THE BALANCER OF
THE UNIVERSE
A Drama of the Race Conflict
In Four Acta by B. Harrison Peyton
CHARACTERS
Mauricio Crispin, a dancer from the
Argentine, age 25 years.
La Corusea, Senora Crispin, his Ar
gentine mother, age 42.
Agnes, their American guest and
dancing pupil, age 22.
Mrs. Vincent Widener, a woman
journalist, age 35.
ACT I.
"V, Period: Present. Place: Provl
X encia, a city on the Pacific coast.
' SCENE I.
The Heart’s Song tf Anguish.
Scene—La Corusca’s home and dan
cing school in Providenoia; a spacious
inner hall. An afternoon in mid-au
tumn.
Crispin: Senorita Gorland.
Yes! Ah, Senor Crispin!
Crispin: Dollars to doughnuts,
senorita, I can guess what you’re
thinking about.
Agnes: I was listening to your
mother practicing and the music,
senor.
Crispin: Yes, unavoidably. But
weren’t you saying to yourself:
"What an immense racket Don Manuel
makes with his tortured piano and La
Corusea with her pistoling castanets?
It’s almost as nerve-rasping as when
the senora has a dancing class in
practice, and her pupils all in a throng,
with riotous shouting and ear-shat
tering volleys from their castanets,
rush into the impetuous, rhythmic
^movement of a dance. How they
stamp their heels and shuffle their
feet, raising in stormy thunder little,
eddying clouds of dust from the bare,
trembling floor! How one must per
force imagine one’s self not in an
American city, but in that native land
of the dance, Spain—in Madrid, or
Seville, or Malaga—where its raptur
ous spell dominates the very atmos
phere and love for it is to every child
an ancient national inheritance!” Now,
Senorita Gorland, weren’t you think
mg that?
Agnes: Really, senor, I’m not sure
I was thinking of it from that view
point.
Crispin: Ah, yes, senorita; all the
while you were wishing madre and
Don Manuel wouldn’t grind on your
nerves so unmercifully with such a
veritable tempest of sound and fury.
Agnes: No, no, senor. There are
limes when I really enjoy it, and in
yihc few weeks that I’ve spent here,
S* I’ve become, I fancy, quite as much
accustomed to it as you are.
Crispin: And to think it used to
affect you much as I’m affected by
Congressman Whiteside's vitupera
tions against that lowly branch of hu
manity he terms "the despicable Ne
gro.” I perceive, however, your
nerves have largely recovered from
the shock of the panic. Yet I should
l>e better pleased, senorita, if you’d
only sing for me.
Agnes: Sing for you, senor? (With
a fleeting bit of laughter in self-ridi
cule.) Oh, gracious! What witchery
of song could render my poor, pitiful
voice worthy to be heard?
Crispin: 'Twas but yesterday at
dusk I heard you singing in your room,
senorita, and with such soul-subduing
effect that my breast overflowed with
sighs of tenderest emotion. Indeed,
I hung upon the mellow, appealing in
tonations of your voice like one en
thralled.
Agnes: Senor, I’d never have dared,
had I but once suspected you were
listening.
Crispin: My heart’s as quick to
sympathize as are my ears to listen.
If you won’t take my word for it, I
beg only that you put me to the proof.
Senorita, I promise you several extra
lessons in la Malaguena, on condition
you A ill sing for me.
Agnes: You offer an irresistible in
ducement. Senor, I’ll sing you just
one song. Which shall it be?
Crispin: Senorita, among the mel
odies I heard you singing, there was
one of those irrepressible lays of des
pairing life and love the sun has
known to go complaining up into the
southern heavens through all the ages
since the advent of Eve. I’m ignor
ant of its name, but I recall it was
pitched in the same minor key as the
wild, dismal voice of oppressed Af
rica I hear from everywhere about
me. Merciful heavens! and, senorita,
you put so much feeling into it one
perforce would’ve thought the racking
hand of grief itself had set the chords
of your heart to moaning and break
ing with all that song’s anguish and
distressI
Agnes: Ah, me, senor! there comes
upon me at times such agonizing
fear my little brother will be taken
from me to his last sleep! But you
probably refer to the song called Ma
Mouri ?
Crispin: Ma Mouri?
Agnes: Yes. It’s an old love song
of the Creole slave, senor, in which
by a singular habit I often express
my griefs.
Crispin: Nevertheless, senorita, you
will please sing it to me. But one
moent. (He goes to the sliding doors
and closes them, so that the sounds
: from the dancing room are but very
faintly heard.) Now, I’m all atten
tion, Senorita Gorland.
Agnes:
Well I know young men, I must die—
Yes, crazy, I must die!
Well I know young men, I must die—
Yes, crazy, I must die! Th-h-h!
For the fair Layotte I must crazy die!
Yes, crazy, I must die!
Well I know young men, I must die—
Yes, crazy, I must die!
