Act II
Music under as the bedraggled form of Hill comes out onto the porch of his tavern. His head hurts, his bones hurt, his eyes and even his teeth seem to be complaining to him about the way he spent the previous evening. He scratches, belches, spits and humbly greets the new day.
REEP: (passing by) Mornin’.
HILL: Is it? Then tell it to be more quiet.
REEP: (to the audience) Sam Hill..proprietor of Hill’s grocery…but mostly liquor.
HILL: What’s wrong with that?
REEP: Used to be postmaster ‘til the women of New Salem ganged up and had the job taken away from him.
HILL: Who you talkin’ to?
REEP: Said he kept ‘em waitin’ for their dry goods while he was servin’ liquor to their menfolk.
HILL: What’s wrong with that? (and a commotion is heard as Dr. Allen and several others enter in mid-flurry)
ALLEN: I’ll tell you what’s wrong with that!
HILL: Oh no.
ALLEN: (the others gather around him, not seeing Hill who winces from the pain of their volume) This plague that undoes God’s work holds this village tight in its evil grasp. Can any man here deny the curse of its hellish effects? You’ve seen it just as I have. … Fighting … slovenly behavior … men spending household money on whiskey instead of feeding their family … public cursing and bawdy behavior. Who here can deny the evils of alcohol?
HILL: (all his interjections are to himself and Reep..the others do not hear him) Let me have a drink and think about it.
WOMAN ONE: So what do you propose, Doctor Allen?
ALLEN: The New Salem Temperance Society!
HILL: Nothin’ wrong with my temper.
ALLEN: To begin, we shall ban alcohol and public drunkenness.
WOMAN TWO: Amen!
HILL: Good God.
ALLEN: Our members must sign a pledge to never touch the demon liquor!
HILL: Then how can you drink it?
REEP: Dr. Allen formed the town’s Temperance Society …with one slight amendment…
WOMAN ONE: My medicine jug!
ALLEN: What?
WOMAN ONE: Liquor is more than hellfire, doctor! It’s medicine! You should know that!
ALLEN: I do not use liquor as a cure for anything.
HILL: I use it for everything.
CARTWRIGHT: (offstage) Where is he!!?
HILL: (a mournful wail)
CARTWRIGHT: Brother Hill! Come out and stop hiding in the dark with the devil.
REEP: The Reverend ……
HILL: …….(groaning) Peter Cartwright.
CARTWRIGHT: (entering, like a prairie bull, with a few others) I have no words of praise today, brothers. I have words of truth. They are words of condemnation. The Lord guides me to this place because Brother Hill not only sells the devil’s drink, but he revels in the process.
HILL: (groans)
CARTWRIGHT: He takes delight in drawing good people into his darkened den and feeding them whiskey until they forget they are men. They forget the responsibility to their families, their community, to themselves and to their God. You would think being responsible for that deed would eventually lead a man to shame. But not Brother Sam Hill. No! Brother Hill worships money, not the living and true God of our fathers! Brother Hill wants money! As long as he gets money, he doesn’t care what havoc is wrecked in the human lives he feeds. That’s Brother Hill’s present purpose: to acquire and sell alcohol so he can have money. (As Cartwright and Allen continue to pantomime their harangue to the others.)
HILL: What’s wrong with that? What do they care? Just whatta they think…they’re doin’ out there? Oh…What’s got their goat? What do they see? Just when they’re lookin’ to stir up a mess I know they’re lookin’ at me!
Oh…what’s wrong with that? What’s so unfair? Whatta I think?…Whatta I care! Oh… Who gives a toot? Who cares what they think? All this fuss, well shoot… Over one little drink!
Oh……………Why can’t they leave me alone? Oh……………. I’m doin’ fine on my own! I don’t … go out.. and shout and pout..about what I think of you… I just want one more drink…. Or maybe just two. (as music continues under)
ALLEN: Very well, to begin, the Society will ban social use of alcohol and public drunkness.
