THE THREE PACKERS: Compensation? Why bring that up?
SNYDER: The compensation we have in mind is paid after death.
THE THREE PACKERS: How much are you asking for this service?
SNYDER: Eight hundred dollars a month, because we need hot soup and loud music. We’ll also promise them that the rich will be punished, after death of course.
The three laugh uproariously.
SNYDER: And all that for only eight hundred dollars a month!
GRAHAM: You don’t need anything like that much. Five hundred!
SNYDER: Well, we could do it for seven fifty, but then . . .
MEYERS: Seven fifty. That’s more like it. All right, let’s say five hundred.
GRAHAM: You definitely need five hundred. (To the others:)
They’ve got to have it.
MEYERS (front stage): Admit it, Slift. You fellows have the livestock.
SLIFT: As true as I’m sitting here, Mauler and I haven’t bought one cent’s worth of livestock. God is my witness.
MEYERS (to Snyder): Five hundred dollars? That’s a lot of money. How do you expect to raise it?
SLIFT: Well, all you have to do now is find somebody to give it to you.
SNYDER: I suppose so.
MEYERS: It won’t be easy.
GRAHAM: Admit that Pierpy has the livestock.
SLIFT (laughing): They’re all scoundrels, Mr Snyder.
All laugh except Snyder.
GRAHAM (to Meyers): The man has no sense of humour. I don’t like him.
SLIFT: The main question, major, is where you stand. On this side of the barricades or the other?
SNYDER: The Black Straw Hats are above the battle, Mr Slift. So it’s on this side.
Joan enters.
SLIFT: Here comes our St Joan of the Livestock Exchange.
THE THREE PACKERS (bellowing at Joan): We’re not pleased with you! Look here. Can you give Mauler a message from us? We hear you’ve got influence with him. They say he eats out of your hand. All the livestock has disappeared off the market, so we can’t help thinking of Mauler. They say you can get him to do anything you want. Get him to let go of the livestock. If you do that for us, we’ll pay the Black Straw Hats’ rent for four years.
JOAN (has seen the poor people and is horrified): What are you doing here?
MRS LUCKERNIDDLE (steps forward):
The twenty meals have been eaten.
Don’t let it rile you, seeing me here again.
I’d gladly spare you the sight of me.
The cruel thing about hunger is that
However often you satisfy it, it always comes back again.
GLOOMB (steps forward):
I know you. I tried to persuade you
To work on the very same knife
That cut my arm off. Today I’d do something even worse.
JOAN: Why aren’t you working? Now that I’ve made jobs for you.
MRS LUCKERNIDDLE: Where? The stockyards are closed.
GLOOMB: They were supposed to open, but they didn’t.
JOAN (to the packers): So they’re still waiting?
(The packers are silent.)
And I thought they’d been taken care of.
For seven days now the snow has been falling on them
And the selfsame snow that is killing them hides
Them from every human eye. For shame, that I forgot
So easily what everyone likes to forget, for the sake of his peace of mind!
If someone says, The trouble is over, no one looks into it.
(To the packers:)
But Mauler bought meat from you, didn’t he? He did it because I pleaded with him. Can it be true that you still haven’t opened your plants?
THE THREE PACKERS: It’s true all right. We wanted to open.
SLIFT: But you wanted to cut the farmers’ throats first!
THE THREE PACKERS: How can we slaughter when there’s no livestock?
SLIFT: Mauler and I bought meat from you on the assumption that you’d open the plants so the workers could buy meat again. Who’s going to eat the meat we took off your hands now? Who did we buy the meat for if the customer can’t pay?
JOAN: It’s bad enough that you should own the tools of the workers you employ in those great big factories of yours. But if that’s the way it is, the least you could do is let them get at their tools, because if you don’t they’re sunk. The whole thing looks like exploitation to me, and it those poor tortured, agonizing devils, who are our fellow men, are driven to the point where they pick up clubs and start clouting their tormentors on the head, you shit in your pants, I’ve seen it before, and then all of a sudden religion looks good to you, you expect it to pour oil on the waters. But the Lord thinks a little too much of Himself to clean out your pigsty for you. I go running from pillar to post, I tell myself that if I help the people on top it will help the people under you too. Your interests are pretty much the same, I say to myself, so why wouldn’t you all pull together? Man, was I stupid! It looks as if the only way to help the poor is to side with them against you. Have you lost all respect for the human countenance? If that’s how it is, a time may come when you won’t be looked upon as human any longer, but as wild beasts, and it will become necessary to destroy you in the interest of law and public safety. And you think you have a right to set foot in the house of God just because of your filthy Mammon, but we know where and how you got it, we know you haven’t come by it honestly. This time, so help me, you’ve made a big mistake, and you’re going to be driven out, driven out with a club. And take that dumb look off your faces, I know it’s wrong to treat human beings like cattle, but you aren’t human beings, so get out of here and make it quick or I’ll clout you, don’t try to hold me, I know what I’m doing, I was ignorant too long. (Joan drives them out with a reversed flag, which she brandishes like a club. The Black Straw Hats appear in the doorways.) Out! Do you think you can turn the house of God into a barn? Or another Livestock Exchange? Out! You have no business here. We don’t need faces like yours. You’re unworthy and I’m turning you out. Money or no money!