Well I know, young men, I must crazy
die—
I must die for the fair J.ayotte!
Crispin: Thanks, senorita. And
may I ask how you came by that
plaintful tune?
Agnes: Of course I didn’t learn it
here in Providencia, this far western
city by the Pacific; but ’twas taught
me by an aged Negro uncle, a servant
i in my home in Shadow City on the
j Mississippi. Senor, Ma Mouri often
brings to my mind your Spanish song
called la Malaguena.
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Crispin: I’ve heard songs with the
sime savage, wailing soul, senorita,
many times during my professional
tours in Spain, North Africa, Brazil
and Argentine. Anthony Bell used to
assure me they were all transported
out of the sombre heart of Africa,
like the Fandango and many other
dances the Spanish claim their own.
Certainly la Malaguena’s but an echo
from Andalusia of a barbarous mel
ody that resounded across the Medi
terranean from the swart throats of
Egypt—but, senorita, you’ve agreed to
let me give you extra lessons in the
dance El Torero y la Malaguena.
Aren’t you as eager today as always
to practice it?
Agnes: To that dance I’ve dedi- |
cated my whole soul, senor, and to
slight practice would be to me very
much like neglecting a religious duty.
Crispin: Then come with me into'
the practice room.
Agnes: Yes; but the senora hasn’t
yet finished rehearsing.
Crispin: Perhaps you’d prefer to
wait for the evening class and the
ieu:t'y young Senor Bland?
Agnes: Oh, I fear the young Senor
Bland is proving more fair-spoken
than faithful; the last’s the fourth
consecutive time he has failed to at
tend class. Isn’t it fitting I should
confess myself a maiden sadly for
saken and unremembered? Oh! my,
my, my, my! feminine charms are to
the masculine heart such fleeting,
fading things!
Crispin: But so long as that ap
plies to—only such chaps as Bland,
oh! shouldn’t I complain, senorita?
Ah! just as I hoped; madre’s now
resting from her exertions! Well,
why shan’t we ourselves begin prac
tice right here and this moment?
Madre! Madre! it’s Mauricio!
Corusca: Bien, Mauricio?
Crispin: Isn’t el maestro at liberty ;
to give us the music for la Malag
uena?
Corusca: Si, por una rueda. If
"ou please, Don Manuel, Mauricio
wishes you to play la Malaguena.
Crispin: I’ve the honor to be your
humble partner, senorita.
Agnes: No; in the province of the
dance, senor, I can only acknowledge
you a master.
(END SCENE I.)
Try 666—A reliable remedy for
rheumatism and all disorders. For j
sale by the People’s Ditjk store.
Mrs. Lizzie Connor, of Mt. Pleasant,
la., who came to Omaha to bury her
sister, has returned.
Events and Persons
Arnold Black returned Sunday after
seven months of overseas service with
the British army, finding his wife and
infant daughter well. Mr. Black is the
son-in-law of Mr. and Mrs. W. P.
Wade.
Dubois Dramatic club in “Under
Two Flags” at Boyd’s, May 9. ’Nuff
sed.—Adv.
Mrs. C. C. Jackson of Des Moines,
la., is the guest of Mrs. W. M. Jack
son, 2613 Burdette street.
Mrs. Mamie Grant and daughters,
June and Florence, left Tuesday for
Excelsior Springs, Mo., for a four
weeks’ visit. On their return they will
visit relatives at Lawrence and Kan
sas City, Kan.
The Dubois Dramatic club hasn’t ap
peared for some time, but it will be a
sensation—“Under Two Flags.”—Adv.
Mrs. A. L. Bowler, who was called
to Galesburg, 111., last week on ac
count of the death of her stepfather,
has returned home.
Don’t fail to see “Under Two Flags”
at Boyd’s May 9. It will be a hum
mer.—Adv.
W. T. Adams has sold his residence
at 2118 North Twenty-eighth avenue
and bought a strictly modern dwelling
at 2517 Blondo street. He removed to
his new home March 24.
Miss Malinda Chapman, 1238 South
Twelfth street, died Sunday night and
was buried Tuesday.
Mrs. Rosie Rose, mother of Mrs.
Susie Trent, passed away this week.
The Duboig Dramatic club presents
“Under Two Flags” at Boyd’s theater,
May 9.—Adv.
—
“THE HOMESTEADER”
In the coming of this super-produc
tion, the first play of such propor
tions to feature an all-star Colored
cast, the people of Omaha will be
given an opportunity to see the play
that has caused considerable of a sen
sation in Chicago and elsewhere.
While it is not generally known, “The
Homesteader” was booked to appear
at the Brandeis theater here four
days, commencing Sunday, March .30.
It was only when it was discovered
that the same was a Negro production
that the management cancelled the
same on a percentage basis, demand
ing a cash rental instead.