WOMAN ONE: I can keep my medicine jug?
ALLEN: For sickness only!
HILL: I think I’m comin’ down with somethin’.
CARTWRIGHT: Brother Hill is so stingy and greedy, so focused upon money, that he has no soul. I find that is not true, for I recently placed a quarter of a dollar between Hill’s lips and found out sure enough that he did have a soul … (HILL joins in unison to finish the line) for it came right out and got that quarter!!
HILL: Same old stories.
CARTWRIGHT: Brother Hill won’t come out, because he would have to face … not me … but the revealed word of God. I’ll leave you good folks to reflect upon the contribution of Mr. Sam Hill to your community. And Mr. Hill … I know you can hear me. I know you are inside. I can’t see you be you also must God can see you! Beware of His mighty hand! He sees you! He can hear you!
HILL: Over all your noise? Not likely.
(singing as Cartwright’s converts follow the great man offstage and Allen’s group disperses with prohibition on their minds)
Oh……………Why can’t they leave me alone? Oh……………. I’m doin’ fine on my own! Why don’t…. they go…and fix their own souls … instead of fixin’ me? I just want one more drink… Oh heck, let’s just make it three.
So where do I stand? What’s gonna be? Who’s gonna care… About poor little me? Well maybe I’m wrong…. There’s worse things to be… At least I know I’ve sinned! I’m better off than them! Oh what a fix I’m in! ‘Cause a one little drink, One little sip, One little slip, One little nip One little drink!
(As Hill exits, he runs head-long into the door of his tavern, he gives it a kick, then exits.) ELLIE GRAHAM: (a young girl, running out onto the stage, peering excitedly at something then shouting) It’s comin’! It’s comin’! I can see it! (First the children then the adults gather on the Sangamon shore. They bustle with excitement.)
REEP: The Savior of the Sangamon!
ELLIE GRAHAM: (to others who’ve gathered) First I seen the smoke afar off then I heard the whistle!
REEP: 1832! New Salem had the people, the people had the will, and the will rested on one thing…. Transportation! No railroads yet and so the only hope was the Sangamon River!
MRS. WILSON: Mr. Rutledge, is it…
RUTLEDGE: That’s it, Mrs. Wilson! That’s the future of New Salem chuggin’ up that river!
REEP: Mr. Vincent Bogue of Springfield had chartered the Talisman, a 150-ton upper cabin steamer… 136 feet long with a 48-foot beam. He’d got his cargo in Cincinnati, sent it down the Ohio, up the Mississippi to St. Louis, on to the Illinois up to Beardstown, and now she was headed on her hundred-mile journey up the Sangamon to Springfield and New Salem.
DUFFY: I never seen nothin’ so big!
STELLA: It’s like a floatin’ house!
RUTLEDGE: There he is! Welcome home, Abraham! (and Lincoln comes running onto the stage, ax in hand)
REEP: Lincoln and a handful of the boys had been hired to cut the brush outa the river so Talisman could make it’s way.
RUTLEDGE: How’d it go, boy?
LINCOLN: (pointing to the river) See for yourself! We was held up for days in Beardstown waitin’ for the ice to clear but boys, once we found us a crack we had at it! (a cheer from the crowd)
RUTLEDGE: There she is, friends! The Talisman! Give a wave at your future! Once the goods start comin’ up from St. Louis and Cincinnati then they’re gonna start goin’ back down!
