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MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
MASTER 
 FLACHSMANN 
 
 (FLACHSMANN ALS ERZIEHER) 
 A COMEDY IN THREE ACTS 
 
 BY 
 
 OTTO ERNST 
 
 TRANSLATED BY 
 
 H. M. BEATTY, M.A., LL.D. 
 
 AUTHOR OF "EDUCATION IN A PRUSSIAN TOWN," ETC. 
 
 " But man, proud man, 
 Drest in a little brief authority. 
 Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven 
 As make the angels weep " 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 DUFFIELD & COMPANY 
 
 36-38 WEST 37th STREET 
 
V 
 
 |HAI 
 
 ^ 
 
 {All rights reserved.) 
 
TRANSLATOE'S PEEPACE 
 
 It cannot be said with truth that we are a play- 
 reading people. In the bookshops of Paris the 
 plays of Augier, in half-a-dozen volumes, take their 
 place with the "sets" of popular authors. In 
 London there is nothing parallel ; although of late 
 years readers have been attracted by the witty para- 
 doxes of Gilbert, Wilde, and Shaw, and, in a tran- 
 sient way, by the polished verse of Mr. Stephen 
 Phillips. But these are scarcely cases in point ; 
 nor, again, is the endless procession of editions of 
 Shakespeare — which are read much more for their 
 poetry and thought than for their stagecraft and 
 dramatic skill. Indeed, it might with some reason 
 be contended that the only plays in English which 
 are read with the dramatic eye are Sheridan's : that 
 is, read with the eye which a dramatic critic would 
 apply to a new play. Why this should be so, 
 whether it is due to the dramatic inferiority of Eng- 
 lish plays, or to the disincHnation of EngHsh readers 
 to regard the drama as a fitting object of serious 
 study, this is not the place to inquire. 
 
 But if such be the case with regard to our native 
 drama, what is the prospect before a translation of 
 
 5 
 
 251272 
 
6 PREFACE 
 
 a foreign play? Wlio will read a translation of a 
 German play of which the scene is laid in a school- 
 house, of which the characters are schoolmasters 
 and schoolmistresses ? School stories are usually 
 either muscular, or lachrymose, or unctuous. FlachS' 
 mann is none of these. It is indeed at times senti- 
 mental and nebulous; but its humanity is broad 
 and robust enough to interest those to whom Ger- 
 man sentimentality and German nebulosity are 
 ridiculous or nauseous. Flachsmann himself is well 
 worth knowing; he is a ruffian of the unimaginative, 
 Philistine, mechanical type, with the precision of 
 a steam-engine and the heart of a steam-roller. 
 In some respects he reminds one of Tartuffe ; but 
 he is not exactly a hypocrite. He has his solid 
 beliefs ; he believes in the steam-roller. So does 
 Weidenbaum, the fragile shadow of the massive 
 bulk of Flachsmann ; while Diercks hardly believes in 
 anything, hardly even in his own maHcious egotism. 
 Flemming is the ''ideal " schoolmaster. His views 
 are to our ears a trifle "tall," and sometimes slightly 
 incoherent ; still he is a human being, and one feels 
 that to the German eye he must be superb. Gisa, 
 too, is a very German inghiuef but she has a pretty 
 wit at times, and she thinks that *' nothing breaks 
 up holidays more horribly than work." Negendank, 
 the old soldier, is a very real man ; and Prell is a 
 rich compound, in equal proportions, of the official, 
 the pedant, and the enthusiast — two creations 
 which are almost worthy to stand beside Dugald 
 Dalgetty and Tartarin of Tarascon. 
 
PREFACE 7 
 
 So much for the characters — and this is a play of 
 character rather than of incident. It must also be 
 confessed that it is a play with a moral. The title, 
 Flachsmann ah Erzieher (''Flachsmann as teacher"), 
 was apparently suggested by a book called Bern- 
 hrandt als Erzieher — a strange medley of philosophy, 
 aesthetics, education, and politics, which, published 
 anonymously, has run into fifty editions ; and the 
 play is clearly a protest against the subordination 
 of spirit to flesh, of the childish soul to official 
 routine and machinery. 
 
 In Germany the play has been a success. Two 
 years ago it was in its twenty-second thousand ; and 
 Prell has furnished a favourite role to a brilliant 
 actor, Hermann Vallentin, who is now engaged at 
 the Neues Schauspielhaus in Berlin. "Whether it 
 would be a success on the English stage is another 
 question. But it may be claimed that the dialogue 
 is good, the plot well constructed, the ** curtains " 
 effective, and the characters sufficiently defined. 
 
 The interest of the play as an educational '* docu- 
 ment " — as a picture of school life in Germany, 
 painted by the author from the first-hand knowledge 
 of personal experience — is undoubted. 
 
OTTO EENST 
 
 Otto Eenst Schmidt (who writes under the nom 
 de guerre of Otto Ernst) was born in Ottensen in 
 1862, and, after receiving his education in his native 
 place, entered a Training College for Teachers in 
 Hamburg. His first book (a volume of poems) was 
 published in 1881, and his second in 1895 ; while in 
 the succeeding dozen years he has published nearly 
 twenty more. Flachsmann als Erzieher dates from 
 1902, and his most successful story, Asmus Semper s 
 Jugendland, from 1905. 
 
THE PLOT OF THE PLAY 
 
 Thirty years before the opening of the play a 
 young man called George Henry Flachsmann 
 qualified by examination for a teachership in an 
 elementary school, but died soon after of consump- 
 tion. His elder brother, John Henry Flachsmann, 
 who had failed at his examination, took possession 
 of his papers, assumed his name, and was appointed 
 to a school in a provincial town. Here he made 
 himself comfortable. An official from headquarters 
 rarely came ; the local amateur, who, after the 
 German fashion, acted as inspector, was an easy- 
 going gentleman who was too glad to leave every- 
 thing in Flachsmann's hands ; and the only person 
 who knew his history, an assistant teacher called 
 Diercks, was willing to hold his tongue in the expec- 
 tation of Flachmann's recommendation for promo- 
 tion. 
 
 Thus all might have been well but for the arrival 
 of an assistant called Flemming. Between Flachs- 
 man and Flemming the antagonism was almost in- 
 stinctive — Flemming, a Pestalozzian revolutionary, 
 
 Flachsmann, the man of routine and red tape. A 
 
 11 
 
12 THE PLOT OF THE PLAY 
 
 stormy interview, precipitating a report to the 
 central authority, closes the first act. 
 
 Naturally, Flachsmann's partisans direct their 
 criticisms against Flemming, who, owing to a mis- 
 understanding, loses the good feeling of even the 
 few progressive members of the staff, and is left at 
 length with none to console him except little Gisa 
 Holm. Chief Inspector Prell arrives, charged with 
 an inquiry into Flachsmann's complaints against 
 Flemming, and is by no means favourably impressed 
 by the bold and somewhat disrespectful demeanour 
 of the accused. 
 
 In the third act Prell reigns supreme. A short 
 investigation convinces him of the incompetence 
 and fraud of Diercks, whom he dismisses on the 
 spot. Flachsmann's own incompetence in teaching 
 suggests doubts, which are intensified by his halting 
 and inconsistent explanations, and are fully justified 
 by the timely arrival of a letter from Diercks, who, 
 dismissed himself, determines to involve Flachs- 
 mann in his ruin. The tale of fraudulent certificates 
 is here set forth, Flachsmann is shot out, his place 
 is given to Flemming, and the play ends, while 
 Flemming and Gisa dance a round to the music of 
 the children's singing lesson. 
 
Masters. 
 
 CHAKACTEES 
 
 George Henry Flachsmann, Head Master of an Elementary 
 
 Boys' School. 
 
 Jack Flbmming 
 
 Bernard Vogelsang 
 
 Carstbn Diercks 
 
 Emilius Weidbnbaum 
 
 Nicholas Riemann 
 
 Frank Romer 
 
 Betty Sturhahn) ,,. , . ., , . «, 
 
 ^ TT r Mistresses of the Junior Classes. 
 
 Gisa Holm j 
 
 Negbndank, Flachsmann's School Porter. 
 
 Kluth, School Porter of the adjoinmg Girls' School. 
 
 School Inspector Brosecke. 
 
 Professor Dr. Prbll, Official School Commissioner. 
 
 Mrs. DORMANN. 
 
 Max, her son, six years old. 
 Brockmann. 
 
 Mrs. BiBSENDAHL. 
 
 Alfred, her son, fourteen years old ) p m ^ -q,! 
 Robert Pfeiffbr, fourteen years old] ^ °' 
 
 Charley Jensen, Pupil of Vogelsang. 
 
 Scene of the Action : A smaller provincial town. 
 Time : The present. 
 
 Between the acts a fortnight elapses in each case. 
 
 13 
 
Master Flachsmann 
 
 FIEST ACT 
 
 (Bight and left of the spectator,) 
 
 The office of the Head Master Flachsmann. The 
 whole get-up of the room is of the usual dreary 
 character. In the foreground, somewhat to 
 the right, is a writing-table of lacquered deal, 
 without a top. On the table all is in punctilious 
 order. Behind the table, a revolving chair to 
 match. In an exact right angle with it, and on 
 the right hand, an ordinary chair for lesser folk; 
 on the left, an armchair for distinguished visitors. 
 On the walls are presses with books, maps, charts 
 for Observation lessons. Science apparatus, dc, 
 some of which are visible through glass doors. 
 In the left background, on the table, an enormous 
 globe, covered with a sort of cosy ; on the walls, 
 time-tables and other documents : among others, 
 a huge closely -printed placard with the super- 
 scription, "School Begulations," Doors in the 
 
 15 
 
16 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 middle {folding doors) and to the left. Bight 
 and left of the middle door a pair of the very 
 cheapest pictures of William the First and the 
 Empress Augusta. Near the middle door to the 
 left, a board for the keys of the class-rooms, on 
 which some keys are still hanging. Through 
 the open middle door the corridor can he seen, 
 where several visitors are waiting and walking 
 up and down. On the other side of the corridor 
 is seen a door on which *' Glass III.'' is dis- 
 tinctly marked in Boman letters ; and whenever 
 the door is opened the teacher's desk, a black- 
 board, and so on are seen. In the wall to the 
 right is a window. On the door to the left 
 '* Apparatus Boom" is marked with equally 
 distinct Boman characters. The whole school- 
 house is an antiquated structure, not originally 
 intended for school purposes. 
 
 SCENE I 
 
 Negendank, the school porter, an old soldier, well 
 into the fifties, beard with shaven chin. Speech 
 good-humoured and bluff. Extreme deliberation 
 in his movements. He is giving the last tidying 
 touch to Flachsmann's writing-table. Mrs. 
 DoRMANN, poorly but neatly dressed, a very 
 pretty woman of thirty-two years, sits waiting 
 on the corridor ; her little boy Max (a pretty 
 little fellow of six years old) stands at her side. 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 17 
 
 Mks, Dor. Mr. Negendank ! Mr. Negendank I 
 
 Negen. Hm ? 
 
 Mrs. Dor. Will the Head Master not come soon ? 
 
 Negen. You must be patient. He will come 
 directly. 
 
 Mrs. Dor. Yes, but I have no time to stay 
 longer. I have four other little ones at home, that 
 I have locked in. 
 
 Negen. Indeed! We have four hundred children, 
 and every one of them must be looked after. We 
 must hold our inspection in the morning, to see that 
 everything is in order. 
 
 Mrs. Dor. Ah, your children look after them- 
 selves. 
 
 Negen. Dear Mrs. Dormann, you form a very 
 
 frivolous conception of our vocation. Look here 
 
 {Voices heard within,) One moment ! {Signs to 
 Mrs. Dormann to withdraw.) 
 
SCENE II 
 
 Weidenbaum, a haggard man, with very crooked 
 back, light grey hair and close-clipped heard of 
 the same colour; wrinkled and pinched features ; 
 slow, snuffling speech. Gold spectacles. EiE- 
 MANN, type of the rustic schoolmaster ; broad, 
 red face, short, flaxen hair, short moustache 0/ 
 similar hue. He wears a jacket, a slightly cut- 
 away vest, and trousers so short that they show 
 the grey stockings and the rims of the low -laced 
 shoes. Wears no cuffs. Speech slovenly, with 
 a touch of the brogue. Negendank. 
 
 EiEMANN. So he provokes me to twelve and 
 there I'm stuck. I turn up : Seven of Clubs ! But 
 have nothing else except eight and nine of Clubs, so 
 play without thinking. 
 
 Weiden. Yes . . . Negendank, are all the 
 windows in my class-room close shut ? You know 
 I cannot bear a draught. 
 
 Negen. Certainly, Mr. Weidenbaum ; all is in 
 proper order. {Presently steps out to the corridor.) 
 
 KiEMANN. Now just listen ; this is the way. I 
 cast the King of Spades an' Ten of Spades, an' the 
 
 18 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 19 
 
 lead plays a small Heart. I finesse the king an' the 
 hind hand throws the Queen of Hearts slick. Now 
 to be sure I follow up with the Ace of Hearts, an* 
 they play Ten and Eight. 
 
 Weiden. Yes, my dear Eiemann, I fear duty 
 calls . . . 
 
 Eiemann. No, but listen to the rest. I then 
 play Ace of Spades . . . 
 
SCENE III 
 
 The same. Betty Sturhahn. Later Vogelsang. 
 Still later Mrs. Dormann and Max. 
 
 Betty (square-built person with angular head and 
 bull-dog face. She steps as if she wore men's boots ; 
 and in her bearing and voice gives the impression of a 
 female non-com. ; plain, tasteless dress). Good 
 morning. {Takes a key from the board.) 
 
 (KiEMANN and Weidenbaum give a careless 
 return to the greeti^ig.) 
 
 Betty {stepping right up to Kiemann). Yester- 
 day you countermanded an order which I had given 
 to my class. If you try that again, I will play you 
 a tune that will make your eyes water — do you hear? 
 
 EiEMANN. But how did I ... I don't know 
 what ... I have only . . . 
 
 Betty. Kemember that. 
 
 EiEMANN {to himself J when she is out of earshot). 
 Old dragon ! 
 
 Betty {goes out with her sturdy step and runs 
 into the stomach of Vogelsang, who is coming in). 
 Why can't you look before you ? 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 21 
 
 VoGEL. {a jovial fifty-year-old, with a thick head 
 of grayish hair; strong, dark moustache and imperial, 
 and powerful voice. Smart appearance. Catches 
 Betty hy the elbows and pushes her a little hack into 
 the room. Lovingly). The sight of you dazzled 
 me, my dear lady. 
 
 Betty. You are a Jack Pudding. 
 
 VoGEL. My God, I know that ; but it needn't be 
 thrown in one's teeth every moment. 
 
 Betty. Let me go ! 
 
 VoGEL. (with a sigh). If it must be so. {She 
 tears herself off and goes out in a rage.) Good 
 morning, gentlemen. {Handshakes and greetings.) 
 Well, gentlemen, what say you to the last edict of 
 our friend Flachsmann ? 
 
 EiEMANN. Och ! he's just cracked. 
 
 Weiden. On principle, I never speak of the 
 orders of my superiors ; no good comes of it. I do 
 my duty and do not trouble myself about anything 
 else. 
 
 VoGEL. That is the safest way, Weidenbaum. 
 {Both of them go to the hack to get their keys.) 
 
 EiEMANN {puts himself at Weidenbaum's right). 
 Well, I must tell you now how it was. I play Ace 
 of Hearts, down come Eight and Ten, and then 
 Ace of Spades. (Vogelsang and Weidenbaum go 
 out chatting, without listening to him and he con- 
 tinues his tale to Negendank, who has come in 
 again.) Queen and Seven are played. Well, 
 naturally, I follow with Nine of Spades and 
 then . . . 
 
22 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 Negen. Mr. Kiemann, I don't understand any- 
 thing about Skat. 
 
 EiEMANN {with boundless astonishment). You 
 understand nothing about Skat? What then do 
 you play? 
 
 Negen. Solo. 
 
 Kiemann {with a laugh of lofty superiority). 
 Ha-ha, ha-ha ! Solo ? {Takes his key.) The man 
 plays Solo ! Well, listen ! You are — Solo ! {Goes 
 out.) 
 
 Mrs. D5r. {appears again at the door). Mr. 
 Negendank 
 
 Negen. Yes, yes, he must come now directly. 
 What exactly is it you want, Mrs. Dormann ? 
 
 Mrs. Dor. The principal thing was, I wished to 
 ask whether the school fee could not be forgiven 
 me. I 
 
 Negen. Dear Mrs. Dormann, that will not be 
 easy. We have in the last year expended something 
 like half a million on school purposes. And for all 
 that {with a wave towards the room) never a new 
 schoolhouse has come our way yet. We have been 
 making too much of a splash with our outlay, and 
 — well, I will put in a word for you. 
 
 Mrs. Dor. Ah, that is nice of you. 
 
 Negen. Yes, and then (Noise from the left.) 
 
 Hello ! That is Mr. Flemming again, take my word. 
 Sure enough ! 
 
SCENE IV 
 
 As before. Alfeed Biesendahl and Kobeet 
 Pfeiffee, two schoolboys^ rush in. Behind them 
 Flemming, plainly but very well and carefully 
 dressed; black coat and waistcoat^ light trousers; 
 fair moustache; self-possessed^ well-bred bearing. 
 Later Dieecks. 
 
 Flemming. You fellows must not kick up such a 
 row. 
 
 The Boys (pressing round him and besieging him). 
 Mr. Flemming, may I carry the globe? — please, Mr. 
 Flemming, let me — please, me, Mr. Flemming. 
 
 Flemming {with comical gruffness). Be quiet ! 
 (Takes the globe.) What is the name of the man 
 who carries the globe. 
 
 Alfeed. Ajax ! 
 
 Flemming. Ho ! (Jams down the cosy on his 
 head.) 
 
 Kobeet. Mr. Flemming, I know, I know. 
 
 Flemming. Well, out with it. 
 
 Kobeet (stuttering with excitement) . A- A- A- Atlas. 
 
 Flemming. There, Atlas, take the globe ; but 
 don't knock it about, or I'll make mincemeat of you. 
 
24 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 (Alfred laughs overloud.) Do not bellow like that, 
 man. {Goes to apress to the left.) And here (takes out 
 a rolled-up chart and gives it to the first boy) . . . 
 there ! 
 
 Alfred. What is that, Mr. Flemming ? 
 
 Flemming (confidefitially) . That is the picture of 
 Joe Miller's grandmother ! (Both boys laugh.) 
 Little chaps langh nicely, you know ! The horse 
 neighs. Man laughs. When we play on the grass : 
 then we neigh. Do you see ? 
 
 The Boys. Yes, Mr. Flemming ? 
 
 Flemming. Bless you ! Eight turn. March ! 
 (The boys exeunt.) They are happy, Mrs. Dormann ; 
 what do you think ? They laugh at their luck, 
 whether it is good or ill. 
 
 Mrs. Dor. Yes, Mr. Flemming. Say good 
 morning, Max. 
 
 Max (comes down on Flemming's hand with a 
 mighty smack). Morrow ! 
 
 Flemming (bends down to the lad). Is that the 
 youngest ? 
 
 Mrs. D5r. Ah, Mr. Flemming, what a notion ! 
 There are three others after him. 
 
 Flemming. I say, youngster, shall we have a 
 merry-go-round ? 
 
 Max. Oh yes ! Let us. 
 
 Flemming (squats down, sets the boy on his right 
 knee and turns very rapidly in a circle) . Do you 
 like that ? 
 
 Max. Oh, yes ! Some more ! 
 
 Flemming. When you come back. Now I must 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 25 
 
 go to the other children. They all want merry-go- 
 rounds. 
 
 Mrs. Dor (in delight and excitement). Mr. Flem- 
 ming, I was always wishing to have a word with 
 you. 
 
 Flemming. Is that so ? Certainly. 
 
 Mrs. Dor. Yes, I wished some time to thank 
 you for my Peter. Since the little fellow has been 
 with you he is not the same boy. The youngster 
 was not to be lugged into the school. (Confidentially 
 but emphatically.) Especially Mr. Diercks — the little 
 fellow ab-so-lutely could not abide him. Mercy me, 
 what a worry it was! All week mitching, and all 
 week mitching ! 
 
 Negbn. Aye, the deuce he was ! The rogue 
 made it warm for us. It is nearly a year ago that 
 he was standing here beside Mr. Flachsmann and 
 was in for a caning. And just as Mr. Flachsmann 
 turns his back (at the recollection of the occurrence, 
 shaking with hearty laughter) the little fellow 
 springs, if you please, out of the window. Just out 
 of the window, as true as I am standing here. As a 
 member of the staff the thing has naturally caused 
 me great distress ; but it was infernally good sport. 
 
 (Diercks, big man, with full, brutal, beardless face, 
 which reveals an expression of bucolic craft. 
 Speaks always in a swaggering tone. Well 
 dressed (shooting jacket), with sporting air. 
 Comes from the left out of the apparatus room 
 and busies himself at a press. He is evidently 
 
26 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 listening and following what is said with 
 grimaces of mochhig jealousy.) 
 
