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Dempsey, Vincent J.
184 THE COMMONWEAL June 19, 1929 must repair to these schools for an intensive course in English, usually of one year's duration, before they can matriculate at a university; and in the case of...
...And despite what the outsider might think, and notwithstanding that I have heard women in the vil- lage shrug and say, "I don't see how she stands him-- I'd throw him out so quick...
...They cannot bear to see them hungry or cold...
...Heard a feller say just yisteday--from town, he was--that June I9, I929 THE COMMONWEAL I85 these here chain stores is menacin' this country...
...Some few might even be successfully directed to Catholic universities...
...At least, he has given up hope long since of ever getting paid...
...Judas, that place's worth well nigh onto ten times that amount nOW...
...Columbia with its big group of Chinese students would be a logical locale for the first experiment...
...Jest petered the money away...
...It offended the political susceptibilities of many of the audience, and in the street out- side notable women paraded up and down carrying placards denouncing this latest insult to nationality...
...In fact, the very heart of Plainfield's business section was checker-boarded by lots in his possession...
...No one has tried for two decades...
...Down they come in a certain locality, and stick there like a bed bug.' Says he, 'if it wasn't fur them, those chain fellers would have this country monop'lized in two weeks.' Smart duck, he was...
...It will be conducted by Father Cairns in his mission at Sanning, as that is the most convenient point within reach of the bulk of the university students from the Maryknoll districts...
...The charcoal lines are smudged from curious fingers, or dimmed...
...It is listless, but seemingly contented in its forlorn condition...
...Aimin' t' see the West, so I sold the farm...
...Nowadays the Abbey has become very popular, mainly through the success of the Sean O'Casey plays which raised the box-office receipts and hell at the same time...
...Yeats usually stalks about the greenroom declaiming his theories of disciplining audiences to the proper appreciation of art in the theatre, while Lady Gregory, like an alert bird, sits picking up the crumbs as they fall so that they may enrich a future play--her eagle eye on those present watching their intellectual reaction to the words of her fellow-director...
...It seats only 5oo, and you can see only a portion of the stage if you are perched on the side balcony...
...Thoughtlessly glaring, in her slovenly ill-shapen dress, she stood by, a stolid witness to the atrocity...
...The actors bravely kept up the fight against the shouts of the infuriated audience, and at the conclusion of the perform- ance W. B. Yeats appeared like a raging fury to lash the crowd with bitter words of reproach for their conduct...
...for the greater part, he is not looked upon in that light...
...with a peculiar same- ness of procedure and language...
...Everyone of note in Irish artistic and professional circles gathers within the building which once served as a morgue...
...Is this not a feasible plan...
...Said it twenty years ago--saw it in the boy...
...Have t' laugh, worried for fear I was cheating th' feller...
...It is stained, sooted by the coal smoke from the kitchen range, greasy from cooking vapors...
...If somebody could be found to pay the first year's lease of a suitable hall not too far from One Hundred Sixteenth Street, there would probably be little else of a serious nature to hinder the realiza- tion of a splendid work...
...On the first night of his The Plough and the Stars, pandemonium reigned both inside and outside the theatre...
...POPULAR SUBSCRIPTION By VINCENT J. DEMPSEY E LY MARKS'S shack stands on the edge of Plain- field, Ohio, a town of some five hundred families...
...At any rate, Maryknoll is opening an exclusive English school this year, as one step in the program...
...He is preserved, one is inclined to believe, as a contrast and a scarecrow that accentuates in the minds of Plainfield youths the benefits of industry, and the destitution of indolence...
...Soon they will be planning ways and means of sending Aimee to high school...
...Will not somebody start a club on the other end...
...You have disgraced yourselves again I" he shouted, alluding to the scenes at the first production of Synge's The Playboy of the Western World presumably, and finally brought silence by yelling, "This is apotheosis !" The audience desisted to inquire of each other the meaning of the word, and as everyone gave a different interpretation, emptied the theatre to consult their dictionaries, and Scan O'Casey's name was made, especially in England where an Irish row is worth a ton of press notices...
...He is their chosen leader...
...When donations of food and other necessities come to his door, Ely, tinkering with a broken-down gas engine in the kitchen, or parts of a radio which he has scattered over the dining-room table--and out of which he is "Aimin' t' build a set that will drag in anything worth hearin'," but which never becomes any more complete than a fanciful hooking up of wires and a childish soldering of grids--looking up, squints, ejaculates his moth-eaten "Christian virtue l" and resumes his mindless puttering...
...Aimin' t' buy it from you, sir, if you don't want too much fur it...
...ACTING IN DUBLIN By JOHN MAcDONAGH T HE Abbey Theatre, Dublin, the little theatre with the big reputation, is always crowded to full capacity on first nights...
...And racing in, he artlessly tacked it to the one sound portion of the parlor wall...
...And this is the opportunity...
...Plainfield sadly shook its head: "His father, not to mention Ely, played under them as a boy...
...He is just a lonesome youngster now, but take a good look at him, for he will not be a lonesome youngster long...
...Ely, in his imbecile way, often squints at its scrofu- lous face, runs his long fingers through his thatch of shaggy brown hair, thoughtfully rubs the week's growth of black cacti-like pins on his chin, and mut- ters, "Aimin' t'paint 'er white with green trimmin'-- this spring...