Somethin’ big’s a comin’ and it’s comin’ my way Shoutin’ out its song like it’s got somethin’ to say Somethin’ mighty sweet and clear and soundin’ so grand! Somethin’ ‘bout a shinin’ new land. Blow that whistle! Come and listen To the gloryland calliope band! A GIRL: Somethin’ great’s a comin’ ‘round the bend in the stream! Somethin’ big’s a comin’, it’s as big as dream! Ringin’ bells and singin’ just as plain as can be.. Sounds just like it’s callin’ for me! Blow that whistle! Come and listen To the gloryland calliope band! (And the entire town breaks into a dance… one verse) ALL: (after the dance) Just around the corner, there’s a song on the breeze! Just around the corner somethin’s callin’ to me! Just around the bend and then tomorrow I’ll see Oh what a melody grand! Blow that whistle! Come and listen To the gloryland calliope band! (keychange…counter-melody) Group I: Hold…to the tow rope and anchor! Don’t let that lady pass by! Hold… to the promise and thank her She’s got a fine look in her eye! Blow that whistle! Come and listen To the gloryland calliope band! Group I: Hold…to the tow rope and anchor! Don’t let that lady pass by!
Hold… to the promise and thank her She’s got a fine look in her eye!
Blow that whistle! Come and listen To the gloryland calliope band!
Group II: Somethin’ big’s a comin’ and it’s comin’ my way Shoutin’ out its song like it’s got somethin’ to say Somethin’ mighty sweet and clear and soundin’ so grand! Somethin’ ‘bout a shinin’ new land. Blow that whistle! Come and listen To the gloryland calliope band!
RUTLEDGE: (as the townsfolk excitedly gather ‘round to look at the Talisman, now sitting proudly at the New Salem dam.) Look at ‘er! Now that’s what I call a lady!
STELLA: Can I hop on her, mama? Can I take a ride?
RUTLEDGE: She’s gotta get through the dam then skedaddle it to Springfield, child. That boat’s carryin’ a mighty important cargo!
STELLA: Sugar and pinafores and sassafras and….
RUTLEDGE: More’n that! (holding Stella) Stella, that boat’s chock-full of tomorrow!
STELLA: Wow!
RUTLEDGE: It’s holdin’ your future, gal. Look at her, sittin’ low in the water…hunkered down with promises and hopes of New Salem. Once we get boats goin’ up and down this little stream, we’ve done joined ourselves up with the whole world! (to the group) Come on! Scramble up that hill and bring this crew some supper! They’ll only be a minute! Let’s go! Let’s go! (and the villagers rush off excitedly to fetch the makings of a celebration.)
REEP: March 24th, 1832. The Talisman arrived at Portland Landing, less than a mile east of here. The crowds followed it right up the Sangamon to Springfield where the celebration went on for several more days… then trouble…
MARY MCNEELY SPEARS: (an extremely old lady…and less-than-pretty…appearing) Trouble! Lord son, you don’t know what trouble is!
REEP: (tipping his hat) M’am. (then back to the audience) Reports came up the river that…
SPEARS: Trouble! Yes, I’ll say I’ve had trouble. You wanna know about trouble? I’ll tell you trouble!
REEP: I was just referrin’ to….
SPEARS: Oh I know, I know! Don’t tell me, ‘cause I already know! Trouble! Trouble! Heartache and trouble!
REEP: Mary McNeely Spears. (whispering to the audience) Nearly deaf but one of the most amazing people in two counties.
SPEARS: (whispering to the audience) Five! Five counties! (shouting) You wanna know about troubles?
REEP: I was just tellin’ about the Talisman riverboat.
DUFFY: (entering with the other kids close behind) There she is! Hey Granny!
REEP: (quickly, to the audience) You see, the Talisman….
SPEARS: (hitting a pose and letting out a war-whoop that belies her advanced age) Yaw-Wee-Ya-Hoo-Waa-Woo!
THE CHILDREN: (mimicking her pose, and return the greeting) Yaw-Wee-Ya-Hoo-Waa-Woo!
REEP: The Talisman….!
SPEARS: (pointing at Reep) Stranger bad medicine! War party attack!
REEP: (as the kids surround him in mock siege and wrestle his hands behind his back) The Talisman will have to wait!
SPEARS: (Xing to inspect her tribe’s captive) Stranger act loco. Talk to sky.
PUDGE: We gonna burn him at the stake, Granny?
ELLIE: Put fire ants down his drawers?
