Damaged Goods(损坏了的物品)

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Damaged Goods, The Great Play "Les Avaries" of Eugene Brieux Novelized

Damaged Goods, The

Great Play "Les Avaries"

of Eugene Brieux

Novelized

by Upton Sinclair

Damaged Goods, The Great Play "Les Avaries" of Eugene Brieux Novelized

THE PRODUCTION OF EUGENE BRIEUX'S PLAY, "LES

AVARIES," OR, TO GIVE IT ITS ENGLISH TITLE, "DAMAGED

GOODS," HAS INITIATED A MOVEMENT IN THIS COUNTRY

WHICH MUST BE REGARDED AS EPOCH-MAKING.

--New York Times

Damaged Goods, The Great Play "Les Avaries" of Eugene Brieux Novelized

PREFACE

My endeavor has been to tell a simple story, preserving as closely as

possible the spirit and feeling of the original. I have tried, as it were, to

take the play to pieces, and build a novel out of the same material. I have

not felt at liberty to embellish M. Brieux's ideas, and I have used his

dialogue word for word wherever possible. Unless I have mis-read the

author, his sole purpose in writing LES AVARIES was to place a number

of most important facts before the minds of the public, and to drive them

home by means of intense emotion. If I have been able to assist him, this

bit of literary carpentering will be worth while. I have to thank M.

Brieux for his kind permission to make the attempt, and for the cordial

spirit which he has manifested.

Upton Sinclair

Damaged Goods, The Great Play "Les Avaries" of Eugene Brieux Novelized

PRESS COMMENTS ON THE

PLAY

DAMAGED GOODS was first presented in America at a Friday

matinee on March 14th, 1913, in the Fulton Theater, New York, before

members of the Sociological Fund. Immediately it was acclaimed by

public press and pulpit as the greatest contribution ever made by the Stage

to the cause of humanity. Mr. Richard Bennett, the producer, who had

the courage to present the play, with the aid of his co-workers, in the face

of most savage criticism from the ignorant, was overwhelmed with

requests for a repetition of the performance.

Before deciding whether of not to present DAMAGED GOODS

before the general public, it was arranged that the highest officials in the

United States should pass judgment upon the manner in which the play

teaches its vital lesson. A special guest performance for members of the

Cabinet, members of both houses of Congress, members of the United

States Supreme Court, representatives of the Diplomatic corps and others

prominent in national life was given in Washington, D.C.

Although the performance was given on a Sunday afternoon (April 6,

1913), the National Theater was crowded to the very doors with the most

distinguished audience ever assembled in America, including exclusively

the foremost men and women of the Capital. The most noted clergymen of

Washington were among the spectators.

The result of this remarkable performance was a tremendous

endorsement of the play and of the manner in which Mr. Bennett and his

co-workers were presenting it.

This reception resulted in the continuance of the New York

performances until mid-summer and is responsible for the decision on the

part of Mr. Bennett to offer the play in every city in America where

citizens feel that the ultimate welfare of the community is dependent upon

a higher standard of morality and clearer understanding of the laws of

health.

Damaged Goods, The Great Play "Les Avaries" of Eugene Brieux Novelized

The WASHINGTON POST, commenting on the Washington

performance, said:

The play was presented with all the impressiveness of a sermon; with

all the vigor and dynamic force of a great drama; with all the earnestness

and power of a vital truth.

In many respects the presentation of this dramatization of a great

social evil assumed the aspects of a religious service. Dr. Donald C.

Macleod, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, mounted the rostrum

usually occupied by the leader of the orchestra, and announced that the

nature of the performance, the sacredness of the play, and the character of

the audience gave to the play the significance of a tremendous sermon in

behalf of mankind, and that as such it was eminently fitting that a divine

blessing be invoked. Dr. Earle Wilfley, pastor of the Vermont Avenue

Christian Church, asked all persons in the audience to bow their heads in a

prayer for the proper reception of the message to be presented from the

stage. Dr. MacLeod then read the Bernard Shaw preface to the play, and

asked that there be no applause during the performance, a suggestion

which was rigidly followed, thus adding greatly to the effectiveness and

the seriousness of the dramatic portrayal.

The impression made upon the audience by the remarkable play is

reflected in such comments as the following expressions voiced after the

performance:

RABBI SIMON, OF THE WASHINGTON HEBREW

CONGREGATION--If I could preach from my pulpit a sermon one tenth

as powerful, as convincing, as far-reaching, and as helpful as this

performance of DAMAGED GOODS must be, I would consider that I had

achieved the triumph of my life.

COMMISSIONER CUNO H. RUDOLPH--I was deeply impressed by

what I saw, and I think that the drama should be repeated in every city, a

matinee one day for father and son and the next day for mother and

daughter.

