, and we are not worthy of them. Intellectually we are often their superiors ; in a few generations we may outclass them physically ; but,

when it comes to downright affection, generosity,

and consideration for the rights and feelings of

others, we are away beneath them. American

men are all right. If they weren't, we women might be better.

I wish I felt more at ease about money matters. To be candid with you, that is why I dropped in. Ever since I took the bonds out of our safe I have worried. Chester thinks they are still there.

And they might just as well be there. Whether in your possession or in Stetson's, what difference does it make? Now, my dear girl, just dismiss the matter from your mind. They will be returned to you in a few days. Stetson will have put his deal through, and there'll be hundreds of thousands in it for him. You shall profit by it as well. He has promised me that emerald cross in Tiffany's, the one that came from the Proboff collection.

It is certainly a beauty. But haven't you enough jewels.^*

My dear! What a question. Somebody has to have it. It isn't so much the possession of these things that gives one pleasure, as keeping someone else from owning them. And it would look magnificent on my yellow silk. Stetson is very generous, especially when it comes to jewels. And even if he doesn't pay cash for them, the tradespeople like to have our names on their books. It makes them feel they know us socially. I only hope Stetson's deal goes through to-morrow. Then I can get the cross and wear it on Saturday at the dinner. This is, let me think — Thursday.

Mrs. Chester Who will be here, Mrs. Stetson.?

At the dinner, the Crown Prince, the Ambassador, Lord and Lady Monteith and the Baroness, Mrs. Stuyvesaart, and Miss Elgin, the Philadelphia girl who was engaged to Lord Cromer, you know. Then, you and your husband, and Stetson and myself. The other man will be Heron Wall. He knows all the rest, with the exception of the Crown Prince, and he is a clever talker. I have issued invitations to about twenty-five to drop in later, just names and nobodies. You are a better looker than the Philadelphia girl, and I shall see to it that you get your share of the Crown Prince.

Mrs. Chester That I get my money's worth, you mean!

Don't be silly, child. It is merely a business matter.

I sometimes wonder if Europeans don't see through our so-called " business matters," but are too polite to say so.

They think too slowly, my dear. And when an American woman is around they don't even think; they only look. When I was a girl I had a couple of them at my feet for years ; but Stetson struck me as being a better money-maker, and that is what counts.

Ah! I wonder if it is? Chester is working all the time. When I go to the Coast he is sweltering in New York.

He likes it, my dear. Our men soon forget the little they learn at college. Like Maeterlinck's bulldog, they look once at the stars, just once, and ever afterwards look on the ground. We mustn't get sentimental over them, or we shall spoil them. Your Englishman is too much of a star-gazer, except when he is looking after his own interests.

Is this Miss Elgin trying to catch a title?

The Cromer affair rather opened her eyes. He insisted upon a cash settlement, you know. Of course, his title was clear, even if his estates were heavily mortgaged. But he was too brutal in his frankness, and I guess that is why she threw him over. Whether she really cared for him I don't know ; few independent women do nowadays. I am beginning to think that to love truly one must be poor.

Oh! don't say such things. I know Chester loved me, and in those days I had more than he. And, in your own case, neither of you was poor, yet

My dear, you are an idealist. Stetson and I have made a good team. We have succeeded as the world understands success. But I doubt if ours is the ideal marriage by any means. Stetson makes money, and I spend it. We entertain lavishly, and — well, there it ends. It seems to be the aim of the average American marriage.

Mrs. Chester You mean there should be more to it?

To make it marriage, yes. We are not serious enough in the undertaking. Marriage to us is a sort of farce-comedy ; in fact it is too often merely a preliminary to divorce. When it becomes in any way irksome or unpleasant, we separate and try again. We prefer cats and dogs to children, and silk gowns to money in the bank. I'm one of the sinners, so I ought to know.

Why not try to change things? If we women are so powerful, we are responsible for the condition of society.

Exactly. But, my dear, no amount of preaching will ever make our society women other than what they are — shallow and feather-brained, dabblers, spenders, and gadders, satisfied with their unambitious men because they lack ambition themselves. Useless enough in prosperity, when adversity overtakes them they are of as little value to the community as is the vagabond or the waster. But we have to put up with them.

Mrs. Chester I hope I am of some value to the community.

I hope you are, my dear. I know I am not.

\_Enter Heron Wall.

Wall

My dear Mrs. Stetson! And Mrs. Chester! You see it is the privilege of an idler to call on you ladies in the afternoon.

Mrs. Stetson A husband has that pleasure only in the evening.

Wall The overworked American husband!

Yes. Mrs. Stetson and I were just discussing him, and life in general. .

Mrs. Stetson Especially married life.

Wall

(taking a seat)

And to what conclusions have you come, may I ask.?

I am afraid I have rather shocked Mrs. Chester by stating a few truths too plainly.

