THE ENGLISH DRAMA: HERMANN SUDERMANN MAGDA Lieutenant Colonel Schwartze, Magda's father, represents all the conventional and conservative notions of society. Schwartze. Modern ideas! Oh, pshaw! I know them. But come into the quiet homes where are bred brave soldiers and virtuous wives. There you'll hear no talk about heredity, no arguments about individuality, no scandalous gossip. There modern ideas have no foothold, for it is there that the life and strength of the Fatherland abide. Look at this home! There is no luxury,-hardly even what you call good taste,-faded rugs, birchen chairs, old pictures; and yet when you see the beams of the western sun pour through the white curtains and lie with such a loving touch on the old room, does not something say to you, " Here dwells true happiness"? The Colonel is a rigid military man. He is utterly blind to the modern conception of woman's place in life. He rules his family as the...