 Mbs. Doe. Yes — and now ? I cannot always be 
 without the lad with so many little children. I 
 have no husband now and must be going to strange 
 houses to sew ; and you know well, Mr. Flemming, 
 that, with six young ones, a woman is not as strong 
 as she was before, and so the big boy must help now 
 and then. That is the way with so many children ; 
 and when they are once there we don't want any 
 of them away, you know right well. But I have 
 only to say, " Peter, you must go to school to-day 
 an hour later" — you have the little fellow crying as 
 hard as he can. 
 
 Flemming. He is a pretty forward child ; he is 
 beginning already to have a good deal of sense. 
 
 Mrs. Dor {decisively). No. He is so fond of 
 your lessons. And you have trusted him from the 
 j&rst ; and that way you can get anything out of him. 
 That was the way with his father before him. 
 
 Flemming {pulling out his watch), Mrs. Dor- 
 mann, I must now 
 
 Mrs. Dor. But I wanted only to say to you, Mr. 
 Flemming — listen now : I have no money, but if 
 you have anything at all to sew and darn and mend 
 — bachelors have always something coming off. 
 
 Flemming {sportfully surveying himself). Is 
 that so? 
 
 Mrs. Dor. Then won't you give it always to 
 me? It won't cost you a penny . . . 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 27 
 
 Flemming {with rising laughter) . Dear Mrs. Dor- 
 mann, we work here altogether gratis — well, all but 
 gratis. And when you tell me anything, Hke that 
 story of your Peter, then I am over-paid. That is 
 the thing to make a schoolmaster proud and rich. 
 
 Mrs. Dor {looking thoughtfully at him). Yes, that 
 must be so indeed — for if it weren't ? I cannot 
 understand where you get the patience. I could 
 never be a teacher . . . 
 
 Flemming. There you are, Mrs. Dormann, I 
 could be nothing else. If I could not be a teacher — 
 it would be all up with me. But now I must be off. 
 {Going.) 
 
 DiERCKS. Say, Flemming. 
 
 Flemming. Yes ? 
 
 DiERCKS {taking him a little aside. Mrs. D5r- 
 MANN retires with Negendank to the corridor). 
 Have you heard the very latest performance of 
 our respected Chief? 
 
 Flemming. Hm ? 
 
 DiERCKS. From this out every answer which a 
 pupil gives must be assigned a value on the spot, 
 thus : How much are 3 + 4 ? 3 + 4 = 7. Keport ! 
 How many legs has the dog? The dog has four 
 legs. Keport ! And these values must then be 
 compiled in weekly and monthly returns. 
 
 Flemming. He is a fox. 
 
 DiERCKS. A fox ? 
 
 Flemming. Yes. He makes his living with a 
 thousand returns. 
 
 DiERCKS. Ha-ha, very good. Moreover, in future 
 
28 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 all books must be covered with ash-coloured paper, 
 and no other colour is to be allowed. 
 
 Flemming. Well, well ! " Highest bliss to man 
 is given in his " * — uniformity. In this ingeni- 
 ously conducted school you can commit any im- 
 becility. Of one thing only you must be very 
 careful — that all are imbecile together. 
 
 DiERCKS. Yes, but what I meant was, we can- 
 not put up with a thing like that. You ought to 
 put in a word on the subject. You're the proper 
 person. 
 
 Flemming. I ? No, my dear fellow, I was once 
 foolish like that. You push me forward, and behind 
 my back down you come ; and then I'm the — the — 
 improper person. I do not mind some vexatious 
 tricks and rebuffs ; but after all I should not like to 
 have to give up my profession and take to selling 
 lottery tickets. If you will take up something in 
 common I will certainly not stand out; as for the 
 rest, I bear on my own back the yoke {with a gesture 
 to the outside) of this . . . fellow so long as I can . . . 
 not longer. 
 
 * A reminiscence of a Goethean apophthegm. 
 
SCENE V 
 
 As before. GiSA Holm, pretty, slender thing of 
 scarcely middle height, with large, very lively 
 eyes, brown hair daintily curling mi the brow 
 and the temples, and very brisk movements. In 
 dress and bearing she offers a complete contrast 
 to the type of woman school-pedant ; her dress is 
 fashionable and very elegant, but by no means 
 showy or over-stylish. Coquettish sunshade ; in 
 her bosom she wears a very beautiful rose. 
 
 GiSA. Good morning, gentlemen. {She takes a 
 key from the board.) 
 
 DiERCKS {affecting to jest, but really malicious). 
 Miss Holm ! It is quite five minutes to eight. 
 
 GiSA (gaily snubbing him). Then it is high time 
 for you to be in your class. 
 
 Flemming. And again so beautifully decked with 
 roses. Wherefore this exuberance ? 
 
 GiSA. To vex our beloved Chief. I know he 
 cannot bear me to wear flowers. (Flachsmann's 
 voice is heard.) Hush, gentleman, the hooded 
 crow ! 
 
 90 
 
SCENE VI 
 As before. Flachsmann. 
 
 Flachs. (behind the scene) . There is again a cap 
 hanging on the lower hook! I have ordered the 
 caps to be hung on the upper hooks. (Enters, A 
 spare man in the fifties, thin beard which still shows 
 some dark spots, gold spectacles. His tone varies 
 between hypocritical geniality and cool, rigid, official 
 insolence. His head has a marked forward droop, 
 and his glances seem to be always peering round every 
 corner. When he looks any one in the face — which 
 is not often and, in spite of all his insolence, with a 
 certain timidity — he does so with a sort of upward 
 slinking side-look. He wears a neat but threadbare 
 grey frock-coat. After giving greeting) . Mr. Flem- 
 ming, your class was not under supervision. 
 
 Flemming. I know it, Mr. Flachsmann. Was 
 it noisy ? 
 
 Flachs. (evasively, with malicious tone). It was 
 not under supervision. 
 
 Flemming. It was not noisy, then. I am glad 
 of that. (Outside.) Goodbye, Mrs. Dormann ; 
 goodbye, Maxi. (Goes off.) 
 
 30 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 31 
 
 (DiEECKS has followed the last incident with 
 appropriate looks, and interchanges with 
 Flachsmann a meaning look and walks off 
 in a leisurely way to the Third Class on the 
 other side of the corridor. GiSA is also about 
 to go.) 
 
 Flachs. Ah— Miss Holm ! 
 
 GiSA. Mr. Flachsmann ? 
 
 Flachs. Yesterday in the school and during the 
 school hours you sang aloud, and moreover danced 
 the whole length of the corridor. You are very 
 fond of dancing? 
 
 GiSA. Passionately ! Do you know Godfrey 
 Keller?* The 
 
 Flachs. {cutting her short). No. I do not care 
 with whom you dance. But I should like to repeat 
 to you a couple of verses about dancing 
 
 GiSA. Ah ! Goethe's {giving him a languishing 
 look) 
 
 " Leave them to whirl on and let us go straying ; 
 Straying of love is a dance all divine." 
 
 Flachs. Goethe I never read, Miss Holm. The 
 verses to which I refer run thus : — 
 
 ♦• Dance, hunt, game, stage, and all that sort of thing 
 The world would hold to be quite free from sin. 
 But if you will take heed to good advice: 
 There are ice holes upon that kind of ice." 
 
 * A Swiss poet of the last century. 
 
32 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 GiSA {with repressed mischief and assumed serious- 
 ness). Hm! Hm ! From Henry Heine, are they 
 not? 
 
 Flachs. Miss Holm! I do not jest. When 
 you dance in your private capacity I cannot prevent 
 you . . . 
 
 GiSA (drily). No. 
 
 Flachs. You have, however, danced in the 
 school. 
 
 GiSA. Yes. I felt so tremendously jolly just 
 then. 
 
 Flachs. That will not do. 
 
 GiSA. No ? 
 
 Flachs. No. It is quite unbecoming. A school- 
 mistress should ... I wished for some time to tell 
 you . . . {meaningly) in her clothing ... in the 
 dressing of her hair . . . and in her whole demean- 
 our continually offer to the children an example of 
 quiet seriousness and staid dignity. 
 
 GiSA {with carefully assumed simplicity). Am I 
 not doing so, then? 
 
 Flachs. Alas, no ! You are now once for all a 
 mistress ... 
 
 GiSA. Alas, yes. 
 
 Flachs. . . . and must presumably remain so, 
 unless you get married . . . 
 
 GiSA. Ah ! I should like so much to be. But I 
 cannot propose to anybody. 
 
 Flachs. {guardedly). One would almost think 
 that would be in accordance with your notions. 
 
 GiSA. Do you think so ? Well, perhaps I do too. 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 33 
 
 Flachs. I would also wear no flowers in the 
 school, Miss Holm. 
 
 GiSA. And still they must be so attractive to you ! 
 
 Flachs {confused). That is not the question now. 
 Flowers are not for the school. 
 
 GiSA (emphatically). There I differ entirely. 
 
 Flachs. {very gruffly). Miss Holm! It is not 
 your opinion but mine that decides here. 
 
 (GiSA makes a deep how with a grave countenance 
 and goes. Behind his hack she noiselessly 
 makes a couple of turns rounds while she 
 comically poises on her hips and makes faces 
 at Flachsmann. Then she walks gravely out.) 
 
SCENE VII 
 
 Flachsmann, then Negendank. 
 
 Flachsmann has taken his seat at the writing-table 
 and takes up a pen deliberately. He rings. 
 
 Negen. (enters, as ever, with soldierly bearing and 
 imperturbable calm) . Mr. Head Master ? 
 
 Flachs. I have ordered that the black ink is to 
 stand on the right and the red ink on the left. 
 
 Negen. Certainly, Head Master. 
 
 Flachs. But the red ink is on the right and the 
 black on the left. 
 
 Negen. Certainly, Head Master. 
 
 Flachs. If I do not take care I shall be writing 
 an official document with red ink. 
 
 Negen. Certainly, Head Master. (Exchanges the 
 ink bottles.) 
 
 (The school bell is heard sounding.) 
 
 Flachs. (looks at his watch; excitedly). It is 
 ringing nearly two minutes late. Who has the 
 ringing to-day ? 
 
 Negen. Mr. Diercks, Head Master. 
 
 Flachs. (immediately breaking off). Ah ! Send 
 in the people. 
 
 84 
 
SCENE VIII 
 
 As before. Mes. Doemann and Max. Mes. Doe- 
 MANN comes in with her little boy. 
 
 Flachs. (looking up, in a casual tone). Mrs. 
 Dormann? What can I do for you? 
 
 Mes. Doe. I wished to enter my Maxi. 
 
 Flachs. Sit down. (A solemn pause, during 
 which Flachsmann writes.) 
 
 Max (suddenly and very loudly, while he points 
 at a lesson-picture hanging on the wall). Ooh, 
 mamma, just look, what a big stork ! 
 
 Mes. Doe. (distressed). Hush ! 
 
 'FhAGBis. (gruffly). Sssh ! (^After a second pause, 
 during which he has continued his writing, he turns 
 with official affability to the boy and holds out his 
 hand.) Well, my little man, and what is your name? 
 (Max draws shyly back.) 
 
 Mes. D5e. Give your hand, now, at once. (Max 
 does so reluctantly.) 
 
 Mes. Doe. What is your name ? 
 
 Max. Maxi Dormann. (Pulls back his hand 
 quickly from Flachsmann and presses back again 
 to his mother.) 
 
36 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 Flaohs. (business-like). Have you the papers ? 
 
 Mes. Doe. Yes. (Gives them.) 
 
 Flachs. Very well. You will have the decision 
 in due course. 
 
 Mes. Doe. (shyly). Mr. Flachsmann. 
 
 Flaohs. Hm ? 
 
 Mes. Doe. Would it be perhaps possible that 
 the fees could be forgiven me for the two 
 eldest? 
 
 FjjACB.s. (becoming reflective). Why? 
 
 Mes. Doe. I just can't raise the money. I work 
 for fifteen shillings a week, and out of that I have to 
 feed six children and after that pay the fees. I 
 don't know how I am to do it. 
 
 Flachs. Well, you see, Mrs. Dormann (ivhile he 
 taps her shoulder near the breast), you could . . . 
 Negendank, go round with this list through all the 
 class-rooms . . . 
 
 Negbn. With pleasure, Head Master. (Goes 
 out.) 
 
 Flachs. (moves his chair nearer to Mes. Doe- 
 MANN and lays his hand again on her shoulder. 
 During the conversation he frequently lets his hand 
 slide down on Mes. Doemann's rounded arm; he 
 lays his hand on her thigh, dc. He speaks with 
 lustfully maudlin amiability. Mes. Doemann meets 
 his advances with repugnance checked by timidity). 
 Look, Mrs. Dormann, could you not possibly earn 
 more ? 
 
 Mes. Doe. No ; how am I to do that ? 
 
 Flaohs. Well, perhaps a way could be found. 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 37 
 
 Mrs. Dor. Oh, if you could do that . . . 
 
 Flachs. Perhaps I might help you. 
 
 Mrs. Dor. Yes? 
 
 Flachs. Oh ! Yes, I am in close touch with the 
 best circles. ... If I recommend you, you are 
 recommended . . . and, anyhow, you would be very 
 well paid ... if I put in a word for you. 
 
 Mrs. Dor. Ah ! that would be very nice of 
 you. 
 
 Flachs. Hm ... I will look after it at once. 
 . . . (Goes to a press to the right, tahes out a note- 
 book, then approaches Mrs. Dormann from behind, 
 and puts his arm round her in a fatherly, affec- 
 tionate sort of way, while he is unable to suppress 
 the quiver of lustful excitement in his voice.) You 
 know, my dear Mrs. Dormann, we must not give up 
 hope yet . . . 
 
 Mrs. Dor. (starts up and draws the little boy 
 towards her). Excuse me, Mr. Flachsmann ... I 
 ... I cannot wait longer ... I have to go home 
 . . . the little ones . . . and do not trouble your- 
 self about the situation ... I ... I can't under- 
 take any more ... I am well enough . . . just 
 leave them . . . (Speechless.) 
 
 Flachs. (quite cool). As you will, Mrs. Dor- 
 mann. But as to remitting the school fees, do 
 not entertain any hope ... it cannot be done. 
 
 Mrs. Dor. But my children must have bread 
 before I pay school fees. 
 
 Flachs. (contemptuously). That is your view of 
 the matter. 
 
38 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 Mbs. Doe. Yes. Maybe I am to let my 
 children starve. 
 
 Flachs. {goes to the middle door and opens it). 
 Next, please. 
 
 Mes. Doemann and Max go off, while Beockmann 
 enters,) 
 
SCENE IX 
 
 Flachsmann. Brockmann, a little shrivelled bit 
 of a man, remains standing in the background, 
 twirling his hat in his hand. 
 
 Flachs. Come nearer. 
 
 Brock. Thank you kindly, Head Master, thank 
 you kindly, 
 
 Flachs. Sit down. 
 
 Brock. Thank you kindly. Head Master, thank 
 you kindly. (Is sitting down in the chair to the 
 left.) 
 
 Flachs. (pointing to the chair to the right). 
 This side ! . . . What can I do for you ? 
 
 Brock. I come on account of my Kodolph, Head 
 Master. 
 
 Flachs. Hm ? 
 
 Brock. Indeed, he has been beaten by Mr. 
 Flemming. 
 
 Flachs. {greatly interested). Aha ! (Genially.) 
 And the boy has been hurt? 
 
 Brock, (eagerly) . Oh, no ! 
 
 Flachs. However, you come to complain of Mr. 
 Flemming. 
 
 89 
 
40 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 Brock. No, no! It was to thank him, to 
 thank him ! 
 
 Flachs. {coldly). Indeed. 
 
 Brock. Yes, to thank him from the bottom of 
 my heart. Indeed, we can't make anything of the 
 youngster. The youngster is full stronger than my 
 wife and me together. He is too much for his own 
 father and mother. He wanted to beat his own 
 mother ! Somebody must have told Mr. Flemming 
 about that, and he got terribly angry and got hold 
 of the youngster and gave him a right whaling. 
 And that was a great help ! Now we have only to 
 say, " Mr. Flemming shall get to know that," . . . 
 then he knuckles down. The man has been a God- 
 send to us. He is the only one he has respect 
 for . . . 
 
 Flachs. {who has listened with a very had grace 
 and with an occasional ironical **IZm," cuts him 
 short with a rude gesture). Very well. I will see 
 to it. Good morning. 
 
 Brock, {taken aback). Good . . . good morning, 
 Head Master. 
 
 Flachs. {at the door). Come on, please. 
 
SCENE X 
 
 Flachsmann. Mrs. Biesendahl. Later Negen- 
 DANK and Alfred Biesendahl. 
 
 Mrs. Bies. {forty -year-old woman of faded looks, 
 who in dress, speech, and air endeavours to play the 
 fine lady. She seems very indignant). Good 
 morning, Head Master. 
 
 Flachs. Good morning, Mrs. Biesendahl ; be 
 seated. How can I serve you? 
 
 Mrs. Bies. Head Master, I am compelled un- 
 fortunately to make a grave complaint with regard 
 to Freddy's teacher. 
 
 Flachs. So it's Mr. Flemming again? 
 
 Mrs. Bies. Precisely. 
 
 Flachs. Such complaints are, I am sorry to say, 
 nothing new to me, dear Mrs. Biesendahl. What is 
 it, then? 
 
 Mrs. Bies. Head Master, you know that we 
 desire a very good education and that we try to 
 keep away all coarseness from our children. My 
 husband is an official and I am the daughter of 
 an officer in the Customs, so I need hardly tell 
 you that in our house the children hear nothing 
 
42 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 nasty. But Mr. Flemming permits himself to 
 use expressions to the children which are simply 
 shocking. 
 
 Flachs. Aha ! at his bad language again. What 
 has he said ? 
 
 Mrs. Bies. Head Master, you can imagine that 
 it is not easy for a refined lady to take such gutter 
 language into her mouth; but, after all, we must 
 protect our children. "Mutton-head" is what he 
 has said to my child. 
 
 Flachs. Indeed. (Presses the knob on the table.) 
 
 Negen. {enters). Mr. Head Master? 
 
 Flachs. Just fetch Alfred Biesendahl out of the 
 First Class. 
 
 Negen. Directly, Head Master. (Goes out,) 
 
 Flachs. Has he used other abusive terms ? 
 
 Mrs. Bies. (taxing her memory). For the moment 
 I cannot think of any. And even the word " Mutton- 
 head" I have learnt first from other children; my 
 boy said nothing of it at home. But it must not 
 rest there. Our children hear no coarse or rude 
 expressions at home, so we cannot allow them to 
 hear anything of the kind in school. My husband 
 was frightfully angry; I had great trouble in 
 pacifying him. 
 
 (Alfred enters,) 
 
 Flachs. (with official affability). Now, my son. 
 Tell me, now, have you ever been abused in this 
 school ? 
 
 Alfred (wondering). Abused ? . . . No-o ! 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 43 
 
 Flachs. Think, now. Has not, for example, 
 Mr. Flemming ever said "Mutton-head" to you? 
 
 Alfeed {thinking it over, dry and genial). 
 Oh, yes! 
 
 Flachs. Perhaps Mr. Flemming has used other 
 abusive words also? 
 
 Alfeed. Abusive words ? No-o ! 
 
 Flachs. {encouraging him in a pleasant way). 
 Think, now, just quietly . . . now? 
 
 Alfeed. Oh ! Mr. Flemming is always making a 
 joke with us ; he takes us by the ears and says, 
 ** Look out, you rascals, I'll hang you up by the 
 legs," and then we laugh like anything. 
 
 (Mes. Biesendahl shakes her head angrily and 
 exchanges a look with Flachsmann.) 
 
 Flachs. Yes, but we are not talking now of 
 cracking jokes ; I mean, has Mr. Flemming ever in 
 earnest slanged you ; for example . . . "blockhead" 
 . . . or "jackass" . . . or " bullock." 
 
 Alfeed. No; "bullock" is what my father 
 always says. 
 
 Mes. Bies. Oh, Freddy ! 
 
 Flachs. That will do, my son ; you can go. 
 
 [Alfeed goes out. 
 
 Mes. Bies. I cannot imagine where the boy has 
 got that . . . my husband never says anything of 
 the kind . . . 
 
 Flachs. You can rely upon it that I will severely 
 reprimand Mr. Flemming ; I require my people to 
 
44 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 treat children in a kindly spirit and to refrain 
 absolutely from all offensiveness or derision. 
 (Meaningly,) Truly, if a man has not a genuine 
 love . . . 
 
 Mrs. Bies. Yes, Mr. Flachsmann, you may well 
 say that. This Mr. Flemming seems to be altogether 
 an extraordinary person to be training young people. 
 I have been told that he has actually hung up a 
 picture of a naked man in the class and has taught 
 the children from it. I don't think that such things 
 should be in the school ; and a teacher, who has to 
 train up young people, should keep himself under a 
 little restraint. {Pretentiously.) When a man has 
 no ability, he is not worth anything in any way. 
 
 Flachs. Mmm. . . . Yes, dear Mrs. Biesendahl, 
 this instruction is not after my own heart ; but we 
 have to teach it. Well . . . that is all right ! 
 (Slight how.) Goodbye. 
 
 Mrs. Bies. Goodbye, Head Master. 
 
SCENE XI 
 
 Flachsmann. Negendank. Then Diebcks. 
 
 'FijA.cu^. (calling out), Negendank! 
 Negen. Head Master. 
 Flachs. Have you the absence list ? 
 Negen. Certainly, Head Master. 
 Flachs. And the excuse notes ? 
 Negen. Certainly, Head Master. 
 
