Damaged Goods | Page 5

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 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 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

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