Motion Picture News (Jan - Mar 1914)

THE MOTION PICTURE NEWS 37 WHAT THE PRESS AND CLERGY SAY! ELIZABETH GOODNOW, Author of "The Market for Souls," writes: "I thought in my book 'The Market for Souls' I had touched the subject with no light hand, but after reading your wonderful book, 'The House of Bondage' even I, who have studied the life of the street, was shocked and filled with pity for the unfortunates we see going along with their little bags — 'going to work' as they call it. And it is work, the hardest job in the world. "You have done a great thing, and I want to congratulate you. No one can read your book without seeing that something must be done some time, some way." JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JR., Foreman of the Celebrated New York White Slave Grand Jury, writes: "I have read 'The House of Bondage' with much interest. The story is inexpressibly sad, but sadder still is the knowledge that it is true to life — true not only in the exceptional case, but in hundreds and doubtless thousands of cases. "The author has handled a difficult subject with the utmost of delicacy consistent with perfect frankness. While telling his story fearlessly, he does so without sensationalism. I believe that the conditions with which the book deals must be generally known before they will be improved, and that the publicity thus given them will be of great value." THE CHICAGO DAILY NEWS says: "To say that the book is immoral because it takes a great crime against humanity for its theme is to say that the Ten Commandments are immoral. Its manifest intention is to leave no stone unturned which may shelter a peculiarly loathsome form of vermin, or to permit those who lead carefully sheltered, and therefore, ignorant lives, to shield their detestation of such abominations behind their ignorance. The book .... never permits the reader to be allured. . . . Nothing could be more deterrent than its plain truth-telling. ... It cannot be read and forgotten." REV. ALEXANDER IRVINE, Author of "From the Bottom Up," writes: "Mr. Kauffman has done what only Victor Hugo has done before him; given us a Fantine. His picture is as good as Hugo's, and as true. If 'The House of Bondage' could be put in the hands of the young men of the cities it would do more for purity than all the churches in America. If I had the money, I would send it to every secretary of the Y. M. C. A.'s of the country 'that they might read it and recommend it to all the thousands of young men under their influence. It would kindle again the smouldering fires of chivalry toward women; it would smite man with a sense of responsibility." THE HOUSE OF BONDAGE THE CHICAGO EVENING POST says: "The completeness and definiteness of its facts, the not inconsiderable skill of the author in manipulating characters and plot, and subordinating them to his purpose, give the story a compelling interest. Moreover, it shows sincerity of purpose, and resorts to no clap-trap or sensationalism. Not even the ubiquitous and fictionloving 'young person' could receive harm from its perusal." MR. EDWIN W. SIMS, United States District Attorney at Chicago, says: "It is one of the strongest books on the particular phase of the social evil problem which it covers that I have ever read." EDWIN MARKHAM, Poet and Critic, writes: "A book that blurs the eyes and stirs the heart with the pity and terror of it. With nobility of manner, with a passionate sincerity that touches the subject as^ by fire, in a purity that burns away all impurity, Mr. Kauffman relates one of the sordid sorrowful tragedies that swirl up into the thousands every year in all the cities of civilization." LILLIAN D. WALD, Head Worker of the Henry Street Settlement, New York City, writes: "I wish that more people would read it, though the conditions it describes would doubtless be considered impossible in a civilized land by that great majority of people who do not know. It was painful to read because the author describes the conditions that are. One might be able to read it with less suffering if there was more doubt of its truth." ROWLAND THOMAS, Critic, writes in "Collier's": "What he has seen every seasoned maker of metropolitan newspapers has seen, every policeman and police court matron and lawyer and judge, every rounder and waster, even though he knew it not. What he hopes for is hoped for by increasing millions who call their millennium Socialism. "The sweet reasonableness of that up-side down solution of life's difficulties we have no disposition to discuss just now; the book itself we are moved to recommend to the reading of every man and woman and boy, and especially of every girl, in these United States. Such modest limit we set for the present to the carrying power of our voice." The Photo Drama Motion Picture Co., inc. Candler Building 220 West 42nd Street NEW YORK In writing to advertisers please mention "THE MOTION PICTURE NEWS'1