REV. EARLE WILFLEY--I am confirmed in the opinion that we must

take up our cudgels in a crusade against the modern problems brought to

the fore by DAMAGED GOODS. The report that these diseases are

Damaged Goods, The Great Play "Les Avaries" of Eugene Brieux Novelized

increasing is enough to make us get busy on a campaign against them.

SURGEON GENERAL BLUE--It was a most striking and telling

lesson. For years we have been fighting these condition in the navy. It is

high time that civilians awakened to the dangers surrounding them and

crusaded against them in a proper manner.

MRS. ARCHIBALD HOPKINS--The play was a powerful

presentation of a very important question and was handled in a most

admirable manner. The drama is a fine entering wedge for this crusade

and is bound to do considerable good in conveying information of a very

serious nature.

MINISTER PEZET, OF PERU--There can be no doubt but that the

performance will have great uplifting power, and accomplish the good for

which it was created. Fortunately, we do not have the prudery in South

America that you of the north possess, and have open minds to consider

these serious questions.

JUSTICE DANIEL THEW WRIGHT--I feel quite sure that

DAMAGED GOODS will have considerable effect in educating the

people of the nature of the danger that surrounds them.

SENATOR KERN, OF INDIANA--There can be no denial of the fact

that it is time to look at the serious problems presented in the play with an

open mind.

Brieux has been hailed by Bernard Shaw as "incomparably the

greatest writer France has produced since Moliere," and perhaps no writer

ever wielded his pen more earnestly in the service of the race. To quote

from an article by Edwin E. Slosson in the INDEPENDENT:

Brieux in not one who believes that social evils are to be cured by laws

and yet more laws. He believes that most of the trouble is caused by

ignorance and urges education, public enlightenment and franker

recognition of existing conditions. All this may be needed, but still we

may well doubt its effectiveness as a remedy. The drunken Helot

argument is not a strong one, and those who lead a vicious life know more

about its risks than any teacher or preacher could tell them. Brieux also

urges the requirement of health certificates for marriage, such as many

clergymen now insist upon and which doubtless will be made compulsory

Damaged Goods, The Great Play "Les Avaries" of Eugene Brieux Novelized

before long in many of our States.

Brieux paints in black colors yet is no fanatic; in fact, he will be

criticised by many as being too tolerant of human weakness. The

conditions of society and the moral standards of France are so different

from those of America that his point of view and his proposals for reform

will not meet with general acceptance, but it is encouraging to find a

dramatist who realizes the importance of being earnest and who uses his

art in defense of virtue instead of its destruction.

Other comments follow, showing the great interest manifested in the

play and the belief in the highest seriousness of its purpose:

There is no uncleanness in facts. The uncleanness is in the glamour,

in the secret imagination. It is in hints, half-truths, and suggestions the

threat to life lies.

This play puts the horrible truth in so living a way, with such clean,

artistic force, that the mind is impressed as it could possibly be impressed

in no other manner.

Best of all, it is the physician who dominates the action. There is no

sentimentalizing. There is no weak and morbid handling of the theme.

The doctor appears in his ideal function, as the modern high-priest of truth.

Around him writhe the victims of ignorance and the criminals of

conventional cruelty. Kind, stern, high-minded, clear-headed, yet

human-hearted, he towers over all, as the master.

This is as it should be. The man to say the word to save the world of

ignorant wretches, cursed by the clouds and darkness a mistaken

modesty has thrown around a life-and-death instinct, is the physician.

The only question is this: Is this play decent? My answer is that it

is the decentest play that has been in New York for a year. It is so decent

that it is religious.

--HEARST'S MAGAZINE.

The play is, above all, a powerful plea for the tearing away of the veil

of mystery that has so universally shrouded this subject of the penalty of

sexual immorality. It is a plea for light on this hidden danger, that fathers

and mothers, young men and young women, may know the terrible price

that must be paid, not only by the generation that violates the law, but by

Damaged Goods, The Great Play "Les Avaries" of Eugene Brieux Novelized

the generations to come. It is a serious question just how the education

of men and women, especially young men and young women, in the vital

matters of sex relationship should be carried on. One thing is sure,

however. The worst possible way is the one which has so often been

followed in the past--not to carry it on at all but to ignore it.

--THE OUTLOOK.