Wall

Please take me into jour confidence. When a clever woman tells the truth, it must, indeed, be interesting.

Mrs. Chestee A man is always sarcastic before dinner.

And inclined to be sentimental after. But let us hear what Mr. Wall has to saj.

Wall

I await cross-examination, and am prepared to suffer for the sins of my sex.

Mrs. Stetson I was arraigning women rather than men.

Wall Ah! Then you were, indeed, telling the truth.

Perhaps we thought the men were hopeless,

THE WOMAN WHO COULD Wall We are your slaves, you know.

Mrs. Stetson (speaking rapidly)

No. Let us be candid with him. The men are more sinned against than sinning. How shall I put it.f^ (She pauses a few seconds.) That society is diseased. That we women are to blame. That we demand of our husbands, and of the men who may become our husbands, the sacrifice of their souls for the gratification of our whims. That we marry merely to better our own condition rather than to establish a fine relation with a man whom we should love, and whose welfare should be our chief desire. That society is responsible for the individual failure, for the individual crime and the individual suicide ; and that as society, as generally understood, is composed in the m£un of women, and is governed by them, that women must be held responsible for the general rottenness of our social life.

Wall

A terrible arraignment, indeed, and rather sweeping.

ACT FIRST Mes. Chester

I am sure we are not all bad. Many of us are only victims of conditions that existed long before we had our being.

But we are none the less culpable. We put up with those conditions instead of combating them. And therein we are all equally guilty.

Wall

Twenty years ago I hoped to change society. To-day — well, I am wiser to-day.

It must be changed if we are to remain a sane people. We dance on the edge of the precipice. A step too far and we are over. To-morrow, I may be among the unfortunate !

(startled)

You don't mean

(hurriedly interrupting )

No ! no ! Of course not. I was speaking impersonally. We are safe, thank God! I'm one of the spenders, but Stetson is a Napoleon and can always foot the bills.

Wall

Don't you think the American man prefers a spender, Mrs. Stetson.? The gambling instinct is stronger in us than the instinct to save. It is only the foreigner who thinks of To-morrow.

Then so much the better for the foreigner. He may not accord his women the freedom the American husband allows to his, but they are at least safe. They don't live in daily expectation of being sold out, impoverished, and seeing their husbands working for their wealthy friends or — dead by their own hands.

Don't picture such horrible things. Mr. Wall, can't you say something in favor of society ^

Wall

A bachelor can apologize for anything, you know, even matrimony. For me, society means dinners, cards, an occasional dance — I am selfish enough to accept invitations only when I care to ; chats in cozy corners, machines, pretty dresses. It suits me ; but, then, I have no responsibilities.

Were you married f Wall holds up his hand) and had children, you might think otherwise.

Wall

In our set, to be married seems the safest insurance against children. It is fortunate that among the middle class are to be found men and women as human as were our parents.

A bachelor can hardly be expected to know anything about the cost of bringing up children, and the other responsibilities connected with them.

Wall

Why ! As to that, Mrs. Chester, I am perhaps right in asserting that the brooch you are wearing has cost more than would the maintenance of a healthy child for a year. And — I repeat that, being unmarried, I am hardly a person to express an opinion on the subject — I am inclined to believe that if our married women were willing to have a child to occupy their attention, they might be less inclined to waste their time at cards and teas ; they might even feel less need of jewels and fine clothes. From what I can see, the average husband works himself to death so that his wife can keep a cat or dog in comfort and entertain her friends.

I think yoii exaggerate the case. As Mrs. Stetson said, were you married you might think differently.

Wall

But, being unmarried, love has not made me blind. And, from what I can make out, a husband gets nothing that is not within the reach of the single man. Is it companionship .f^ When it comes to companionship the bachelor can have a dozen women* friends to the husband's one. If the meaning of the American home is, as it seems to be, a flat or an apartment where no children are allowed, the bachelor can maintain it as easily. No, I see no reason why the bachelor should envy the average husband. At least, not in this country where he seems to be absolutely under the yoke of his wife.

(speaking nervously)

We are all friends here. The day has come when all the world must be friends, and must discuss these things. We must see wherein we have erred, and we must rectify wrongs. The race depends on what the indiyidual does. So I can say that I know society is all wrong, that we women are wrong, that I have lived wrong. If I had it to do all over again, how differently I would do! What have Stetson and I outside of our money and position? What have I? What has he?

[There is a pause in the conversation for about ten seconds.

Wall (quietly)

We are all in the same boat. I guess I might have made more of myself had I cared to. But let us give our workers what credit is due them. Stetson is busy from morn till night; and to my knowledge, Mrs. Chester, your husband has not taken a vacation for ten years.

Yes. The men work all the time. I sometimes wonder how they do it.

