Death that takes Lincoln spares him the disillusion and the time of waste that comes after him. The face of Freedom is covered and she turns her gaze away from the land. THE CHOIR (_Fortissimo_) Allons! Through struggles and wars! The goal that was named cannot be countermanded. FOUR VOICES We found our own, O my Soul, in the calm and cool of the daybreak. [_The beginnings of light upon the scene show Freedom weeping upon her balustrade, alone on the stair between the two halves of the Choir._ _In the distance the Chorus begins to sing that great chantey of American labor, “I’ve been working on the Railroad.”_ _At the back of the stage, just below the beginning of the stair, is a pathway of light into which, from either side of the scene, come single lines of men who bear upon their shoulders rails and ties. Across the stage they build the transcontinental railroad, forming sculptural and beautiful groups as they bend over the joints of the rails and swing their sledges. When the task is completed, the headlights of engines shine along the lines._ _Whereupon two wedges of laborers emerge from the sides of the scene, lower down on the incline of the stage and stand in pools of flame. That on the right is the group of steel workers. That on the left is the group of coal miners._ _Whereupon, still lower down stage, two other wedges emerge, similarly dressed and lighted. They are the groups of farmers and of builders. Whereupon the forestage is filled with women and children of a most sorrowful and wretched aspect and with little old men, poorly dressed and meek of manner._ _All of this movement has been executed to the great march of labor which is built upon the theme of “I’ve been working on the Railroad.” The band has taken it up from the Chorus and woven it into a minor dirge and into bizarre dissonances and elaborated it with syncopations and new themes played upon strange instruments and sung by the voices of the Chorus so that the whole thing is at once triumphal and macabre. It rises to magnificent climaxes and subsides again so that the speakers, the crowds, the Choir and the Spokesmen may be clearly audible._ _At the same time the Spokesmen and the Choir speak antiphonally against the action and complete the prophecy of Walt Whitman._] EIGHT VOICES The shapes arise! THE FIRST SPOKESMAN Shapes of factories, arsenals, foundries, markets! THE SECOND SPOKESMAN Shapes of the two threaded tracks of railroads! THE FIRST SPOKESMAN Shapes of the sleepers of bridges, vast frameworks, girders, arches! THE SECOND SPOKESMAN Shapes of the fleets of barges, tows, lake and canal craft, river craft! THE FIRST SPOKESMAN Shipyards and drydocks along the eastern and western seas and in many a bay and by-place! THE SECOND SPOKESMAN The ships themselves on their ways, the tiers of scaffolds, the workmen. THE FIRST SPOKESMAN