LITERARY
THE TRIANGLE OF INJUSTICE POEMS BY TOM WAUGH
you, Miss Carlson, you’re young. Don’t make the foolish mis
take I made. Somewhere along the road I stopped reaching for
a star and started running blindly toward a mirage—and age
must suffer for the errors of youth.
EDITH: (sits down and puts hands over face) All right, Mr.
Markston. Alright. I'm sorry. I’ll—I’ll tell you everything. I—I
didn’t mean to be dishonest. It’s just that I needed the money.
ED: (in confusion) Miss Carlson, what do you mean?
EDITH: I’m not Edith Carlson. I’m Peggy Clark.
ED: You’re not—you’re who?
EDITH: A week ago, Edith Carlson received a letter asking
her to come here for the settlement of her father’s will. At
that t'me Edith was a victim of the epidemic of influenza. Her
health was fragile as her father probably told you. She didn’t
recover from the illness as the other victims did. She—she
died the day the letter came.
ED: (incredulously) Edith Carlson is dead?
EDITH: I was her I’commate—we stayed at a boai-dinghouse
near the school. She had often told me about her father and
this business. My brother thought it would be easy for me to
come here, pose as Edith, sell you my share of the business and
—and get enough money to finish my schooling. I—I know it
was a cowardly, dishonest idea, sir, but Ben and I aren’t really
criminals, (looking down). Still, I suppose I might have car
ried out this preposterous idea, had you not suspected and
showed me how foolishly wrong I was.
ED: (unbelievingly) Miss Carl—Miss Clark, I can hardly
comprehend this situation. Do you mean to tell me that Edith
Carlson is—is dead and you’re someone else?
EDITH: I can never thank you enough, Mr. Markston, for
showing me how wrong I was. I—I know what you must think
of me, sir. I suppose there’s no use to say I’m sorry. They
would be such empty words, wouldn’t they?
ED: I’m still not sure I understand completely, Miss Clark,
but I think the apology belongs to me, I have committed the
wrong—and I have learned the lesson.
EDITH: But, sir, it was I—
ED: Nonsense, Miss Clark. Patrick! Patrick!
(Patrick' enters, unsure of the reception he will get.)
PAT: Did—did you wish to see me, sir?
ED: Yes, Patrick. There is much to be expained to you,
but there will be enough time for that later. Patrick, everything
you said to me an nour ago was true. I have been dishonest,
deceitful, and indecent to humankind, (amused at Patrick’s
expression) You are surprised to hear such words from Edward
Markston? I think perhaps even the angels are surprised today.
Sit down, Patrick.
(Patrick sits. Edward looks at Patrick and the girl) My
friends, we are all guilty of the same crime. You, Patrick, have
done society an injustice by allowing me to persist, unmolested
in my dishonest business practices. Miss Clark, you have done
an injustice to the memory of your best friend, and I—ah, I am
the king of the unjust. I have betrayed people who trusted me
—and those who did not trust me. But the greatest injustice,
my friends, has been done to ourselves. We thought we were
cleverly fooling other people, when all the while we were de
ceiving our own souls. Therein lies the deepest tragedy.
PAT: (his voice unsteady) The unmasked truth is rather bru
tal.and unattractive, isn’t it, sir?
ED: Very, Patrick, but w'e must not sit here brooding. There
are lives to be lived by the three of us—not merely meaning
less roles, as they nave been heretofore—but lives to be lived by
people—by people wit hsouls—by us. Suppose you get some
coffee, Patrick, and we shall toast our awakening.
PAT: Yes, sir. (rises and starts out the door).
ED: (Calls after Pat. as he is about to exit)—Oh, Patrick—
PAT (turns)—Yes, sir?
ED: (smiling) Ai-en’t you going to wish me Happy Birthday,
Patrick?
PAT: (perplexed) But, Mr. Markston, it isn’t your birthday.
Why should I?
ED: (smiling) Because after 55 years of existence, I became
u man today.
PAT: (Understanding lighting his face) Happy Birthday, Mr.
Markston.
CURTAIN
Page
TO I'HEE—OF WHOM I WRITE
Away from your beauty, fresh and fair,
I fall prey to memory and sink in despair.
I grope in the darkness of fatalistic light.
And count many years in the course of one night.
Then I rise in hope for I still love thee,
But I die once more since thou lovest not me.
LEARNING
I am but a blade of grass
In this field of life.
Reaching for the heights of knowledge,
But anchored to the soil of strife.
The wind of mercy, the rain of love
Combine to make me grow.
The more of each that I pass on
The more I really know.
EXODUS
ED: (seems to realize her presence for the first time) But
I.et me kiss my mother goodby and know her quivering smile
Shake hands with dad and family, and tarry just a short while.
Let me pet my old dog and sing like I used to do
And visit childhood places, that now seem so new.
Grant me time to see the old gang, who talked of sins they
would do.
The sins in dreams so many, which in reality were few.
Let me reminisce of how things had their start
And know, without shame, the tears of an old, old heart.
Alas, the time is gone where in I walk this earth.
And soon my heart will cry out in death’s rebirth.
For like the setting sun, man must follow a course
His birth, life and death. All ruled by a Higher Force.
NEW BOOKS IN LIBRARY
The Library has purchased a number of new books recently.
Quite a variety of subjects is represented including history,
music, philosophy, fiction, poetry and several reference books.
These new books are:
Main Currents in Modern Political Thought, John Hamilton
Hallowell; Diplomatic Background of the War, 1870-1914, Char
les Seymour; Encyclopedia Britannica, Britannica Book of the
Year; Who’s Who in America; Manuel of Harmony, S. Jadas
sohn; Evolution of Harmony, C. H. Kitson; History of Music,
Cecil Gray: Antonin Dvorack, Karel Hoffmeister; Story of
Arturo Toscanini, David Ewen; Book of Modern Composers,
David Ewen; Understanding Music, William S. Newman; Cam-
ecs of Musical History, Stewart Macpherson; Life and Death of
Stalin, Louis Fischer; Ea:t River, Sholem Asch; Roots of
American Loyalty, Merle Eugene Curti; Critic and Crusaders,
Charles Allan Madiso; Shaping of the American Tradition, Louis
Morton Hacker; Cavalcade of Comedy, Louis Kroneberger; Noah
Webster, Pioneer of Learning, Ervin C. Shoemaker; Benjamin
Franklin, Lawrence C. Worth; History of American Philosophy,
Herbert Wallace Schneider; American Philosophic Addresses,
1700-1900, Joseph L. Blau; Democratic-Republican Societies,
1790-1800, Eugene Perry Link; Rubaiyat of Omar Khyyam, Omar
Khayyam; Poor Richard’s Almanac, Benjamin Fi-anklin; Rules
of Order, Henry Martyn Robert; Book of Martyrs, John Foxe;
Intrcduction to the study of Robert Browning’s Poetry, Hiram
Corson; Modern American Poetry, Modern British Poetry, Louis
Untermeyer; Poems, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; History of
a Southern State: North Carolina, Hugh Talmadge Lefler; and
World Almanac, 1954.
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