The Cavalcade of America.
DuPont, sponsor of the Cavalcade of America, wishes to thank all of you who
have taken the time and trouble to write expressing appreciation for this series
of programs. In choosing a program we recognize that people throughout the
country derive keen enjoyment from stories of America's history depicting
traits of American character that built this nation. It's appropriate that the
chemical firm of DuPont established at Wilmington, Delaware in 1802 should
sponsor a program of this type. During the 134 years of its existence the
progress of the DuPont company has closely paralleled the progress of
America. It has been the privilege of DuPont chemists to develop a number of
products that help make life easier and happier for Americans of today. That is
what DuPont chemists mean by the phrase which guides their work. Better things
for better living through chemistry.
This evening's first episode concerns a family who ventured into Ohio territory
in 1798 when it was a wilderness inhabited by Indians. Our cavalcade
orchestra sets the scene with Frederick Knight Logan's American Indian melody
Pale Moon.
The
the
Loyalty to the family, the basic unit of our country's social structure,
has been a great force for good in America.
Since it is largely in the hands of women that the care of our families has been placed,
it is to the history of American womanhood that we look this evening
for the highest examples of unselfish devotion.
It is the winter of 1798 in the small town of Harpersfield, New York.
At the parlor of Alexander Harper home, Colonel Harper is talking to a group of men.
But in the sitting room, a more informal meeting is being held.
Two ladies of Harpersfield talk to the Colonel's wife, Elizabeth Harper, and her friend, Dorothy Gregory.
I cannot see how you and Dorothy can remain so calm, Elizabeth, when your husbands are in there
planning your whole futures and that of your descendants.
Well, Elizabeth feels there's nothing so greatly unusual in moving our families to the western wilderness.
Perhaps you think you'll find a pretty home like this one waiting for you in the western reserve, Elizabeth.
Oh, no. At first we may not even have cabins, but tents or shelters made of bark.
But Elizabeth, what in the world will you do in that wild country for neighbors?
Well, we may have to take to minding our own affairs.
I think you treat this matter with unbecoming levity, Elizabeth,
considering that you have induced poor Dorothy Gregory to accompany you.
Why, indeed, no, Mrs. Bigelow.
Ezra has long wished to go to Ohio, and when the Harpers resolved on moving and I saw Elizabeth's resolution,
I consented to the plan.
Well, you will both be sorry. Come, Mrs. Stevens, we must be going back to the village.
Why, must you leave? My husband's business will be concluded soon.
Well, everyone in Harpersfield is so curious to know your plans that we must bring them word.
Well, good evening, Dorothy. Good evening. Good evening, Mrs. Stevens.
Oh, did their idle gossiping anger you, Elizabeth? A whole hour of such talk.
No, I am angry at myself, not them. Their words raised old doubts.
Oh, Elizabeth, it isn't too late for us to say no. Even now, we can...
Well, then we'll start the journey by sled, Gregory, before the Thor is set in, Colonel Harper.
Elizabeth, my dear. Yes?
This meeting has determined us on final steps.
The McFarlans have promised to join us. It wants, but our wives consent.
Well, Elizabeth has been taking the...
First, darling, will the plan of travel be safe for the children, Alex?
We go by sled to Rome, by boat to Oswego, thence to Queenstown, and from there, on the Canada side to Fort Erie.
How far will we find roads?
There are no roads west of the Genesee River, unfortunately.
Alex, it is best for the children, isn't it? You have assured me.
There's no question of it, Elizabeth. You have but to sign this deed.
Oh, wait, Elizabeth. Look. Look what a great expanse of map without towns or houses.
But notice, Dorothy, our land is directly south of Lake Erie, near the waterways route, through these great lakes.
Towns follow waterways. Later trade routes will follow towns.
Our descendants will be living on a great route from east to west.
Well, I know nothing of trade routes. You decide, Elizabeth.
I think we must go, Dorothy. Alex.
Yes, dear.
I fix my name to this deed which will take us westward.
The journey passed safely, but the arrival was tragic.
Fever struck the little colony, and Colonel Harper died.
Elizabeth was left to endure a first winter that meant hiding her grief and comforting her children.
It is early spring. In the forest near her cabin, Elizabeth Harper and her three children are in the woods.
It is early spring. In the forest near her cabin, Elizabeth Harper and her three youngest children search about through the grasses for wild plants.
Young Alex speaks.
Do we have to go on picking, Mother? I'm so tired.
I feel dizzy.
That's because you're so hungry. I get wobbly, too.
Now sit down on this log, children, and rest.
Yes, Mother.
There. Well, we've got five baskets full of wild leeks.
I'm almost sure that when they're boiled, we can eat them.
Will there, will there surely be some food to eat in spring, Mother? Real food.
We don't have to wait until spring comes, do we, Mother?