 (Flachsmann takes the list and seats himself, 
 Negendank, with some notes in his hand, 
 also approaches the table.) 
 
 Flachs. Charles Dierckmann is absent again. 
 What is wrong with him? 
 
 Negen. Here is the note. {About to read,) 
 
 DiEROKS {comes hastily through the middle door), 
 Mr. Flachsmann! Can I speak to you for a 
 moment ? 
 
 Flachs. Yes ? Is it something . . . ? 
 
 DiERCKS. Yes. {Nods.) 
 
 Flachs. Negendank, leave us alone. 
 
 Negen. With pleasure, Head Master. {Goes.) 
 
 DiERCKS. Great news ! 
 
 45 
 
46 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 Flachs. Well ? 
 
 DiBRGKS. Weidenbaum has just come into the 
 class-room and told me that Kleinmiiller died last 
 night. That makes a place vacant in the first 
 salary grade. Flemming and myself have the first 
 claim for it. We have the same amount of service. 
 
 Flachs. Well, you need not trouble yourself at 
 all ; leave it to me. I have reported on you and 
 him in such a way that you get the promotion 
 and he doesn't. 
 
 DiERCKS. Is that so ? Ah, but, my dear fellow, 
 the thing does not appear to me by any means so 
 certain. 
 
 Flachs. {with a glance at the doors). Pst ! {He 
 goes to the left-hand door and makes sure that there 
 is no one behind it.) 
 
 DiERCKS {lower) . Who knows whether the rascal 
 has not his friends on the Board ? The scoundrel is 
 a fine hand at putting his best foot foremost. That 
 was his way long ago at the Training College. Jack 
 Flemming was always a prime boy. Why, he always 
 had " views " in his compositions and lessons and 
 nothing behind it ! And he peached on the other 
 men to the principal 1 
 
 Flachs. {anxious and uneasy). Is that true? 
 
 DiERCKS {drawing hack at once). Of course, I 
 cannot prove it . . . you need not let it go farther 
 . . . but I could swear to it. Of course, he managed 
 it so that nobody noticed anything. It was not for 
 nothing that it was "Flemming here " and ''Flem- 
 ming there." And look now, if I could once cut out 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 47 
 
 this rascal, if I could say to his face, " You, the 
 sapient Flemming, the 'gifted' Flemming, *the 
 universal genius,' you are not promoted, but I am 
 promoted "... that would be a real treat, that 
 would be the greatest triumph I could imagine. 
 
 (DiEBCKs's class meanwhile has become noisier and 
 noisier. The gentle prattle at first has gradually 
 risen to a babel of voices.) 
 
 Flachs. {almost timidly). You must really look 
 after your class. 
 
 DiEECKS (opens the middle door, stands in the 
 open class-room door and shouts in). Will you be 
 quiet? (Instantly a dead silence prevails.) If I 
 hear as much as another sound, I'll take the first 
 fellow out and give him a whipping that he will 
 remember. (Closes the front door.) Look, now; 
 the Board will sit on Friday morning. They will 
 certainly call for a report from you before then. 
 The Inspector, too, will make inquiries of you 
 during the next few days ; and so I wish to supply 
 you with some material. 
 
 Flachs. (with malicious eagerness). Ah! Have 
 you anything fresh ? What is it, then ? 
 
 DiBECKS. I lately took his place in his class 
 when he was ill. 
 Flachs. Yes, yes ! And ? 
 DiEECKS (cocksure). Just take your note-book. 
 (Flachsmann quickly seats himself at the desk.) 
 (Standing in front of the desk, reading out.) Now : 
 Mr. Flemming's pupils could repeat the Prophets of 
 
48 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 the Old Testament well enough forwards, but could 
 not repeat them backwards. 
 
 Flachs. And yet I have expressly prescribed this 
 exercise. 
 
 DiEECKS. Eighty-three per cent, of the scholars 
 were not writing at an angle of 45 degrees, some 
 more slanted, and the greater number far more 
 upright. Mr. Flemming had told the boys they 
 could do for that just as they wished. 
 
 Flachs. That is . . . that is really . . . this 
 audacious rascal is upsetting everything that I 
 have built up. 
 
 DiEBCKS. On the 27th of May Mr. Flemming, of 
 his own authority, granted permission to a boy 
 to absent himself from two lessons. 
 
 Flachs. It is incredible ! Without asking me ! 
 DiEECKS. Mr. Flemming moreover related to 
 his class the "Wanderings of Ulysses," although 
 they are not in the Syllabus. 
 
 Flachs. The man is getting bolder, instead of 
 humbler. 
 
 DiEECKS. On the 15th of June . . . that is to- 
 day . . . Mr. Flemming described his superior, the 
 Head Master, as an old fox. 
 
 Flachs. {with calm complacency). Indeed ! Then 
 he does not appear to think me such an utter fool as 
 he did before. 
 
 DiEECKS. Oh, but ! Yes, indeed. He said just 
 after that under your management nothing but 
 imbecihty was done ! The great man of course 
 makes an exception of himself ! 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 49 
 
 Flachs. Well, well ! We will imbecility him. 
 
 DiEECKS. Now listen to this: On the 8th of 
 June Miss Gisa Holm visited Mr. Flemming in 
 his class-room ; on the 13th of June Mr. Flemming 
 visited Miss Holm in her class-room ; and on the 
 14th of June Miss Holm again visited Mr. 
 Flemming in his class-room; and on each 
 occasion they spent a considerable time, up to 
 thirteen minutes, privately in the respective 
 rooms. What do you think of my observations. 
 
 Flaohs. That is very interesting. That is 
 quite . . . 
 
 DiERCKS. It cannot go into your report, but it 
 can be used otherwise. 
 
 Flachs. That is really delicious. And to me she 
 is . . . {all at once recollecting himself) I mean . . . 
 generally to the rest of us in the school she is 
 always the Lady Disdain. 
 
 DiERCKS. She will soon be more approach- 
 able. 
 
 Flachs. We must keep a good look-out there. 
 {hi the excitement over the last piece of intelligence 
 has risen and walked up and down. The talking of 
 the class has again swelled to a mighty hubbub. 
 Flachsmann goes over and places himself in the 
 class-room door.) {With official amiability,) Ah ! 
 dear children! What conduct is this? I am sure 
 you are dear good children. Now just be quite quiet 
 and well-behaved and do your lessons. 
 
 Chorus of Children {behind the scene), Yesss! 
 
 Flachs. Do you promise me that? 
 4 
 
50 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 Choeus. Yesss ! 
 
 (Flachsmann comes hack and again closes the 
 middle door.) 
 
 DiERCKS. You must especially make it plain in 
 your report that he is continually undermining your 
 authority ; that in the conferences he is always in 
 opposition, and with his eternal proposals and 
 innovations keeps the whole staff in a state of 
 commotion : you can put up with that least of all. 
 
 Flachs. Don't you trouble yourself. Leave it 
 to me. I have myself a pile of things against 
 him. He will not be promoted ; you can take 
 your oath of that. {Timidly.) But you had better 
 go to your class now .... 
 
 DiERCKS. Hm. 
 
 Flachs. And . . . look . . . Diercks . . . 
 
 DiERCKS. Well ? 
 
 Flachs. The other day you wrote business 
 letters during school hours ... for your insurance 
 agency . . . don't let any one see that. 
 
 DiERCKS. If you shut your eyes, nobody will 
 see it. 
 
 Flachs. Well, you are different, but still it is 
 not in order. If the Inspector were to come . . . 
 
 DiERCKS. My dear fellow, no one knows better 
 than you do that the Inspector sees nothing but 
 what you show him. 
 
 Flachs. Yes, but somebody from the Depart- 
 ment might come. 
 
 DiERCKS. Have you ever seen one? And if 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 51 
 
 anybody does come, he is swaddled up so that 
 his eyes are watering. And you are a good hand 
 at a march-past display. 
 
 Flachs. Just so. And if Flemming sees 
 through it? 
 
 DiEECKS. Flemming ? The great man carries 
 his nose much too high; he sees nothing. And 
 if he does see anything, he never tells. 
 
 Flachs. And just now you said yourself that he 
 had peached to the head of the Training College. 
 
 DiEBCKS (embarrassed for the moment). Yess! 
 even if . . . that is something different. . . . 
 
 Flachs. Anyhow, I must tell you this : you 
 must not go any farther ... I certainly won't 
 stand in your way . . . but I cannot permit that. 
 The Inspector has already dropped a remark . . . 
 
 DiEECKS. That is not true! Or else you have 
 given him a hint. Otherwise it would never enter 
 his head. I vote we stick to our old bargain: 
 you do nothing to me and I'll do nothing to 
 you. You'll get into no tight place through me, 
 make your mind easy. {Great uproar and crying 
 from the class, as if a beating were going on.) 
 Damned pack ! {Goes in a rage into the class-room.) 
 
 Flachs. {to himself looking after him). Pick- 
 pocket ! If I could once get properly rid of you ! 
 {Sits down at the table and after a little time presses 
 the bell.) 
 
SCENE XII 
 
 Flachsmann. Negendank. 
 
 Negen. Head Master I 
 
 Flachs. Negendank! {confidentially) > Can you 
 report anything to me about Flemming? 
 
 Negen. About Mr. Flemming? No, Head 
 Master. 
 
 Flachs. You know, I told you you might take a 
 look sometimes . . . and keep your ears open .... 
 what Mr. Flemming is up to . . . in his class-room 
 . . . and elsewhere . . . don't you remember that? 
 
 Negen. Certainly, Head Master. 
 
 Flachs. Well ? What have you seen ? 
 
 Negen. I, Head Master ? 
 
 Flachs. Yes, yes ! 
 
 Negen. Nothing, Head Master. 
 
 Flachs. Nothing? (Stealthily.) I told you, 
 you know, you were, without anybody seeing, to 
 go into the room next to Mr. Flemming's class, 
 where you could hear every word plainly, and see 
 everything through the split in the packing of 
 the wall. 
 
 Negen. Certainly, Head Master. 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 53 
 
 Flachs. Well, have you done so? 
 
 Negen. No, Head Master. 
 
 Flachs. {angrily). Why not? (Negendakk re- 
 maining silent) {Sharply hut in suppressed tone.) 
 What I tell you, you must do, once for all. 
 
 Negen. Certainly, Head Master. 
 
 Flachs. I cannot do everything, you know. 
 
 Negen. No, Head Master. 
 
 Flachs. You're a dolt. 
 
 Negen. {steadily and with military composure). 
 No, Head Master. 
 
 Flachs. What ? 
 
 Negen. {as before), I am no manner of dolt. 
 
 Flachs. Tut! read the notes. (Negendank 
 puts a pair of pince-nez with tape on his nose 
 and takes the excuse notes,) What is up with 
 Charles Dieckmann? 
 
 Negen. {reads with imperturbable gravity and in 
 a business-like tone) : — 
 
 ** Honourable Mister Flachsmann, — The 
 undermentioned certify hereby that on account of 
 a marriage pledge us have over-sleeped the time. 
 This morning sure enough we are the worse of 
 it, you know very well ; and when we look at the 
 watch and think it be seven, it is eight sure enough, 
 because it has stopped. Consequentially, please not 
 to punish my son Charles, for it is just myself that 
 has earned the flogging, which like a gentleman you 
 must excuse. 
 
 " Fred Dieckmann." 
 
 Flachs. Yes, a whipping too would be very 
 
54 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 healthy for the good people ... it is a pity they 
 can't get it. 
 
 Negen. But, Head Master, I think we must 
 still have some regard to the economic conditions ; 
 the man has to work hard every day 
 
 Flachs. Go on, go on. Gustavus Waldau. 
 
 Negen. {reads) : — 
 
 ** Most Noble President, — With deep regret I 
 take my pen, in order thereby to inform your 
 honour that I have kept my Gussy from school 
 for three days on account of sickness of his person. 
 The doctor holds it for an acute stomach guitar, but 
 I'm thinking inside mumps. 
 
 "With most humble reverence, 
 
 "Lizzie Waldau." 
 
 Flachs. She should have sent notice before, the 
 good woman. 
 
 Negen. Yes, but I think we may make 
 allowance here, Head Master ; she is a very nice, 
 refined woman . . . 
 
 Flachs. (casually). What is it she writes? 
 "Most noble . . .?" {tahes the note and reads). 
 Hem . . . well ... I will overlook it this time, 
 but tell her that she must give timely notification 
 of her son's illness. Go on. Hermann Stoppen- 
 brink. 
 
 Negen. (reads) : — 
 
 "Eespected Master, — My gentle better-half 
 has bolted. So I am here all alone and am wife, 
 man-servant, maid-servant, cattle, and all that shall 
 be ; therefore Hermann is late in coming to-day. 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 55 
 
 Don*t be angry, Master; the wife has never been 
 any good. This certifies with deep respect, 
 
 " John Stoppenbeink. 
 *' Widower for the time being y with four children'* 
 Flachs. a pigsty of a household ! 
 Negen. So I always thought. The woman was 
 to me in a manner a philological riddle. . . . 
 Flachs. Indeed. Go on. Gerard Maass. 
 Negen. (reads) : — 
 
 "Most Honoured Sir, — My son cannot go to 
 school, because he has hurt his foot. 
 
 ''With deep respect, 
 
 Frederick Maass." 
 Comical style! {A knock.) 
 Flachs. Come in. 
 
SCENE XIII 
 
 Flachsmann. Negendank. School Inspector 
 Brosecke enters. {Greats burly and very 
 well-nourished gentleman, with red, round 
 face, snow-white hair and minister's heard. 
 No spectacles. Long frock-coat buttoned up. 
 His whole appearance breathes good cheer, 
 comfort, and tremendous good-humour. The 
 old boy has a broad, festive way of speak- 
 ing. He accompanies his words very often 
 with a cheerful laugh, apropos of nothing.) 
 
 Bros. Good morning, my dear Mr. Flachs- 
 mann. 
 
 Flachs. (treating him with great deference, but 
 without any embarrassment). Ah, good morning, 
 Mr. Inspector. This is a great honour, Mr. 
 Inspector. Be so very kind as to take a chair. 
 
 Bros. Thank you, thank you (about to seat 
 himself on the ordinary chair to the right). 
 
 Flachs. Pray here, Mr. Inspector, if you 
 please. 
 
 Bros, (seats himself in the arm-chair to the left). 
 Thank you, many thanks, thank you. 
 
 56 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 57 
 
 Flachs. Negendank, leave the notes here in the 
 book. I will look after them myself. And take 
 this order and get it signed by all the members of 
 the staff. 
 
 Negen. Certainly, Head Master. (Goes out.) 
 
 Bbos. Always on duty ! always organising ! 
 
 Flaohs. Order rules the world, Mr. Inspector. 
 
 Beos. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha . . . yes, yes. It is always 
 a pleasure to me to see your school, ha-ha-ha . . . 
 everything goes there like grease, like . . . like clock- 
 work . . . ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. Everything miHtary ; 
 ruff, ruff, ruff, ruff . . . like the drill-ground . . . 
 ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. Bravo, bravo ! You make my post 
 an easy one, dear Mr. Flachsmann. 
 
 Flachs. That gives me a great deal of pleasure, 
 Mr. Inspector. Will you not just hear the teaching ? 
 
 Bbos. {with great energy and laughingly depre- 
 cating) . No no no no no no no ! Why should I ? 
 I know that all is going capitally ! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha 
 ... I should only be interfering and deranging 
 the machinery — ha-ha-ha-ha . . . Yes. 
 
 Flachs. And how is your health, Mr. Inspector? 
 
 Beos. Aaaaah I . . . that might be better. I 
 have always at night such an oppression in the 
 stomach— ha-ha-ha-ha. . . . Yes (earnestly). By the 
 way, now I think of it, I wished to ask you the 
 address of the people you buy your ham from. 
 
 Flachs. I will write it down for you, Mr. 
 Inspector. 
 
 Beos. The ham is, I tell you . . . oooooh . . . 
 that ham is something really marvellous. The lean 
 
58 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 so ... so firm . . . and still as tender ... as, as 
 short-dough. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha . . . and the fat ! Eosy 
 as apple-blossom ! And sweet ! {screwing up mouth 
 and finger) — sweet as a nut. Just . . .just de- 
 licious. 
 
 Flachs. {who has repeatedly assented, hands him 
 a slip of paper) . This is it, Mr. Inspector. 
 
 Bros, (reads). "Joachim Immensack" . . . (the 
 rest unintelligible). Thanks, thanks, dear Mr. 
 Flachsmann, thank you very much. (The school 
 bell sounds.) What, is ... is that not nine 
 o'clock ? 
 
 Flachs. Yes, Mr. Inspector. 
 
 Bros. Oh, then I must see about getting on. I 
 have still to go next door to the girls' school. . . . 
 Ah, it's on my mind that there was something I 
 wanted you . . . (lays his fingers on his forehead) 
 hmm . . . No, I can't remember it. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha 
 . . . can't remember it ! Well, goodbye, dear Mr. 
 Flachsmann, goodbye ; don't stir. 
 
 Flachs. If you please, Mr. Inspector (escorting 
 him to the door). 
 
 Bros, (suddenly turns round in the door). Stay, 
 now I have it. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. Eight. On Friday 
 morning we have a meeting, and a teacher is to be 
 promoted then into the first salary grade in place of 
 the late . . . eh ? . . . 
 
 Flachs. Kleinmiiller. 
 
 Bros. Eight : Kleinmiiller. It lies, so far as I 
 know, between two gentlemen from your school 
 . . . Mr. Diercks, I think, and Mr. . . . 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 59 
 
 Flachs. Flemming. 
 
 Beos. Flemming, that's it. Which, then, do 
 you recommend, eh ? 
 
 Flachs. Mr. Diercks, unquestionably. 
 
 Beos. Very well. Mr. Diercks. He is the son 
 of our late clerk, Diercks, that we had at the School 
 Board, is he not ? 
 
 Flachs. Quite so, Mr. Inspector. 
 
 Beos. Very well. Then you do not recommend 
 Mr. Flemming ? 
 
 Flachs. No, by no means. Mr. Flemming is an 
 offensive and refractory man, full of intellectual 
 arrogance, although he wants nearly every qualifi- 
 cation for a good teacher. He is, unfortunately, 
 a very disturbing element in our school system, 
 and will never accommodate himself to strict 
 discipline . . , 
 
 Beos. {who for the first time exhibits any ex- 
 pression of serious concern). Oh ... I am sur- 
 prised, Mr. Flachsmann. And yet this Flemming 
 has the reputation of being an uncommonly gifted 
 man ! Yes, yes, I have myself often found that. A 
 great talent is as often a curse as a blessing. That 
 has always been a consolation to me. Yes. Well, 
 you will send me a report on both of them, won't 
 you? 
 
 Flachs. Of course, Mr. Inspector; and you will 
 see from these detailed reports that, in justice and 
 reason, only Mr. Diercks can be promoted. 
 
 Beos. Yes, yes, yes, Mr. Flachsmann. I leave 
 myself entirely in your hands. " Detailed_^report,*' 
 
60 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 that's the thing. I shall then be fully acquainted 
 with the case, of course. Very good. Well, cm 
 revoir. 
 
 Flachs. Au revoir, Mr. Inspector. {Goes out 
 with him,) 
 
SCENE XIV 
 
 Flachsmann. Negendank. Immediately after 
 Flemming. 
 
 Flachs. {standing before the door on the passage, 
 his hand over his eyes). Is not that Mr. Flemming 
 standing there ? 
 
 Negen. Certainly, Head Master. 
 
 Flachs. Ask him to come to me. 
 
 Negen. Directly, Head Master. {While he goes 
 to the right) Mr. Flemming . . . {The rest un- 
 intelligible.) 
 
 (Flachsmann seats himself at his table and talces 
 up a black letter-case.) 
 
 Flemming {enters and walks up to the table). 
 Mr. Flachsmann ? 
 
 Flachs. {with official impressiveness). Take a 
 seat. (Flemming sits down.) You are free at 
 present, are you not? 
 
 Flemming. Certainly. 
 
 Flachs. {after an impressive pause). A report on 
 you has been called for. In order to show you how 
 thoroughly candid and generous I am in dealing with 
 
 61 
 
62 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 you, I will communicate to you orally the strictures 
 which I intend to pass. 
 
 Flemming {quite cool during the first half of the 
 scene). Would it not be still more candid and still 
 more generous if you were to let me read the whole 
 report ? 
 
 Flachs. The reports are confidential. 
 
 Flemming. But it is your duty to communicate 
 your strictures to me personally. 
 
 Flachs. It is altogether in my discretion how 
 far I shall discharge this duty. 
 
 Flemming. A duty should be fully discharged, 
 Mr. Flachsmann. 
 
 Flachs. I am glad to find that you have now 
 discovered that. 
 
 Flemming. That is no discovery, Mr. Flachs- 
 mann; that was always my established principle. 
 
 Flachs, {irritably). Let us come to the point. 
 I will take first what concerns your conduct when 
 off duty. The day before yesterday you returned 
 from a carousal with several friends at three o'clock 
 in the morning, and then from pure wantonness 
 flung yourself, with all your clothes on, into the 
 mill-pond and swam about in it for a considerable 
 time. 
 
 Flemming {gaily). Yes, it was capital ! 
 
 Flachs. You were then noted by a policeman 
 for unauthorised bathing. 
 
 Flemming. True. 
 
