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"THE BOOK OF JOB"-LEFT TO RIGHT, JOB (GEORGE GAUL), ELIHU (WALTER HAMPDEN), AND THE THREE FRIENDS, ELIPHAZ (HENRY BUCKLER), ZOPHAR (EUGENE STOCKDALE), AND BILDAD (EDGAR STEHLI)

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THE BOOK OF JOB-A VISUALIZED POEM

TUART WALKER has brought the greatest of dramatic poems to life. At least he has made it live and move in the sight of many to whom it has heretofore been dead. He has clothed it in color and light. He has set it in a scene of the simplest, the severest kind of beauty. He has given it voice and action. He has taken it as he found it, and has transformed it from the lifeless words of a printed page into the terms of living experience.

Now that he has done this, it seems strange that it was not done before. Like many other great conceptions, the idea of visualizing the Book of Job and of apportioning its speeches among characters on a stage is simple and obvious. Indeed, it is not at all impossible that it was written to be recited in some such way. But simple and obvious ideas do not occur to everybody; or, when they do occur to the ordinary mind, they seem too simple and obvious to be entertained. It requires something like genius to hold fast to such an idea and give it form and sub

stance.

And it requires some daring, too. It called for a bold man to find in the Bible the very text of a play to be seen in a theater just off Broadway. In this case the book of the play is the Book of Job itself. It is not a dramatization of the Book of Job, as the play "Seventeen," to be seen in the same theater (where George Gaul, who takes the part of Job in the afternoon, appears in the evening as a Negro character), is the dramatization of Booth Tarkington's novel. The Book of Job is already dram

atized as it is.

It is so disguised, however, by the typographical form that is given to it in the common English version of the Bible that it looks like a succession of somewhat disconnected

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verses." Its wealth of imagery, its profoundly poetic expres sions of some of the most deeply tragic and lofty of human experiences, cannot be concealed by any form in which it may printed; but there are few readers who catch its interplay of satire, of humor, and of personalities. That is because few readers have imagination enough to distinguish in this vast poetic drama the various characters that take part in it. What Stuart Walker has done is to supply the imagination.

As many readers may need to be reminded, the Book of Job consists of three parts: the prologue, the dramatic poem itself, and the brief epilogue. The prologue tells of the greatness and prosperity of Job; of Satan (who is not, as one of the ill-informed newspaper critics called him, "the devil," but a servitor of the Almighty-a scourge-angel-whose duty it is to keep watch of men and test their souls) holding familiar converse with God; of God's consent that Satan test Job's faithfulness; of the calamities that in consequence fell upon Job; and of the arrival of Job's three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. All this except for a few metrical passages, is simple prose narrative. It is not a part of the poem itself, but is set off from it distinctly by its literary form. So, in the same way, is the epilogue.

The distinction between the poem itself and the prose portions that inclose it is emphasized by the form of the stage setting.

When the house is darkened, a niche, like that provided ins temple for a statue, is revealed by a beam of light on each side

draped figure of a woman. One of these Narrators begins the prologue, and then the other continues. So, alternately, passage by passage, the two Narrators tell the story that introduces the

poem. Then the niches are darkened and the light is concentrated on the stage.

Abject, in wretchedness of body and mind, Job is discerned crouching on the ground. Near him stand his three friends.

MARGARET MOWER AS ONE OF THE NARRATORS IN "THE BOOK OF JOB" (Judith Lowry was the other Narrator)

Job begins his lament with a curse on the day he was born. Then Eliphaz begins to reason with him. His words are considerate; but, tactful as he tries to be, he cannot conceal the fact that he regards suffering as a just punishment of evil-doing, and therefore bids Job to accept his chastening in good spirit. This is the philosophy of all three friends, and it angers Job.

What the dramatic representation of this poem makes clear, as even frequent reading of the poem may fail to disclose, is the very human qualities of these men as they discuss this the deepest mystery of life-the mystery of suffering. They get personal. They find that theories when applied to a particular case touch the quick. When Job bursts out on his friends in hot protest, you see them turn to leave him in indignation, and then you see why he bids them stop and listen. When he shows his disbelief in their philosophy by declaring of himself,

"He that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger," you see the friends again start to leave him in disgust at what they think his blasphemy. And when he calls them back again,

"But return ye, all of you, and come now!"

they deign to turn to him, only to meet with this bit of grim humor,

"And I shall not find a wise man among you."