Oh, I've told you, children. There'll be food as soon as your brothers come back from Pennsylvania.
Someone there is bound to have food.
Oh, if I'd only come early enough to plant more grain. Or perhaps if your father had lived.
Elizabeth? Oh, Elizabeth!
It's Mrs. Gregory.
Oh, Elizabeth. McFarland and Ezra sent me out to speak to you.
They thought, all of us thought, you should consider something.
What is it, Dorothy?
How long has it been since James and William sent out to Pennsylvania?
Six weeks tomorrow.
It is a long time for such a journey.
Oh, but the rivers are flowing, and it's the worst time of year to journey.
So William McFarland said.
Perhaps they wandered southward rather than forward a stream and fell in with Indians.
My sons would not take risks when our lives depend on them.
But they're scarcely grown to manhood, and what do they know of Indians?
Oh, Mother, have Indians got villain James?
Robert. Mother, I'm scared.
Eliza, hush, all of you. You must listen to me a moment.
Sit down again and be quiet.
I want to tell you a story about your father.
Fifteen years ago, when you boys were not yet born, and Eliza was a baby,
your father fought in the revolution.
He was captured by a Mohawk chieftain.
He was?
He was dragged northward through the forest to Niagara,
threatened with death at every step, and told he might never return.
Go on, Mother.
He was made to run the gauntlet.
When that did not kill him, he was sent to Quebec, where he laid in prison for two years,
wondering every day if his wife and his children were safe.
But he never gave up.
He came home, didn't he, Mom?
He came back because his courage did not fail him.
Now shall we go back to the cabin without fears of what may have happened to William and James?
Yes, Mother.
I'll carry two baskets.
Come along, Rob.
I'll run ahead and get water to boil.
Are you coming, Elizabeth?
I would stay in the woods a moment to gather strength.
You go with the children, Dorothy.
Well, I'll spread the news that we'll have something to eat.
Dear Lord, I pray that you give me the courage I have counseled in my children.
We are near extremity.
Oh, I pray they spare the young ones, Amalia, for they suffer without understanding.
Oh, dear Lord.
Hello?
Who is it?
Hello?
James!
Mother?
Yes?
Mother, is that you?
Yes.
I saw figures in the trees.
I thought I was dreaming.
Oh, James.
Oh, Mother.
Oh, how good to find you.
But where is William?
He's mired on a creek bank two miles back.
It's these heavy sacks of corn we were carrying.
Look, Mother, plenty of corn.
Oh, come with it, quick.
We're starving.
We got it from a man on Elk Creek in Pennsylvania.
Oh, here, give me part of that sack.
Oh, no.
Mother.
No, I feel faint.
Food.
And I'm too weak to carry it.
Hurry ahead, James.
Tell everyone we have food.
The settlement was saved from starvation, and though hard times followed, no such crisis of hunger ever rose again.
For the first three years, the settlers saw no end in them.
They toiled to improve their tiny village and build additions to their cabin.
At the Harper Cabin in 1802, in the larger room of their two-room home, Elizabeth Harper anxiously instructs her daughter, Eliza.
Here's a quotation from the merchant of Venice, Eliza.
The quality of mercy is not strained, not strained.
It droppers as...
As the gentle rain from heaven...
Upon?
Upon the place beneath.
Oh, I'm so nervous, Mother.
Why did you insist that Mr. McFarland and Mr. Gregory come over to question me?
Certainly they will choose me, teacher, because there's no one else to be teacher.
Eliza, in this rough country, men will quickly forget their graces of life if women do not constantly remind them.
For that reason, you must know your literature and history, and we must have a proper examination before you take charge of our young ones.
Oh, oh, Mother, I think that Mr. McFarland and Mr. Gregory now, they're coming into the house.
Now, don't behave like a little child, Eliza. Answer the door and click the...
Oh, yes, Mother.
Ah! Oh, Mother, Indian! Indian, oh, Mother!
Stay, stay, keep your head.
What do you want?
Oh, Mother, Mother, shall I run to get the men?
Make no sudden movement to alarm them.
Oh, but what will they do to us?
I do believe the man is hungry. Else why does he point to his mouth?
Come, sir, inside, here.
Mother, now!
Look, you Indian, do you see where I point those corn cakes?
To he who?
Yes, for you, for your friends. Call them.
Oh, no, Mother.
Oh, Mother, I pray they'll pass through this room without harm.
Be calm, Eliza. You are not even looking at them.
Why did you?
Oh, they look thin to the point of starvation.
We are safe.
Oh, Mother.
The deep snows must have ruined their hunting.
Mrs. Harper, Mrs. Harper, oh, there they are.
Put down that gun, Ezra.
A tribe of Indians in your cabin?
I invited them. It was the safest plan.
Target William and James. They stay there, we have them trapped.
But, Ezra, they mean us no harm. They could have slain us at once if they had.