 Flachs. I wish to draw your attention to the 
 fact that by such proceedings you forfeit in the eyes 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 63 
 
 of the parents that respect which is necessary for a 
 successful discharge of your duties. A teacher must 
 exercise quite exceptional caution. 
 
 Flemming {drily). If he cannot swim, un- 
 doubtedly. 
 
 Flachs. I am not speaking of swimming, but 
 quite generally. You have also attended a public 
 meeting, where the Housing Problem was dis- 
 cussed. 
 
 Flemming. True. As teacher I am interested 
 in the dwellings of my pupils. 
 
 Flachs. That is unnecessary. A teacher must 
 restrict himself entirely to the work in his class and 
 cheerfully leave all such things to the authorities. 
 
 Flemming (still with quiet enjoyment). But you 
 are quite unaware that I was cordially received by 
 the meeting. 
 
 Flachs. That is a matter of indifference. A 
 teacher should remain entirely apart from public 
 life. That retains for him the respect of the 
 citizens, and is also safer for him. 
 
 Flemming. Mr. Flachsmann, I attach much 
 more importance to my rights than to my safety. 
 
 Flachs. {spitefully). All right, if you are wiUing 
 to bear the consequences. 
 
 Flemming. That will I. 
 
 Flachs. To your conduct while on duty still 
 greater exception can be taken, unfortunately. 
 
 Flemming {dolefully). Ah! 
 
 Flachs. On one hot day you brought the 
 children to the yard and allowed them to take off 
 
64 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 their jackets and taught them yourself in your 
 shirt-sleeves. 
 
 Flemming. Do you know that Pestalozzi often 
 did the same? 
 
 Flachs. Pestalozzi could do what he hked. You 
 can not do what you like. Apart from the fact that 
 it was highly discreditable and indecent, you did not 
 ask my permission : that is the worst feature of all. 
 The teacher must submit to the superior authority. 
 
 Flemming {calmly). The teacher must not be a 
 slave, says Kousseau; otherwise he makes of the 
 child another slave. 
 
 Flachs. Eousseau is nothing to me. For my 
 school the important thing is what I say. The 
 school is not to make slaves of the children, but 
 subjects. 
 
 Flemming. Aha ! 
 
 Flachs. Further, you have repeatedly overlooked 
 errors in the written exercises of the pupils. 
 
 Flemming. Mr. Flachsmann ! After correcting 
 fifty exercise books, a man at last becomes stupid. 
 The only man that doesn't become stupid is the man 
 that has no occasion to become so. 
 
 Flachs. Oh ! I have in my life corrected just as 
 many exercise books and I have not become stupid. 
 
 Flemming {drily). No? 
 
 'FhACB.s, (stares suspiciously at him). No. Farther, 
 you permit yourself arbitrary deviations from the 
 programme. For instance, you have set only fifteen 
 towns in England while the programme prescribes 
 thirty-three. 
 
MASTER FLACHSMAN:N 65 
 
 Flemming. On the other hand, I have told the 
 children a lot about coal and cotton — things which 
 they daily use and have before their eyes, and which 
 for England and Germany are of more importance 
 than 197 towns. The children enjoy it, and it is 
 more to their advantage than cramming their heads 
 full of dead names, for which afterwards no mortal 
 man would give a straw. 
 
 Flachs. {with calm malignity), Mr. Flemming ! 
 All these notions you can certainly entertain, only 
 you must not put them into practice in the school. 
 You have also told the ** Wanderings of Ulysses " to 
 the Third Class. 
 
 Flemming. Certainly. On account of their 
 immense poetic value . . . 
 
 Flachs. Mr. Flemming! Poetry is an extra. 
 Poetry has no business in the school ... so far, 
 of course, as it is not prescribed by the Board. 
 That brings me to another point. It is part of 
 the . . . ** reforms," which you are so eager for, 
 that you should try to bring Art into the school. 
 You have hung the walls of your class-room with 
 pictures ; you grow flowers in the class-room ; you 
 have even gathered the children in the evening, 
 have read them things of Goethe and Schiller, 
 and have provided them with music. By that 
 means you simply give the children a craving, and 
 divert them from the essentials. I must forbid 
 that. 
 
 Flemming {still controlling himself), Mr. Flachs- 
 mann ! You cannot endure me since the first day I 
 
 5 
 
66 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 put foot in your school. That is mutual ; no more 
 can I you. Why shall we not speak out honestly ? 
 I applied, as you know, a full year ago for a trans- 
 fer. The officials did not understand my feelings. 
 Boards never know that a man has feelings. The 
 Board " notified " me "in the negative," and 
 directed me to conform to the instructions of my 
 superiors. 
 
 Flachs. (with triumphant malice) . Was that so ? 
 
 Flemming. But we are two incompatible op- 
 posites. You are for repeating a million times ** the 
 good old plan," I am for testing the new. That is 
 the abomination of school-mastering ; there is no 
 flight of Icarus, no enterprise, no storm, no stress. 
 The man who wishes to do something great wishes 
 for the impossible. You choose to walk in the steps 
 of your hundred thousand predecessors, I seek for 
 new ways, I . . . 
 
 Flachs. {still with malicious placidity). Mr. 
 Flemming, the school has no need for your new 
 ways. It needs only faithful discharge of duty, 
 especially loyalty in little things. Teaching is now 
 so perfected that it needs no reforms. 
 
 Flemming {mimicking his tone). Mr. Flachs- 
 mann ! So the Chinese think ; not so the Germans. 
 I must try another way of explaining myself to you. 
 To you school-mastering is a trade, to me it is an 
 art. You imagine you can '* regulate" the correct 
 education. . . . Mr. Flachsmann, not with a million 
 " regulations " can you get near the work of a 
 teacher. When I stand in front of my fifty little 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 67 
 
 chaps, then in front of me rise up fifty souls and 
 fifty Hving organisms. When the fifty hearts strive 
 towards me and I give to them the best, the fairest 
 that I have, then every third party is an intruder, 
 then wells up from my powers the law of my 
 creative force. When I stand before my fifty little 
 chaps there are one-and-fifty forges at work in 
 whose fire the future, not the past, is wrought. 
 (Growing warmer.) You have had for my work 
 and its fruits never a look, never a word. For 
 four years I have been gasping for breath in this 
 atmosphere of intellectual death. For four years 
 you have been screwing me down as if I were a 
 dead wheel in the dead machinery of your school. 
 I am a free creative mind, and create what I will 
 and what I must. 
 
 Flachs. (as above). For all that, you must 
 permit me in future to supervise your work 
 somewhat more closely than hitherto. (Flemming 
 rises with a sudden start.) Why do you rise? 
 I have not yet dismissed you. 
 
 Flemming (very curt and gruff). I wish to stand. 
 
 Flachs. (watches him with an upward look). 
 You will henceforth each day submit the exercises 
 of your pupils to me for inspection. (Flemming 
 regards him steadily and in silence. Pause.) (As 
 above, gradually becoming less positive.) You will, 
 farther make written preparation for your lessons 
 and submit these notes to me each time for 
 examination. (Flemming as above. Pause.) (As 
 above, growing still more uncertain,) You will, 
 
6S MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 farther, send me in a report in writing on the 
 result of each lesson. (Pause.) In this way I 
 still hope in time to make an efficient teacher 
 of yon. 
 
 Flemming (still regards him steadily, and then 
 bursts into a roar of laughter.) Ha-ha-ha-ha- 
 ha-ha ! 
 
 . . . You hope to make an efficient teacher of me ? 
 Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha ! . . . Are you, then, a teacher ? 
 
 Flachs. (on the watch.) So I thought. 
 
 Flemming. You? A teacher? You are a 
 scholastic cobbler. And a paltry one at that; 
 with no more than a single last. (Pause.) 
 
 Flachs. (has slowly risen and stands behind his 
 table.) Mr. Flemming, you must know that for 
 this expression you will have to answer before 
 the Disciplinary Board. Meanwhile to me you 
 have to render an account of another matter. 
 Although I ordered it, you have not punished 
 your pupil, Peter Dormann, who was insubordinate 
 to Mr. Diercks. 
 
 Flemming. The lad, Peter Dormann, was wan- 
 tonly and unjustly accused by Mr. Diercks. The 
 boy justified himself in a proper way. Therefore 
 Mr. Diercks called him a "brazen liar" and 
 attempted to beat him. This the boy resisted, 
 and in doing so he acted rightly. 
 
 Flachs. (loftily). That is quite irrelevant. A 
 pupil must, under all circumstances, obey. 
 
 Flemming. That is your system, I know. All 
 character and originaHty is crushed. But I do not 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 69 
 
 acquiesce. Whether I pocket a wrong is my own 
 concern. My pupils I protect. 
 
 Flachs. Well, then the boy will be punished 
 by some one else. 
 
 Flemming. I do not think so, Mr. Flachsmann. 
 Whoever strikes the little chap must first strike me, 
 and as for me ... I pay back. 
 
 Flachs. {scolding). Mr. Flemming! You will 
 yet find that I am master here. 
 
 Flemming {with lofty superiority.) Mr. Flachs- 
 mann! That is an error. You are the higher in 
 rank, but I am the master. I close the conference. 
 {Goes out,) 
 
 DiEECKS {comes hastily from the door of the 
 apparatus room). That is really magnificent. 
 
 Flachs. That breaks his neck. 
 
 The Curtain Falls. 
 
SECOND ACT 
 
 The assistants' room. On the wallsj maps and 
 observation charts, a time-table, and a press 
 with a small reference library ; two large 
 portraits of Pestalozzi and Comenius. A door 
 in the middle, a window to the right front. In 
 the middle of the room a table to seat eight or 
 ten persons. On the table stands to left and 
 right a large ink-bottle. 
 
 SCENE I 
 Betty Stubhahn. Weidenbaum. 
 
 Betty {sits before a high pile of exercise books 
 and corrects with great energy, underlines them 
 with emphasis, revises, bangs down the exercise 
 books and stows them in a heap. Underlining one 
 error with specially ponderous fury) . Thunder and 
 lightning ! 
 
 Weiden. {enters). Good morning, madam. 
 
 Betty {with her usual gruffness) . Morning. 
 
 71 
 
72 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 Weiden. (proceeds with circumstantial delibera- 
 tion to prepare his lunch. He takes a spirit lamp 
 from a press, lights it, aiid sets on it a small tea- 
 kettle, fetches a cup and pours into it a carefully 
 measured quantity of [meat extract, dc). I prefer 
 now to boil the water for my soup myself; the 
 porter's wife never cooks it enough. And I have 
 to be so careful about my stomach. (Betty 
 remains silent.) (Goes out and fetches water in 
 his tea-kettle. Returns. ) Well, have you heard 
 that the business is in full swing? The inquiry 
 about Flemming has begun. Flachsmann has 
 furnished a report, and the report is with the 
 Board by this time. (Betty gives a S7iarl and 
 corrects on.) Yes, and when the thing has gone 
 before the Board, a man may pack up his traps. 
 It has become serious. He is sacked without 
 mercy. The new Head Inspector lately sent a 
 teacher straight home out of the class and said 
 he need not come back. Simply packed off, without 
 " by your leave." They say that he said, ** If a man 
 does not do what he is bid, I'll chase him out, till 
 he hasn't a shoe on his foot." He is a slasher, oh 
 my! (Betty silent.) Well, I must say, I think 
 that is quite right. Subordination there must be. 
 If the teacher does not obey, how are his pupils to 
 learn obedience? If you run risks you'll come to 
 grief. Isn't that so? (B:ktty as before,) Perhaps 
 I disturb you ? 
 
 Betty (bluntly.) You do. 
 
 Weiden. Pardon. (After a short pause.) Well, 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 73 
 
 that is what he has got by his eternal objec- 
 tions and self-conceit and his new ideas. I have 
 been eighteen years with Mr. Flachsmann; but 
 have you ever heard that I have gone against 
 him? 
 
 Betty {energetically.) No! Except when it 
 was about the salary question, then you were 
 the bitterest of all ; that is, when there was no 
 risk. 
 
 Weiden. Oh, well, that is a totally different 
 thing, surely ? . . . Hem . . . When I want to, I 
 have new ideas myself; but I do not bring them into 
 the school. That only causes trouble, and brings a 
 hornet's nest about one. I do my duty, and don't 
 trouble myself about anything else. No man in the 
 wide world can get anything against me. If the 
 Education Minister himself were to come here he 
 could not get anything against me. I have never 
 in my life got a reprimand. Why doesn't Flem- 
 ming do the same ? I can't be sorry for him. {The 
 school hell sounds.) 
 
 Betty {energetically packs up her exercise hooks 
 and puts them under her arm) . Well ! I will tell you 
 something. To me Mr. Flemming is an abomina- 
 tion, like all other men. Because he is possessed 
 by the fiend of pride, like all other men. And 
 because he is such a silly as to let himself be 
 befooled by a pretty, smooth chit of a face, like 
 all other men. But, it is not much to say, after 
 all he is at least a man. 
 
 Weiden. Ah ! and I am not a man, eh ? 
 
74 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 Betty. You / Listen. If you are a man then 
 your tea-kettle is a man! Good digestion! 
 
 [Exit through the middle, where she meets 
 Vogelsang and Eiemann, who have just 
 entered. They make way for her almost 
 timidly, and she strides sturdily, without 
 word or look, between them. 
 
SCENE II 
 
 EiEMANN (resuming an interrupted conversation 
 with triumphant gusto). Well, of course, he takes 
 my Queen of Clubs with his King and plays the 
 Ace after. I play my Knave of Diamonds. Then 
 I play Ace of Diamonds ; down come King and 
 Seven, then Ace of Spades, down come Queen 
 and Eight, then Ace of Hearts, Nine of Hearts 
 and Seven ; the Ten of Clubs that had been cast 
 makes 62. Magnificently won ! Ha, ha, ha, ha ! 
 
 VoGEL (has lit a cigar). You play Skat every 
 day, I suppose? 
 
 EiEMANN. What else is a man to do ? 
 
 VoGEL. Well, a man might, for instance, read 
 something. 
 
 KiEMANN. I read as well. 
 
 VoGEL. What do you read ? 
 
 EiEMANN. Oh ! ... the paper. 
 
 VoGEL. How long do you play every day ? 
 
 EiEMANN. Well . . . about from seven to twelve 
 ... at most. 
 
 VoGEL. Five hours. ... I say, that is mag- 
 nificent. And what do you do before? 
 
 EiEMANN. I sleep before. 
 
 T6 
 
76 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 VoGEL. What, you take your dinner nap till 
 seven o'clock ? 
 
 EiEMANN. No-o-o ... I drink some coffee . . , 
 and then I go down now and then to my land and 
 dig and rake a little. 
 
 VoGEL. A contemplative existence 1 Does Hfe 
 never bore you? 
 
 EiEMANN (na'ively.) No. 
 
SCENE III 
 ^5 before, Flachsmann. Later Diercks and 
 
 KOMER. 
 
 Flachs. Gentlemen, will you fill up these lists, 
 eh ? And . . . very likely Mr. Inspector Brosecke 
 will come to-day and have a look at the classes. 
 
 Weiden. The Inspector ? 
 
 Flaghs. Yes. Be a little careful, therefore, that 
 everything is in order, if you please. 
 
 The Best {nonchalantly.) Yes . . . Yes. 
 
 VoGEL {holding his cigar hidden behind his bach). 
 How is it we have the honour of a visit ? This did 
 not occur before. 
 
 Flachs. Ah ! ... on account of . . . Flem- 
 ming. It is only that he may have been here 
 and informed himself a little, in case he is ques- 
 tioned. 
 
 Weiden {with smirking humility). Well, Mr. 
 Inspector wrings nobody's neck. 
 
 Flachs. That is as it may be; but everything 
 must be in order. 
 
 Weiden. Yes, yes ... I do my duty ... so 
 far as I am concerned. . . . 
 
 77 
 
78 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 KiEMANN (inquisitively). Is the inquiry to come 
 off soon? 
 
 Flachs. Yes. (Short pause. Diercks and 
 KoMER come in.) Mr. Flemming has charge in 
 the playground, I think? 
 
 Diercks. Yes. 
 
 Flachs. Has he not also the next hour free? 
 (Goes to the time-table and runs his finger along it.) 
 
 Vogel. (takes a pull at his cigar.) Certainly. 
 
 Diercks. He and Miss Holm, I believe. 
 
 Flachs. Hem ! . . . (After he has found the 
 place.) So it is ; Flemming and Miss Holm . . . 
 (Exchanges a glance with Dibucks). H'm! (sniffing.) 
 Gentlemen ! Somebody has been smoking here 
 again. 
 
 Vogel. (also sniffing). Yes, it seems so. 
 
 Flachs. Give that up, gentlemen. I have 
 already repeatedly forbidden it. You give the 
 pupils an example of extravagance. 
 
 Vogel. (assenting with perfect composure). Un- 
 doubtedly. 
 
 Flachs. A teacher should not smoke at all. 
 
 Vogel. Hm ! 
 
 Flachs. Salaries appear to be still too high. 
 (Goes out.) 
 
SCENE IV 
 
 As before, except Flachsmann. Later Flemming. 
 
 Some of the gentlemen have unfolded their 
 
 lunch and fetched beer or milk from a press.) 
 
 VoGEL. {calmly resuming his smoke). He would 
 like to smoke himself, but his wife does not 
 let him. 
 
 DiEECKS (has walked to the windoWy to the right 
 front). Just look at the turmoil down there. 
 (Opens the window, the distant noise of children 
 playing is heard.) Just listen to the row. (Closes 
 the window again.) It is always the same when 
 he is in charge. And still we have to maintain 
 discipline. 
 
 We IDE N (has also gone forward). Yes, and then 
 the children come heated and with red cheeks into 
 the class-room. He lets the children in on him too 
 much ; he romps about with them himself as if he 
 were a youngster. 
 
 EoMER (beardless, high-spirited young fellow of 
 twenty -one years. Jdger's ^^ normal" dress, linen 
 stand-up collar) . He is bound to. A schoolmaster 
 is bound to. 
 
 79 
 
80 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 Weiden. Indeed ! And if a youngster breaks 
 his leg we get into a mess about it. 
 
 KoMER {emphatically). Better a broken leg than 
 a broken people. (Vogelsang- smiles.) 
 
 The Others. Whoo ! 
 
 KoMER. That is the reason why the young ones 
 idolise him. And not merely for that. Because he 
 is, after all, one of the finest schoolmasters there 
 are. {The rest, except Vogelsang, laugh loud.) 
 
 EiEMANN {eating.) Flemming ? Flemming ? 
 That is a silly fellow. (Vogelsang laughs com- 
 fortably.) Ay, so he is too. If he wasn't such 
 a silly fellow he wouldn't be doing things to get 
 him dismissed. And besides, he is, for instance, 
 only a very middHng mathematician. 
 
 VoGEL. Have you proved that to him, Kie- 
 mann ? 
 
 EiEMANN. That is nothing to the point, sure? 
 I know it from Schwensen, who says it too. 
 
 DiERCKS. Well, does he know anything possibly 
 in other branches? It is all pure claptrap. He 
 knows how to put on a show ; a blab he is. 
 
 Weiden. Yes, and a bad comrade. He always 
 puts himself forward. His way of always showing 
 off by holding forth in public and making pedagogic 
 dissertations . . . you must yourselves admit that 
 is not comradely. {Assent.) 
 
 VoGEL. {imperturbahly) , Yes, and the worst is 
 (general attention) — the worst of all is that he knows 
 more than the whole of us together. {Scoffing and 
 shouts of protest.) 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 81 
 
 EiEMANN. That is not true. 
 
 DiERCKS. Eidiculous ! Kubbish ! 
 
 Weidbn. We'll drop that. y Together, 
 
 EoMER. Indeed, he does know! In- 
 deed he does ! 
 
 VoGEL. Well, boys, if you have any honesty, 
 you must admit that yourselves. When Flemming 
 at the conference lets himself out properly, we all 
 sit there like rushlights and the sorriest bit of a 
 dip is our friend Flachsmann. Flachsmann knows 
 nothing except his miserable Sic volo, sic jubeo — 
 I will have it so, and what I will must be done. 
 Ha, ha, ha ! Boys, it was a treat, to be sure, the 
 day Flemming stood up and said as calm as you 
 like, **Mr. Flachsmann, the chief thing in the 
 school is not you, but the children ! " 
 
 DiBROKS (with malicious triumph) . Just so ; that 
 is the reason why he is getting the run now. 
 
 KoMER. Is that so ? We'll see that first. That 
 would be a shabby trick. Then we protest. 
 (Laughter.) If they knew up at the Board what a 
 
 genius he is (Loud derisive laughter from the 
 
 others except VoaELSANG.) 
 
 EiEMANN. Dear Eomer, you are still a little 
 too green to have your say with colleagues of 
 experience. Get a little experience first. Get 
 twenty years older first; judgment comes with 
 years. 
 
 Eomer. Well, if that is your only hope . . . 
 
 EiEMANN (not understanding). How so ? hope ? 
 
 VoGEL (with a complacent laugh, with a fatherly 
 
 6 
 
82 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 air to KoMEB). Comrade, I must confess you 
 might be a little more subdued; but I will by all 
 means admit that when we were at your age we 
 were the same sort of cocky dogs, only we have now 
 forgotten it. Sentiment's good . . . and you are in 
 the right too . . . only the temperature a little 
 lower, what do you say? 
 