...What will America give him to bring back as his contribution to his people ? Will it be good or ill...
...The destiny of a great nation may hang on the issue...
...Cannon sighed as he said, "Ely hain't ever been no different...
...And the ioo-acre farm that bordered the turnpike gave the road its name of Marks Turnpike Road...
...Strangely enough these exclusive English schools do not by any means abound...
...I got hold of it all when m' dad died...
...It must be, because it is working even now in Paris and Louvain, where Father Mollat and Father Boland respectively are having great success with it, and making not only friends but converts...
...and in the case of American universities, before they can even receive a passport for their journey...
...Says he--he was a shrewd fellermfrom town, he was--'the only thing that's savin' this republic is the little Hun- garmn grocery stores...
...Around the poverty-stricken house, with the air of Abel's blood crying out for vengeance on the ruthless fellow and his ax, stand the countless desolate stumps of poplar trees that Ely pettishly hacked down because they gave too much shade...
...Not so felt Minnie, Ely's wife...
...grad- ually browning, like crisp bacon...
...Ely's father owned the land on which the Inter-urban Station now stands, beside other holdings...
...They are distinctly few and far between...
...It is frayed now and its edges have crept to- ward the centre, like the feet of a baby with colic...
...Nope, Ely Marks ain't never goin' t' be no dif-ferent...
...All could be directed to the clubs already described, if such things existed in America's scholastic centres, and were in the hands of a few zealous priests aided by a few live young American boys as liaison officers...
...184 THE COMMONWEAL June 19, 1929 must repair to these schools for an intensive course in English, usually of one year's duration, before they can matriculate at a university...
...If each Catholic mission in China could operate some- where in its territory one exclusive English school, it would have under its tutelage for one year the pick of the students who leave its particular .section for university education abroad...
...Got $3,000 for it...
...KATHRYN WHITE RYA~r...
...Thinks I, sounds prompt right t'me...
...Ely is historic: "I can't imagine Plainfield without Ely Marks...
...There he stands in your midst, the Chinese student...
...Truly, the good ladies of the Saint Vincent de Paul Society have no program of benevolence that does not include one or more items for the Marks children...
...He is part of the town and he belongs to the town, as does the fountain...
...A bulge of tobacco extends his cheek, and his over- size Adam's apple jerks spasmodically in his long, scrawny throat as he voices his opinions...
...Although, more than once, it has depended upon their charity to supply clothes for an expected arrival...
...One of the sights which Plainfield has to offer is the feature of Min and Ely squatting on the crumbling steps, their faces some intangible bisque color in the soft blunt twilight of summer evenings, Ely's raucous, rasping fiddle whining, Min crooning accompaniment in her sad-sweet, Negro spiritual tones...
...Ely has become a sort of village curiosity, much like the ungainly cast-iron cherub that holds up the fountain in the square, opposite the red brick town hall...
...It would seem that the villagers are aloof, but they have given up trying to straighten Ely...
...But Plainfield has heard that every winter, and now no longer takes stock in it...
...At present Ely Marks has nothing except a dowdy, untidy wife and four dirty, uncared-for urchins...
...A few short years will bring him back to his place among the 4oo,ooo,ooo and from all indications it is to be a high place indeed...
...The aged practitioner has given his services gratis when Min's babies came...
...Plainfield will show you that and add, "Likely as not the kids are in bed without a bite of supper...
...And when the artist had replied, "You can have it," Ely took it tenderly in his unkept fingers, and gloated over it as he trudged down the road...
...Moreover, they are not aided by the preliminary contact of the English school in China, but must seek out the Chinese students as perfect strangers...
...or luxuriates in the sun in front of the teeming corner garage and filling station...
...Funny part about it, let me tell you, aimin' every fall to set out for Nevady and I ain't got there yet...
...It is a stupid, frumpy, small dwelling...
...and the rusty, rickety house on a scant two acres...
...S. Likely Plasher, the renowned black-and-white illustrator, caricatured Ely the summer he spent his vacation on a farm near Plainfield...
...The venerable Dr...
...There it has hung through winter and summer ever since...
...That is a long enough period in which to make friends of these boys...
...It touched Ely's simple fancy when he saw it...
...Plenty of both is dispensed in our universities...
...Ely has friends who are ready to say, "Wouldn't want a better neighbor...
...e yline The city, bulked there at the sea, Spills high its sun-gold, sharp debris: The sky is trampled by the towers, The stars are crushed like wayside flowers...
...Let us see to it that the good predominates...
...No one seems to be slighting Ely's reputation when they say, as the doctor did, " 'Twas too bad there wasn't income tax t' figure on in them days--I could have chalked it all off to charity...
...Just as easy, I 'spose," with a chuckle, "this waymthe whole bizness is done with, anyway...
...And as out of its confused complexion simpers the unshaven face of Ely, it is actually more a likeness, indigenous as it is to its gallery, than it was in its glossy, gleaming newness...
...Ely tramps the Post Road with his leisurely, rangy, slouching stride...
...Its roof sags in a crestfallen manner, and its chimney sticks up awry, like a silly, depilated feather on an old, shabby woman's hat...
...It is twenty years and more since its parched siding has tasted turpentine...
...And when Ely can be drawn out, he will spit, make a noise with his teeth and admit: "Four other kids, but they all died the spring the diptheria took on so bad...
Vol. 10 • June 1929 • No. 7
