Six One-Act Plays Part 17

MRS. MARTIN--He's a pretty stubborn man.

MRS. QUINN--I'll bring him around, never fear.

MRS. MARTIN--I think you're a wonderful woman, the way you manage him, Mrs. Quinn.

MRS. QUINN--Sure it's just me knowledge of that, keeps me goin'. When I lose conceit of meself, I'll be fit for no place but--Heaven.

MRS. MARTIN--(_Listens, with finger uplifted._) Sh! That's Bill slamming the back gate. I'll go put the kettle on. A cup of hot tea soon takes all the ugly kinks out of him.

MRS. QUINN--It's an upliftin' beverage, is tea. It does miracles for my old man, when he has his back up.

MRS. MARTIN--(_Going to door L. then hesitating._) I'm not a specially religious woman, Mrs. Quinn, and I've never heard you say much about it, but I think now that everything else has failed and the strike seems no nearer an end, we might as well take it to G.o.d in prayer. As Bill says, we've tried every other way.

MRS. QUINN--(_Slowly._) Well, I guess Gawd's used to bein' the last on the list, so I'll join ye in yer prayers, Mrs. Martin. Good-night to ye.

(_Exit Mrs Martin door L._)

(_Mrs. Quinn pulls down the blind and fusses about the room. There is a sharp bang on the front door. She leaves room R. and returns with the evening paper. Looks out the window again, raising the blind ever so little, then sits at table, and opens the paper._)

MRS. QUINN--(_Reads--then._) Nothin' but strike, strike, strike, wherever ye look. A few cents an hour more, a few hours a week less, what a little to fight for, and yet they won't get it, they won't get it.

(_Quinn enters door L. Hangs hat and coat on rack near kitchen door.

Sits in chair at side of table, and is noticeably nervous._)

QUINN--(_After a pause, during which they both steal furtive glances at one another._) Well?

MRS. QUINN--I see yer home again. Anything doin'?

QUINN--Nothin'.

MRS. QUINN--(_Tartly._) Well, it's a fine husky way for a man to be makin' a livin' for his wife, throwin' up his good job as a motorman, and walkin' the streets.

QUINN--(_Moodily._) Good job,--h.e.l.l!

MRS. QUINN--I don't see what way ye'll pay for shoe leather, if ye don't get some money soon.

QUINN--We'll live. The Union won't see us go under for the lack of a dollar or two.

MRS. QUINN--I don't like livin' on the Union.

QUINN--We ain't beggars yet.

MRS. QUINN--We're not far from it, Gawd knows.

(_Picks up paper, and again reads. A pause._)

QUINN--(_Irritably._) Can't ye stop rattlin' that paper?

(_Mrs. Quinn glances at him casually, and calmly proceeds with her reading. It is the sort of calm that arouses temper in a jumpy person._)

QUINN--(_Springing up._) Stop that infernal noise! Seems like a man might have peace in his own house. Here I am walkin' the streets all day, with me legs and head that tired I'm ready to drop, and when I get home at night, a clatter that would wake the dead, in me ears.

MRS. QUINN--Yer blood may be Irish, John Quinn, but yer nerves are American.... I never saw such a changed man in me life. It's bad enough to have ye walk out on strike--

QUINN--Now see here, I didn't walk out on strike, and ye know it. I'd be workin' yet if the Union hadn't told us to lay off until we got our rights.

MRS. QUINN--Ye'll rot before ye get yer rights, I'm thinkin'.

QUINN--Maybe, maybe so.

(_Silence again._)

MRS. QUINN--(_Putting down paper._) I see the walking delegate discussed the strike at an elegant banquet at the Hotel Hoffman last night. Ye know, _he_ don't seem to suffer no privation. Mrs. Martin says he gets a princely wage for orderin' strikes all over the country. No wonder he's in earnest about his job.

QUINN--Some one has to lead the men.

MRS. QUINN--I fancy he wouldn't lead far, if his wage stopped.

QUINN--(_Shortly._) Aw, don't be a fool.

(_Silence again. Quinn moves uneasily in his chair._)

MRS. QUINN--What's on yer mind? Can't ye sit still?

QUINN--What should be on me mind?

MRS. QUINN--I haven't lived with ye five and twenty years without knowin' when ye've done somethin' ye're ashamed of.

QUINN--I've done nothin' I'm ashamed of.

MRS. QUINN--Out with it.

QUINN--(_After a slight hesitation._) I walked down town to-night to see the sights. Bill Martin went with me.

MRS. QUINN--(_Content to get her knowledge by Quinn's roundabout way of telling it._) Were the streets crowded?

QUINN--Nothin' like they are up here.... D'ye know they have the State Constabulary on the Avenue now?

MRS. QUINN--I saw them this mornin'. Big hulkin' brutes they are, chargin' into groups of women and children like as if they were offenders agin the law.

QUINN--It's makin' the men see red.

MRS. QUINN--If the men are wise, they'll give them a wide berth, and not start any ructions, or they'll get smashed heads for their pains.

QUINN--Well, we can smash heads, too.

MRS. QUINN--And be put in the lock-up for it.