 EoMER (docilely). Yes. 
 
 KiEMANN. What do you mean by that ? That's 
 cheek. (Komer starting up again. Vogelsang 
 calms him and presses him down again on his seat.) 
 
 Weiden (sarcastic and moralising). That is the 
 spirit of pride, which, I am sorry to say, is rampant 
 among our young colleagues and by which our 
 friend Flemming is possessed from head to foot. 
 I must say, it is very much to my liking that the 
 new Head Inspector has made up his mind to make 
 a clean sweep there. He chucks the unruly elements 
 simply to the deuce. That is the man for me. 
 Monsieur Flemming is always thinking he must 
 "elevate" the school and always still more 
 " elevate." 
 
 DiEROKS. I tell you, he never thinks of the 
 school. The fellow has no heart for the school. It 
 is himself he wants to elevate. Just a common 
 place-hunter he is. 
 
 VoGEL. No, no. 
 
 KiEMANN. So he is. And then, what is the 
 meaning of all this idiotic rubbish : " Parents* 
 Evenings, Parents' Evenings"? He wants "to 
 establish the natural alhance between parents and 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 83 
 
 teachers." ** The whole people are to have a share 
 in the work of the school." What is the meaning of 
 such twaddle? What do the parents know about 
 children ? I am very glad that the parents keep 
 clear of me. And what comes of it ? Only more 
 work for us. " On at least one evening in the 
 month," he thinks, " parents and teachers should 
 meet together." I have no such notion. I have no 
 time in the evening. 
 Wbiden. Not at all. -| r^^,^;^,^. 
 
 DiEECKS. No. J 
 
 EiEMANN {growing warmer and warmer). And 
 after all, we had better see that the work of the 
 teacher is simplified. What is the use of trash like 
 geometry and history and such like? When the 
 children learn to read and write that is quite 
 enough. What more do they want? 
 
 VoGEL. Eiemann, don't be so niggardly. 
 
 KiEMANN (foolishly). Niggardly . . . How? 
 
 VoGEL. And then you have left out another 
 necessary branch. Arithmetic. 
 
 KiEMANN. Well, well. Arithmetic. 
 
 VoGEL. They will need that later on for Skat. 
 
 Eiemann (more and more excited). And then the 
 next is that nonsensical stuff, ** We must bring 
 Art into the school." Such rot ! What do the 
 children know of Art? Art is entirely a thing 
 for rich folk. And then : " Growing flowers in the 
 school." He has all the window-sills full of flowers. 
 {Silly laugh.) Just as if the children were all to 
 be gardeners ! 
 
84 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 Weiden. To begin with, I have moral scruples 
 about this so-called " aesthetic culture." 
 
 DiERCKS. Quite right. 
 
 EiEMANN {simultaneously, very excitedly). Yes. 
 But stop, I must tell you something. I was lately 
 one day in his rooms — I must tell you this. He 
 has a picture there. There is a soldier sitting with 
 a plumed hat on his head, sitting before a table laid 
 out, and holding up a glass of champagne. And 
 a woman sits on his knee and he has his arm round 
 her waist. And the two look as bold as brass out of 
 the picture. What's this it's called? I . . . 
 he told me what it's called . . . m-m-m . . . 
 Kam . . . Kem . . . right — "Kembrandt als 
 Erzieher " is the name of it. (Vogelsang and 
 EoMER laugh loudly.) What is there to laugh at ? 
 
 VoGEL. Nothing, nothing ; tell us the rest. 
 
 EiEMANN. Well, I asked him, "Would you 
 hang up this picture now in the school-room ? " 
 "Why not, dear Kiemann?" said he. 
 
 VoGEL (laughing). Dear Kiemann, he has been 
 quizzing you properly again. 
 
 DiERCKS. But he has a half-naked figure stand- 
 ing on his school press ! And that is what is called 
 Art ! No such bawdry for me, thank you. It is 
 a real blessing that the fellow is to be hunted out 
 of the school. 
 
 VoGEL. But, boys, if he is so dead-broke as 
 all that, I don't understand why you get so excited 
 over him. You really are only showing what an 
 infernal respect you have for him. 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 85 
 
 EoMER. Just SO. {The rest set up together a 
 h/ugh of angry derision.) 
 
 DiERCKS. ''Dead-broke." He is not dead yet. 
 Who knows how that fellow will wriggle himself 
 out yet? He knows far too well how to play 
 the good boy. He has it in him. {With sudden 
 rage,) But this I will tell you : if the scoundrel 
 is not hunted, I will apply to the Board for a 
 transfer, on the ground that I will not work any 
 longer with such a fellow. (Vogelsang gives a 
 short laugh.) Yes, you always take his side, 
 Vogelsang. {The school hell sounds ; all rise to go 
 out. DiERCKS, catching a sudden idea.) Well, ask 
 Flachsmann what Flemming has said about our 
 staff. We are all dead and rotten ; he is going to 
 waste here among us ; he is the only one that is 
 alive. The whole body has no striving after higher 
 things, no idealism ; he is the only one has it. We 
 are rotten duffers; he is a second Pestalozzi. He 
 said those very words. If you don't beHeve me, 
 go down at once to Flachsmann and ask him ; we 
 have both heard it. You won't think, I suppose, 
 that we are both lying to you? 
 
 VoGEL {reflectively). That was certainly going 
 it strong. 
 
 KoMER. That is a shabby trick. If he said that, 
 I will never speak to him again. 
 
 DiERCKS. He said things of that kind before. 
 {Tries to convince Komer. Flemming enters^ 
 hangs his hat on a hook). I must to my class. 
 {Slips out the first with scarcely dissembled haste.) 
 
S6 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 Flemming. Ha ! it's cooler in here than outside. 
 Boys, that is a stew. Have you left me ever 
 a bottle of beer? (General silence. Kiemann 
 and Weidenbaum slip out quietly. Homer goes 
 brusquely past Flemming and cuts him; Flemming 
 looks after him ; Vogelsang goes out last thought- 
 fully, loith a searching look at Flemming. Flem- 
 ming looks after them bewildered and then breaks 
 into wild laughter.) Ha, ha, ha, ha! My case 
 must be a bad one ; they are edging off from me. 
 My colleagues shrink away with a shudder, the 
 "colleagues!" Ha, ha, ha! {Again looks towards 
 the door for a moment, then stretches his arms up- 
 loards with a disencumbering movement.) Well, 
 well. {Seats himself at the table to the right, sets to 
 work at a pile of exercise books, which lie on it, and 
 begins to correct, but soon rests his head on his hand 
 and stares straight before him.) 
 
SCENE V 
 
 GiSA. Flemming. 
 
 GiSA enters unobserved by Flemming. She is 
 wearing roses in her bosom and her hair^ 
 under the left arm she carries a pile of exercise 
 books. She watches Flemming a moment and 
 then ''hems.'' Flemming starts up and then 
 smilingly nods to her. 
 
 GiSA. May I correct here with you? Above 
 it is so hot. 
 
 Flemming. I beg you will, Miss Holm. 
 
 GiSA {lays her exercise books on the table and 
 seats herself to the left). What ails you? You 
 were sitting quite absorbed there, when I came 
 in. 
 
 Flemming. I was meditating on my own 
 enormity, and the amiability of other men. 
 
 GiSA. That sounds wrong. What ails you ? 
 
 Flemming. When I came up just now from the 
 playground my colleagues met my questions with 
 icy silence. They cut me ; I am boycotted. 
 
 GiSA. Then you must have been slandered. And 
 
8S MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 no person except Mr. Diercks can have done that. 
 I warned Mr. Vogelsang quite lately ; he would not 
 believe me ; but Mr. Diercks is a schemer, I see 
 it in him. 
 
 Flemming (calmly). Yes, he is a blackleg. One 
 of your well-fed blacklegs, fat and funky. So long 
 as they have to look one in the eye, they are 
 tolerably brave ; when they can look aside, they 
 are the greatest knaves. 
 
 GiSA. You know all that? And yet you are 
 often so free-spoken to him? 
 
 Flemming. Yes, I fear no schemer. (Bending 
 forward.) Look you, dear young lady, in the whole 
 animal kingdom there is no greater donkey than the 
 dirty dog. He recognises always too late that 
 he is really a mutton-head. (GiSA laughs.) That 
 is the zoology of moral philosophy. 
 
 GiSA. Won't you, then, take your colleagues 
 to task? 
 
 Flemming (a short laugh). No. 'Tisn't worth 
 while. 
 
 GiSA. You are fearfully proud. 
 
 Flemming (still correcting exercises), I daresay 
 I am. 
 
 GiSA. That is fine. . . . But you are depressed. 
 
 Flemming. Why ? 
 
 GiSA. Because you are to be dismissed. 
 
 Flemming (bends over his book) . Hm ! 
 
 GiSA (drumming on the table with comical anger). 
 Now leave that stupid correction alone. 
 
 Flemming. I must, unfortunately. 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 89 
 
 GiSA. Nonsense. I must also, but I don't do 
 it. (Flemming laughs out.) (Goes up to him, 
 takes the pen from his hand, bangs the exercise book 
 to, and lays it away,) Now ! Will you set no home- 
 work to-day? Teaching is stopped owing to the 
 heat ! There are 30 degrees in the shade ! 
 
 Flemming. That must be a little overdrawn. 
 
 GiSA. Oh, no. (Buns to the thermometer, which 
 hangs near the door.) My goodness! Only 
 19 degrees. Do you know what? We'll help it 
 a little. (Takes the thermometer from the wall.) 
 How many degrees must it be before school 
 stops ? 
 
 Flemming. Twenty-two. 
 
 GiSA (takes the thermometer and blows vigorously 
 on it,) I have it. 
 
 Flemming (laughing). Have you always such 
 an aversion to being in school? 
 
 GiSA. Aversion? Why these extenuating 
 phrases ? I know nothing that breaks up holidays 
 more horribly than school work. 
 
 Flemming. Ah ! now. 
 
 GiSA. Look ! You can give me a piece of 
 advice. 
 
 Flemming. Certainly. 
 
 GiSA. Just tell me some folly which is quite 
 decorous and is still simply colossal. 
 
 Flemming. And what do you want this folly 
 for? 
 
 GiSA. I will commit it. So that the Board may 
 dismiss me. 
 
90 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 Flbmming. Why, then, did you become a 
 mistress at all? 
 
 GiSA. Because my step-father forced me to. I 
 wanted to study music. But I wasn't allowed. 
 
 Flbmming. And why don't you give your step- 
 father the slip? 
 
 GiSA. Because I cannot desert my mother. Be- 
 cause I . . . but please do not laugh at me . . . 
 {lowering her eyes) because . . . because she says 
 that I am her only comfort. (Pause.) At first it 
 was very nice. Learning every day, that was 
 delightful. I should like to be always learning. 
 But teach I cannot possibly do. And then that 
 dreadful repetition. And the correcting ... I 
 can't do it. And then I am so awfully sorry that 
 I am such a bad teacher; the little things are so 
 sweet. But first I am too soft-hearted, and when 
 I become strict they laugh in my face. I can't 
 manage this frightful lot of children. (With comical 
 simplicity.) Ah ! if they were my own ! (Short 
 pause.) When I think of you . . . goodness ! You 
 curb the children with a firm hand, and still their 
 hearts fly to you. 
 
 Flemming. And yet I have fought the same 
 battle myself. 
 
 GiSA (astonished). How so? 
 
 Flbmming. I do not know whether you are 
 aware that I was a locksmith for six whole years. 
 
 GiSA. A locksmith ! 
 
 Flbmming (without sentimentality ^ narrating with 
 a quiet smile of recollection). My guardian declared 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 91 
 
 schoolmastering would be nothing for poor children 
 and stuck me in to learn the locksmith trade. All 
 day I stood at the anvil and turning-lathe; in the 
 evening I went to the Technical School. And when 
 I got home out of the Technical School, I fell to at 
 the handful of miserable books which I had. But 
 at that age one can sleep as greedily as one can eat, 
 and that is saying a good deal. My God ! how 
 delicious it was to lay my arms on the book and my 
 head on my arms and to fall fairly asleep. The 
 next day I suffered qualms of conscience Hke a 
 gamester who has played away all he has in one 
 night. (With pensive melancholy.) Ah, no ! no 
 gambler knows such pangs. It was an awakening 
 without hope, a grey, cheerless dawning. The more 
 my bodily powers felt refreshed, the more furiously 
 I raged against myself for succumbing. 
 
 GiSA (with heartfelt sympathy). And how did 
 you at last become a teacher? 
 
 Flemming. When I had been two years a 
 journeyman, I succeeded in getting into the 
 Training College. The principal overlooked the 
 gaps in my scholarship ; he felt, like me, that a 
 schoolmaster I must be. And then came a glorious 
 time of work and hunger. I spent most of the 
 winter in bed, for I could not afford myself coals. 
 I had threepence a day for breakfast and supper 
 and three free meals a week. At first I had five 
 free meals ; but for two of them I had to pay with 
 my principles, and I remained away. On Sunday, 
 for instance, I had no dinner. And it so happened 
 
92 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 that every Sunday my landlady made a wonderful 
 meat soup which sent its fragrance right up to my 
 room. Once I was on the point of giving in. My 
 landlady was holding a huge loaf in her hand and 
 was cutting it fine and deep. I had it on the tip of 
 my tongue to say, '* Give me the piece of bread" ; 
 but I held my hands behind my back and squeezed 
 one against the other so tight, so tight. When I 
 did that, nothing would shake me. So I instantly 
 turned on my heel and ran up the stairs. Of course, 
 in spite of all this, I had to go in debt ; but I became 
 a schoolmaster, and so with all my debts I was a 
 rich man ! (Short pause.) 
 
 GiSA (with her hands folded in front of her Jcnee 
 and with a far-away look of still, wistful exaltation.) 
 You are so strong, so brave. (A short, faint laugh.) 
 Ha, ha ! when I was still a quite silly little goose 
 . . . sillier even than I am now ... I could not 
 think of a strong, brave man except with great 
 beard and bronzed chest. I dreamt that my 
 husband must be a sailor. 
 
 Flemming {looking at her full in the face). And 
 now? 
 
 GiSA (starts suddenly, blushes red all over and 
 stammers in distress and confusion). Now ? Oh 
 ... I ... I don't know what I have been saying. 
 I have certainly been saying something stupid again 
 . . . I . . . (Grasps at an exercise book and begins 
 correcting with comical energy. Flemming regards 
 her a mome^it, then looks down, sighs deeply, and then 
 takes an exercise book and mechanically turns over 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 93 
 
 the leaves.) {Her calm tone restored, hut with- 
 out looking at him.) Now I see why you have be- 
 come nothing higher. I have so often thought : a 
 man of so much abiHty and force of character, why 
 has he become nothing higher than a schoolmaster ? 
 
 Flemming {gravely). There is nothing higher 
 than a schoolmaster. 
 
 GiSA. Oh yes ! I know. But say a master in 
 a High School ... or a professor in the Uni- 
 versity. . . . 
 
 Flemming. To my mind, my dear young lady, 
 the Elementary schoolmaster is the highest. Aye, 
 and the poorer, the more forlorn, the more neglected, 
 the dirtier the children, so much the more glorious 
 is the battle. You will hardly beheve that I had a 
 great longing to teach half-witted children. 
 
 GiSA. Ah! 
 
 Flemming {with genial cheeriness). Ah ! is there 
 any greater pleasure than to loosen one by one the 
 thousand bonds which clasp the imprisoned spirit ? 
 Than to lure forth the light which glimmers so far, 
 far away behind thousandfold glooms. To seek out 
 in his darkest den the great, bloated dragon of 
 stupidity, to slay him, and to lead forth in safety 
 the Princess Soul : that is the knightliest pleasure 
 that I know. 
 
 GiSA. And you were fated to encounter Flachs- 
 mann ! 
 
 Flemming {with a bitter laugh.) Yes ! {Jumps 
 up.) His spectre, carrying its head in its hand. 
 His memorandum book is really his head. If he has 
 
94 1 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 anything in the book he need never have it in his 
 head ; the thought holds him on his feet. My God, 
 what a fellow ! Let it be a tyrant, if you like, but 
 at least one who has some decent ability. But this 
 man does not object to being a nonentity, so long 
 as, like the axis of the earth, everything turns about 
 him. He is quite satisfied so long as he is on top, 
 like the fly on the back of a horse. 
 
 GiSA. Ah ! but you will get rid of him. And, of 
 course you will get a place at another school. 
 
 Flemming. After being dismissed ? After coming 
 to grief ? Certainly no place which I should choose. 
 In Germany none. To be sure, there are German 
 schools abroad. But, alas ! no school in Germany. 
 (With melancholy mockery.) '' Ah ! full many other 
 maidens ; but the One ... it is not she." 
 
 GiSA. You love the school as if it were a girl ? 
 
 Flemming (after a moment's reflection, hesitat- 
 ingly). Yes. Perhaps it is something like that. 
 And yet that, alas ! is not love enough. That is a 
 selfish love. It is a spiritual joy, which enraptures 
 me at my school work. The moment I begin teach- 
 ing a ferment stirs within my head of a thousand 
 notions as to how things now are, and of a thousand 
 hopes how it might yet be with the spirit of man ? 
 But when I ask myself : Do you really love the 
 children? You do for them perhaps all you can, 
 you wish for each of them the best . . . but is that 
 love . . . love? Then sounds the word in my breast 
 with a hollow clang. I long to feel for once this 
 unutterable glow, this inexhaustible stream that 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 95 
 
 lavishes the very life-blood. (He has stopped before 
 the picture of Pestalozzi and enthusiastically stretches 
 his arms towards it.) He could do that — Pestalozzi, 
 the great, the holy ! His thoughts were confused 
 and wayward, his speech chaotic; but from the 
 gloom of his thoughts bursts the nightingale of 
 love, sweet and full and unwearied. So long as I 
 am a schoolmaster I must wrestle with that tre- 
 mendous mystery : where is the path which leads 
 to the great love? 
 
 GiSA {after a pause, with timid awe). Do you 
 know how it strikes me? I had a little brother 
 who died when he was eight. Eudolph was his 
 name. And when I cannot manage one of the little 
 ones, when in despair I am half inclined to run 
 away, then I say quietly to myself, " Think that it 
 is Eudy." And then I get on a little better. 
 
 Flemminq (has approached her and takes her left 
 hand with his own). Dear . . . dear young lady. 
 That were perhaps the way . . . {looking at her 
 thoughtfully all the time). "When you came here 
 to our school I thought that you looked very sweet. 
 But that is a mistake ; you are sweet. 
 
 GiSA {bends her head, softly and with embarrass- 
 ment). Oh, no ! 
 
 Flemming. No? Among all the girls whom I 
 know there is none who so . . . whom I ... I 
 mean, who so . . . {He falls into great confusion.) 
 Pardon me, lady . . . these last few days my head 
 is in such a whirl. . . I am afraid I have committed 
 another folly. {Embarrassed pause.) 
 
96 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 GiSA (rises and moves slowly to the window). It 
 is so hot here. May I open the window ? The sun 
 is off. 
 
 Flemming. If you please. 
 
 {When GiSA has opened the window a distant song, 
 which before was barely audible, now swells in 
 fuller volume. The girls of the neighbouring 
 school are singing in three parts the first stanza 
 of the song " Annie of Tharau.'') 
 
 '•Annie of Tharau, to her I will hold, 
 She is my life and my goods and my gold. 
 Annie of Tharau has given her heart 
 Into my keeping till death do us part. 
 Annie of Tharau, my queen on her throne, 
 Thou art my soul and my flesh and my bone." 
 
 GiSA {during the singing). Ssh ! they are singing 
 in the girls' school; isn't it lovely? {She stands 
 bach a little from the window.) Flemming stands 
 behind her and listens also. (When the song has 
 ceased.) What a sweet sound — don't you think so ? 
 So jolly! I am awfully fond of hearing children 
 sing. Even when it is only a quite simple melody. 
 
 Flemming. The heart of a child always sings 
 in unison. And sings the same part as the mouth 
 does. That suits so beautifully. That is Krause's 
 class ; he is a real musician ; I have often when . . . 
 
 GiSA. Ssh ! they are beginning again. 
 
 SONG OF THE GIRLS. 
 
 "E'en as a palm-tree that springeth on high, 
 Bowed though it be by the storms of the sky ; 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 97 
 
 So all our sorrows and sufferings and tears 
 Root our love deeper through vanishing years. 
 Annie of Tharau, my queen on her throne, 
 Thou art my soul and my flesh and my bone." 
 
 (GiSA stands with her face behind the window y and 
 as she begs silence stretches her left hand behind 
 her. She thus remains in the excitement of 
 listening, Flemming tremblingly takes her 
 hand; GiSA glances at him with a swift turn 
 of the head and as swiftly looks again through 
 the window. He lays his right hand on her right 
 shoulder ; she closes her eyes and lets her head 
 sink slowly backward on his breast; he kisses 
 her on the forehead. After remaining thus for 
 an instant, GiSA turns, flings in an access of 
 passion her arms around his neck and buries 
 her head on his breast.) 
 
 Flemming {slowly raises her head; with low- 
 toned, faltering tenderness) . Gisa ! 
 
 GiSA {the same, as it were feeling for the intimate 
 word of address) . Jack ! How strange that I am 
 now to say ** thou." May I once venture? 
 