SPEARS: Too tame! Too tame! Let’s really put him to the test! Let me think a minute.
REEP: (to the audience as Spears ponders and the kids help her) Not many people ever lived who led a life to match Mary McNeely Spears. Folks’d come for miles just to sit and listen to her….and her favorite audience was a long-legged boy named….
SPEARS: Abraham!
LINCOLN: Yea Granny?
SPEARS: Whatta you reckon? Hog-tie ‘im and roll ‘im down the hill? Maybe grease him up real good and roll ‘im in the chicken feathers?
LINCOLN: He looks like a good sort, Granny…bit scrawny but passable clean. How ‘bout you give him …The Story! (The children cheer in agreement.)
SPEARS: I’m older’n Moses, Abraham. Tellin’ the story of my life near tuckers me out.
LINCOLN: Shoot, everybody ‘round here knows it. We’ll tell it for ya! (to the kids) You willin’?
KIDS: Yea!
LINCOLN: (to Reep) Listen up, stranger. You may not believe this.
SPEARS: And if you don’t, I got lots o’ chicken feathers.
REEP: I believe you, Ma’am.
LINCOLN: Presentin’…..! The life of Mary McNeely Speers! New Salem’s finest Storyteller, Midwife, Sharp-Shooter, Injun-Fighter and Root Doctor!
SPEARS: Make it the short version, Abraham. I could die any minute.
LINCOLN: Ain’t nothin’ could kill this woman! (One of the boys has grabbed a guitar and begins playing under….throughout the scene, various other cast members enter…some perhaps playing their own instruments and generally enjoying this oft-told tale.) 1763! North Carolina gets woke up one bright spring mornin’ by the sound of one rowdy little baby girl! (One of the children makes a baby noise as one of the girls quickly fashions a blanket to resemble a crying baby and the others gather around to coo and admire the child.) But it didn’t take her long to get herself growed up! (Suddenly “Young Mary” comes busting out under and through the blanket. She stands feet apart, hands on hips, ready to whup the world. She spits.) She could out-run any boy, out-cook any woman, and out-shoot any man! (Young Mary turns quickly, holding an imaginary rifle, shoots upstage and a by-standers hat goes flying as someone makes the sound of a rifle shot.)
SPEARS: I was good!
LINCOLN: When she was 17 her Daddy allowed as how it was time to move West so he took three other fellas, and Mary wouldn’t have it but she was gonna tag along.
SPEARS: I didn’t “tag.” I lead the way.
LINCOLN: So off they took for Tennessee. Leavin’ their friends…includin’ one Daniel Boone, behind. Lookin’ to clear the land for their kinfolk to follow! Four tough South Carolina frontiersmen and….
SPEARS: ……one hellacious little girl! (as Young Mary and her small party heads across the stage toward Tennessee)
SINGING BOY: Stand back for Buckskin Mary Fights like a hound and kicks like a mule! Look out for Buckskin Mary Fixin’ on tamin’ the world! Made of buckskin, bacon and grease She’ll shoot that flea off your nose if you please Takin’ the West with catgut and curls! Half man, half bear, and all girl! LINCOLN: (as the guitar continues under and the other children join in to set up camp) They set up a fort east of Nashville called Mansker's Station and on Christmas Day of 1778 all the other families arrived by way of the Donnelson Party. A hundred or so all tolled, includin’ Rebecca Jackson, the future President’s wife. Mary and Rebecca soon became the teachers in the new settlement.
SPEARS: I was good. Derned but I was a good teacher!
LINCOLN: They figured the territory had been cleared of Indians so the children went down to the river to take a bath one day. (the children act this out)
SPEARS: Never should of took that bath! Me and water just don’t mix.
LINCOLN: That’s when they attacked. The settlers heard the cry and every hillside rang out with the cries of …Indians! Mary’s papa dashed down to the river to save his children but he wasn’t fast enough. The Indians caught him. And there on the banks of the river Mary stood and watched as they scalped and then killed her daddy.
