The Gibson Upright written by Booth Tarkington
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Booth Tarkington >> The Gibson Upright
SALVATORE: Hey, let's get that stuff divided up. I got an engagement.
FRANKEL: Yes; let's hurry. You can't tell _what_ they got planted round
here.
CARTER [_rapping_]: The meeting will please come to--
SALVATORE: Here, cut that out! We ain't got no time to--
SHOMBERG: No. Come to business; come to business!
NORA: The only way, comrades, to know how much we have gained since the
last division is to read the bookkeeper's report.
FRANKEL: Well, for heaven's sakes, go on--read it!
CARTER: Well, I did want to a long while ago, when we first set down and
begun the meeting. I says then, I report on my committee and--
VARIOUS MEMBERS: Oh, for heaven's sake! Go ahead! Cut it out!
CARTER [_picking up the sheets_]: On the first page is says Soomary.
RILEY: What's that mean?
MRS. SIMPSON: Oh, my goodness!
FRANKEL: Git to the figures!
CARTER: Well, here, on one side it says gross receipts--
SHOMBERG [_rubbing his hands_]: Ah!
CARTER: What?
SIMPSON [_shouting_]: Read it!
CARTER: Gross receipts $2,162.43. On the other side it says: "Cash paid
out $19,461.53."
[_All are puzzled._]
It didn't sound right to me, even the first time I read it. Looks like
he's got the wrong words, crossed over.
FRANKEL: Why, gross receipts last month was over twenty-four thousand
dollars!
SHOMBERG: Yes, and that was a fall off from the month before.
CARTER [_rubbing his head_]: Well, I don't pretend to understand it, but
he told me all them was mostly payments on old sales anyhow.
RILEY: Read it again, read it again!
SIMPSON: Yes, let's see if we can't get what the sense of it is.
CARTER: It says "Gross receipts, $2,162.43"--that's over here. "Cash
paid out, $19,461.53."
[_All seem dazed._]
RILEY: What else you got there?
CARTER: As near as it seems to me, just a lot of items.
SALVATORE: Well, we must have a lot of money in the bank; what's the
matter we draw that out and divide it?
RILEY: Wait a minute! What's there besides them items?
CARTER: He's got a note. "Note," he says; here it is: He says: "Bank
notified us this morning we're overdrawn $59.01."
RILEY: Overdrawn?
SHOMBERG: Then we got to deposit some to our account. Who's got charge
of the checks that comes in?
NORA: The bookkeeper has charge, but there aren't any checks.
CARTER: No, they ain't been any checks comin' in for some days; a week
or so, or two weeks, you might say. We've looked everywhere for 'em--
FRANKEL [_aghast_]: You looked all through them letters?
CARTER: They ain't none left in 'em that wasn't took out a good while
ago.
SALVATORE: You ain't looked through the safe, have you?
CARTER: They ain't a one in it; it's got me all puzzled up, I tell you.
I was jest waitin' for the meeting to settle it.
FRANKEL: But heaven's sakes! There must be checks comin' in from new
sales!
CARTER: It says here sales has fallen off. So fur this month they was
only three instruments sold.
SIMPSON: But, my gosh, this is the _end_ of the month!
CARTER: They was two sold in Council Bluffs and one in Detroit.
[_General agitation and excitement._]
MRS. SIMPSON [_trembling with rage and fear_]: You mean to stand there
and tell me we ain't goin' to git any money to-day, and my flat rent to
pay to-morrow?
RILEY: Don't talk about your flat rent to me, lady! There's others of us
got a few things to pay.
SHOMBERG: But, my golly, when _do_ we git paid?
CARTER: I can't make out from what he's got here.
SALVATORE [_rapping fiercely on the table_]: Hey! I got to have my
money!
CARTER: Well, I got to have mine, don't I?
SIMPSON: Go on. See what else it says.
CARTER: Well, here he's got this. Here it says: "Bills payable,
$17,162.48."
FRANKEL [_leaping up_]: Bills payable! My God, no money in bank, and
we're $17,162.48 in debt!
MRS. SIMPSON [_shrieking_]: Who owes it?
SIMPSON: We do!
SHOMBERG: Who's goin' to pay it?
RILEY: Who run us into debt that way?
SALVATORE: That's the man we're after!
FRANKEL: Who's the man responsible for us bein' $17,162.48 bankrupt?
RILEY [_hammering the table_]: Who run us into debt over seventeen
thousand dollars?