But I cannot make it out.
You, we have waited for them three years, then they appear and walk peaceably into your cabin.
It's a stroke of luck, Ezra, and one of our first.
Look, you, today we planned a school, heard that the post road was coming,
and now our traditional enemy is eager to try my corn cakes.
Oh, for these long years I've fretted for the East, but today I am content.
For even after all the hardships we've been through, I feel that this country is home,
a safe home for me and my children.
The Indians become friends of the colonists and often help them.
New settlers arrive from the East, and Elizabeth Harper watches her children grow up in a well-populated country.
Her loyalty to her family bore fruit in their success and in their services to the new state of Ohio.
Loyalty to family is as natural to American womanhood today as at the end of the 18th century
when Elizabeth Harper fended for her children in the wilderness.
The second episode in this evening's Cavalcade of America, presented by DuPont, takes place in the autumn of 1922.
In the office of a department store manager, Nancy Barrett has an anxious talk.
The manager, Mr. Johnson, is speaking.
Of course, this is an interesting hobby, Mrs. Barrett.
Oh, it's more than a hobby, Mr. Johnson. I really work at it in all my spare time.
I've been giving nothing but my pottery as gifts for years.
For the last few months, ever since my husband had to go south for his health, I've been selling it.
How do you do the firing, if I may ask?
Well, it was just luck that I found a man who knew kilns.
Francois, he's an old Frenchman who worked when he was young at Limoges.
He built me a small kiln and a workshop back at my house.
Well, frankly, Mrs. Barrett, we're not doing much expanding at the present time.
Even adding a new pottery shop to our China department would come under the head of expansion right now.
Well, I have a lot of friends.
See, so many women in town know my work already that I have a ready-made clientele.
Well, if you'll give me your address.
It's 458 Judson Boulevard.
458.
It's the White House set back in the trees.
But Mr. Johnson, you don't really intend to come.
I think I'll have to show you my emergency vase.
Your what?
My emergency vase, the vase I brought along to show you in case you simply wouldn't set foot over my doorstep.
Well, I...
It's in this box which I'm trying to open.
Can I help?
I'm nervous, I do believe.
Salesmanship is new to me.
There.
May I put it on your desk?
It's very beautiful.
I think this aquamarine color catches an under-surface sheen that I'm working for.
How do you get these magnificent swirls of color?
Oh, that's a secret.
But I'll tell you one thing.
I'm using native clays from right down on our own riverbank.
It means a lot of fuss with the firing because almost anything's got to go wrong.
But from there on, it's not...
Mrs. Barrett, I'm impressed with your work even though I don't know much about pottering.
I'll certainly have a look at your shop.
Oh, I'll be so happy.
My secretary will make the appointment.
If we make a deal at all, it has to be for the holiday trade.
Can I help you get that vase in the box?
Thank you.
You packed it well.
I'm shipping it.
Oh, you have an out-of-town trade?
No, but I've got a husband in a sanitarium down south who sometimes gets flowers when I feel prosperous.
Goodbye, Mr. Johnson.
And thank you very much for answering my letter and for seeing me.
I've enjoyed our talk.
Goodbye.
A few weeks later in Nancy's home.
It is just before daylight.
But in the dining room, Nancy sits asleep, her head fallen over her drawing board spread on the dining room table.
Randy, her young son in pajamas and bathrobe, comes in, sees her, and shakes her gently.
The
children are all asleep.
They are all in their bed.
The young man in pajamas and bathrobe comes in, sees her, and shakes her gently.
Mother.
Hmm?
Can't you come to bed?
Oh, Randy.
You're getting almost as bad as dad was about staying up.
And that was pretty bad.
Oh, Francois and that new man are on the oven.
They're going to call me as soon as this firing is finished.
Don't worry about it so much, Mom.
Oh, I'm not so terribly worried.
Well, you act like it.
Won't the store take it if you don't get it done on time?
Not so much that.
But if anything goes wrong, I haven't money enough to pay for another firing.
What would happen to us then?
I don't know.
Read dad's letter again.
Oh, no, Randy.
Why not?
Because it's only a letter.
What good does it do?
He's so far away.
Oh.
All right.
Oh, I'm sorry, Randy.
Of course I'll read it, darling.
Here, here it is.
Let's see.
He says, well, he misses us terribly.
He likes the doctor down there.
And the doctor says it's been six months of progress.
And it'll only be two years more.
Maybe you'd better not read it.
What's that?
It's the alarm clock going off in the kitchen.
Oh, I got it.
But what?
Why is it going off?
I don't know.
Didn't you say it?
Yes, but for six o'clock.
That's what it is now.
Oh, it couldn't be.
Why, I sat down here at 10 o'clock to rest just a few minutes.
Oh, they're going to draw the oven at midnight.
Something's gone wrong, or they'd have called me.
