The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Easiest Way, by Eugene Walter

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: The Easiest Way
Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911

Author: Eugene Walter

Release Date: July 29, 2004 [EBook #13050]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EASIEST WAY ***

Produced by David Starner, Leah Moser and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team.

THE EASIEST WAY

[Illustration: EUGENE WALTER]

EUGENE WALTER

(Born, Cleveland, Ohio, November 27, 1874)

When questioned once regarding "The Easiest Way," Mr. Eugene Walter
said, "Incidentally, I do not think much of it. To my mind a good play
must have a tremendous uplift in thought and purpose. 'The Easiest
Way' has none of this. There is not a character in the play really
worth while, with the exception of the old agent. The rest, at best,
are not a particular adornment to society, and the strength of the
play lies in its true portrayal of the sordid type of life which it
expressed. As it is more or less purely photographic, I do not
think it should be given the credit of an inspiration--it is rather
devilishly clever, but a great work it certainly is not."

Such was not the verdict of the first night audience, at the
Stuyvesant Theatre, New York, January 19, 1909. It was found to be
one of the most direct pieces of work the American stage had thus far
produced--disagreeably realistic, but purging--and that is the test of
an effective play--by the very poignancy of the tragic forces closing
in around the heroine. Though it is not as literary a piece of
dramatic expression as Pinero's "Iris," it is better in its effect;
because its relentlessness is due, not so predominantly to the moral
downgrade of the woman, as to the moral downgrade of a certain phase
of life which engulfs those nearest the centre of it. The play roused
a storm of comment; there were camps that took just the stand Mr.
Walter takes in the opening quotation. But the play is included in
this collection because its power, as a documentary report of a
phase of American stage life, is undeniable; because, as a piece of
workmanship, shorn of the usua