 Flemming {softly). Yes, venture once. 
 
 Gisa {softly). Thou. 
 
 Flemming {the same). Thou. {Presses his mouth 
 on hers in one long kiss. The door slowly and noise- 
 lessly opens, and in it appears Diercks and Flachs- 
 MANN. At the first words of Dieroks tJie couple 
 start asunder.) 
 
SCENE VI 
 
 As before, Flachsmann. Dieecks. 
 
 DiERCKS (sneeringly) . Hm, hm, I am awfully 
 sorry to interrupt your tete-a-tete, I merely 
 wished to bring you the pleasant intelligence, dear 
 Elemming, that I have just got word of my pro- 
 motion. As you appear to have decided on getting 
 married so soon, I am doubly sorry that you are not 
 promoted. . . . 
 
 Flemming {immediately recovering his composure, 
 with easy good-humour). Dear Diercks ! No doubt 
 you meant to surprise us by revealing your real 
 sentiments in your hour of triumph. But you are 
 mistaken ; we knew long ago that you are a low cad. 
 
 Diercks {foaming.) What? What? The . . . 
 the . . . 
 
 Flemming (genially). Oh, certainly, ask Miss 
 Holm. Were we not saying half an hour ago that 
 Mr. Diercks is a low cad? 
 
 GiSA. No. 
 
 Flemming. No ? 
 
 GiSA. A ** sharper " was what we said. 
 
 98 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 99 
 
 Flemming (to DiERCKS). Yes, quite right. I 
 beg pardon — a sharper. 
 
 Flachs. Mr. Flemming, you have in the first 
 place to deal with your superior officer and with 
 none other. You have within the sacred walls of 
 the schoolhouse perpetrated the indecency . . . 
 
 Flemming (quite calmly). Stay. You are going 
 to say something indelicate. Permit me first to 
 show the lady out. (Takes GiSA by the hand.) 
 
 GiSA. Jack, if they attack you, I will stand by 
 you. 
 
 Flemming (smiling). Against such people, my 
 child ? It isn't worth while. (He kisses her hand.) 
 Au revoir. 
 
 GiSA. Au revoir. [Exit. 
 
 Flemming. Mr. Flachsmann, what have you to 
 say to me? 
 
 Flachs. (with cold complacency). Nothing. I 
 will confine myself to my report. The cup is now 
 full. If anything were still wanting to show you in 
 your true light, at all events now it is . . . 
 
SCENE VII 
 As before. Negendank. 
 
 Negen. (enters and remains standing at the door 
 with his usual imperturbability). Mr. Head Master, 
 the School Commissioner is within. 
 
 Flaghs. What . . . School Commissioner ? You 
 mean the School Inspector ? 
 
 Negen. No, Mr. Head Master. Mr. Govern- 
 ment School Commissioner Professor Doctor Prell 
 is within. 
 
 Flachs. (distractedly). Where . . . where . . . 
 is ... is he ? Show him into my room. . . I will 
 come at once. . . . 
 
 Negen. Mr. School Commissioner is already 
 here. 
 
 S. C. Prell (behind the scene). Where is the 
 room ? 
 
 Weidbn (appears along with him with deepest 
 reverence). Here, if it please Mr. School Com- 
 missioner. 
 
 100 
 
SCENE VIII 
 As before. Prell. Weidenbaum. 
 
 Prell {a little, thick-set, broad-shouldered gentle- 
 man, with a powerful head, short, shi^iy grey hair, 
 standing on end ; complexion rather ruddy ; bottle- 
 nose ; short, grey moustache and short neck. He is 
 dressed all in black and scrupulously neat ; coat with 
 skirts rounded in front ; wears a low chimney-pot, 
 flashing spectacles with circular lenses, and creaking , 
 very shiny boots. He is an extremely brisk, bustling 
 person, always walks with very short, quick steps, 
 and whenever he appears has the chimney-pot in his 
 right hand and sundry documents in his left. In his 
 bearing and air he has the look of a half -pay officer, 
 and almost always speaks in snappish tones and in 
 a high voice. His articulation is sharp, and he 
 generally speaks in little snippety sentences and at 
 the same pace as his steps. After each sentence he 
 generally makes a short pause. He walks straight 
 over to the left end of the table and sets down his 
 papers and his hat). Good morning. 
 
 The Others. Good morning, Mr. School Com- 
 missioner. 
 
 101 
 
102 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 PEBLli (;to Flaohsmann, whoy bowing lotv, has 
 cautiously approached). You are Mr. Flachsmann? 
 
 Flachs. At your service, Mr. School Com- 
 missioner. 
 
 Peell. I am Government School Commissioner 
 Prell. 
 
 Flaohs. (bows low, with tremulous voice). A high 
 honour. . . permit me to offer the School Com- 
 missioner a warm ... warm welcome. 
 
 Pbell (seated and turnijig over the documents). 
 Thanks. But, welcome or not, I am here. [Notes 
 something with ink on his papers.) This is your 
 hour for teaching? 
 
 Flachs. Certainly, School Commissioner. . . . 
 
 Prell. How comes it that I find you here and 
 not in the class-room ? 
 
 (DiERCKS and Weidenbaum slip out as quick as 
 they can go.) 
 
 Flachs. {with assurance). I had official business 
 here, School Commissioner. It was my duty to 
 detect this gentleman {pointing at Flbmming) in 
 the very act of desecrating in the most shameless 
 way the sacred floor of the school. 
 
 (Flemming, who has been arranging his books and 
 standing to the right of the table, suddenly 
 advances a couple of paces.) 
 
 Prell {to Flachsmann). What do you mean by 
 that? 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 103 
 
 Flachs. a moment ago I found this gentle- 
 man tenderly embracing one of the ladies of the 
 staff. 
 
 Prell {advancing to Flemming with quick steps, 
 very loud and brusque). What is your name ? 
 
 Flemming {equally loud and brusque). My name 
 is Flemming. 
 
 Prell {after a short pause, all at once lowering 
 his tone). Why do you yell like that ? 
 
 Flemming {with matter-of-fact courteousness) . I 
 presumed, Mr. School Commissioner, that, as you 
 spoke so loud, you must be deaf. 
 
 Prell {measuring him, then again barking). 
 Nonsense. Hear all right. But you are an unruly 
 customer. You are the man against whom the 
 inquiry is pending? 
 
 Flemming. At your service, School Com- 
 missioner. 
 
 Prell {tapping him on the collar of his coat with 
 the foreiinger). You are the man that has brought 
 me here. I will submit your proceedings to a very 
 searching examination. 
 
 Flemming. Very well. School Commissioner. 
 {Goes from the right to the exit.) 
 
 Prell {takes up his papers and hat). You will 
 now forthwith submit your class to me. 
 
 Flemming {with confident cheerfulness). With 
 pleasure. School Commissioner. 
 
 Prell {again stands close in front of him and 
 measures him anew ; then sharply) . We shall see 
 that. 
 
104 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 Flemming. Certainly, School Commissioner. 
 Peell (imperiously). Show me your class. 
 
 [Exit with quick steps. Flemming behind, 
 Flachsmann last. 
 
 The Curtain Falls. 
 
THIED ACT 
 
 [The scenery of the first Act) 
 SCENE I 
 
 Negendank. Kluth. Later Flachsmann. 
 
 (Negendank engaged in placing chairs round the 
 writing -table.) 
 
 Kluth (porter of the neighbouring girls' school, a 
 great, sturdy fellow, who in contrast with his build 
 betrays a prodigious timidity, wears a servant's cap, 
 which he removes on entering. He has papers in his 
 hand, into which he peers cautiously) . Is the coast 
 clear ? 
 
 Negen. Quite clear. Flachsmann is teaching, 
 and the School Commissioner is beside him, 
 listening. 
 
 Kluth. Here are some lists I was to bring over. 
 (Gives Negendank an envelope. Negendank takes 
 it and lays it on the writing-table.) (Glancing round 
 from time to time,) Well. This is a fine smash, to 
 be sure. 
 
 lOS 
 
106 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 Negen. Yes. We have given the sack to one of 
 them. 
 
 Kluth. That Prell is a fine dangerous customer, 
 to be sure. 
 
 Negen. (makes with his hand a sign of assent). 
 He bites. And the worst of it is that he knows 
 something of what he is about. 
 
 Kluth. Oh, my ! 
 
 Negen. There is no humbugging him. He sees 
 everything. 
 
 Kluth. Aye, indeed. You need a long spoon to 
 sup with men Hke that. 
 
 Negen. He ! He sups nothing. (Moving nearer 
 to Kluth.) The second day after he came 
 Flachsmann got a beautiful breakfast ready, and, 
 when it came to ten o'clock, says he: ** Perhaps 
 Mr. School Commissioner would please to take a 
 modest breakfast." You ought to have seen the 
 glasses of the spectacles! "Thanks," he snorts, 
 "never take breakfast." Mark me, dear Kluth, a 
 boss who takes no breakfast is dangerous. 
 
 KiiUTH. Yes, yes. And so he is done for. 
 
 Negen. Who ? 
 
 Kluth. Mr. Flemming. 
 
 Negen. Flemming ? 
 
 Kluth. Yes, who are you talking about, then ? 
 
 Negen. Not Flemming. You're the very deuce. 
 It is Diercks he has chucked. 
 
 KiiUTH. Diercks ? 
 
 Negen. Yes, of course. 
 
 Kluth {inquisitive and uneasy). What for ? 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 107 
 
 Negen. Because he fabricated school exercises. 
 He palmed off things for school exercises which he 
 had done himself. But that is not the worst. He 
 has directly put up the children to lying and 
 cheating. 
 
 Kluth. Oh, my ! Oh, my ! and then he has 
 sacked him? 
 
 Negen. On the spot. " Leave the school-house 
 this moment, and never show yourself again." He 
 flew out, how, he did not know himself. 
 
 Kluth. Well, I must say this much : a thing 
 like that could never happen in our school. 
 
 Negen. (grievously offended). Well, to be sure! 
 I will say this much, my dear Kluth : even if we 
 had here three more Diercks, still our Alma Mater 
 stands ever a hundred miles above your so-called 
 Finishing Academy. (Flachsmann's voice is 
 heard.) 
 
 Kluth (in a flurry approaches the exit). But 
 how is that? . . . I . . . something . . . 
 
 Negen. Just wait till the Commissioner has 
 been with you. He inspects the servants too ! 
 
 Kluth. Does he ? Well, I must run. 
 
 Negen. I guessed as much. 
 
 Kluth (runs into Flachsmann in the doorway ; 
 stuttering out some gibberish). Ah ... ah ... I 
 . . . hav-hav . . . be-be . . . ek . . . the quarterly 
 returns her . . . here. 
 
 Flachs. (distractedly). All right, all right. 
 
 [Kluth exit. 
 
SCENE II 
 Flachsmann. Negendank. 
 
 Flachs. (rigged out in black. He is completely 
 distracted and absent-minded , and constantly wipes 
 the perspiration from his forehead). Have you put 
 in the chairs ? Are they quite enough ? {He begins 
 counting them over and over again but never finishes , 
 because his mind wanders off,) Is my necktie 
 straight ? 
 
 Negen. Permit me. (Sets his scarf right.) 
 
 Flachs. (darts off and makes a couple of steps.. 
 Then hastily going up to Negendank). Have you 
 anything yet . . . anything of Flemming ... I 
 mean : Can you tell me anything about Mr. 
 Flemming . . . anything you have seen? 
 
 Negen. About Mr. Flemming? No, Head 
 Master. 
 
 Flachs. (with suppressed excitement) . Have you 
 not watched him ... as I told you ? 
 
 Negen. (perfectly imperturbable). No, Mr. Head 
 Master. 
 
 Flachs. (quivering). Why not ? 
 
 108 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 109 
 
 Negen. a soldier does not eavesdrop, Mr. 
 Flachsmann. 
 
 Flachs. {shrieking with senseless fury). Bosh! 
 blasted bosh! You are a servant here, and not 
 a soldier. 
 
 Negen. A soldier always remains a soldier, Mr. 
 Flachsmann. 
 
 Flachs. {yelling still louder). I will give you the 
 sack, I will . . . {suddenly glancing outside and 
 recovering himself y close to Negendank's face), I 
 will repay you for that. 
 
 Negen. {without moving a muscle). Very well, 
 Mr. Head Master. 
 
 Flachs. {again begins running aimlessly about, 
 goes to his table and knocks about the things which 
 are lying on it. Fumbles at the bottom of his 
 coat and waistcoat; suddenly disquieted). Have I 
 whitened myself behind ? Give me another brush. 
 
 Negen. All is right, Mr. Head Master. 
 
 Flachs. Better give me another brush. (Negen- 
 DANK takes a brush from a drawer of the writing- 
 table and does so.) {Again with sudden impulse.) 
 Have you seen Diercks since? Has he said any- 
 thing to you? 
 
 Negen. Mr. Diercks? No, Mr. Diercks has 
 only . . . {The Commissioner enters.) 
 
 Flachs. Hush ! 
 
SCENE III 
 As before. Peell. 
 
 Peell (enters with quick step and stops beside 
 Negendank, who stands bolt upright. After he has 
 benevolently surveyed him). Good morning ! 
 
 Negen. Good morning, Mr. School Com- 
 missioner. 
 
 Peell. You have summoned the whole staff 
 here for eleven o'clock? 
 
 Negen. According to order, Mr. School Com- 
 missioner. 
 
 Peell. Then of course the children are left 
 without supervision. What do " we " do then, 
 Mr. Negendank? 
 
 Negen. We simply send all the children to the 
 playground, and I undertake the control. 
 
 Peell. Indeed. You are competent to do that ? 
 
 Negen. Quite, Mr. School Commissioner. That 
 is what I do when the ladies and gentlemen meet 
 here to receive their so-called salary. 
 
 Peell. Indeed. Well, then, leave us alone now. 
 
 Negen. With pleasure, Mr. School Com- 
 missioner. 
 
 110 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 111 
 
 Prell. Stay. One thing more. Before the 
 conference Mr. Flemming is to come to me by 
 himself. 
 
 Negen. To command, Mr. School Commissioner. 
 
 [Exit 
 
SCENE IV 
 Flachsmann. Pbell. 
 
 Prell {seated in Flachsmann' s chair), Mr. 
 Flachsmann. 
 
 Flachs. {hastens to ^Ae Commissioner's left side). 
 Mr. School Commissioner? 
 
 Prell. You still owe me an explanation, how 
 Diercks could perpetrate this unprecedented fraud. 
 
 Flachs. (stuttering). Yes, Mr. School Com- 
 missioner, I — I do not really know . . . 
 
 Prell. " I do not really know " is a nonsensical 
 answer. You surely know that you are appointed 
 here to know, don't you? 
 
 Flachs. Certainly, Mr. School Commissioner. 
 
 Prell. It is no question of one momentary 
 transgression. The fellow's whole class is com- 
 pletely neglected. How do you explain that ? How 
 do you explain the fact that only a few weeks ago 
 you reported most favourably on this man, and 
 recommended him for promotion? 
 
 Flachs. I placed blind confidence in the man, 
 and . . . 
 
 Prell. {cutting him short). Why? 
 
 113 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 113 
 
 Flachs. Because . . . because he had previously 
 done very good work ; yes, very good. 
 
 Prell. Well. That is quite possible. But if 
 your confidence was ever [so blind, even a blind 
 man must have seen that the fellow was idling. 
 
 Flachs. (tries to give a brighter aspect to the 
 matter). I — I have again been too good-natured, 
 Mr. School Commissioner. 
 
 Prell. Well; why, then, were you not good- 
 natured towards other members of your staff who 
 deserved it much more ? How was that ? (Flachs- 
 MANN helplessly shrugs his shoulders. A knock.) 
 {Shaking his forefinger back and forwards.) There 
 is something wrong there. Come in. We will talk 
 of this again. 
 
SCENE V 
 
 Flemming. Prell. Flachsmann. Later 
 Charles Jensen. 
 
 Flemming {enters), Mr. School Commissioner? 
 
 Prell {barking as hefore, hut kindly). Take a 
 seat. (Flemming seats himself on the last chair to 
 the left.) Mr. Flemming, you have committed a 
 serious offence against discipline. A man of your 
 intelligence will have recognised that this cannot be 
 allowed to pass. 
 
 Flemming. Assuredly. 
 
 Prell. You have certainly no want of intelli- 
 gence. Your work in the class proves that. You 
 are more than intelligent — you are even . . . 
 {breaking off). Well, well. Your work in the 
 class is good. Is very good. {Looks for a moment 
 straight before him and then jumps up. Flemming 
 quietly rises and leans on the back of his chair,) 
 {Buns up and down several times and then stands 
 close to Flemming.) Pre-eminently good. {After 
 some more steps.) But that is in this case a 
 matter of indifference. You have treated your 
 superior as if he were an ass. That won't do. 
 
 HI 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 115 
 
 We must nip that in the bud. No matter how 
 brilliant your achievements may be — above every- 
 thing I like your lesson in history. . . . You are 
 fond of teaching history? 
 
 Flemming. Not specially. 
 
 Prell. Why not ? 
 
 Flemming. My notion of history is much the 
 same as Schopenhauer's and Nietzsche's. 
 
 Prell. Ah. We must have a talk about that 
 one day. But you have a perfect mastery of the 
 subject. You have read Lamprecht? 
 
 Flemming. Certainly. 
 
 Prell. And Eanke, of course ? 
 
 Flemming. Certainly. 
 
 Prell. And Droysen ? 
 
 Flemming. Certainly. 
 
 Prell. Hausser ? 
 
 Flemming. Him also. 
 
 Prell. Janssen, too ? 
 
 Flemming. Certainly. 
 
 Prell {smiling). I have noted it all. And you 
 convey the matter to the children with the ease of 
 an . . . artist. It is as if you saw right into the 
 children's heads. You have observed how ideas 
 and conceptions grow. {To Flachsmann.) That 
 is something grand. That makes the schoolmaster. 
 
 Flachs. {assenting in a helpless way). Certainly, 
 certainly. 
 
 Prell {again close to Flemming). What side 
 do you take in the question between Natorp and 
 Herbart? 
 
116 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 Flemming. In the main with Natorp. 
 
 Prell. And I. Most decidedly. The "Analysis 
 of the content of consciousness" ... of that you 
 have a masterly comprehension. And the synthesis 
 no less. {To Flachsmann.) That is something 
 wonderful. 
 
 Flachs. Certainly, certainly. 
 
 Prell. Nothing I have ever . . . {Suddenly 
 breaking off^ losing his temper at Ms own enthusiasm, 
 with a fierce glare at Flemming, all at once becoming 
 loud and sharp,) Well, well. For all that, insubor- 
 dination is insubordination still. And insubordina- 
 tion I will not have. You called your superior — 
 what's this you called him ? Botcher ? Scholastic 
 botcher ? 
 
 Flemming. A paltry scholastic botcher. 
 
 Prell. Yes, yes, that will not do. That we 
 cannot tolerate under any circumstances. There is 
 no ... I cannot save you from the consequences. 
 {A knock.) Come in. (Charles, ten-year-old boy 
 enters.) {Lays a hand on his shoulder.) What do 
 you want, my boy ? 
 
 Charles. I was to give Mr. Vogelsang's com- 
 pliments to Mr. Flachsmann, and the Grand Lama 
 has gone to the Girls' School. 
 
 Prell {taken aback for a moment). Grand 
 Lama? Ah, yes. Well, then, just say to Mr. 
 Vogelsang, "The School Commissioner sends his 
 compliments and there is a mistake; the Grand 
 Lama is here still." Do you understand? 
 
 Charles. Yes, sir. [Exit. 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 117 
 
 Peell {after taking a few steps). As I have said, 
 I cannot divert the consequences. But I can miti- 
 gate them. I will report your good work, your . . . 
 {growling) well, well— your good work. You will 
 ask Mr. Flachsmann's pardon, and then you will 
 escape the worst and come off with a sharp repri- 
 mand. 
 
 Flemming {composedly). To ask Mr. Flachs- 
 mann's pardon, that were the worst. 
 
 Peell. What . . . what's the meaning of that ? 
 
 Flemming. Of a Flachsmann I will never ask 
 pardon. 
 
 Peell. What . . . why not ? 
 
 Flemming. Because it would be monstrous. 
 
 Peell {stares at him long and closely and then 
 says to Flachsmann). Leave us alone. 
 
 Flachs. Certainly, Mr. School Commissioner. 
 {With uneasy sanctimoniousness.) Mr. School Com- 
 missioner, I am willing to forego. ... I will not 
 stand in the way of a reconciliation ... if it rests 
 with me. 
 
 Peell. It does not rest with you. 
 
 Flachs. {retreating). Very well, Mr. School 
 Commissioner. [Exit. 
 
SCENE VI 
 Flemming. Peell. 
 
 Prell (sits down again). Just sit down here. 
 (Flemming sits down.) I do not speak to you now 
 as an official. I speak as a friend. Of course I 
 cannot tell you wliat my opinion of Mr. Flachsmann 
 may be, and there is no reason why I should. 
 
 Flemming. No. And I assure you of my most 
 complete discretion. 
 
 Prell (guffaws to himself) . Of course you will 
 not have to work any longer under Mr. Flachsmann. 
 I will transfer you to another school. After that 
 the whole apology is nothing more than a formaHty. 
 