THE THREE PACKERS: As you wish. But with us, humbly, modestly and never to return, goes forty months’ rent. We need every penny anyway, because we’re heading for the worst times the market has ever known.
The Packers and Slift go out.
SNYDER (running after them): Wait, gentlemen, don’t go, she had no authority! A muddle-headed woman! She’ll be dismissed! She’ll do anything you wish.
JOAN (to the Black Straw Hats): I admit that was stupid, on account of the rent. But we can’t let that worry us. (To Mrs Luckerniddle and Gloomb:) Sit back there. I’ll bring you some soup.
SNYDER (coming back):
Ask the poor to your table and treat them
To rain water and high-flown words
When even in heaven there’s no compassion for them
But only snow!
Without the least humility you
Gave in to your first impulse! How easy it is
To turn up your nose and drive out the unclean.
Fastidious about the bread we must eat
Too curious about how it’s made, you nevertheless
Want to eat! And now, angelic spirit, out
Into the rain with you! Out into the snowstorm with your self-righteousness!
JOAN: You mean I should take off my uniform?
SNYDER: Take off your uniform and pack your bag! Leave this house and take the riff-raff you’ve brought here with you. It’s only scum and riff-raff that go chasing after you. And soon you’ll be one of them. Go get your things.
Joan goes out and comes back with a small suitcase, dressed like a servant girl from the country.
JOAN:
I’ll go and see Mauler, who’s rich and not entirely
Devoid of fear and goodwill
And get him to help us. I won’t
Put on this uniform and black straw hat again
Or return to thi
s beloved house
Of hymns and awakenings until I
Can bring the rich Mauler, become
One of us, converted through and through.
I know their money, like a cancerous growth
Has eaten away their ears and human face
So that they sit apart but highly placed
Where no cry of help can reach them!
Poor mutilated creatures! But
There must be one righteous man among them!
(Goes out.)
SNYDER:
Poor ignorant thing!
What you don’t see is that, ranged
In huge batallions, employers and employed
Confront each other irreconcilably.
Go on, run back and forth between them, trying
To reconcile, to arbitrate! And then, useless to either side
Go to the dogs!
MULBERRY (comes in): Have you got the money now?
SNYDER: God will find a way of paying for the meagre – meagre, I say it again, Mr Mulberry – lodgings He has found on earth.
MULBERRY: That’s the ticket, Snyder, pay. You took the words out of my mouth. If the Lord pays up, good. If He doesn’t pay up, no good. If the Lord can’t pay His rent, He’ll have to move out, on Saturday night to be exact. Got it, Snyder? (Goes out.)
8
MAULER’S SPEECH ON THE INDISPENSABILITY OF CAPITALISM AND RELIGION
Mauler’s Office.
MAULER:
This is the day, Slift, when friend Graham
And all those with him who had thought they’d wait
For bottom livestock prices will be forced
To buy the meat they owe us.
SLIFT:
They’ll pay a good price now, for every head
Of livestock bellowing in Chicago’s pens
Is our livestock.
And every hog they owe us must be bought
From us, which makes it more expensive.
MAULER:
And now, good Slift, unleash your middlemen
And let them flay the market with their calls
For everything resembling hog or steer.
That will drive up the prices.
SLIFT:
What news of your Joan? It’s rumoured on the
Livestock Exchange that you have bedded with her.
I told them there was nothing in it. We
Haven’t seen hide nor hair of her since she
Threw us all out of the temple. It’s as though
Black, bellowing Chicago had swallowed her up.
MAULER:
That tickled me, the way she chucked you out
Just like that. That girl’s afraid of nothing.
If I had been there, she’d have driven me
Out too. I like that. And I like that house
Because it has no room for men like me.
Look, Slift. Drive the price up to eighty.
That will make Graham and company look like the mud
We tread on for the pleasure of seeing our footprints.
I won’t let a single scrap of meat escape me.
I’ll skin those characters alive
For that’s my nature.
SLIFT:
I’m glad to see you recovered, Mauler, from
Your recent weakness. So now I’ll run along
And watch them buying livestock.
Slift goes out.
MAULER:
It’s time that someone took the skin off
This God-damned town and taught those bastards something
About the meat business. Let them yell ‘bloody murder!’
Joan comes in with a suitcase.
