The Bostonians

("God Save the Queen" by Thomas Arne)

- Our fight is directed against those

that want to keep women in an inferior position.

- Oh, I'd change my position for yours any day.

That's what I said to myself

as I sat there in your comfortable parlor.

- But do you reproach me for having a little money?

Oh, certainly not.

- It's the dearest wish of my heart

to do something with it for others.

Don't you believe in the coming of a better day?

That it's possible to do something for the human race?

Well...

What strikes me most, Miss Olive,

is that the human race has just got to bear its troubles.

- Why, that's what men say to keep women in the position

they have made for them.

- The position of women is nothing but to make fools of men.

- Don't you believe in our emancipation?

- I'll tell you after the meeting.

- Your cousin looks like a genius, my dear.

He's only a distant cousin.

He's a lawyer from Mississippi.

He left his mother and sisters behind,

and he's come to try to make his living in New York.

He's not in sympathy, I'm afraid.

- Well, I've often found that people

are only waiting for the light.

Oh, there's our guest of honor.

- Miss Birdseye, what a pleasure to see you.

- Excuse me but may I ask you, who is that lady?

Mrs. Farrinder is the leader,

and you might say the apostle,

of the movement to emancipate the female sex.

Oh, I see.

- How nice to see you again. - Thank you.

- Matthias Pardon, representing the press.

Transcript, don't you know?

Well, I'm hoping Mrs. Farrinder will give an address.

I'll write it up for the Transcript.

You know, there is a great interest in the movement

among the public at large,

and I'm here in the service of the public at large.

Pro bono publico.

I beg your pardon.

Are you acquainted with the lioness?

I mean, the renowned Mrs. Farrinder.

Now, has she convinced you that women are superior to men?

- I guess I know more about women than she does.

I'm a doctor.

Prance is the name.

I'm Basil Ransome, hello.

- Men and women are all the same to me.

There's room for improvement in both sexes.

Neither of them is up to the standard.

- Mrs. Tarrant, Dr. Tarrant. - Miss Birdseye.

- Verena, my dear. - Hello, Miss Birdseye.

The Tarrants.

Dr. Tarrant, he calls himself.

He's a mesmeric healer.

Miraculous cures.

- If I might request a few moments silence.

I'll start her up.

Quietly...

Quietly...

It will come, my dear child.

- Is she asleep? - The spirit will come.

Let it gather.

Let it come.

The light...

The tide is rising...

Is rising...

I feel...

I hear a calling.

A calling for help.

Uncounted millions have lived only to be tortured.

To be crucified.

Ages of oppression have rolled over them.

But the day of their delivery has dawned.

This is the only sacred cause.

This is the great, the just revolution.

It must triumph.

It must sweep everything before it.

It will be the greatest change the world has seen.

And the names of those who have helped to show the way

and lead the squadrons will be the brightest

in the tables of fame.

- Do you know my cousin, Miss Chancellor?

I can't say I know her,

but I guess I know others like her pretty well.

When I look at the world,

and at the state that men have brought it to,

I confess, I say to myself,

"Well, if women had fixed it this way,"

"I should like to know what men would think of it."

- They pretend to admire us...

Do you like it?

What she's saying?

Nah.

But I suppose she's been taught all that by her daddy.

- I say that if this is the best they can do by themselves,

they had better let us come in a little

and see what we can do.

We couldn't possibly make it worse, could we?

There is a brutal element in the world

which tramples down the feeble and treads down the weak.

I stand in a place of peace and beauty,

and I look into a wilderness

of poverty and ignorance and misery.

The world is drenched in blood.

- I guess I've heard it all before.

- But she looks so pretty when she says it.

I think she looks anemic

and she probably eats too much candy.

Well, I've got work to do.

I don't want the gentlemen doctors to get ahead of me.

- Oh, nobody'd ever get ahead of you, Dr. Prance,

I'm very sure.

- Good night, sir. - Good night.

I'm only a girl.

A simple American girl.

And of course I haven't seen much

and there's a great deal of life

I don't know anything about,

but there are some things that I feel.

They are in my ears in the stillness of the night,

and before my face in the visions of the darkness.

Let us remember in our trials and discouragements,

that if our lives are true, we walk with angels.

If we trust one another,

if we are true and gentle and kind,

those regal ideas that struggle for liberty will come forth

and spread their wings to soar high.

- You speak well, and no wonder for you speak

in a great cause. - Isn't she wonderful?

There's money for someone in that girl.

You see if she don't have quite a run.

- Perhaps I could become a sympathizer after all.

Will you come and see me?

Where do you live?

- I know where Miss Chancellor lives.

I'm acquainted with your family, of course, Miss Chancellor.

I believe your father knew my father,

Abraham Greenstreet, the abolitionist.

I want to thank you.

Mr. Ransome.

I was certain you would come.

I felt it all day, something told me.

- Mother said I'd better come right on.

- Your mother saw that I meant what I said.

I was shaken from head to foot.

What power, what power, Miss Tarrant!

- It's a regular dreamlike place.

I want to know you.

I felt that as soon as I heard you speak last night.

There's so much I want to ask you.

- Well, I can't say much except when father

has worked on me...

- I don't care anything about your father.

He's wonderfully magnetic...

- It isn't your father, it isn't your mother.

It's only you, just as you are.

Will you be my friend?

My friend of friends?

Forever and ever?

- My carriage was ordered for three,

and it still hasn't appeared.

You have a visitor.

- Miss Verena Tarrant, my sister, Mrs. Luna.

Why, you're on the stage.

What do you do?

Are you an actress?

Do you sing?

I can never carry a tune.

Verena has a divine gift.

Oh.

Olive, we have another visitor.

Our interesting cousin,

whom you so providentially discovered.

We'll meet again soon.

Very, very soon.

This is only the beginning.

Why, Miss Chancellor.

Good afternoon.

- I'm so glad my carriage is late,

or you would've missed seeing me.

- Oh, Mrs. Luna, I would've been disconsolate.

I've come to say goodbye.

I'm going back to New York today.

Mama!

I wanna go!

- Newton, you know Mama will be back

an hour from now... - I wanna go, I wanna go!

I wanna go! - Mama has to go,

Newton dearest. - I wanna go, I wanna go!

No!

- Miss Tarrant won't be surprised if I recognize her,

if I take the liberty to speak to her?

Many gentlemen speak to me.

- We'll see each other again tomorrow.