Based on the romance of Jean Bap
tiste—the man—and a Negro—and
Agnes Stewart, the woman, who has
been raised as a white child, although
of Ethiopian extraction, but did not
know it, and neither did Baptiste, and
therein lies the story. In love with
Agnes, off there in the northwest,
wherein he alone was black, Baptiste
makes a sublime sacrifice, later mar
ries a girl in his own race—wherein
enters Erlean, the daughter of a min
ister, whom Baptiste discovers to be
an enemy of his youthful days. N.
Justine McCarthy, the girl’s father, is
of a narrow, deceitful and pompous
and vain disposition. The two men
appear to be bom enemies, and there
upon falls the burden of Erlean’s love
for her husband and the duty she feels
she owes to her father. McCarthy
deceives Baptiste, takes his daughtei
back to Chicago, thinking that in do
ing so he will frighten Baptiste, and in
this way succeed in having that one
kow-tow to his narrow disposition.
His interference results disastrously,
he meets with ill fate at the hands
of this self-same daughter, and in the
meantime, Agnes, successful in her
musical effort, engaged to marry her
publisher, a young white man, dis
covers that he is Colored, and—but
why more? See the play. ' It has met
with great favor everywhere it has
been shown. It will be at the Dia
mond theater, Omaha, two days only,
commencing Monday, April 21.
MOB VIOLENCE VERSUS
JIMCROWISM
(Continued From Page One.)
struction and limitation is to con
found, confuse and hinder the wings in
their advancement. In so far as a
community or nation shuts itself off
or is shut off from communication ,
with other communities or nations in
so far is its advancement obstructed
and impeded. This truth is illustrated
in the destinies of the empires of
Japan and China. As long as Japan
lived within her closed ports and
China within her wall their develop
ment was marked by no advancement;
but when the ports of Japan and the
wall of China were opened up to in
ternational communication their ad
vancement became marked and rapid.
Transportation, travel and inter
change of visits is the most beneficial
and most to-be-demanded mode of
communication between wings of an
army, between communities, nations
or separated wings of a race. Jim
crowism as it applies to railway trans
portation is a measure of obstruction
and a positive impediment to our ra
cial intercommunication. It limits the
progress of advancement of our race
North and South, because the system
in effect is prohibitive of travel and
visit'by many' of our race both North
and South. It is an undemocratic treat
ment of a part of our citizenry, which
treatment must in consequence amount
to a restriction and limitation upon
freedom of railway, of interstate and
public highway transportation. It is
the curtailment of a freedom which by
analogy is identical with that curtail
ment of freedom of the sea against
which this nation took up arms to op
pose. Will the nation not treat a part
of its citizenry at home as't demands
to be treated abroad?
Jimcrowism is a moral wrong of
surpassing evil ramifications. It
imounts to the barred gate and the
locked dqor to a liberty that should be
accessable to all alike. It is here con
tended to be stultifying to our man
and womanhood. While it is an of
fense against the race in general, it is
one that is aggravated in proportion
to the degree of the advanced and ad
vancing intelligence of the race and
the degree of the intelligence of the
victims upon whom the system is
forced. In the opinion of your writer
it is a sinuous, subtle and sinister sub
way of racial degradation. It is an
evil that has seemingly tried to “sneak
by," but the race has raised the “hue
and cry,” “It shall not pass!”
At present the only great organized
force of great men and women, white
and Colored, bent on demolishing jim
crowism is the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored Peo
ple.
If jimcrowism is abolished first,
mob violence can last but a short time
thereafter, as such an event will make
possible a relief for the citizenry from
the offense which otherwise shall be
long delayed.
Jimcrowism is not only a strike at
the heart of the race, but is an actual
wounding of the heart, and every day
it continues the demoralizing effects
accumulate.
May a more intense drive to put it
down start at once!
(>
J. D. Hines
THE TAILOR AND CLEANER
I
l
Suits made to order. Hats
cleaned and blocked. Alterations
of all kinds. Call and give us a
trial.
'
Phone South 3366
5132 South 24th Street.
*
'
Coming to the
DIAMOND THEATER
24th and Lake Streets, Omaha
|WC Monday and Tuesday, April 21-22 Ma^r'
Admission* ' ^5c 1 piUe War Tax
Admission, -j Children i5cjriuswar Aax*
OSCAR MICHEAUX’S
Mammoth Photo Play
“THE OMESTEADER"
A Powerful Drama of the Great American
Northwest, in 9 Sensational Reels, Featuring
An Entire Negro Cast
NOTE—Held up by the Chicago Board of Censors following the protest of three well known race ministers there,
one of whom claimed the play was based largely on his daughter’s unhappy marriage to the author, and that he has
been featured therein as the arch hypocrite, who caused it. This great play has run twenty days at advanced prices to
the Colored people of that city ;done since its release and still going at top speed.
Don’t Forget the Date—Two Days Only
[Monday and Tuesday, April 21 and 22
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