Sound the trumpet, beat the drum.

Everybody’s come to town

To see your competition, monk.

Alive and breathing in the county cooler:

A high-school teacher—wild, untamed!

(The crowd surges back, augmented, in a jubilant parade.

Many are carrying banners, reading:

ARE YOU A MAN OR A MONKEY?

AMEND THE CONSTITUTION—PROHIBIT DARWIN

SAVE OUR SCHOOLS FROM SIN

MY ANCESTORS AIN’T APES!

WELCOME MATTHEW HARRISON BRADY

DOWN WITH DARWIN

BE A SWEET ANGEL

DON’T MONKEY WITH OUR SCHOOLS!

DARWIN IS WRONG!

DOWN WITH EVOLUTION

SWEETHEART, COME UNTO THE LORD

HORNBECK goes to the background to watch the show. MATTHEW HARRISON BRADY comes on, a benign giant of a man, wearing a pith helmet. He basks in the cheers and the excitement, like a patriarch surrounded by his children. He is gray, balding, paunchy, an indeterminate sixty-five. He is followed by MRS. BRADY; the MAYOR; REVEREND BROWN; TOM DAVENPORT, the circuit district attorney; some newspapermen, and an army of the curious.)

ALL

(Singing)

Gimme that old-time religion,

Gimme that old-time religion,

Gimme that old-time religion,

It’s good enough for me!

It was good enough for father,

It was good enough for father,

It was good enough for father,

And it’s good enough for me!

* * *

It was good for the Hebrew children,

It was good for the Hebrew children,

It was good for the Hebrew children,

And it’s good enough for me!

Gimme that old-time religion,

Gimme that old-time religion,

Gimme that old-time religion,

It’s good enough for me!

MAYOR

(Speaks)

Mr. Brady, if you please.

REVEREND

(Singing)

It is good enough for Brady.

CROWD

It is good enough for Brady,

It is good enough for Brady,

And it’s good enough for me!

(Cheers and applause. BRADY seems to carry with him a built-in spotlight. So MRS. BRADY—pretty, fashionably dressed, a proper “Second Lady” to the nation’s “Second Man”—seems always to be in his shadow. This does not annoy her. SARAH BRADY is content that all her thoughts and emotions should gain the name of action through her husband. BRADY removes his hat and raises his hand. Obediently, the crowd falls to a hushed anticipatory silence.)

BRADY

Friends—and I can see most of you are my friends, from the way you have decked out your beautiful city of Hillsboro—(There is a pleased reaction, and a spattering of applause. When BRADY speaks, there can be no doubt of his personal magnetism. Even HORNBECK, who slouches contemptuously at far left, is impressed with the speaker’s power; for here is a man to be reckoned with) Mrs. Brady and I are delighted to be among you! (BRADY takes his wife’s hand and draws her to his side) I could only wish one thing: that you had not given us quite so warm a welcome! (BRADY removes his alpaca coat. The crowd laughs. BRADY beams. MRS. MCCLAIN hands him a frond fan. BRADY takes it) Bless you. (He fans himself vigorously) My friends of Hillsboro, you know why I have come here. I have not come merely to prosecute a lawbreaker, an arrogant youth who has spoken out against the Revealed Word. I have come because what has happened in a schoolroom of your town has unloosed a wicked attack from the big cities of the North!—an attack upon the law which you have so wisely placed among the statutes of this state. I am here to defend that which is most precious in the hearts of all of us: the Living Truth of the Scriptures!