SPEARS: I tried to run!
LINCOLN: She tried to run!
SPEARS: But I couldn’t!
LINCOLN: For the first time in the brave young girl’s life her feet were stuck tight.
SPEARS: I was confabulated. I couldn’t move a muscle.
LINCOLN: They drug her into the woods and she was gone. Her family found her rifle by the river but Mary was gone.
SINGING BOY: (as the children act out her abduction) Pity poor Buckskin Mary! Stolen away with the clothes that she wore! Pity the Indian nation! Don’t know what they’ve got in store! Made of buckskin, bacon and grease Shoot that flea off your nose if you please Takin’ the West with catgut and curls! Half man, half bear, and all girl! SPEARS: Now that’s what I call trouble!
LINCOLN: (music continues under as the children form a powwow around young Mary) She was given a choice. She could marry a warrior or become a slave of the chief.
SPEARS: He was one ugly brave! I chose slavery!
LINCOLN: It was a job of some honor in the tribe but it had it’s drawbacks.
SPEARS: The chief and his wife both beat me!
LINCOLN: One or two little drawbacks. But the Indians taught her how to heal with roots and herbs. Years later folks’d come from all ‘round New Salem for her cures.
SPEARS: I weren’t no favorite of the doctors.
LINCOLN: Mary spent two years with a small band of 16 Indians then one night in Detroit, Michigan. . .
SPEARS: I escaped! Humph!
LINCOLN: A certain Frenchman visited the village….
SPEARS: Never liked the French…
LINCOLN: And he spied Mary…
SPEARS: ‘Cept this one.
LINCOLN: “Do you like eet weeth zee Indians?” he asked.
SPEARS: Heck no! Would you?
LINCOLN: And they devised a plan.
SPEARS: The Frenchie sent a jug of liquor to the chief and said he wanted the jug back. It was a long walk so the chief sent me and the Frenchmen hid me!
LINCOLN: When the Indians came lookin’ for her, she was hid in a space between the walls of the Frenchman’s cabin.
SPEARS: I was standin’ on a pile of the Frenchy’s gold coins. Ever time I breathed, one of them coins would jangle. So I held my breath until the Indians gave up and went lookin’ elsewhere. I held my breath for nearly an hour!
LINCOLN: Now Mary…
SPEARS: You oughta try it!
LINCOLN: An hour. She held her breath what “seemed” like an hour.
SPEARS: Then there was the stinkin’ British! Tell ‘em about the British, Lincoln!
LINCOLN: The British….
SPEARS: The British stored a bunch of us captives on an island up in Michigan then shipped us by boat to New York. (looks at Lincoln) Well go ahead! You gonna tell the story or not?
LINCOLN: But the British…
SPEARS: But the British captain wanted somethin’ of me. (Young Mary walks up to Reep who’s been chosen to play the captain…since he’s the only one in the village who hasn’t heard this story, he stands there, confused. One of the children sneaks in behind him and moves his hands and arms to animate his character.)
LINCOLN: (imitating the Brit) Mary McNeely! Thanks to the kind efforts of the British government, you have been liberated from your heathen captors!
SPEARS: (her own voice, as Young Mary acts it out) Liberated! I spent two years with the Indians, risked my skin escapin’ on my own and now I’m a slave of some fancy-pants English soldier! You didn’t do two spits! It was me!
LINCOLN: (as the Brit) All you need do is sign this paper promising to do nothing injurious to the British crown and you may go.
SPEARS: That’s when I spied his walkin’ stick. (as the Young Mary who has picked up a stick and holds it near the frightened officer’s face) Here’s the deal, your Lordship! I’m gonna walk out of here free and clear, I ain’t signin’ nothin’, and if you so much as raise an eyebrow to complain I’m gonna do somethin’ powerful injurious to the British Empire!
LINCOLN: He thought a moment…. A very short moment… then “I ..uh… grant you your freedom.”
SPEARS: And I was off!