They have to, my dear, to keep things going. If it weren't for the energy of our men the nation would be bankrupt in a year. The thing is : what do we women give them for their hard work? Certainly no home life.

Mrs. Chester Chester has never complained about ours.

Wall Why should he, Mrs. Chester?

Half our men don't know what home really means ; what it should be. If they did, they might care less about business.

Wall

Of that disease you can never cure them, Mrs. Stetson. As you know, I allow the law to occupy but very little of my time. The law is no longer a profession ; it has become a trade, and, to be successful, a lawyer must be at the beck and call of a politician, or a corporation, or a Trust. Independence means poverty to him. But were I a business man, I am sure I should do as my neighbor, work day and night and accumulate money. A man's success is judged nowadays by the money he makes.

And women are responsible for society's acceptance of such a standard. Before a girl is really old enough to think, she hears her parents discussing the financial status of So-and-so. She sees her mother's discontent if an acquaintance can spend more money on dress, entertainments, or luxury. And when she passes into the society of older girls she hears them considering the means of their young men friends, and so comes to appraise them at their financial rather than their moral worth.

Wall

Well, perhaps it is better to accustom a young girl to what she must expect when she is older. This is likely to be remembered as the century of few babies and no children. We treat them as adults at twelve, ask their opinions at fifteen, and act upon their advice before they are twenty. For myself, I am glad to have been a real boy, although it seems to have been long ago.

Mas. Chester (reminiscently)

And I would gladly be a girl again.

It is only in our children that we re-live our youth.

Wall

Then we are undoubtedly doomed to remain a nation of adults. What with her clubs and social functions, and her continual endeavors to emulate the woman richer than herself, the average woman of to-day, if she had a child, would be too busy to take note of the fact.

We are likely to hear some interesting ideas at the dinner-table on Saturday. Lady Monteith is a very advanced woman, and is not afraid to express her convictions.

Wall

The English have mastered the difficult art of eating and conversing at the same time. Unfortunately, we Americans fill oui'selves in silence.

Or discuss real estate values, the merits of our machines, or the latest scandal.

Wall

Than which, at the dinner-table, the heaviest silence would be preferable.

Mrs. Chester (to WallJ

Mrs. Stetson has told me you know her guests with the exception of the Crown Prince.

Wall

Yes. The Ambassador and I are old friends, and I have shot with Monteith in Scotland. The Baroness has told me her troubles in three capitals of Europe, and I knew Stuyvesaart before he forgot his by dying of apoplexy. I was one of the lawyers who made it impossible for Cromer to benefit by the Elgin millions. As for the

Crown Prince, well, outside of the aristocratic set, royalty confers the privilege of its friendship only on tradespeople and the demi-monde. Except, of course, when, instead of going to the Opera Comique, it comes to America.

Mr. Wall seems to agree with me that these foreigners see through our pretenses. I wish the old days and the old ways would come back, so that we could be sincere.

Wall

Sincerity, my dear lady, has never existed. Life has always consisted of playing at makebelieve. In Europe, they pretend to be aristocratic ; here we pretend to be equal.

[Enter Myrtle Duncan and Elkins.

(rising to greet them)

Ah! here comes Youth; and youth is life, sincere, hopeful, gorgeous ! (To Myrtle. J Dear, I am glad to see you. (Turning to Elkins. J And you too, Henry. Could we always have young people near us, there would be no need of doctors.

Wall

(rises)

But there might be more need of us lawyers. How are you, Miss Myrtle?

Silence, cynic. Come and sit by me, Henry. I want to know about the position you are after.

(as she and Mrs. Stetson and Wall take their

seats)

I waited outside while he kept an appointment with the Secretary. But you won't get much out of him. I couldn't.

Mrs. Stetson Tell us, Henry.

It is still hanging fire. Say, Mrs. Stetson, if this doesn't go through, I'm going to ask Mr. Stetson to give me a job.

THE WOMAN WHO COULD Mrs. Stetson

Anything but a stockbroker, Henry. You are not the kind to go comfortably through life while your victims curse you in poverty, or from a suicide's grave. I hope the day of the promoter and the gambler is almost over.

Wall

That day can never come, Mrs. Stetson. We are all too eager to make money without working for it.

Elkins (enthusiastically ) Not all of us.

Wall

The great majority, then. And, were it not for the pleasant sensation of uncertainty connected with the adventure, there would be but few marriages.

Mrs. Chester Is that why some men marry rich women.''

Wall

Partly. Because, if the gold is all they are after, my opinion as a bachelor is a man can get it far easier, and with less suffering and loss of self-respect by going to the Klondyke. I would sooner face a bear at fifty below zero than a rich wife at boiling point.

Myrtle Lord Cromer thought otherwise.

Wall

Yes ; but he was an Englishman and a lord. And while poverty sharpens one's wits and sensibilities, over-much leisure is apt to blunt them. A lord will do anything sooner than work.

