The author has written about his own early years of youth and struggle as a writer, and here he merges his camping in the forest with meeting Wagner's characters from Niebelungslied. He has, however, made Gerald, his protagonist here, not himself, a poor writer fiercely protective of his art, talent and time, but a young scion of a railroad king John Isman, who one might have come across in The Metropolis or The Moneychangers.
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Gerald meets the Niebelungs because he plays that music, and Mimi comes to talk to him. Mimi gives him a magic ring, enabling him to see the Niebelungs who carry him off to their cavernous world. King Alberich wants Gerald to tutor Prince Hagen, his grandson, whose father Hagen had killed Siegfried. Gerald instead takes Prince Hagen, whose mother was not Niebelung but from Earth, up with him to be taught at a boarding school. Hagen is no innocent fool though, and tires of the school:-
"I hadn't been twenty-four hours in that good Christian home before I found out what a kettleful of jealousies and hatreds it was. The head master was an old sap-head; and the boys!... I was strange and ugly, and they thought they could torment and bully me; but I fought 'em... by the Lord, I fought 'em day and night, I fought 'em all around the place! And when I'd mastered 'em, you should have seen how they cringed and toadied! They hated the slavery they lived under, but not one of them dared raise his hand against it."
Hagen had run away to N.Y. and become known as a political speaker. He returns to Gerald to take his place in society, having fallen in love with Estelle, unaware that she's Gerald's sister.
"I've looked this Christian civilization of yours over... and I'm prepared to play the game. You can take me up and put me into Society... as you offered to do before. You'll find that I'll do you credit."
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Prince Hagen meets Plimpton and Rutherford, the steel and coal barons, who are discussing how to keep people from rising in discontent.
"My point is, it's as Lord Alderdyce says... we have no hereditary aristocracy in this country, no traditions of authority.. . nothingto hold the mob in check."
Plimpton suggests religion. Hagen interrupts, startling them.
"HAGEN. You've said it! Set the parsons after them! Teach them heaven! Set them to singing about harps and golden crowns, and milk and honey flowing! Then you can shut them up in slums and starve them, and they won't know the difference. Teach them non-resistance and self-renunciation! You've got the phrases all pat... handed out from heaven direct! Take no thought saying what ye shall eat! Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth! Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's!"
They are horrified, calling it blasphemy.
"HAGEN. You're Plimpton... Plimpton, the coal baron, I take it. I knowyou by your pictures. You shut up little children by tens of thousands to toil for you in the bowels of the earth. You crush your rivals, and form a trust, and screw up prices to freeze the poor in winter! And you... [to RUTHERFORD] you're Rutherford, thesteel king, I take it. You have slaves working twelve hours a day and seven days a week in your mills. And you mangle them in hideous accidents, and then cheat their widows of their rights... and then you build churches, and set your parsons to preach to them about love and self-sacrifice! To teach them charity, while you crucify justice! To trick them with visions of an imaginary paradise, while you pick their pockets upon earth! To put arms in their hands, and send them to shoot their brothers, in the name of the Prince of Peace!"
Mimi has come to take Hagen back to Niebelung, because Alberich is dead and he must be king. Hagen is happy because hes now master of all the gold. One expects he'll be cheated by the society crowd and lose the gold too, learning the value of Niebelung too late.
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On the contrary, he brings the steel, coal and other wall street kings to their knees, literally, and they discuss having him murdered! Is man is willing to let him marry Estelle if she wishes, and she's brought to accept him more from a fascination and terror she is unable to understand, than the duty her mother imposes.
Eventually, at the point where she begins to comprehend he did it all for her, she refuses to be forced, and informs him he must change. But events take over, he's told Washington is taking over all wealth, and he asks Gerald to play the Niebelungs theme, which brings Mimi and the Niebelungs, to take him back. Estelle recognises him just as he leaves.
Prince Hagen meets Plimpton and Rutherford, the steel and coal barons, who are discussing how to keep people from rising in discontent.
"My point is, it's as Lord Alderdyce says... we have no hereditary aristocracy in this country, no traditions of authority.. . nothingto hold the mob in check."
Plimpton suggests religion. Hagen interrupts, startling them.
"HAGEN. You've said it! Set the parsons after them! Teach them heaven! Set them to singing about harps and golden crowns, and milk and honey flowing! Then you can shut them up in slums and starve them, and they won't know the difference. Teach them non-resistance and self-renunciation! You've got the phrases all pat... handed out from heaven direct! Take no thought saying what ye shall eat! Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth! Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's!"
They are horrified, calling it blasphemy.
"HAGEN. You're Plimpton... Plimpton, the coal baron, I take it. I knowyou by your pictures. You shut up little children by tens of thousands to toil for you in the bowels of the earth. You crush your rivals, and form a trust, and screw up prices to freeze the poor in winter! And you... [to RUTHERFORD] you're Rutherford, thesteel king, I take it. You have slaves working twelve hours a day and seven days a week in your mills. And you mangle them in hideous accidents, and then cheat their widows of their rights... and then you build churches, and set your parsons to preach to them about love and self-sacrifice! To teach them charity, while you crucify justice! To trick them with visions of an imaginary paradise, while you pick their pockets upon earth! To put arms in their hands, and send them to shoot their brothers, in the name of the Prince of Peace!"
Mimi has come to take Hagen back to Niebelung, because Alberich is dead and he must be king. Hagen is happy because hes now master of all the gold. One expects he'll be cheated by the society crowd and lose the gold too, learning the value of Niebelung too late.
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On the contrary, he brings the steel, coal and other wall street kings to their knees, literally, and they discuss having him murdered! Is man is willing to let him marry Estelle if she wishes, and she's brought to accept him more from a fascination and terror she is unable to understand, than the duty her mother imposes.
Eventually, at the point where she begins to comprehend he did it all for her, she refuses to be forced, and informs him he must change. But events take over, he's told Washington is taking over all wealth, and he asks Gerald to play the Niebelungs theme, which brings Mimi and the Niebelungs, to take him back. Estelle recognises him just as he leaves.
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Pleasure and humour, unexpectedly.
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Pleasure and humour, unexpectedly.
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