SIMPSON: Well, give him a chance to answer.
CARTER: What do _I_ know about it? That's what the report says. That's
all _I_ know.
SHOMBERG: Well, somebody's got us into debt. And who is it?
NORA: It's all of us! Haven't we all done this thing together?
FRANKEL: Well, who's got to pay it?
NORA: We've all got to!
SHOMBERG, SALVATORE, FRANKEL, AND MRS. SIMPSON: You expect to git blood
out of a stone? What do you take us for? You're crazy! You helped get us
into this! [SHOMBERG _and_ SALVATORE _begin shouting at each other._]
SHOMBERG: You pay me back that twenty-five dollars you got from me
Friday!
SALVATORE: How I'm goin' to pay you twenty-five dollars when I'm
seventeen thousand dollars in debt?
SHOMBERG: I'll have that money!
[_He takes a paper weight from desk._]
SALVATORE: You throw that at me, I'll give you a little sticker where
you won't like it!
[_Puts his hand in the breast of his coat. Murder appears
imminent. Sudden and general dispersal from the neighbourhood
of the combatants, which brings_ NORA _to_ GIBSON,
_unconsciously seeking his protection._]
SHOMBERG: Aw, I didn't mean anything serious like that. [_Puts down the
paper weight._] But I'll get the money.
SALVATORE: You'll _need_ it--to pay your share what we owe!
MRS. SIMPSON: I'd like to see 'em get one cent out of me!
CARTER: It ain't just us here of course; they's a hundred and seventy
men outside the debt belongs to as well as us. The whole factory's got
to pay it.
SIMPSON: Great gosh! Do you think we can go out there, when they're
expectin' a month's pay, and tell 'em they're gettin' only a
seventeen-thousand-dollar _debt_?
FRANKEL: And me, me, me! Look at _me_! Do you think I can go out and
tell them thirty-five bloodhounds I ain't got no money to even pay their
wages?
RILEY [_vehemently_]: What's more, you owe thirty-five shares of that
debt, Frankel!
ALL [_with vindictive satisfaction_]: That's it! Sure he does! He owes
thirty-five shares of the debt! That's right!
FRANKEL: What?
RILEY: You owe thirty-five shares of the seventeen-thousand debt.
FRANKEL: My heavens! Ain't the meetin' just settled it I didn't have no
right to them shares and it was all to be divided even?
CARTER: What we got to do, we got to go out there and tell 'em they owe
this money.
FRANKEL: I can't tell mine!
SALVATORE: I know one game little fellow that ain't goin' to pay nobody
nothin'. Excuse me, gents; they'll have to find me!
[_He goes out hastily by the door that leads to the street._]
CARTER: Well, _somebody's_ got to go out there and tell 'em.
SIMPSON: Well, I won't!
MRS. SIMPSON: It's the chairman's place.
CARTER: We all got to go!
FRANKEL: Not me!
SIMPSON: Yes, you will! [_Takes him by the shoulders._]
RILEY [_taking him from_ SIMPSON]: Put him first!
[_They begin to jostle toward the factory door._]
FRANKEL [_as they push him he waves a despairing hand at_ GIBSON]: Mr.
Gibson, that was a fine trick you played on us!
THE COMMITTEE [_shouting_]: You go on there! Come on! We got to take our
medicine!
FRANKEL: Lemme alone! Take your hands off me!
[_They jostle out, leaving_ NORA _and_ GIBSON _alone together._
NORA _has gone to the large table, sitting beside it, with her
head far down between her hands. As the noise dies away_
MIFFLIN _comes in from the factory._]
MIFFLIN: What wonderful spirits! Just great, rough boys!
[_Smiles as he gets his hat, magazines, newspaper, and
umbrella._]
Everything is working out. Some little inevitable friction here, some
little setback there. But it all works, it all works to the one great
end. I'm sorry I wasn't present for the end of the meeting to hear what
success there was this month, but that's a detail. The dream has come
true. It's here, and we're living it! [_At the door._] I'll send you a
copy of my next article, Mr. Gibson. [_Modestly laughs._] They tell me
the series is making a little sensation in its way. Good morning!
[_He goes out jauntily._ GIBSON _has never moved from his
chair; he turns his head, still not rising, and looks fixedly
at_ NORA. _She slowly lifts her head, meets his eye; her head
sinks again. He rises and slowly walks over to her, looking
down at her. Then, bending still lower, she begins to cry._]
GIBSON: Well, Nora, what was the matter with it?