Once in a while Job's vehemence spurs his friends into an attempt to interrupt, but Job's patience, proverbial though it is, does not amount to passivity, for he checks them with

"Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak."

In such ways as this the action on the stage lends to the words not only force, but clearness, and gives to the whole poem a body of humanity.

And when Elihu, the young man, undertakes to participate in the discussion, the spectator can see why his speech is hesitating at the start. There, not only in the language, but in the

action, is the evidence of the diffidence as well as the self-assurance of youth.

Then, with the coming of the whirlwind, the thunder, and the Voice, the scene is darkened and the words of men are silenced; and the whole question of the mystery of suffering is visibly engulfed in the mystery of all life.

From the time when the first shaft of light illumined the figures of the Narrators to the closing moment when the light faded from the niches as the Narrators spoke the last word of the epilogue, the audience sat in stilled absorption of the vast dramatic problem as they heard it and saw it. There was no affectation of reverence; there was nothing like the demeanor which people are likely to assume in the presence of something regarded as traditionally sacred. The hush was not the factitious quiet of a congregation exercising with some difficulty a conscious self-restraint. It was the hush of attention.

That audience had probably its share of ordinary human beings. Some of them had probably come to the theater out of curiosity. Some were perhaps prepared for the usual disappointment in store for those who attend the dramatization of Biblical events. Some, perhaps, had pietistic leanings. Some may have been students. It is safe to say, however, that if there were any who left the theater in the mood in which they came it was because they had little capacity for anything besides the usual Broadway show, the prayer-meeting, or the class-room. Capacity for appreciating the nature of some of the great questions that in all ages have searched the hearts of men has been immensely enlarged by the war. The mood of men to-day is receptive to such a poem as the Book of Job. In the sufferings of Serbia and Belgium, in the inexplicable power of an unscrupulous group of military leaders to bring immeasurable woe upon the world, in the vast, belligerent patience of France, men have been confronted with that which confronted Job and his friends. And the closer they have come to the experience of the world at war, the more keenly can they appreciate the impatience of the patient Job with mere pietistic or mere theological explanations of that experience. It ought not to be surprising that an audience of to-day should find themselves absorbed in the work of a master of literature who, though counted among the most ancient of the ancients, came as near as any writer ever has come to encompassing the mystery that has assumed the form of a gigantic war to baffle a world of moderns.

Of all the figures in this visualized poem, the one that remains most vividly in the mind is the Job of George Gaul. It is a figure of great vigor, manliness, masculinity. To say that even David Bispham was not equal to representing the Voice out of the Whirlwind without lending to the representation a suggestion of the theatrical is hardly a criticism. The task that he had was all but impossible. To say that the three friends and Elihu (represented by Walter Hampden, who, by the way, will be remembered as Manson in "The Servant in the House ") were less impressive than Job is not a criticism, for the ancient writer made Job one of the most impressive characters in all literature. All those who participated, as well as Mr. Walker, who directed the performance, and Mr. Elliott Schenck, who arranged the music, succeeded beyond what we should have imagined possible. Yet it is right that special mention should be made of the dignity, restraint, and power of Mr. Gaul's personification of Job.

play) is to be repeatedly given, we commend those who attend If, as we hope, this dramatic rendering (it cannot be called a it to Richard G. Moulton's edition of Job. In that little volume will be found the book of the play printed very much as it is given at the Booth Theater. In that volume, as in the play, such sentences as "Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said," and "Moreover Job continued his parable and said," are treated not as part of the text but as stage directions. So with the prose introduction to the monologue of Elihu. Perhaps to some it may be of some service to read the book in this form before seeing the performance. To others the seeing of the performance without a previous reading may make a more vivid impression. "Job," however, is a book to be read. And when it is read it should be read as it was intended to be not as a set of texts but as a dramatic poem. And if it is once seen as a dramatic poem it will never be thought of by the spectator as anything else.