 Flemming (cordially). Forgive me, Mr. School 
 Commissioner, I am indeed heartily thankful for 
 your kindness, but this is just as if the executioner 
 were to say, "Be quiet till I take off your head; 
 it is a mere formality." 
 
 Prell. That's nonsense. This is no execution. 
 To me you remain just the same. 
 
 Flemming (gently). But not to me. School Com- 
 missioner. I would not take a bite of bread from 
 myself after. 
 
 118 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 119 
 
 Prell. This is ridiculous. You want to ruin 
 yourself. It is lunacy for a man like you to leave 
 the school. I should like to keep you for the school. 
 (Again looks fixedly before him a moment, then 
 springs up and runs up and down the room. 
 Flemming also rises and leans on his chair. Prell 
 remains beside him, without looking at him.) The 
 literature lesson was particularly good. Superb. 
 Just superb. I never thought a real lyric could 
 be brought home to a child. I see it can be done. 
 You did not tear or hack the poem. You first 
 carefully prepared the mind and mood ; you got 
 the soil ready for the poem, within the children; 
 and then you raised (with corresponding gesture) the 
 whole living plant, rootlets and all, and planted it 
 straight in the children's hearts. Not first in their 
 heads. That was a solemn moment. There was 
 the true consecration of Art. Did you watch their 
 eyes? 
 
 Flemming (gleefully nodding assent). Yes, yes. 
 
 Prell. You could hear their hearts throb. I 
 must confess to you mine throbbed too. I too 
 was your scholar. I too was a little boy. I have 
 cadged a lesson, little as you knew it. When you 
 stopped all the children gave (with a sigh of relaxed 
 excitement) a ha ! I gave one too. 
 
 Flemming. Mr. School Commissioner, you make 
 me very happy. (Their hands involuntarily clasp.) 
 
 Prell. Well, is it not pure ma'dness if for the 
 sake of a trifle you throw over the school and start a 
 cigar shop as best you can ? 
 
120 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 Flemming (in distress). Mr. School Commis- 
 sioner, ... I should be so glad to make myself 
 understood by you. This Flachsmann is to me the 
 most repulsive man I know. I felt that from the 
 first day I saw him. I have a physical repulsion for 
 him. Such, I imagine, are the feelings of a woman 
 who has to yield herself to a man she loathes. . . . 
 It is a question of chastity, Mr. School Commis- 
 sioner. 
 
 Peell (looks at him a momenty then in a tone of 
 decision). Well, well. If you really cannot do it. 
 I will make an exhaustive report as to the position 
 of things here, and I will do my utmost to have you 
 relieved from the apology and that the matter may 
 end with a reprimand. But this much I tell you 
 beforehand : it will be a wigging like none you have 
 ever known. You may make up your mind for 
 that. 
 
 Flemming. Mr. School Commissioner, I will 
 refuse to receive this reprimand and return it to the 
 Board. 
 
 Pbell (a moment speechless ^ then very loud). 
 Then, sir, the deuce take you. Then out you'll run 
 till your shoes fall off. 
 
 Flemming. I wear boots, Mr. School Commis- 
 sioner. 
 
 Prell (still louder). You are an insolent puppy ! 
 
 Flemming. May I contest that ? 
 
 Prell (beside himself and yelling). No, sir, no; 
 you may not. (Baces up and down several times, his 
 ha7ids behind his bach, darting gla7ices at Flemming 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 121 
 
 with flashing eyes ; at length he stops at the table. 
 Still loud and angry.) What have you to say? 
 
 Flemming (very modest and grave). There are, 
 it is true, insolent schoolmasters, Mr. School Com- 
 missioner, and there are submissive schoolmasters ; 
 of both more than enough ; I am striving to increase, 
 by one, the number of the self-respecting school- 
 masters. 
 
 Peell. And you will break your neck over it. 
 
 Flemming. Very possible. People see in us 
 nothing more than artisans, often only mechanics, 
 sometimes only machinery. The ambition to 
 become artists must be awakened in us, artists 
 who discover and annex to our Fatherland fresh 
 dominions of the spirit. Mr. School Commissioner, 
 for thirty years this school has been controlled by 
 a cobbler. . . . 
 
 Peell. Mr. Flemming, I cannot hsten to this. 
 
 Flemming. Pardon me. Put it this way: this 
 school has been ruled by a man who stretched every 
 child on the same last, who laid them on his knee 
 and hammered into their heads the regulation 
 number of nails . . . that makes, at any rate, a 
 material on which other people can plant their feet. 
 Thirty years long has this Flachsmann sat here at 
 this table and pressed the knob or rung the bell. 
 By pressing a knob you can set a whole arsenal of 
 machines in motion ; but children and teachers and 
 schools are organisms, and with organisms knob- 
 pressing is worth simply nothing. Thirty years 
 long has this man decided the weal or woe of 
 
122 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 children and teachers ; for over him a Head Knob- 
 presser held sway. Ha! ha! people have a fine 
 saying: *'The master's eye makes the horse fat." 
 People understand the stable better than the school- 
 room; for horses are worth money. For thirty 
 years, Mr. School Commissioner, you seem to be 
 the first man who has come here with the feeling 
 hand and the seeing eye of a gardener. 
 
 Peell. Mr. Flemming, if I am not quite mis- 
 taken, you are now administering a reprimand to 
 the Board. 
 
 Flemming. That is not my office. 
 
 Peell. All the same you are a very good hand 
 at it. But you make one prodigious mistake. You 
 judge all teachers by yourself. But laws are made 
 for all and exist for all. We cannot allow to one 
 official what we cannot allow to all. And we cannot 
 allow all officials to call their superiors ** paltry 
 scholastic cobblers." Not just yet. We must come 
 to an end. I ask you for the last time. Will you 
 accept the reprimand, be it what it may? 
 
 Flemming. No, Mr. School Commissioner. 
 
 Peell {conclusively ^ co7nparatively calm). Then 
 you are sacked. (Somewhat louder.) Then you are 
 slaughtered. (Still somewhat louder,) Then you 
 are exterminated. You may go. Send Flachsmann 
 to me. 
 
 Flemming. Certainly, Mr. School Commissioner. 
 
 [Exit, 
 
SCENE VII 
 
 Prell. Flachsmann. 
 
 Prell goes up and down excitedly ^ stops before the 
 vlacard "School BegulationSf" shakes his head, 
 and then continues his perambulations. A knock. 
 Prell hears y but says nothing in reply, 
 
 Flachs. {opens the door cautiously and slowly 
 shuffles in. A pause), I almost fear that the kind- 
 ness of the School Commissioner has, so far as Mr. 
 Flemming is concerned . . . 
 
 Prell (without regarding what he says, very 
 gruffly). You are costing the State dear, my dear 
 sir. (Flachsmann remains silent and confused.) 
 You cost the State one of its best teachers. If 
 not the very best. 
 
 Flachs. Mr. School Commissioner, it is not my 
 fault. I am at any time ready to hold out the 
 hand of reconciliation ; I have nothing at all against 
 Mr. Flemming. . . . 
 
 Prell (as before). Why do you hate the man? 
 
 Flachs. I? hate? Mr. School Commissioner, 
 I hate no man. On the contrary, I have . . . 
 
 123 
 
124 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 Pbell {as before). That is the hatred of the 
 creeper for the flier. The hatred of the hustler for 
 the born conqueror. 
 
 Flachs. Mr. School Commissioner, I admit, 
 and heartily, that Mr. Flemming is a highly gifted 
 man, and if he . . . 
 
 Prbll (stops before the placard " School Begula- 
 tionSf' and bangs it contemptuously). What kind 
 of ridiculous trash is this? School regulations of 
 123 paragraphs. That's the code of a convict 
 prison. The day is too short to carry them out. 
 With coddling of that kind you rob people of the 
 power of seeing the essentials, the power of feeling 
 what is great. 
 
 Flachs. {trying a wheedling tone), Mr. School 
 Commissioner, I have always been a great friend of 
 discipline; if in the school the strictest discipline 
 does not . . . 
 
 Prell. You never dreamed what sort of a man 
 you had to deal with. You have pettifogged the 
 man. You ought to be very glad that he did 
 no harm to you. If you had left the man quietly at 
 his work, you could have got on with him, because 
 he has the more sense. {Close to Flachsmann, 
 tapping his coat with his forefinger,) W^ith such 
 people a man in your place should content himself 
 with a show of authority. People of this kind are 
 made Prime Ministers and the sceptre is tacitly 
 left in their hands, or else they will get hold of the 
 civil list as well. 
 
 Flachs. {with craven malignity), I am surprised 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 125 
 
 to hear the School Commissioner speak so. The 
 School Commissioner was always before in favour 
 of the Monarchy. 
 Pbell {close to his face). But not the limited ! 
 Flachs. But Mr. Flemming has constantly 
 undermined my authority. Since Mr. Flemming 
 has been here, the discipline of the staff has . . . 
 
 Peell {very brusquely). Fiddle-faddle. I know 
 only one kind of discipline : the discipline of the 
 man who knows. The man who knows something 
 has discipline. The man who knows nothing goes 
 in for tyranny. That is always the way. 
 
 Flachs. {defiantly). If I know nothing, the 
 Government should not have appointed me. 
 
 Pbell. My dear sir, that is the first sensible 
 word you have said. You are as well suited for 
 teaching a school as a sheep is for thought-reading. 
 {Clapping his hands and locking them together.) 
 What a lesson you gave to-day ! It was incredible. 
 The children's answers were often to the full more 
 sensible than your questions. Your questions were 
 nothing but Irish bulls. You asked the children, 
 " What does marriage lay for the family ? " and the 
 answer you wanted was "The foundation!" 
 Yes, now I ask a man ! {Again walks up and down. 
 Then again stops beside Flachsmann.) Where 
 exactly have you been examined? 
 Flachs. In Weissenfels. 
 Prell. In Weissenfels? When? 
 Flachs. 1869. 
 
 Prell. 1869? Then you have been examined 
 as an extern. 
 
126 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 Flachs. {taken aback a moment). Yes , . . yes. 
 
 Peell. As a matter of fact, I visited the Weis- 
 senfels College and held the examination of '69. 
 
 Flachs. {uneasily). Yes! Do you say so? . . . 
 Mr. School Commissioner, the lesson is almost over. 
 ... I ... I like to be there v^hen the children go 
 to the playground. 
 
 Peell. That is not so very important. I do 
 not recollect having seen you then or heard your 
 name. 
 
 Flachs. I had been ill, Mr. School Commis- 
 sioner, and was examined later by myself. 
 
 Peell. Indeed. Did you not attend any 
 College? 
 
 Flachs. Oh yes, Mr. School Commissioner. 
 
 Peell. Which ? 
 
 Flachs. Esslingen. 
 
 Peell. Why, then, were you not examined in 
 Esslingen ? 
 
 Flachs. I was examined ; but unfortunately I 
 did not pass. 
 
 Peell. Why not? 
 
 Flachs. The Professor of Method disliked me. 
 He would never have let me through. 
 
 Peell. If you really knew anything he was 
 bound to let you through. It was rather the 
 Method which disliked you. And so you passed 
 in Weissenfels? I don't understand that. How, 
 then, did you ever come from Esslingen to 
 Weissenfels ? 
 
 Flachs. I got a place in a preparatory school in 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 127 
 
 the neighbourhood of Weissenfels, and so I was 
 examined in Weissenfels. 
 
 Pbell. Hm. That is a puzzle to me. They 
 had a very high standard at that time in Weissenfels. 
 They required a pretty good deal. Christian, for 
 instance, required an extraordinary amount in 
 history. And what a history lesson you give! The 
 things you told the children weren't history at all. 
 . . . What class did you take then? 
 
 Flachs. Second class with high distinction. 
 
 Pbell {very emphatically). That is impossible. 
 
 Flachs. But yet it is. . . . 
 
 Peell. That must be a slip of the pen. You 
 must have been ... no, that is out of the question. 
 Had you a severe illness ? 
 
 Flachs. Illness? (Grasping the meaning.) 
 Yes . . . certainly. (A hell, Flachsmann as if 
 released.) There is the bell, Mr. School Commis- 
 sioner. {Going) 
 
 Prell. I hear. . . . Wait. {Looking him fixedly 
 in the face.) The longer I stay, the more riddles 
 you set me, Mr. Flachsmann. What was it you 
 said a moment ago : you ^had always insisted on 
 the strictest discipline ? Did you insist on it in the 
 case of Diercks ? 
 
 Flachs. Mr. School Commissioner, in the case of 
 Diercks I have erred; so much I must unfortu- 
 nately admit. But I have done it for the sake of an 
 old friend. Diercks' father was in fact an old friend 
 of mine; we came from the same village, and, 
 as children, played together. . . . 
 
128 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 Peell. Indeed. 
 
 Flaohs. Yes . . . our parents lived next door to 
 one another. . . . Yes . . . and, Mr. School Com- 
 missioner! For the sake of my old friend . . . 
 I would once more beg Mr. School Commissioner 
 whether Mr. School Commissioner might not give 
 Diercks one more trial. {Taking a sentimental 
 flight.) When a man is once flung on the street, 
 he falls lower and lower . . . 
 
 Prell. Mr. . . . 
 
 Flachs. Indeed, he will never do anything of the 
 kind again. . . . 
 
 Prell (sternly), Mr. Flachsmann, you are plead- 
 ing for a man who trained his pupils in fraud. 
 You all at once exhibit a marvellous placabiHty 
 towards a man on whom you reported to us with 
 the pettiness of a venomous hatred. I hope that 
 you will not compel me to give expression to a 
 suspicion. Once I have uttered a suspicion, I 
 follow it up. 
 
 Flachs. Oh, oh, Mr. School Commissioner, I 
 ... I do not understand at all what Mr. School 
 Commissioner . . . 
 
 Prell. So much the better for you. (A knock,) 
 Come in. 
 
SCENE VIII 
 
 As before. Enter one after the other : Betty Stub- 
 HAHN, GisA, Vogelsang, Eomee, Weiden- 
 BAUM, KiEMANN, and Flemming. After them 
 Negendank. 
 
 "Weiden. (in conversation with Komer as he 
 enters). No, it is quite right. That is the man for 
 me : just and resolute. When a man does his 
 duty . . . (They signal him to he silent, while they 
 point his attention to the presence of the Commis- 
 sioner.) 
 
 Prell (seated in Flachsmann's chair). Pray be 
 seated. 
 
 The Staff seat themselves in a semicircle in the 
 following order : — 
 
 Sturhahn, Weidenbaum, Prell, Flachsmann, Riemann, 
 
 Romer, Vogelsang, 
 
 Flemming, Gisa. 
 
 Prell. Ladies and gentlemen, I have had to 
 make an example in this school. Mr. Diercks, in 
 order to hide his dehnquencies, has not only been 
 
 9 129 
 
130 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 guilty of fraud himself, but has made accomplices of 
 his pupils. That is the most detestable thing 
 which any teacher can do. Mr. Diercks has in 
 letter after letter begged me to cancel his dismissal. 
 I have no notion of doing so. Towards such 
 offences I know no mercy. But with equal frank- 
 ness I recognise what is good, and I thank the most 
 of you for showing me much that is good. The 
 greater part of what I had to say I have already 
 said to you individually ; I have but little to add. 
 (A short pause.) Mr. Komer . . . (Romer bends 
 forward.) The combat with ignorance is one pro- 
 tracted siege. You cannot carry it by sheer assault. 
 I am glad that you have fire and passion within 
 (pointing to his breast) ; but lock it firm within; 
 thus it will swell up with all the greater power. Do 
 not let all pass up the chimney, or in three years 
 your oven will be cold. 
 
 R5mee. Quite so. 
 
 Peell. You also talk too loud. At your age 
 people want to blow away stupidity by force of 
 lung. I can assure you that cannot be done. 
 Otherwise I am very well pleased. I thank you. 
 
 EoMER (smiling happily). Thanks. 
 
 Prell. Miss Sturhahn, you also talk too loud. 
 
 Betty. If I don't, the squad will not hear. 
 
 Prell (softly). The squad hears the better the 
 lower the squad-leader speaks. But I could under- 
 stand almost every word when you were teaching. 
 
 Betty. I had to shout louder than you did. 
 You were talking so loud. 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 131 
 
 Peell. You are open to my criticism, but I am 
 not open happily to yours. For the rest, I have 
 seen well enough that you have the best intentions 
 towards the children and work with the most 
 straightforward zeal. I thank you. 
 
 Betty (grumhlingly). Thanks. 
 
 Prell {to the other Sf in snappish tone). You 
 must not go snapping about at the children. Our 
 scholars often have no sunshine in their homes; 
 therefore they must have it in their school. It is so 
 nice for a teacher to have some sense of humour. 
 Humour is moisture ; and nothing is more essen- 
 tial for the atmosphere of the school. Humour 
 is possessed {parenthetically y grumpily) ^ apart from 
 Mr. Flemming, by Mr. Vogelsang especially. 
 Above all in his messages to Mr. Flachsmann. 
 I would, however, put them in writing, Mr. Grand 
 Lama Vogelsang. The children need not be told 
 who I am. 
 
 VoGEL. {smiling). No! 
 
 Prell. However, all your humour is not at the 
 expense of your chiefs. It was a pleasure to me 
 to listen to you ; you are a blithe lure-bird of learn- 
 ing, Mr. Vogelsang. (Vogelsang smilingly bows.) 
 But that it is possible for a class to have too good a 
 time you have demonstrated, Miss Holm. Pray, 
 Miss Holm, who exactly has the most voice in your 
 class ? 
 
 GiSA {with coy archness). 1 believe I have, Mr. 
 School Commissioner. 
 
 Prell. Do you say so? What I saw was 
 
132 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 jovial anarchy. One can hardly believe that sixty 
 little boys can do what they like with you. 
 
 GiSA. But what am I to do with them ? Beat 
 them I cannot. 
 
 Peell. Well ... I am only afraid that you will 
 come to grief sooner or later. 
 
 GiSA {blissfully positive). Ah no, the little 
 rogues are much too fond of me. 
 
 Prell. Indeed. Well, I daresay if Mr. 
 Flemming will carry you off you will have the good 
 wishes of the school. 
 
 GiSA (fervently). Thank you, Mr. School Com- 
 missioner. 
 
 Prell. Mr. Eiemann, since you left the College 
 have you ever had a book in your hand ? 
 
 KiEMANN. Aye, indeed. 
 
 Prell. Which ? 
 
 Eiemann. Ooh, the ... I am not right sure 
 what it was called. 
 
 Prell. They say that you are fond of handling 
 the book of thirty-two leaves. 
 
 Eiemann. Thirty-two leaves ? 
 
 Prell. You would surely like to have a little 
 more time to play Skat ? 
 
 Eiemann (unsuspectingly). More time? Oh, no. 
 
 Prell (growing gradually more and more acid). 
 Only say the word. We will give you more time 
 for Skat than you will like. We will retire you. 
 We have no use for out-of-date teachers. A teacher 
 who is not up to date is like a doctor who is not 
 up to date ; eventually he commits homicide. For 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 133 
 
 homicides we have no esteem. When I come back, 
 you shall give me an account of the latest position 
 of the science of Method, do you understand ? 
 
 EiEMANN. Yes, Mr. School Commissioner. {A 
 pause.) 
 
 Prell (strangely softly). In your class, Mr. 
 Weidenbaum, I have admired the precision with 
 which the scholars strike the tables. How have 
 you achieved that? 
 
 Weiden. (stands up with the zeal of one who is 
 complimented). By constant practice, Mr. School 
 Commissioner. At first I got it done by numbers : 
 in sixes. (While he sloioly imitates the movements.) 
 At One, the children lay the hands flat on the table ; 
 at Two, they grasp the flap ; at Three, they raise it 
 precisely to the perpendicular ; at Four, they replace 
 it without a sound ; at Five, they let go ; and, at 
 Six, they fold hands. If it is practised a couple 
 of times for half an hour, it goes all right. 
 
 Prell. Do you say so ? 
 
 Weiden. Yes. I have done it first in fours; 
 but, on the expert advice of Mr. Flachsmann, I do 
 it now in sixes. 
 
 Prell. Is that so ? Yes, Mr. Flachsmann has 
 drawn my attention to the merits of your class. 
 I have also admired the way in which your scholars 
 when they show hands never hold the finger higher 
 than their heads. How have you managed that ? 
 
 Weiden. (with great self -importance, feeling him- 
 self the centre of attraction). If a boy raises his 
 finger higher than his head, he has to write out one 
 
134 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 hundred times, " I must not raise my finger higher 
 than my head." That is always my practice : if a 
 scholar looks about or laughs or anything of that 
 kind, he must write out one hundred times, "I 
 must not look about me " or V* I must not laugh in 
 class " ; and if he does not do it properly, he must 
 write it out another hundred times. 
 
 Prell. Indeed. (Still quite graciously to all 
 appearance.) Are you aware that you are a slave- 
 driver ? (Weidbnbaum sinks in his chair.) (Gradu- 
 ally rising to a climax.) Are you aware that you are 
 worse than the most arrant bircher ? Are you 
 aware that your class is a wax-figure show ? . . . 
 Are you aware that your scholars are nothing but 
 corpses ? If I were to step in front of your class 
 and say : ** The sofa is a mammal ; for it brings its 
 young into the world alive," every one of your 
 scholars in turn would repeat it after me. Not 
 a dissenting voice. I wager that at a given 
 sign I could make your scholars all say ''Bow- 
 wow." 
 