NORA [_not looking up_]: I don't know. What was?
GIBSON: You needed a manager to do what I had been doing.
NORA: Couldn't we have learned? Couldn't one of us?
GIBSON: One of you did--Hill.
NORA: But he left!
GIBSON: Why did Hill leave?
NORA: Other people offered him more money.
GIBSON: Yes; he was the one man that all the rest of you depended on. He
was worth more.
NORA: But were you worth all that you took? You took all that the
business made.
GIBSON: Yes; and last year it was fifty thousand.
NORA: Were you actually worth that much to it?
GIBSON: Other men in the business think so. [_Shows her a letter._]
Here's an offer from the Coles-Hibbard people, out in Cleveland, of that
much salary to do for them what I did here.
NORA: It isn't right; you pay labour only what you have to pay.
GIBSON: The Coles-Hibbard people offer to pay me what they'd have to,
and they're pretty hard-headed men. The whole world pays only what it
has to.
NORA: It isn't right! It isn't right!
GIBSON: Last winter I saw you in a three-dollar seat listening to
Caruso. Have you ever given that much to the organ grinder who comes
under these windows?
NORA: Will it always be so?
GIBSON: I don't know. But it's so now.
NORA: But will the plan _always_ fail?
GIBSON: I think it will until human beings are as near alike as the ants
and bees are. Your system is in full effect with them, but we--we
strive; even in this fellowship here of yours the striving began to
show.
NORA [_looking up at him appealingly_]: But are these inequalities
_right_?
GIBSON [_gently, rather sadly_]: I don't know. I only know what is.
NORA: Well--I'm whipped.
[_Smiles ruefully, away from him; then she turns again to
him._]
Are you going to accept that offer?
GIBSON: What do you say?
[_Her head droops again. Angry voices are heard, growing louder
as they approach. The door is thrown open, and the members of
the committee, noisily talking, appear in the doorway._]
FRANKEL: It was a bum deal all through!
SHOMBERG: Shovin' his run-down factory off onto us!
RILEY [_fiercely_]: You never give us no deed to this plant, Mr. Gibson!
SIMPSON: They ain't a court in the land'll hold us to it!
CARTER: No, sir; and we've voted this is your factory, Mr. Gibson! We
ain't responsible!
GIBSON: It is my factory and I'm going to run it! Any man of you not
back at work in ten minutes on the old scale of wages will be fired!
[_The members whoop with joy._ FRANKEL _and_ CARTER _both try
to shake hands with_ GIBSON _at once._]
CARTER: Well, that's a relief to _me_. Thank you, Mr. Gibson!
FRANKEL: That takes a heap off my mind!
RILEY: God bless you, sir!
GIBSON: Never mind that! You go back to work.
[_Whooping, the committee, in great spirits and with the
greatest friendliness to one another, depart rapidly. Closing
the door_, GIBSON _turns briskly to_ NORA, _and speaks in a
businesslike way._]
GIBSON: Nora, will you marry me?
NORA [_meekly_]: Yes--I will.
GIBSON: Will you marry me to-day?
NORA [_with a little more spirit_]: Yes, I will!
GIBSON: Will you go with me and marry me right now?
NORA [_more loudly and promptly_]: Yes, I will!
GIBSON: Well, then--
[_He gets his hat and coat, then thinks of something he wants
from his desk and goes over to get it. Meantime_ NORA, _not
moving so rapidly as_ GIBSON, _but more thoughtfully, goes up
to the wall where hang her jacket and hat, takes off her apron,
puts on the jacket and hat and goes to the door that leads to
the street, where she stands waiting. There is a knock on the
factory door, which opens without waiting, and_ SIMPSON _comes
in._]
SIMPSON: I don't want to detain you if you're goin' out, Mr. Gibson,
but there's something's got to be settled. And the men in my department
say it's got to be settled right now. That wage scale says we get time
and a half for overtime, and the men in the finishing department, they
ain't gettin' no time and a half on piecework and we never understood
that agreement you claim we signed with you anyhow. So what we says, if
we don't get double time instead of time and a half for overtime--why,
Mr. Gibson, it looks like them men couldn't hardly be held back. Now
what we demand is--
[_He is still talking as the final curtain descends upon these
three_: GIBSON _seated at his desk, looking fixedly at_
SIMPSON, NORA _waiting thoughtfully by the door that leads to
the street._]
CURTAIN