Wreckage; a drama in three acts

Dedication

To all those in this great country who have fallen victim to the Drug-Habit and think there is no hope of freedom, and to the millions who run the risk daily of forming the Drug-Habit I dedicate this play.

My one object in writing it was to bring light to a curse that has eaten into the life of the nation: to show how the Habit may be contracted: to what depths a human being can fall while under its influence: and the ultimate hope of delivery from the poison when intelligently treated.

I desire it to be an arraignment of the conditions that brought about the evil: an exposition of its effect on human life: and a message of hope to those who have become victims to it.

Preface

The occasion of my meeting the author of this striking and unusual play was to me a most pleasing one. One day, some two years ago, I answered a telephone call. At the other end of the line was ]Mr. Manners. He introduced liimself and told me that he had written a one-act play, which was to be produced at a " Gambol " of the Lambs' Club. The play, he said, had to do with the subject of drug-addiction, and on account of the nature of my work and my long acquaintance with the many phases of the drug-habit and the psychological and physiological characteristics of drug-takers, he desired that I should hear the manuscript read before the play was produced, in order that the pathological details of character and action might be absolutely correct. When the manuscript was read to me, I was greatly surprised at the strength of the play. The psychology of drug-addiction had been brought out admirably. I was amazed to see the subject treated with such clear understanding by a man who was not a physician, who had never himself been afflicted with the drug-habit, who had never had any one in his family with such an affliction, and whose dramatic and sociological interest in the subject had been aroused solely by his coming into casual contact with some well-known characters who were drug-takers.

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PREFACE

On the evening when the play was produced, I was invited to give an introductory talk on the subject of the drug-habit to the members of the Lambs' Club. This I did, and I predicted at that time that, on account of the fine handling of the subject by the author, we should certainly hear more of this work. I told Mr. Manners that he must not stop there, that he should take up the subject in a broader and more thoroughgoing way. From time to time after this we came together and discussed the matter and all its possibilities. This drama in three acts, bearing the original title of the play produced at the Lambs' Club gambol, is the result.

The work comes at the right moment. The subject is of the greatest sociological import and interest at the present time, and the play takes up in a most vivid and practical way the fundamental psychology of the drug-habit.

Every drug-taker, every one interested in any person who takes drugs, every physician, every one concerned in the social welfare of the country, every legislator, every one in the State or Government service, every member of every Board of Health should read this moving drama plucked from the heart of our modern social body. I trust it will find its way into every public library and that preachers and teachers and all those coming into contact with the drug-problem in any of its phases will acquaint themselves witli the facts here so strikingly brought out.

In presenting various phases of the habit-forming -C viii >

PREFACE

drug problem, the author has not overdrawn in the slightest degree or in any detail. There is an abundance of parallel instances in everyday life coming out of the prescribing and administering of drugs in cases of illness. There are many true things in this work to open the eyes of men and women who stand in imminent danger because no one has put them on their guard. Mr. Manners's play is a work of art; that is to say, a presentation of character and an appeal to the emotions through dramatic action; but it also calls out clearly, " Stop ! Look ! Listen ! "

Art is often more effective than the pulpit or the platform, and I believe this play will perform a great sociological service. It will help to make the physician, the druggist, the trained nurse and all who prescribe or administer habit-forming drugs realise more fully their grave* responsibility. It will help to safeguard those who are exposed to the danger of having the drug-habit put upon them, and it will suggest to those who are already afflicted the best way to escape from their slavery.

New York,