JOAN: Hi, Mr Mauler. It’s not easy to get hold of you. I’ll leave my stuff over there for now. You see, I’m not with the Black Straw Hats any more. We had a disagreement. So I said to myself: why not go and see how Mr Mauler is getting along? Without that mission work to run me ragged, I’ll have more time for individuals. So now I’ll give you a bit of attention, I mean, if you don’t mind. You see, I’ve noticed that you’re more approachable than some people I can think of. That’s a nice old horsehair couch you’ve got there, but why is there a sheet on it? And besides, it’s all crumpled. My goodness, do you sleep in your office? I thought you must have one of those big mansions. (Mauler says nothing.) But you’re right, Mr Mauler, to economize in little things, seeing you’re a meat king. Isn’t it funny? Every time I see you I think of the story about the Lord dropping in on Adam in the garden of Eden and calling out: ‘Adam, where are you?’ Do you remember? (She laughs.) Adam’s in the bushes again, and both his arms are in a stag again, clear up to the elbows, so he’s dripping with blood when he hears God’s voice. What does he do? He pretends he’s not there. But God sticks to His guns and calls out again: ‘Hey, Adam, where are you?’ So Adam blushes to the roots of his hair and says in a wee small voice: ‘Why did You have to turn up at this particular moment, right after I’d killed a stag? Don’t say anything, I know, I know I shouldn’t have done it.’ But I trust your conscience is clear, Mr Mauler.
MAULER: So you’re not with the Black Straw Hats any more?
JOAN: No, Mr Mauler. And I don’t belong there any more, either.
MAULER: Then what have you been living on?
Joan is silent.
MAULER: I see. On air. How long is it since you left the Black Straw Hats?
JOAN: A week.
MAULER (weeping backstage):
So changed, and in only a week!
Where has she been? With whom has she spoken? What has
Given her those lines around the mouth?
The city
She comes from is still unknown to me.
(He brings her food on a tray.)
You look so changed. Here’s food.
I won’t be wanting it.
JOAN: You see, Mr Mauler, after we drove those rich men out of our house . . .
MAULER: . . . which really tickled me and struck me as a good thing to do . . .
JOAN: . . . the landlord, who lives off the rent, gave us notice for next Saturday.
MAULER: I see, and the Black Straw Hats’ finances are in bad shape at the moment?
JOAN: That’s right, and that’s why I thought I’d come and see Mr Mauler.
She starts eating hungrily.
MAULER: Don’t worry. I’ll go to the market and get you the money you need. Yes, indeed I will, I’ll raise it at all costs, even if I have to cut it right out of this city’s skin. For you I’ll do it. Naturally money is hard to come by, but I’ll get it. You’ll be pleased with me.
JOAN: Yes, Mr Mauler.
MAULER: So go and tell them the money is on its way, they’ll have it by Saturday. Mauler will raise it. He’s just gone to the livestock market to raise it. The business with the fifty thousand workers didn’t turn out very well, not quite as I’d have liked. I couldn’t get jobs for them right away. But with you it will be different. Your Black Straw Hats shall be spared. I’ll get you the money. Run and tell them.
JOAN: Yes, Mr Mauler.
MAULER:
There, I’ve written a note. Take it.
I too am sorry people have to wait for work
In the stockyards, and rotten work at that.
Fifty thousand, standing
Around in the stockyards, staying there day and night!
(Joan stops eating.)
But in this business it’s a question of
To be or not to be, of whether I’m to be
Top man, or walk the dismal road to the stockyards myself.
Besides, riff-raff is pouring back into the yards
Kicking up trouble.
And now, I tell you frankly, I’d have liked
To hear you say that what I’m doing is right
And that my occupation is natural. Please
Back me up on this: wasn’t I taking your
Advice when I ordered meat from the meat ring
And from
the breeders as well, thereby doing good?
And well aware that you Black Straw Hats are poor
And that they’re threatening to take the roof from over your heads
I also intend to give you a little something for that
As proof of my good will.
JOAN: So the workers are still waiting outside the packing plants?
MAULER:
What have you got against money?
When having none works such a change in you!
What do you think of money? Tell me
I want to know. But don’t go thinking like an idiot
That money is something smelly. Consider the fact
Bitter perhaps – but that’s the way with facts – that
Human affairs are uncertain and
Man the plaything of chance, one might almost say of the weather
While money is a means of making some things
A little better, if only for the few.
Consider the beauty of the edifice!
Under construction since Man’s dim beginning
Repeatedly rebuilt after repeated collapses
And yet, in spite of the sacrifices exacted, enormous.
Most arduous to erect, built unremittingly
With unremitting groans, and yet at every turn
Squeezing the possible, now more now less
Out of a hostile planet, and therefore
At all times justified by men of worth.
Now think it over: even if I, who
Have grave misgivings about it and have trouble sleeping
Wanted to abstain from dealing in money, it would be the same
As if a gnat should abstain from holding back a landslide.
In that same moment, I’d be reduced to nothing
And the falling rock would pass right over me.
Were it not so, the whole shebang would have to be destroyed
And rebuilt according to a different plan
Based on a radical new concept of man
Which you reject and we reject because
Such building would be done without us and without God, who
Would be abolished as useless. Therefore you people
Must play the game and, even if you make no sacrifices, which
We don’t expect of you, at least put your stamp of approval
Brecht Collected Plays: 3: Lindbergh's Flight; The Baden-Baden Lesson on Consent; He Said Yes/He Said No; The Decision; The Mother; The Exception & the ... St Joan of the Stockyards (World Classics) Page 26
