Prince Hagen Part 20

sharp and snappy. Then see the head of the delegation, and have it understood that the affair is not to occupy more than fifteen minutes.

CAL. Very good, sir.

HAGEN. And stir up our Press Bureau. We must have strong, conservative editorials this week... It's the crucial period. Our inst.i.tutions are at stake... the national honor is imperilled... order must be preserved at any hazard... all that sort of thing.

CAL. Yes, sir... I understand.

HAGEN. Very good. That will be all.

CAL. Yes, sir.

[Exit, right.]

GER. You're putting the screws on, are you?

HAGEN. Humph! Yes. It's funny to hear these financial men... their one idea in life has been to dominate... and now they cry out against tyranny!

GER. I can imagine it.

HAGEN. Here's Plimpton, making speeches about American democracy! These fellows have got so used to making pretenses that they actually deceive themselves.

GER. I've noticed that you make a few yourself now.

HAGEN. Yes... don't I do it well? [Thoughtfully.] You know, Gerald, pretenses are the greatest device that your civilization had to teach me.

GER. Indeed?

HAGEN. We never made any pretenses in Nibelheim; and when I first met you, your talk about virtue and morality and self-sacrifice was simply incomprehensible to me. It seemed something quite apart from life. But now I've come to perceive that this is what makes possible the system under which you live.

GER. Explain yourself.

HAGEN. Here is this civilization... simply appalling in its vastness.

The countless millions of your people, the wealth you have piled up...

it seems like a huge bubble that may burst any minute. And the one device by which it is all kept together... is pretense!

GER. Why do you think that?

HAGEN. Life, Gerald, is the survival of the strong. I care not if it be in a jungle or in a city, it is the warfare of each against all. But in the former case it's brute force, and in the latter it's power of mind.

And don't you see that the ingenious device which makes the animal of the slums the docile slave of the man who can outwit him.. . is this Morality... this absolutely sublimest invention, this most daring conception that ever flashed across the mind of man?

GER. Oh, I see.

HAGEN. I used to wonder at it down there on the Bowery. The poor are a thousand to your one, and the best that is might be theirs, if they chose to take it; but there is Morality! They call it their virtue. And so the rich man may have his vices in peace. By heaven, if that is not a wondrous achievement, I have not seen one!

GER. You believe this morality was invented by the rich.

HAGEN. I don't know. It seems to be a congenital disease.

GER. Some people believe it was implanted in man by G.o.d.

HAGEN. [Shrugging his shoulders.] Perhaps. Or by a devil. Men might have lived in holes, like woodchucks, and been fat and happy; but now they have Morality, and toil and die for some other man's delight.

CAL. [Enters, right.] Are you at leisure, sir?

HAGEN. Why?

CAL. Mr. Isman wants you on the 'phone.

HAGEN. Oh! All right... [Goes to 'phone.]

GER. [Rises.] Perhaps I...

HAGEN. No, that's all right. [Sits at 'phone.] h.e.l.lo! Is that Isman? How are you? [To CALKINS.] Calkins!

CAL. Yes, sir.

[Sits and takes notes.]

HAGEN. How about Intercontinental? [Imperiously.] But I can! I said the stock was to go to sixty-four, and I want it to go. I don't care what it costs, Isman... let it go in the morning... and don't ever let this happen again. I have sent word you are to have another hundred million by nine-thirty. Will that do? Don't take chances. Oh, Rutherford!

Tell Rutherford my terms are that the directors of the Fidelity Life Insurance Company are to resign, and he is to go to China for six months. Yes. I mean that literally... Plimpton? What do I want with his banks... I've got my own money... And, oh, by the way, Isman... call up the White House again, and tell the President that the regulars will be needed in New York.... No, I understand you... I think I've fixed matters up at this end. I've got two hundred guards up here, and they're picked men... they'll shoot if there's need. I'm not talking about it, naturally... but I'm taking care of myself. You keep your nerve, Isman.

It'll all be over in a month or two more... these fellows are used to having their own way, and they make a fuss. And, by the way, as to the newspapers... we'll turn out that paper trust crowd, and stop selling paper to the ones that are making trouble. That'll put an end to it, I fancy. You had best get after it yourself, and have it attended to promptly. You might think of little things like that yourself, Isman...

no, you're all right; only you haven't got enough imagination. But just get onto this job, and let me hear that it's done before morning.

Good-bye. [Hangs up receiver.] Humph! [To GERALD.] They've about got your father's nerve.

GER. I can't say that I blame him very much. [In somber thought.]

Really, you know, Prince Hagen, this can't go on. What's to be the end of it?

HAGEN. [Laughing.] Oh, come, come, Gerald... don't bother your head with things like that! You're a poet... you must keep your imagination free from such dismal matters.... See, I've got a job for you. [Pointing to books on table.] Do you notice the t.i.tles?

GER. [Has been handling the books absent-mindedly; now looks at t.i.tles.]

The Saints' Everlasting Rest. Pilgrim's Progress. The Life of St.

Ignatius.... What does that mean?

HAGEN. I'm studying up on religion. I want to know the language.

GER. I See!

HAGEN. But I don't seem to get hold of it very well. I think it's the job for you.

GER. How do you mean?

HAGEN. I'm getting ready to introduce Morality into Nibelheim.

GER. What?

HAGEN. [Playfully.] You remember you talked to me about it a long time ago. And now I've come to your way of thinking. Suppose I gave you a chance to civilize the place, to teach those wretched creatures to love beauty and virtue?

GER. It would depend upon what your motive was in inviting me.