When Hans
arrives the mischief is done; though the pathetic scene between father
and son convinces the chairman that, whatever their failings, these men
are true and genuine. Simply delicious is the satire in the scene where
the ladies discuss the question at issue between Riis and Kampe. But
this satire is deprived of much of its force by the subsequent
development of the plot. The logical ending would seem to be the triumph
of the supervisor-general's defensive tactics and the discomfiture of
his critics. That would have given point to the criticism of the small
state and invested the victims of progress with an almost tragic
dignity. Bjoernson chooses, however, to let neither the one party nor the
other triumph. In a small state, he says, no one is victorious;
everything ends in compromise. If two parties championed two different
plans of railway construction, the one of which was demonstrated to be
superior in economy and safety to the other, such a demonstration would
not be likely to result in its adoption.
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