The sick man, one who probably dying is assumedly close to the spirit-world, is well-balanced by the material physician, representing the earth-spirit.
Besides suggesting a nexus between America and the fighting Allies, the homeward bound vessel affords from its deck, quite naturally, the view of the star, which becomes symbolically useful; and, further, the cry of the watch, “All’s well,” which also conveys a deeper meaning.
The story should be read as the counterpart of Virgil Jordan’s “Vengeance is Mine.” (See page [119].)
THE BIRD OF SERBIA
Starting Point. In “The Bird of Serbia,” Mr. Street desired to say through the medium of fiction a certain thing. “Perhaps I wanted to say: ‘Nothing is so small or so nasty that it can not be made to serve an autocratic ruler in carrying out his designs.’ So, then, I took as my symbol for smallness and nastiness, the louse. And then I set out to prove that lice could serve the autocrat who wished to start a war. I wanted to show how very true that theory is, and I should say that the quality of truth in that story—the convincingness of it—is the best thing about it.”—Julian Street.
Plot.
Initial Impulses, giving rise to the struggle and the complication.—
Gavrilo Prinzip, a subject of Austro-Hungary, living in Sarajevo, Bosnia, is a Serb by descent and nature. The revolutionary spirit he displays at an early age gives evidence of his passionate racial feeling. In 1913, at the age of eighteen, he is betrothed to Mara. The two are devoted to each other, but Mara resents Gavrilo’s constant ideal of a free Serb race. She is, perhaps, “jealous of a people.”
Steps toward the Dramatic Climax: Sarajevo plans to have on June 28, Kossovo Day, a celebration greater than usual because of Serbian independence gained in the two preceding years of the Balkan War. A few days before, Mara’s relative, a former supposed rival of Gavrilo, gives her a black song bird—a kos. Gavrilo begs her to release the bird. She feels that she will be giving up her own character to free it, and persists in keeping it caged. She is confirmed in her stubbornness through the advice of her relative. The Serbian festival is forbidden; attempts to commemorate the anniversary will result in arrest. Austrian manoeuvres will take place, instead. The Archduke will appear, in spite of advice to the contrary. It is clear that a plot is brewing. Gavrilo has promised, however, not to participate in anything violent so long as Mara loves him. She assures him of her love, whereupon he asks her again, to set the kos free.