Myrtle Even marry.?

Wall Exactly.

Then he is no worse than many of our society women. It all comes back to what I was saying before you came in.

Elkins And what was that, Mrs. Stetson?

Wall

No, no! I protest, Mrs. Stetson. Here is a young man, standing expectantly on the threshold of life. His finger on his lips — you remember the line describing Joy.'' At any rate it is all ahead of him. He believes in everything and everybody. Why shatter his best illusion — belief in women and their influence for good.'*

Myrtle I think you are horrid!

Belief in good women is not illusion ; but had I a boy of my own I should teach him to discriminate between good women, the women who work in one way or another, and the idlers of our own set. And it is these women I am decrying.

(plaintively)

But how can one help doing nothing when everything is done for you ? I study Italian ; my maid cannot do that for me.

Wall A labor, indeed.

My dear, there is so much we could do had we only the instinct to know what. How many of us consider the responsibility attached to having servants.? We order them about, and pay them their wages ; and in the same spirit we write our checks monthly, and forward them to the Associated Charities. Having done this, we think we have done our share of looking after our servants and the poor. It is the modern interpretation of our duty to our neighbor.

I know what Mrs. Stetson means. She would have us remember that we are all human, that distinctions are only the result of circumstance; and that it is the duty of men and women to treat those who are less fortunate also as men and women. I sometimes wonder how we women can clothe ourselves in expensive silks and satins, when the girl who shows us the goods has to live on four or five dollars a week.

THE WOMAN WHO COULD Wall The dream of the dreamer!

Years ago it was the dream of the dreamer; to-day it is the battle-cry of everyone interested in the welfare of the race. Wealth has made us forget our obligations.

I am sure I am good to Erminie. She has one evening a week to herself. I give her my old dresses. I can't invite her in to take tea with me.

But we might perhaps add to the comfort of her bedroom.

Wall

Practical Miss Myrtle!

We women waste our time. If we have children we neglect them ; and the younger women are growing up, believing that the duties of motherhood can be relegated to the nursemaid.

Wall But think what experts they are at bridge!

And I am the Secretary of a Mothers' Club. Chester never seems dissatisfied.

Think of it! When am I to become an aunt, Mabel?

And neither is Stetson dissatisfied, my dear. But the reason is, as I said before, the average American man has almost forgotten what a home should be. He graduates from the boarding-house to the apartment. He passes from the surveillance of the landlady to that of the janitor. No wonder that he spends most of his time in his office.

And yet women are back of every move for reform. Don't you think we are more advanced than any other people? And isn't the credit for that advance chiefly due to our women?

To a few women, rather; the majority do nothing. Consciously, or unconsciously, we hinder the work of the others.

Yet, one by one, the idlers fall into line. Besides giving, wealthy women are seeing the necessity of doing.

Wall

When the daughters of the wealthy join the ranks of the reformers, my dear Miss Myrtle, it is only for the sake of the notoriety. It is the latest scheme to get their names and pictures in the papers.

The deeds that have the greatest influence for good are the little deeds done in the home. Let the men attend to cleaning up politics ; but let a woman make her home what it should be, and her children what they ought to be. If things go on as they are at present, inside of fifty years the Government will have to father and mother the little ones.

Well, I don't see how you are going to change things. For women to give up their freedom would be retrogression, and, although we have many failings, that of going backward is not one of them.

And a woman who is accustomed from childhood to being petted and made much of, is not going to give up everything and become serious.

Then she must expect a rude awakening sooner or later. One has to pay for frivolity and idleness, just as one has to pay for gambling and speculation.

By the bye, as we came along the newsboys were shouting about more trouble on Wall Street. I didn't hear the particulars, but quite a number of firms are said to be involved.

[Mrs. Stetson starts.

Mrs. Chester I always dread these Wall Street panics.

Everybody dreads them. Wall Street is a menace to every woman in the country. Legitimate business, from the West to the East, is endangered. There will be no safety for anyone until the power of the speculators is curtailed. No man knows it better than Stetson ; and he has often said that if he could get out, he would take his money and invest it in the West.

Wall

The West is certainly drawing the money of the country. There was a time when it all came here, but now it is beginning to flow the other way. The irrigation projects are making Colorado a Paradise, and even London is looking there for investments.

England seems to be paying the penalty for its centuries of exploitation of the masses by the classes. Sooner or later the price has to be paid.

Yet one is always hearing how progressive the Englishwomen are.

Conditions in society are no less rotten there than they are here. Earnest women are to be found everywhere. But the majority, in England as in America, are idlers, triflers, and spenders. It remains to be seen whether England can pull herself together. But it is of far greater importance for us to profit by her example, and the first step must be taken by us women — if we want to save our men.