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WHAT IS BEING DONE FOR THE PHYSICAL TRAINING OF THE

MEN IN SERVICE AND WHY

BY WALTER CAMP

GOVERNMENT DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS FOR THE NAVAL TRAINING CAMPS

THE COMMISSION ON TRAINING CAMP ACTIVITIES

A STATEMENT MADE BY THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY FOR THE OUTLOOK Victory depends upon the control of muscles. Men must be able to make thought instant action, when the fate of a fleet depends upon the flying signal for full speed ahead or astern, the turning of a turret, or the firing of a gun. The lives of thousands hung upon the movement of a hand.

Mechanical perfection is demanded in the machinery that drives the vessel, turns the turret, and fires the guns. More important is the man. More than a machine, his body is yet the most marvelous of machinery. Systematic exercise, athletics, is to perfect it and make him master of the whole.

The athletic programme of the Navy Department Commission on Training Camp Activities under Walter Camp is vital. Its importance to the Navy cannot be too strongly stressed. (Signed) JOSEPHUS DANIELS,

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T is only through having higher ideals that progress comes. When this war began, Secretary Baker and Secretary Daniels believed that, in spite of the records, our training camps and naval stations could set an example that would mark our war as epochal in the way of caring for the thousands of young men drawn from our homes. They believed that all the safeguards possible should surround these youth. It was easy to enact laws, it was simple to legislate against evil. But laws and legislation had been tried before. All the machinery of that nature had been put in operation in other countries and at times in our own without producing satisfactory results. It seemed, therefore, that the problem must be attacked from another angle, and Secretary Baker therefore established the War Commission on Training Camp Activities, with Raymond B. Fosdick as Chairman and Dr. Raycroft in charge of athletics, followed soon after by Secretary Daniels in the establishment of a similar Commission on Naval Training Camp Activities. This is indeed a ponderous title, but it means, in short, as Secretary Daniels has described it, "home conditions." It means that every boy is to be given just as much chance for relaxation as he might have enjoyed under the special conditions of his own home life. At home, whether in school or college or business, he had his evenings and his Saturday afternoons and Sundays for his amusements. Every man gradually lays out a sort of schedule of these things, and during the day and the week looks forward toward those amusements with anticipation. On Friday night or Saturday morning his thoughts can hardly help straying a bit to the pleasure he expects to have in those days of rest. Suddenly all these thousands of young men were to be thrown out of this normal environment, taken perhaps thousands of miles from their homes, and placed in Army cantonments or naval stations. Let the average man stop for a moment and think how he would feel if he were to be suddenly deprived of the pleasures of his evenings and his Saturday afternoons and holidays! Suppose he had nothing to which he might look forward but just the daily grind!

These two Commissions on Training Camp Activities, under Mr. Fosdick as Chairman, were called upon to face this problem and determine how it might be solved. When the young man was taken out of his home and placed in a camp, was it possible to transfer his environment with him? The solution looked extremely difficult; but the first step was to consider what the conditions were, and then meet them. What to-day are the things that appeal most to youth? First, his sports, without question; then amusements, like the movies or theaters or singing. The Commissions must therefore plan to give him these or else confess themselves beaten at the start, and allow the camps to go forward in the old desultory way of other camps of the past. Hit-or-miss athletics the American boy has outgrown. He has tasted the satisfaction of really organized athletics, and his baseball, football, and basket-ball are all team games that he admires. And in the winter there is hockey to be added. Of the more individual sports track games and boxing probably appeal

more than any other to the average man. And at this point it may be well to show the public why it was advisable for the Government itself, through the two Secretaries, to establish its own method and a new machinery for the purpose of reproduc ing this home environment. There were already in the Army and Navy two direct athletic agencies, but each one of these had other matters to look after. These two were the regular athletic officer of the division or station and the Y. M. C. A. leader. They had been in charge of such matters, and both had been extremely helpful. The chaplains had also contributed great aid along these lines. But in order to handle any such increase in numbers as was now facing the Government, new and more specially adapted machinery was imperative if speedy results were to be accomplished. The regular duties caused by such an increased number would tax the officers and chaplains to the limit, while Y. M. C. A. workers also would find their hands full.