LINCOLN: Walkin’ to Philadelphia!
SINGING BOY: (as Mary lights out for Philly) Don’t mess with Buckskin Mary! She’s gristle and guts and not peaches and cream! Look out for Buckskin Mary! Don’t stop a girl with a dream! EVERYONE Made of buckskin, bacon and grease Shoot that flea off your nose if you please Takin’ the West with catgut and curls! Half man, half bear, and all girl!
LINCOLN: Mary looked around Philadelphia for any work she could get, all the time wantin’ to get back to Nashville to see whether her kinfolk had made it out alive. But there wasn’t nobody goin’ west… the Indians were still causin’ a ruckus and folks were scared. She finally found a family headed as far as Virginia….
SPEARS: Close enough!
LINCOLN: She hired on as a house girl. The family’s name was Spears.
SPEARS: And they had one cute son…
LINCOLN: Whose name was…
SPEARS: George. George Spears. The handsomest boy I’d ever laid eyes on.
LINCOLN: Now as luck would have it, Mary’s brother Samuel was travelin’ through Virginia and stopped at a tavern. He overheard two fellas talkin’.
SPEARS: (imitating one of the two men as the kids act out the scene) You saw what?
LINCOLN: (imitating another) And I was sober! I swear! This family was crossin’ the river on that raft when the cow fell in!
SPEARS: Now that was one dead cow!
LINCOLN: Nope! This young gal jumped off the raft, stuck the fingers of her left hand up the cow’s nose and walked it into the shallows! She saved that cow’s life!
SPEARS: (in her own voice) Then’s when my brother got curious. He walked over and said, “You say she was left-handed?”
LINCOLN: Yep.
SPEARS: And her name was….?
LINCOLN: They called her Mary.
SPEARS: (bursts out with a cackle of joy) He knew me! Ain’t no other gal in the world who’d stick her left hand up a cow’s nose and drag her through a ragin’ river!
LINCOLN: Samuel looked up the Spears clan, found Mary and took her back to Nashville to her family!
SPEARS: I sent for George later. Married the little rascal and headed to Kentucky!
(as the child version of Mary and George trounce off to Kentucky)
SINGING GROUP: Hooray for Buckskin Mary! Taimin’ the west by the skin of her teeth Make way for Buckskin Mary! Fightin’ her way to her dream! EVERYONE: Made of buckskin, bacon and grease Shoot that flea off your nose if you please Takin’ the West with catgut and curls! Half man, half bear, and all girl!
LINCOLN: (music under) And Kentucky got itself the finest midwife and root doctor they’d ever seen! She delivered every baby within miles!
SPEARS: And about that time a long-legged little boy was born to Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln.
LINCOLN: You reckon you birthed me, Mary?
SPEARS: Depends. If you grow up and amount to somethin’, I’ll take the credit.
LINCOLN: Her daughter married Reverend White and moved to Illinois. Before long she convinced her folks to come on up to this land of prairie and plenty.
SPEARS: So we sold our land and moved north to Clary’s Grove, Illinois, right near here. Lived in a three-sided house with a campfire that burned all day and all night. Trouble! Trouble! I’d fought Indians, got captured and escaped, took on the entire British army, wrestled a cow, and birthed half of Kentucky but there wasn’t nothin’ worse than an Illinois winter.
LINCOLN: She soon became midwife to the entire New Salem community and could cure anything with a dose of foxglove and oak bark. You can write all you want about your George Washington’s and Andrew Jackson’s… there ain’t no bigger American hero than this little lady.
SPEARS: I won’t disagree!
EVERYONE: Made of buckskin, bacon and grease Shoot that flea off your nose if you please Takin’ the West with catgut and curls! Half man, half bear. . . .
SPEARS: (in Reep’s face) So don’t talk to me about trouble!
EVERYONE: . . . .And…all….girl!
(The children laugh and hurry offstage with Mary and the townsfolk return to their daily routines as Reep comes forward.)