 Weiden. Mr. School Commissioner, I always do 
 my duty . . . 
 
 Prell. Duty ? Duty ? Duty is what you pay 
 the postman on a registered letter. From the 
 teacher I ask enthusiasm. You will think to your- 
 self : What an idiot this fellow is, asking me for 
 enthusiasm ! Work, Mr. Weidenbaum ; then the 
 enthusiasm will come. Clasp the world tight and 
 you will come to love it. All you do is routine. 
 Koutine is another name for laziness. 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 135 
 
 Weiden. Mr. School Commissioner, I have 
 always performed whatever . . . 
 
 (PbeIjL jumps up and begins again to perambulate. 
 The others rise.) 
 
 Peell. Sir, I ask force. I ask life, sir. When 
 your scholars go forth into the world, they halt like 
 cows before a strange gate. I want men who will 
 unlatch the door. Look at Mr. Flemming. He 
 awakes force, begets force ; you exhaust it. Look 
 at one of Mr. Flemming's arithmetic lessons. 
 There everything lives and thrives. The numbers 
 and the children ! Old as I am, I have thought : 
 Wert thou again fourteen years old and couldst here 
 sit and have thy share , . , (in altered tone.) Alas, 
 Mr. Flemming will not submit to the necessary dis- 
 cipline. Therefore he must take the consequence. 
 It grieves me that in Flemming's case I must 
 most emphatically repeat . , , (A knock.) Come in. 
 
 KoBBBT Pfeiffer. (enters). A letter for Mr. 
 School Commissioner. (Gives the letter and exit.) 
 
 Prell (takes and reads. When he has read, he 
 stares at Flachsmann. Then with every sign of 
 suppressed excitement and bewilderment). Ladies 
 and gentlemen, it is ... I will ... for the 
 present return to your classes. 
 
 Vogel. Mr. School Commissioner, may I crave 
 a word ? 
 
 Prell (distractedly). What do you want ? (From 
 time to time staring at Flachsmann. Flachsmann 
 fixes his eyes mechanically on the letter.) 
 
136 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 VoGEL. I should like to ask our colleague Flem- 
 ming in your presence and in the presence of the 
 Staff whether it is true that he has described our 
 whole staff as dead and rotten, and himself as the 
 only one that is alive ? 
 
 Flbmming {looking hard at him, gravely), Vogel- 
 sang ! Old donkey ! Do you believe such a thing ? 
 
 VoGEL. {returning his look and then reaching out 
 his hand to him). Since you can still say "Donkey" 
 in your old way, I believe it no longer . . . Then, 
 Mr. School Commissioner, we will petition the 
 Board to have Mr. Flemming left in his place, and 
 I am convinced that the entire Staff will sign it. 
 
 (Weidenbaum promptly slinks off.) 
 
 KoMEE. Certainly, the Staff votes solid for Mr. 
 Flemming. 
 
 Prell {raises a comically warning finger to 
 Eomer). We will talk of this again, gentlemen. 
 Now go to your classes. 
 
 (Vogelsang, Kiemann, Eomer, Gisa, Betty hom 
 and retire.) 
 
SCENE IX 
 Pebll. Flachsmann. 
 
 Prell. Mr. Flachsmann, what is your Christian 
 name ? 
 
 Flachs. (faltering), I ? I am called George 
 Henry. 
 
 Prell (looking him straight in the face) . That 
 is a mistake. Your name is John Henry. 
 
 Flachs. (sinks on a chair, helplessly). No . . . 
 I . . . 
 
 Prell. This letter, I may tell you, is from your 
 friend Diercks. 
 
 Flachs. (exploding , with clenched fists). The 
 blackguard ! The common, damned blackguard ! 
 
 Prell. The young man who, owing to illness, 
 was re-examined at Weissenfels in 1869 and passed 
 his examination as extern candidate was called 
 George Henry and was your younger brother. He 
 died, shortly after the examination, of consumption 
 and you took possession of his papers. 
 
 Flachs. The blackguard ! the scoundrel ! 
 
 Prell. Such is the friendship of the wicked, 
 Mr. Flachsmann. It is "as the shadow in the 
 
 137 
 
138 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 morning; hour by hour it steals away." The Latin 
 is still blunter, it says : ** a noble pair of brothers." 
 How, then, does Diercks know all this ? 
 
 Flachs. His father was clerk to the School- 
 Board. 
 
 Pbell. Ah, and he knew you from the time you 
 were at home! That is the "dear old friend!" 
 (Flachsmann remains silent) Hem. The circum- 
 stances were certainly very opportune for swindling, 
 because the examiners were the only witnesses of 
 that examination. And so, when it went well for 
 long years and still went well, at last it went too 
 well for you, and you took to dancing on the ice. 
 (Flachsmann remains silent) Luckily that is always 
 the way. When God gives such people a place. He 
 takes from them the wit to keep it. So you wanted 
 to ruin an excellent man. You can hardly expect 
 any mercy. 
 
 Flachs. (affecting the contrite). I will at once 
 apply for my pension. 
 
 Prell (stares at him). You ask for a pension 
 after all this ? Are you demented or ... ? 
 
 Flachs. Mr. School Commissioner, the . . . 
 Diercks will hold his tongue, he must now hold his 
 tongue ; I will take care of that. . . . 
 
 Prell. Aha! The Board will make a con- 
 federate of this worthy gentleman, that's what 
 you mean. 
 
 Flachs. Mr. School Commissioner . . . the 
 Board . . . can quash the inquiry. 
 
 Prell (very curt). We will quash you. As you 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 139 
 
 got your place by fraud, you have never been 
 appointed at all. Consequently the charge against 
 Mr. Flemming falls to the ground. And conse- 
 quently you have no business here. {Pointing to tJie 
 door.) Instantly leave the school-house. 
 
 Flachs. I ... I have first to pack up my things 
 . . . my things ... I have my things here . . . 
 
 Prell. They will be sent after you. We will 
 not keep any of them. 
 
 Flachs. Yes, but I have still . . . 
 
 Prell. I won't bear the sight of you. (Flachs- 
 MANN slips out as quick as lightning, Prell 
 presses the knob beside the door.) 
 
SCENE X 
 
 Pbell. Negbndank. Then Flemming. 
 
 (Negendank enters.) 
 
 Pbell. Ask Mr. Flemming to come here. 
 {Walks up and down, his hands behind his hachy 
 and then stands beside the table. Again takes up 
 the letter and reads it) (Flemming enters.) I have 
 just sent Flachsmann to the deuce. He had no 
 teaching quahfications whatever. He had obtained 
 his office fraudulently, by means of his brother's 
 certificate. 
 
 Flemming. Is it possible ? Truly, to the blessed 
 red-tape nothing is impossible. (Sinks on a chair.) 
 
 Pbell (tartly). That is nonsense. There will 
 always be rogues. 
 
 Flemming. No doubt. But if this gentleman 
 had happened to possess a regular certificate, I was 
 done for. And yet the fraud with the certificate 
 was perhaps his least. Everything the man did 
 was fraudulent, even when he did not intend it. No 
 one asked him for guidance or stimulus, to be a 
 creator or an artist ; for thirty long years he had 
 
 140 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 141 
 
 merely to be a good foreman and to set his lessons. 
 That he could undertake. He kept the machinery 
 in working order. If, Mr. School Commissioner, 
 you will reflect a moment, you will find an amazing 
 number of Flachsmanns; alas, they have not all 
 fraudulent certificates. You will find that the 
 Flachsmanns and the Weidenbaums flourish in vile 
 profusion, that they are degrading the German 
 school to a drill-hall and a riding-school, and are 
 stifling every fair young impulse with sneaking 
 malice. 
 
 Prell. Eeally we ought to be glad that the 
 worthy Flachsmann has given us so little trouble in 
 sweeping him out. Things do not always go so 
 smoothly. 
 
 Flemming. Only one must not be deceived 
 because the certificate is all in order; 
 
 Prell. Your will is law to me, Mr. Head 
 Master. 
 
 Flemming (springs up). " Head Master ? " 
 
 Prell (brusquely). Perhaps you protest against 
 this title? 
 
 Flemming (stammering). No . . . I . . . 
 
 Prell. I presume that you have passed the 
 necessary examinations? 
 
 Flemming. Certainly . . . I . . . 
 
 Prell. Then take charge of this school. Pro- 
 visionally, for the present. I think it will not be 
 long till you receive your appointment. 
 
 Flemming (quivering). Mr. School Commis- 
 sioner . . . this is not possible. 
 
142 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 PRELL {to his facCy imitating him with comical 
 mockery). ** To the blessed red-tape nothing is 
 impossible." 
 
 Flemming (in intense excitement). I am here 
 . . . here ... to mould, as I will . . . just as 
 I will ... all that is beautiful and new . . . 
 
 Prell. If you don't make too much of a bedlam, 
 yes. 
 
 Flemming. Mr. School Commissioner, I should 
 like to hug you. 
 
 Prell. For this part of the performance I will 
 summon Miss Holm. (Presses the knob on the table.) 
 
 Flemming. Ah yes. Gisa ! 
 
 Prell. Ssh ! 
 
SCENE XI 
 As before. Negendank. 
 
 (Negendank enters.) 
 
 Pbell (with suppressed fun). Mr. Negendank, Mr. 
 Flachsmann is no longer in charge of this school ; 
 Mr. Flemming has taken his place. Permit me to 
 introduce to you your new Chief. 
 
 Negen. Mr. School Commissioner, I must say 
 I approve of this step. I am convinced that we 
 shall get on well with him. {Stretching out his 
 hand.) I congratulate you. (Flemming mahes a 
 ceremonious how. Prell turns quickly aside, to 
 conceal his amusement.) (With imperturbable 
 seriousness.) What a thing, to be sure ! Now we 
 have kicked out two of our people ; and one of our 
 classes has nobody to teach it. 
 
 Prell. Well, what do "we" do in such cases, 
 Mr. Negendank ? 
 
 Negen. Well ... if it comes to that, I can teach 
 a class for that long. 
 
 Prell. Can you do that, then, Mr. Negendank ? 
 
 Negen. (with a highly superior air). Oh, yes. I 
 was a non-commissioned officer. 
 
 143 
 
144 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 Peell {in a similar tone). Do you say so ? Oh, 
 then . . . 
 
 Negen. I will be a Moltke to the children. I 
 knew him personally. 
 
 Peell. Quite right, Mr. Negendank. But, in 
 the first instance, beg Miss Holm to be so kind as 
 to come here. 
 
 Negen. At your service, Mr. School Commis- 
 sioner. lExit. 
 
SCENE XII 
 
 FLEMMiNa. Prell. 
 
 (Prell cmd Flemming hurst, when Negendank 
 goes out, into smothered laughter.) 
 
 Flemming. Poor Moltke ! 
 
 Prell. He is superb. However, there is one 
 thing more : you must promise me not to suggest in 
 any way to your fiancie, either by word or look or 
 gesture, but on the contrary to back me up. 
 
 Flemming. What is it to be ? 
 
 Prell. I want to have a bit of fun. 
 
 Flemming. All right, I promise. 
 
 Prell. Be quiet. She is coming. (Seats himself 
 at the table and assumes a highly official attitude.) 
 
 10 1^ 
 
SCENE XIII 
 As before. GiSA. 
 
 GiSA (enters and regards the pair with questioning 
 looks). Mr. School Commissioner. . . . ? 
 
 Peell (brusquely). Be seated. (GiSA seats 
 herself.) As to your teaching we have already 
 spoken, Miss Holm. But you have still something 
 else on your conscience. (Gisa looks round to 
 Flemming, who likewise has assumed an attitude 
 of stern gravity.) Miss Holm, you must look 
 at me. (Gisa turns again to the Commissioner 
 with comical haste.) It is in reference to the 
 kissing incident. Do you remember the circum- 
 stance ? 
 
 Gisa. Oh, yes. 
 
 Peell. The worst feature in it is that you have 
 allowed yourself to be kissed by your superior. 
 
 Gisa (pointing at Flemming). He is no superior. 
 We are not yet married. (A tender look at 
 Flemming.) And even then it is doubtful. 
 
 Flemming. My young lady, you will yet dis- 
 cover that I am in another sense your superior. 
 
 146 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 147 
 
 GiSA. What does that mean, you saucy rogue? 
 
 Flemming. It means that Flachsmann is dis- 
 missed and I am now head of this school. 
 
 GiSA (jumping up several times). Ja . . . 
 Jack . . . {Turning to Prbll, artlessly.) Ah, no, it 
 isn't true, is it? (Prell nods strenuously) GiSA 
 flings herself ivith a cry of joy into Flemming's 
 arms.) Jack ! {Long embrace and kiss.) 
 
 Prell (jumpsupyhalf in jest, half earnest). Good 
 heavens . . . will — will — will . . . will you now 
 . . . ! My good people ! If any one were to come ! 
 You put me in a nice position ! {Buns to the door 
 and holds it closed. The school bell sounds.) Have 
 done, have done, my good people. {He opens the 
 door and speaks out.) Ah, Mr. Weidenbaum, please 
 have the Staff summoned. 
 
 Weiden. {loithin). All right, Mr. School Com- 
 missioner. 
 
 Prell {closes the door. To the pair). Just stop. 
 For we must look into matters again. You think 
 no doubt that this is going on for ever — special con- 
 ferences every day in the week. {To GiSA.) From 
 to-morrow you are to teach next door in the Girls' 
 School, and one of the ladies there will come here in 
 your place. 
 
 GiSA. Oh, my goodness — girls ? They are worse 
 even than boys. 
 
 Prell. Who told you that ? 
 
 GiSA. I know it myself. 
 
 Prell. Well ... if you wish it very much . . . 
 I can transfer you to quite another province. 
 
148 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 GiSA. For Heaven's sake . . . my Jack . . . 
 (About to fling herself again on his neck.) 
 
 Peell (extends his arm between them). What? 
 (Voices are heard. To GiSA.) You will now place 
 yourself there (pointing to the left, then to Flemming), 
 and you come here to me. (Places himself at the 
 right of the table. Flemming stands beside the 
 Head Master's seat. A knock.) Come in. 
 
SCENE XIV 
 
 As before. The school Staff. 
 
 Prell (when the Staff is assembled) . Ladies and 
 gentlemen . . . Mr. Flachsmann has been dis- 
 charged from his office. Why, you will learn here- 
 after. For the present the grounds do not concern 
 us. Mr. Flemming undertakes the control of the 
 school, in the first instance provisionally. {Gives 
 his hand to Flemming.) Administer your office 
 with vigour and enjoyment and . . . (with his left 
 hand describing a circle in the air) give a jolly good 
 airing to this fusty shanty. 
 
 Flemming. Thanks, Mr. School Commis- 
 sioner. . . . My dear colleagues, I feel this sudden 
 revolution not as promotion, but as emancipation. 
 The emancipator stands here. (Pointing to the 
 School Commissioner.) In the spirit of our School 
 Commissioner will I administer my office ; were I to 
 do otherwise I should be a blackguard. That means 
 that I will discriminate between a man's work and 
 his demeanour ; I will judge his work according to 
 his motive force and vitalising power for the future, 
 
 149 
 
150 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 and I will meet you, as I will meet our pupils, with 
 cheerful trust in the individual and in his freedom. 
 VoGEL and Komee. Bravo ! 
 
 {The Staff congratulate Flemming.) 
 
 Peell. Then we will close the school for to-day 
 and dismiss the children, so that they also may enjoy 
 themselves. (The Staff laughingly how themselves 
 out GiSA remains standing beside Flemming. 
 Peell replies with funny jerky bows, in keeping 
 with his other gestures, and takes up his hat and 
 his papers.) 
 
 EoMEE {as he goes out). The Inspector is here. 
 
SCENE XV 
 As before, Brosecke. 
 
 Bros. Go-o-o-od-day, my respected friends, good- 
 day, my respected School Commissioner. I have 
 been on a little trip to my son-in-law ; when the 
 early pears are ripe, I must always be off there . . . 
 ha-ha-ha-ha-ha . . . well, on my return, I heard that 
 you were inspecting here ; so I just wished to pay 
 my respects to you. 
 
 Prell. Hm. 
 
 Bros. Well, I suppose you found everything in 
 perfect order? 
 
 Prell. Oh, yes, in beautiful order. 
 
 Bros. Yes, yes, yes, I am sure of that; our 
 Flachsmann is a jewel. But where is he? 
 
 Prell. We have set the jewel. 
 
 Bros. Ha-ha-ha-ha . . . how so? 
 
 Prell. We have advanced him a step. 
 
 Bros. Well, well — to Inspectorship? 
 
 Prell. No, to the street door. (Bros, stares 
 at him with a face of indescribable bewilderment.) 
 Come with me to my cab, Mr. Inspector. I have 
 still to explain some matters to you. Goodbye, Mr. 
 
 151 
 
152 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 Flemming {when the latter is about followmg him). 
 Stay here. {Fiercely shaking his finger at GiSA.) 
 But you come with me. The school is no dovecote. 
 
 GiSA {with arch deference). After you, Mr. School 
 Commissioner. 
 
 Prell. Oh, no. The ladies always go first. 
 Because then we can keep our eyes on them. 
 
 (GiSA goes out with a charmingly acted piece of 
 pouts, and turns to the left. Prell waves back 
 another salute to Flemming a7id goes out with 
 Br5secke, and likewise turfis to the left.) 
 
SCENE XVI 
 Flemming. Gisa. 
 
 Flemming (follows their departure as far as the 
 door and remains a moment standing ^ sunk in 
 thought. A knock at the door to the left. Flem- 
 ming starts and turns his head i/n that direction). 
 Come in. 
 
 Gisa {steals in, stands at the door and points her 
 finger in a childish way). Mr. Head Master, I know 
 something. 
 
 Flemming. What is it? 
 
 Gisa. You are in love with me. 
 
 Flemming (smiling). You little rogue; if the 
 Commissioner were to come hack now ! 
 
 Gisa. Ha-ha-ha, he's gone, the school is clear. 
 
 .{Pops over to the entrance, stands in the corridor, 
 
 lays the hollow of her hand to her mouth and 
 
 bawls) Mr. Scho-o-o-ol Commiss-s-s-s-sioner, are you 
 
 ther-r-re ? 
 
 Flemming. Lassie, are you the very mischief ? 
 
 Gisa (flinging herself on his neck). Yes, I am 
 thine, thou mischief. {Yielding to an access of deep 
 feeling.) While I live, I must come to thee ; thou 
 
 153 
 
154 MASTER FLACHSMANN 
 
 hast my soul. (BecUning on his arm and offering 
 him her mouth.) Give me back my soul. (Flem- 
 MING kisses her.) Take it back again. (Flemming 
 kisses her again.) ( Blissfully , looking up at him.) 
 How nice you are, you wretch ! 
 
 Flemming. Do you know what I find so delicious 
 in you ? 
 
 GiSA. Well? 
 
 Flemming. That you are no schoolmistress. 
 Kemember, when I come home from the school and 
 want still to be playing the schoolmaster, you must 
 grab me by the shoulders and shake me and say, 
 *' You, Schoolmaster ! Be human." 
 
 GiSA. Yes. Every day ? 
 
 Flemming. Every day. This I firmly believe : 
 the highest point of our art can be attained only 
 while we remain human. {Begarding her and 
 stroking her hair.) "The highest of our art" — 
 Good heavens! When I see such a creature as 
 thou art, so blithe, so cordial, then I feel that I 
 can never give humanity of my best . . . not with 
 all the power of art. 
 
 GiSA. What does this mean? Your eyes are 
 wet ! To-day you should be happy. 
 
 Flemming. My love — good luck with dry eyes ! 
 — that must indeed be a tiny piece of luck. 
 
 GiSA (gazes long at him with fully serious eye. 
 Then slowly bends over his hands and kisses them. 
 Suddenly she turns her head listeningly. Gleefully), 
 Jack ! Do you hear ? 
 
 Flemming. What, my love ? 
 
MASTER FLACHSMANN 155 
 
 GiSA. Do you not hear ? The lassies are singing 
 again. {She flies to the window and flings it open.) 
 
 SONG OF THE GIBLS. 
 
 Joy is dancing, 
 
 Joy is sparkling 
 
 All around; 
 
 Dancing on the emerald hillside, 
 
 Sparkling on the river's still tide; 
 
 Joy is dancing, 
 
 Joy is sparkling 
 
 All around. 
 
 GiSA {at the window). Six-eight time, Jack ! 
 {Softly y trembling with suppressed excitement.) Jack 
 — dance ! {The7i with a loud hurst of childlike 
 exultation.) Jack — dance ! 
 
 Flemming {spreading out his arms). Come. 
 
 (GiSA dances towards him and whirls him away. 
 While the girls* song continues^ the Curtain 
 falls.) 
 
UKTTIN BBOTHEBB, LnnTBO, 
 WOEINa AND LOirooN. 
 
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS 
 
 WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN 
 THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY 
 WILL INCREASE TO 50 CENTS ON THE FOURTH 
 DAY AND TO $1.00 ON THE SEVENTH DAY 
 OVERDUE. 
 
 F£8 21 1933 
 APR 16 1938 
 
 OCT 2 2 1952 ty 
 
 LD 21-50m-l. 
 
^/ 
 
 U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES 
 
 cQam,3di>M2 
 
 251272