Hence the Commission was formed and its work placed directly under Government control. It was possible to secure certain appropriations immediately, and in addition to these appropriations hundreds of private individuals, knowing the imperative need of the work and the necessity of quick action, backed it liberally with funds. The result was that the Com mission was not only able to organize but to reach almost from the start a great majority of the camps and stations, giving them the immediate benefit of trained organizers as well as a considerable amount of equipment. Athletic directors, song leaders, boxers, and other instructors have been stationed and real organization effected. So much so that the late summer and the fall saw all kinds of organized athletics and amusements established, and by the time the football season was on there were more teams in the country than ever before, and the boys in the service had some of the best of them, too! There was excellent co-operation between the Y. M. C. A., the Knights of Columbus, the chaplains and athletic officers, and the regularly appointed representatives of the Commission, for all were working toward a common end. The War Camp Recreation Community of the Playground and Recreation Society also did splendid work about the camps. did other organizations of similar character. The Commission itself undertook also the work of seeing that the laws relative to the surroundings of these camps and stations were observed and enforced.

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That the work has been one of stupendous magnitude only those can appreciate who have followed it or who have had some previous experience along kindred lines. But it has been accomplished. There is much further development and a cotinuing need for it, but the first steps have been made, the organization perfected, the sports given, and the home environment duplicated, and consequently the horrible experiences of former mobilization of civilians in a country not ready for war have not been repeated. Our boys have had a chance at clean and wholesome sport of the kind to which they had been accus tomed; they have a chance to look forward to their off hours

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and days off just as they did at home, and the final result of this is that they are "running straighter" than any such body of young men thrown into cantonments and naval stations suddenly have ever run before, and Secretary Baker and Secretary Daniels and Chairman Fosdick deserve the blessings of thousands of mothers and fathers for the work.

As an example of what is being done in all these stations we will take one, namely, the First Naval District in Boston. Here Director Brown has just been making an innovation in organizing tug-o'-war teams. This sport has sprung into popularity at the Boston Station, and a tug-o'-war event will be featured at many of the track meets and at boxing and wrestling exhibitions which will be given during the remainder of the winter.

Mr. Brown has a squad of forty men on his track team. The showing made by the team from this station at the Boston A. A. games February 2 has given track athletics an encouraging outlook.

The boxing and wrestling teams which have been developed at the Boston Station are regarded as the finest collections of athletes in these sports developed in the Navy this season. A dual meet in boxing and wrestling has been arranged between the Boston Station and the Camp Devens teams in the large Recreation Hall at Camp Devens..

At Commonwealth Pier, Boston, basket-ball is played by hundreds of men, and keen interest is shown in boxing, wrestling, swimming, and track athletics.

Athletics are being organized at the Machias Naval Station Branch of the Boston Station. Boxing and track athletics have comprised the first work done. Here is a further report:

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Probably the two strongest basket-ball teams in naval stations in New England will meet in the game which has just been arranged between the Boston and the Pelham Bay fives. "Warm interest is displayed in the Boston Station in the short-hand setting-up exercises which have just been introduced in the various camps of this Station. At the Bumkin Island camp every man in the station, one thousand in all, has taken up the exercise, which is regarded as a highly agreeable change from the former calisthenics. In the Boston Navy-Yard, the Harvard Radio School, the Portland Naval Station, the Machias Naval Station, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Naval Aviation Station large classes in the setting-up exercises have been organized. Especially keen interest is displayed at the Technology Station, where the men are so busy that they have had no time for athletics or recreational sport, but have welcomed the short-hand set-ups, which require only about fifteen minutes' time daily, and which leave the men exhilarated physically."

One of the most vital problems which the world war has pushed forward for solution is the general physical fitness of the American people.

The revelations made of their physical unfitness for military or for any exacting service have been astounding. In some draft districts it has been found necessary to summon two thousand men in order to get two hundred who are fit to begin service.

To remedy this a campaign to improve the National physical condition, to make it fitter for either campaigns or competition of war or peace, is one of the most important of the tasks which, at the present moment, confront the stay-at-homes to perform, not only on behalf of those who have gone to war, but on behalf of the future generations of both classes-the descendants of the present generation of Americans.

