The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-11-08
damaged Goods.

with "My people perish for lack OF knoWleoge
as text. One sits through it as II grlpped IN
vise the whole being tinglng as Brieuxs ire
mendous lines dynamite their way into the con-
seriousness. It's message is awful, terrific ana
overcomes one as with blow. But it is a blow
that STRENGTHENS and heals, for damaged
Goods" is as pure and sane, and healthy as
mountain wind.
Not one line from beginning to end carries
the least suggestveness or conveys Whit
of the spirit of saaciousness Something of the
playwright's own rugged viriity has been in
carnated into the piece infusng it with an
invigorating spirit. 1t sets up In public view
with pitiess sternness one of the most loath-
some, most vicious and repulsive of all evils, but
does it as the sun does it, by throwing white
light about it.
It is time the scourge of syphilis were having
some light thrown on it. Although it equals IN
destructiveness those other two members OF the
diabolcal trinity of social plaques, tuberculosis
and alcoholism, it has received scarcely any
thought from the general public. Alcoholism
has been continuously exposed for a half century
and has pitted against it scores of national and
international organizations; tuberculosis is be-
ginning to receive the attention of society and
has already been doomed by medical science
but around the blacklist scourge of all we have
with a conspiracy of silence.
We have permitted it to spread along every
avenue of social life in the name of decency. We
have buried our heads like ostriches in the sand
and professed not to see it while it has been
dragging it's Shiny lengths from gutter to home,
from house of prostitution to the cradle from
hospital to school, For fear of shocking the NOR
bid sensibilites of the prudish and so be respon-
rih of turned
loose this plague to do it's poundworth of death.
Surely it is time we beginning to have
courage to face the truth about it. The policy
of silence so long tacitly agreed upon has utter
y broken down. We must destroy syphilis or
it will destroy u.s.
The root of the whole matter is laid bare in
Brieux's play. Why did the splendid young bar
rister fall victim? 81 didn't know" Why did
the French deputy permit his daughter to marry
man about whose health he knew nothing?
Il didn't Think Why did the fine young man
fall into it's clutches at the very gate of college?
He didn't know Why didn't the poor woman
seek medical advice before her cheeks
banched with coming death? "She didn't
know" Why did Henriette give herself to hus-
band smitten with the black leprosy? "She
didn't KNOW And why thousands and
thousands of Henriettes, and youths, and young
writing in secret torment self fagelated with
remorse, and compelled to wrestle daily with
serpent that lives in darkness? The answer is
the same. Ignorance. We perish through lack
of knowledge.
And for ignorance there is but remedy
knowledge. Somehow the youth and the young
wife, and the boy and the girl, must be made to
know the real facts about themselves: they must
be made to see that there is nothing vile about
the body, any part of it, and that natures meth
cd of propagating life is divine an anthem.
They must be taught much about the mechan-
ism of their own nature as any boy knows about
the machinery Of an automobile They must be |
given light.
How they must be taught is question for
each community to settle in it's own best way
Whether it is the school, or the theatre, or the
church, the home which is to be the sovereign
agency for the dissemination of this knowledge |
only can be decided by experiment and wisdom
But some way must be found.
Those who witnessed the splendid production |
of Damaged Goods" at the Gennett yesterday |
must feel that the theater may be made the We
hicle for at least some sides of the message |
When an engine of such enormous influence is
set to work and directed against such an evil it |
can't help but be of the very greatest service
And if the theatre were not able to measure Ut
to such play it would be superfluous luxury |
too extravagant to be maintained
But whether to agree that the theatre |
is to have part in this social schooling or not we
must all agree that some means must be found
to put an end to this plague. That constantly
augmented procession of the syphilitic those |
dreary forms, deaf, dumb, blind twisted, dis
torted idiotic, insane, with running sores, anC |
CHASTITY, hollow eyes must somehow be stopped |
Society must stop it or it will stop society.