REEP: Not all the great characters make the history books…. I guess that’s why I’m diggin’ in this place. To find out what happened and why the dream of New Salem faded.
RUTLEDGE: (running onto the stage and shouting) More men! Tell ‘em we need help right now! Send for more men!
REEP: And it faded mighty quick.
DAM WOMAN: What’s the commotion?
RUTLEDGE: Look!
DAM WOMAN: (she looks) Good night a-mighty!
RUTLEDGE: There! Right there! Start tearin’ the dam apart!
DAM WOMAN: Oh dear Lord!
REEP: Rowan Herndon and Lincoln had been hired to bring the Talisman back downstream to Beardstown…
DAM WOMAN: They’re gonna hit it! Ellie, get away from there! Go get your father! Quick!
REEP: ….but the water level was droppin’ too fast.
HERNDON: (at another area) I ain’t never backed a boat this far before, Lincoln!
LINCOLN: Got no choice! We can’t turn her around!
HERNDON: What about the dam? We’re gonna bust into it!
LINCOLN: I s’pect you’re right.
RUTLEDGE: Let’s go! Take it apart! Take it apart! I don’t care where you throw the rocks, just do it! The Talisman can’t wait!
DAM WOMAN: Oh dear God!
HERNDON: Can you see the dam?
LINCOLN: I can’t see nothin’ but brush and mud! This river’s droppin’ faster than we can float!
RUTLEDGE: Toss ‘em! Keep tossin’ those rocks! She’s gonna take out the whole dam if we don’t!
LINCOLN: They’re make us a hole, Herndon! Hit that gap, boy!
HERNDON: I can’t see the gap!
LINCOLN: Hit the gap!
HERNDON: What gap?!!
LINCOLN: Maybe we’ll make our own!
RUTLEDGE: Everybody get back! Get back away from that dam!
DAM LADY: Dear God!
LINCOLN: How we doin’, Herndon?
HERNDON: Lincoln!!!!!!!!
(Blackout)
REEP: (coming into a solo spot, a beat, then) They made it. Barely. Lincoln and Herndon floated the Talisman on down to Beardstown. Lincoln picked up 40 bucks for his work and walked back to New Salem. And I expect that on that long walk he did a lot of thinkin’. Lots of folks started thinkin’ once the river let ‘em down ( music in under) Some folks say rivers aren’t like rocks and trees and mountains… they’re more like real folks… they change fast. And, like a human, they can let you down. That Sangamon stream that was sunrise of New Salem had had become a dark cloud in ten short years. Anybody with any sense could hear the thunder in the distance. But it was more than the river that left New Salem behind…it was an itchin’…An itch that reached all the way down to the soul of those folks… An itch to move on…to see what was beyond the next prairie and over the next rise. It was an itch that pushed back the timber and planted corn… that built roads and sod huts then turned ‘em into cabins and homes….and a life. And the only way to scratch that itch was to move on to somewhere else. (as some of the townsfolk begin to drift onto the stage) Denton Offutt disappeared for 27 years ‘til somebody spied him in Mississippi. The schoolmaster, Mentor Graham…died in South Dakota at age 84. Hannah Armstrong and the Rutledge family took off for Iowa. John Hill to Georgia. John Camron and Aunt Sallie Saunders to California. Then there were some…like Jack Kelso and Joshua Miller who just sort of disappeared one day.. headed west. And about the time the Talisman beat its retreat down river, somebody came up with a new idea…and called it Petersburg. And young Lincoln? Showed up as a young man in 1831 and left six years later as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives. I s’pose you know the rest. It’s been reported he did quite well.
STELLA: Where we goin’, Mama?
MRS. BERRY: Papa says west. That’s all I know, Stella.
STELLA: What’s out there, Mama? What if it’s not a good place? What we don’t like it?
MRS. BERRY: Look at that blackbird, Stella. You reckon he knows? Reckon he knows where he’s goin’?
