Israel Zangwill

      The Melting-Pot

      e-artnow, 2020

       Contact: [email protected]

      EAN 4064066060756

Table of Contents

       THE CAST

       Act I

       Act II

       Act III

       Act IV

       APPENDIX A

       THE MELTING POT IN ACTION

       APPENDIX B

       THE POGROM

       (I) A RUSSIAN ON ITS REASONS

       (II) A NURSE ON ITS RESULTS

       APPENDIX C

       THE STORY OF DANIEL MELSA

       APPENDIX D

       BEILIS AND AMERICA

       APPENDIX E

       THE ALIEN IN THE MELTING POT

       Afterword

       I

       II

       III

       IV

       V

       VI

THE CAST

       Table of Contents

      [As first produced at the Columbia Theatre, Washington, on the fifth of October 1908]

      [As first produced by the Play Actors at the Court Theatre, London on the twenty-fifth of January 1914]

Act I

       Table of Contents

      The scene is laid in the living-room of the small home of the Quixanos in the Richmond or non-Jewish borough of New York, about five o'clock of a February afternoon. At centre back is a double street-door giving on a columned veranda in the Colonial style. Nailed on the right-hand door-post gleams a Mezuzah, a tiny metal case, containing a Biblical passage. On the right of the door is a small hat-stand holding Mendel's overcoat, umbrella, etc. There are two windows, one on either side of the door, and three exits, one down-stage on the left leading to the stairs and family bedrooms, and two on the right, the upper leading to Kathleen's bedroom and the lower to the kitchen. Over the street door is pinned the Stars-and-Stripes. On the left wall, in the upper corner of which is a music-stand, are bookshelves of large mouldering Hebrew books, and over them is hung a Mizrach, or Hebrew picture, to show it is the East Wall. Other pictures round the room include Wagner, Columbus, Lincoln, and "Jews at the Wailing place." Down-stage, about a yard from the left wall, stands David's roll-desk, open and displaying a medley of music, a quill pen, etc. On the wall behind the desk hangs a book-rack with brightly bound English books. A grand piano stands at left centre back, holding a pile of music and one huge Hebrew tome. There is a table in the middle of the room covered with a red cloth and a litter of objects, music, and newspapers. The fireplace, in which a fire is burning, occupies the centre of the right wall, and by it stands an armchair on which lies another heavy mouldy Hebrew tome. The mantel holds a clock, two silver candlesticks, etc. A chiffonier stands against the back wall on the right. There are a few cheap chairs. The whole effect is a curious blend of shabbiness, Americanism, Jewishness, and music, all four being combined in the figure of Mendel Quixano, who, in a black skull-cap, a seedy velvet jacket, and red carpet-slippers, is discovered