Mother, where are you going?
To the oven.
Wait, I'm coming.
Wait, mother.
Francois.
Yes?
Yes, yes, what is it, Mrs. Dow?
Oh, what happened?
Why didn't you call?
Nothing happens.
I come to the house, you asleep, and the new man and me withdraw.
Oh, let me see it.
Why, it looks all right.
The wear in this dagger looks fine.
Sure, it is fine.
Other daggers just as good.
Oh, thank heaven.
I feel like shouting.
Mother.
Yes?
It's getting light.
Look at the sky.
If they don't hurry, you won't get any sleep.
I don't need sleep.
Francois, you and Randy and I'll have breakfast right away.
Then before I start on that sorting, I'll write a letter south.
The ability to endure separation and loneliness is one of the
sternest tests of loyalty to family.
Two years later at the railroad station, Nancy Barrett and Randy are talking together.
I guess we've been here about an hour now.
Well, we did get here a little early.
I can see it the minute it comes around that curve.
Yes.
And boy, am I going to yell.
Not too loud now, Randy.
Oh, say, you'll yell too.
How are you doing, Mrs. Barrett?
Oh, how do you do, Mr. Light?
Hello there, Randy.
Hello.
That was a mighty nice piece about you in her favor last night, Mrs. Barrett.
Your husband should be very proud of you.
Thank you, Mr. Light.
Are you expecting him on this train?
Yes, we are.
So am I.
I'm missing him on that curve.
Hooray!
Randy, Randy, take my hand here.
Yes, you'll get it.
Come on, Randy, I don't know what car he's on.
Oh dear, you don't suppose he missed connections?
Oh, he wouldn't do that.
Yeah, I shouldn't think he would.
Oh, I hope not.
Oh, where is he, Mom?
Where is he?
Oh, there he is.
We're always as brown as an Indian.
Oh, I'm sorry.
How are you, dear?
Oh, terribly happy, darling.
Terribly glad you're back.
And now everything's all right again.
Oh, I'm so happy.
And now everything's all right again.
Loyalty to family.
In the most difficult times, it has triumphed over every obstacle and presented to children
an example of courage and faithfulness.
Though many kinds of idealism have appeared in the cavalcade of America, the devotion shown
by pioneer women and by their enduring sisters today is of a distinguished sort.
To those members of families who have contributed to their country's welfare by guarding the
welfare of their loved ones, we pay a special tribute.
They are true leaders in the cavalcade of America.
This evening, the cavalcade of America has brought you two episodes exemplifying the
American spirit of loyalty to family.
Now we want to share with you another true life story of loyalty as related in a sincere
and human letter recently received from one of our listeners.
Mr. C.A.F. of Washington, D.C. writes, I have been listening over the radio ever since there
were sets available and I've never heard anything that has been interesting like the cavalcade
of America.
It's wonderful and I look forward to it every week.
I am proud of America and what Americans have done and I hope you'll keep up your good work.
When I was a boy in Michigan, I learned to use dynamite to blast out rocks on my father's
farm.
I got the blasting rocks and stumps for the neighbors and ordered the dynamite directly
from the DuPont Company in Wilmington, Delaware.
I thought your company just the greatest thing in the world, for I was able to make enough
money at this work to buy all my clothes.
I never had much chance to go to school, but finally got a job at a Detroit power plant
and went to night school and worked up to be an engineer.
When the war came, I enlisted and upon returning, learned photography and started a studio in
Illinois.
I got along real well and married.
It didn't seem to be our luck to have any children, so we adopted two orphans, a boy
and a girl.
We had just taken these two children when the big crash came and we lost our business.
Things are a little better with us now and with the educational advantages here, I hope
to make the boy what I always wanted to be.
Since I was associated with your company when a boy, I could not help telling you the above
story.
Keep up your wonderful program and I'll be listening to you.
Thank you, Mr. CAF.
Chemistry is truly a story of loyalty and of faith in America as a land of opportunity.
Letters like yours furnishing at first hand the experiences of listeners tell better than
any words of ours could possibly do how chemistry touches the lives of the American people.
In your case, it was your skill in using agricultural dynamite to clear farms of stumps and boulders
that gave you a start in making your own way in the world.
The DuPont Company, of course, makes many other useful chemical products and we hope
you have enjoyed learning about some of them through the brief stories of research usually
given at the end of these programs.
Your experience and that of millions of others throughout the country emphasize the phrase
which DuPont chemists hold as their guiding principle, better things for better living
through chemistry.
Next Wednesday evening at this same time, DuPont will again present the cavalcade of
America.
Since next Wednesday is February 12th, the birthday anniversary of Abraham Lincoln, it
is fitting that our program for that evening should dramatize some of the less familiar
incidents from the life of the great emancipator.
This is the Columbia Broadcasting Service.
W-A-B-C, New York.