STELLA: Doubt it. Just lookin’ for some place to make him happy, I s’pect.
MRS. BERRY: You think he’s worried?
STELLA: But what’s a bird know, Mama?
MRS. BERRY: (smiles) Wish I knew. Wish I knew, Stella.
RUTLEDGE: Ain’t nothin’ worth what it was. Berry bought his store lot for a hundred dollars. This mornin’ it sold for ten.
MRS. RUTLEDGE: Things change, James.
RUTLEDGE: Petersburg… that’s where it’s goin’. Iowa…and California. Flyin’ west like a big old bird chasin’ the sun and there ain’t nothin’ left but to fly with it.
MRS. RUTLEDGE: We’ll make it, James. Things change, but we’ll make it.
MRS. BERRY: Blackbird, oh where are you goin’? Where are you runnin’ to? I’d give all I am to be knowin’… I’m yearnin’ to fly with you.
This mornin’ you sang on the willow Tomorrow you go where the wind blows With nothin’ but breeze for your pillow Flyin’ away with the sun.
MRS. BERRY & STELLA: Blackbird, oh please come and tell me Whisper your song in the wind Tell me the song that you’re singin’ Teach me to fly again.
This mornin’ you sang on the willow Tomorrow you go where the wind blows With nothin’ but breeze for your pillow Flyin’ away with the sun.
MRS. RUTLEDGE: Never a way to be knowin’ Never a way to start… Don’t know for sure where I’m goin’.. Just learnin’ to see with my heart.
RUTLEDGE: (bridge) Again and again down this road without end I’m longin’ to fly… But you never you quite know where the road’s gonna go Or why ..it’s goin’… REEP: (as music continues under) By 1839 New Salem was a ghost town of crumbling buildings, a slow turning mill, and streets turned to pasture. But Hope…Hope’s a …it’s a blackbird..stays for awhile then looks to next horizon. New Salem just moved on and called itself Kansas City and Sante Fe and San Francisco, Fairbanks… and America. The storm is still out there ragin’….like a distant thunder.
ALL: This mornin’ you sang on the willow Tomorrow you go where the wind blows With nothin’ but breeze for your pillow Flyin’ away with the sun. 1st SOLO: (bridge) There’s nothin’ that stays but a hope and a prayer And a reason to be! 2nd SOLO: You turn and look back and there’s nothin’ that’s there But the knowin’ you’re free! SOLO GIRL: Blackbird, oh where are you goin’? Where are you runnin’ to? I’d give all I am to be knowin’… I’m yearnin’ to fly with you. ALL: To fly with you… To fly …with… you.
REEP: I never finished that paper I was writing. A summer’s work turned into a lifetime of …well.. inspiration.. and respect for what these folks accomplished here in this little village on the prairie. (music under as the bustle begins) Made me proud to know ‘em, at least for this little bit. ‘Cause New Salem? That Bull-necked, rowdy, pious, and persnickety, brave, outrageous, noble sometimes just plain foolish spirit? (points to someone in the audience) It’s still out there… (to another) .. and there… and maybe even .. (points to a child) .. right here!
THE TOWN: (as they pack up their belongings, gather their families together, and prepare to leave New Salem.) Land of a thousand hopes! Land of a thousand chances! Land of a thousands dreams… And mine!
(On instrumental break: The final goodbyes are said as they wish each other well.)
SOLO 3: One more day to live and grow to know this land of a thousand wonders! One more day to give and try to make this land my own… SOLO 4: Just another day to make my way to where it leads me… Just another day to find my dream … another day. DUET: (in harmony) One more day to wonder what this land will be when we make tomorrow One more day to hope and try to smile when heartache comes Just another day to make our way to where it leads us… Just another day to find our dream… another day. (And again the shout goes up as they head off.)
THE TOWN: Land of a thousand hopes! Land of a thousand chances! Land of a thousands dreams… And mine!
Curtain Call: This Land!
Distant Thunder, Act II
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PAGE 33 Distant Thunder