We are doing everything possible to see that the men in the service are kept physically and morally fit, that such diversion, such athletics, such exercises as tend to this result are fostered in every possible way. And regarding this we have no stronger statement than the one which the Chairman of the Commission, Mr. Fosdick, has just sent me:

"We have ample evidence that athletic games are developing self-control, agility, mental alertness, and initiative, all of which are bases upon which to build military training. The training camps and stations of the country are now giving to men whose boyhood ended all too soon an opportunity to play as they never played before. We believe that the harder men play the harder they will fight."

The writer has had opportunities to meet officers of other countries from time to time, and they have expressed themselves as very much impressed with the result of this work that is being done by the Commission. It would be impossible to go into technical detail, but the mass of reports coming in daily from these stations show that the departments have succeeded

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Boxing, because of its close relationship to bayonet fighting, is the only compulsory sport on the comprehensive athletic programme provided for our soldiers and sailors by the War and Navy Departments' Commissions on Training Camp Activities.

through this Commission in really establishing home conditions, and, in fact, doing even better, by providing not only home conditions but the technical instruction which a great portion of these boys were unable to enjoy at home. Hence all these

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boys of ours in the Service are having mind and body cared for through systematic exercise and athletics as never before, and, in addition to this, they are learning all the detail and technique necessary for the Service.

JOSEPHUS DANIELS

THE MAN WHO HAS DEMOCRATIZED THE NAVY
BY THEODORE H. PRICE

EDITOR OF "COMMERCE AND FINANCE"

RESIDENT WILSON made Josephus Daniels Secretary of the Navy in March, 1913. Of all his Cabinet appointments this was probably the most criticised. What

a newspaper editor know about ships? was the question that was generally and censoriously asked, and it was usually answered with a shrug of the shoulders and the statement that the President was paying a political debt.

The Raleigh "News and Observer," which Mr. Daniels owned and edited, had advocated Mr. Wilson's nomination and election. By popular subscription in small amounts, including a contribution of only $100 from its proprietor and editor, this paper had raised some twenty-five or thirty thousand dollars for the Democratic campaign fund. Mr. Daniels had been a member of the Democratic National Committee since 1896, and the political cynicism that was eager to find an unworthy and ulterior motive in every act of a minority President was quick to assume that these facts and the selection made for the Navy portfolio had the relation of cause and effect. For a time the imputation, which was ignored by both the President and Mr. Daniels, led to a prejudiced interpretation of the latter's every

act.

But four years have now elapsed. We have been at war eleven months. From a force of 4,500 officers and 68,000 enlisted men in January, 1917, the Navy has grown to 17,000 officers and 325,000 enlisted men, including Marines and Reserves. It had 130 stations of all kinds in January, 1917. It now has 363. The number of employees at the regular navy-yards in the United States has increased from 35,000 to over 66,000.

On shore and afloat, including civilians and sailors, the naval

establishment now embraces more than four hundred thousand persons.

On January 1, 1917, there were but three hundred naval vessels of all kinds in commission. To-day there are more than one thousand, and under the command of a corps of officers who have become the admiration of the world they are doing brilliant and effective service in making the seas safe for democracy.

In every department the Navy is functioning with precision, promptitude, and efficiency. We had hardly declared war before our fleets were in Europe. And the Secretary under whose direction all this has been accomplished is now rediscovered as one of the ablest heads the Navy ever had.

Impressed by this revision of public opinion in regard to a man upon whose leadership and administrative ability so much depends, I have been led to make a somewhat critical study of his career and personality with the purpose of ascertaining whether the confidence that he has come to inspire is justified.

It is at all times difficult equitably to appraise a public man. It is especially difficult when a nation is at war and the man is at the head of one of the great departments that is charged with the duty of waging the war. As few of us ever see those who are in the public eye and fewer still can know them intimately, we must depend on the newspapers for impressions, and the man who can reach the people despite the barrage of a hostile press must be genuine in his sympathy and courageous in his democracy. I count it, therefore, greatly in Mr. Daniels's favor that despite the censoriousness of the press the people have come to trust him and believe in him; for Lincoln expressed a profound truth when he said, "You can't deceive all of the people all the time."

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