It (DAMAGED GOODS) is, of course, a masterpiece of "thesis

drama,"--an argument, dogmatic, insistent, inescapable, cumulative,

between science and common sense, on one side, and love, of various

types, on the other. It is what Mr. Bernard Shaw has called a "drama of

discussion"; it has the splendid movement of the best Shaw plays,

unrelieved--and undiluted--by Shavian paradox, wit, and irony. We

imagine that many audiences at the Fulton Theater were astonished at the

play's showing of sheer strength as acted drama. Possibly it might not

interest the general public; probably it would be inadvisable to present it to

them. But no thinking person, with the most casual interest in current

social evils, could listen to the version of Richard Bennett, Wilton

Lackaye, and their associates, without being gripped by the power of

Brieux's message.

--THE DIAL.

It is a wonder that the world has been so long in getting hold of this

play, which is one of France's most valuable contributions to the drama.

Its history is interesting. Brieux wrote it over ten years ago. Antoine

produced it at his theater and Paris immediately censored it, but soon

thought better of it and removed the ban. During the summer of 1910 it

was played in Brussels before crowded houses, for then the city was

thronged with visitors to the exposition. Finally New York got it last

spring and eugenic enthusiasts and doctors everywhere have welcomed it.

--THE INDEPENDENT.

A letter to Mr. Bennett from Dr. Hills, Pastor of Plymouth Church,

Brooklyn.

23 Monroe Street Bklyn. August 1, 1913.

Mr. Richard Bennett, New York City, N.Y. My Dear Mr. Bennett:

During the past twenty-one years since I entered public life, I have

Damaged Goods, The Great Play "Les Avaries" of Eugene Brieux Novelized

experienced many exciting hours under the influence of reformer, orator

and actor, but, in this mood of retrospection, I do not know that I have

ever passed through a more thrilling, terrible, and yet hopeful experience

than last evening, while I listened to your interpretation of Eugene Brieux'

"DAMAGED GOODS."

I have been following your work with ever deepening interest. It is

not too much to say that you have changed the thinking of the people of

our country as to the social evil. At last, thank God, this conspiracy of

silence is ended. No young man who sees "Damaged Goods" will ever

be the same again. If I wanted to build around an innocent boy buttresses

of fire and granite, and lend him triple armour against temptation and the

assaults of evil, I would put him for one evening under your influence.

That which the teacher, the preacher and the parent have failed to

accomplish it has been given to you to achieve. You have done a work

for which your generation owes you an immeasurable debt of gratitude.

I shall be delighted to have you use my Study of Social Diseases and

Heredity in connection with your great reform.

With all good wishes, I am, my dear Mr. Bennett, Faithfully yours,

Newell Dwight Hillis

Damaged Goods, The Great Play "Les Avaries" of Eugene Brieux Novelized

CHAPTER I

It was four o'clock in the morning when George Dupont closed the

door and came down the steps to the street. The first faint streaks of

dawn were in the sky, and he noticed this with annoyance, because he

knew that his hair was in disarray and his while aspect disorderly; yet he

dared not take a cab, because he feared to attract attention at home.

When he reached the sidewalk, he glanced about him to make sure that no

one had seen him leave the house, then started down the street, his eyes

upon the sidewalk before him.

George had the feeling of the morning after. There are few men in

this world of abundant sin who will not know what the phrase means.

The fumes of the night had evaporated; he was quite sober now, quite free

from excitement. He saw what he had done, and it seemed to him

something black and disgusting.

Never had a walk seemed longer than the few blocks which he had to

traverse to reach his home. He must get there before the maid was up,

before the baker's boy called with the rolls; otherwise, what explanation

could he give?--he who had always been such a moral man, who had been

pointed out by mothers as an example to their sons.

George thought of his own mother, and what she would think if she

could know about his night's adventure. He thought again and again,

with a pang of anguish, of Henriette. Could it be possible that a man

who was engaged, whose marriage contract had actually been signed, who

was soon to possess the love of a beautiful and noble girl--that such a man

could have been weak enough and base enough to let himself be trapped

into such a low action?

He went back over the whole series of events, shuddering at them,

trying to realize how they had happened, trying to excuse himself for them.

He had not intended such a culmination; he had never meant to do such a

thing in his life. He had not thought of any harm when he had accepted

the invitation to the supper party with his old companions from the law

school. Of course, he had known that several of these chums led "fast"

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DamagedGoods,TheGreatPlay"LesAvaries"ofEugeneBrieuxNovelized1DamagedGoods,TheGreatPlay"LesAvaries"ofEugeneBrieuxNovelizedbyUptonSinclairDamagedGoods,TheGreatPlay"LesAvaries"ofEugeneBrieuxNovelized2THEPRODUCTIONOFEUGENEBRIEUX'SPLAY,"LESAVARIES,"OR,TOGIVEITITSENGLISHTITLE,"DAMAGEDGOODS,"HASINITIATEDAM...

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