[Gutenberg 8891] • With the Procession

"Keep up with the procession . . . and head it if you can" is the theme of Fuller's masterpiece of social realism. The words are spoken by one of Chicago's social leaders, Mrs. Granger Bates (born the daughter of a carpenter), who heads the procession and seems proud of her material wealth. She is a triumph of characterization, a devil's advocate so unspoken and disarming that it is difficult not to believe everything she supports is for the best. And yet within her ornate mansion is a hideaway--small, cramped, low-ceilinged, filled with the old, plain furniture which reminds her of her girlhood. Here alone she can be herself, and comfortable.

To stand against her, and to oppose, if only silently, all she represents, is David Marshall, a wholesale grocer, who has never given a thought to the procession but who might ask the important question, "What if the Procession is going nowhere?"

Between these two waver Marshall's sons and daughters and their friends. Must they choose? Is there no way they can have the best of both?