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Wealth Worth While (incomplete)
From a Collection of Crowley's Plays and Scenarios
The idea of this play is to show that material riches breed hate and unhappiness, and moreover prove to be an illusion. The actors must constantly emphasize that even satisfaction in riches may mean misery, while simplicity of virtue justified itself. The Wealth Worth While is love.
Personae. 1. Arthur Adamson, school boy, subsequently business man. Proud, punctilious, stubborn about principle and short tempered when the question of honour comes up.
2. Bertram Bragdon, his distant relation, subsequently a business man, much coarser type, sly, unscrupulous and vindictive.
These two boys are the sole heirs of two important families who have been in business partnership.
Life teaches both of them the one — that a man must bend to circumstances; the other — that dishonesty does not pay. Both are sufficiently intelligent to learn from circumstances. Both mellow with age.
3. Charles Chapman, the son of the manager of the aforesaid business, subsequently a lawyer.
4. Daisy Deming, beautiful, vain, unscrupulous, with violent passions, but capable of better things.
5. Dora Desti, a manicure, bold in manner, to conceal a sensitive and timid nature.
6. Zebidi Zolt, a half crazy and drunken Anarchist agitator.
7. Frank, a handsome youth of high principles — son of Arthur and Daisy.
8. Gertrude, a beautiful and high-minded girl — daughter of Bertram and Dora.
9. Herman Heins, a poor studious youth — idealist. He is unconventional from disgust with existing state of society, but has high moral principles on what may be called theoretical independence of concrete facts. He tries to live by abstract conceptions of right.
10. Isidor, an ascetic genius — son of Herman and Daisy.
11. James Jordan, a philanthropic physician.
12. Kate, child of Frank and Gertrude.
13. Lawrence, child of Frank and Gertrude.
Prologue. A., B., & C. are at school.
A. & B. are playing at marbles.
A. accuses B. of cheating and a fight develops.
C. interferes as peace maker.
A. & B. combine to knock the spots off him.
This incident is watched by a girl. Daisy Deming. It is evident that the boys are actuated by a desire to shine in her eyes. When C. is beaten, she begins to cry and will have nothing to do with the combatants.
[in handwriting — “Cut this if you like.”]
Scene 1. The lawyer, C. is reading to A. & B. the will of the last survivor of the business family. Both boys inherit the principal secret, which is that of the manufacture of Eldoradine. Eldoradine is a product whose use cheapens the manufacture of all dry goods by 20%. Its principal constituent is Eldoradium, a new and rare element, which cannot be extracted commercially except by the secret process, known only to A. & B. A. & B. quarrel. Each insists on exploiting the secret in opposition to the other.
The main cause of their contention is Daisy. A. wins her, and B., in spite, picks up a girl, Dora Desti, of vulgar antecedents; and marries her.
The competition between A. & B. cheapens Eldoradine, so that it proves ruinous. Both are in financial difficulties.
C. goes to the trouble of bringing them together at a dinner party and proposes a merger. They cannot fail to perceive the advantages of such a course, but quarrel breaks up the conference and they part in anger.
Scene 2. B. has an angry interview with his banker, and hoes out desperate. He goes into a bar for a drink. In this bar, Zebedee Zolt, a well-known anarchist, is wildly orating against capitalists. S. gets hold of the man and they have a conference in which B. bribes Z. to ruin A. by starting strikes in his factory.
Daisy has given birth to a boy, Frank, but she has got tired of her husband and carries on a semi criminal intrigue with B.
A. being unable to supply Eldoradine, is ruined and Daisy, in a violent scene, leaves his house and goes to that of B.
B. is at the bedside of his wife, Dora, who gives birth to Gertrude and dies. B. callously leaves her not yet cold, and takes Daisy in his arms.
A. divorces Daisy and B. immediately marries her.
A. has been reduced to the greatest extremity by B.'s actions, but possessing the secret of the manufacture of Eldoradine, which he makes himself in his little shop, and sells it at less than the price that B., having gained the monopoly, is charging, is able to borrow money and regain his commercial standing. B. tries to crush him with a law suit but is beaten.
B. is of an extremely violent temper. His defeat makes him savage and from the law courts, he goes back, after making himself drunk in various saloons, to Daisy, whom he abuses and beats. Ultimately, he has something like an epileptic attack, from the violence of his rage, and Daisy, with torn clothes, bruised and bleeding, flees from his house in a distracted state.
Scene 3. Daisy is employed as a seamstress. One evening, when she is wandering in the streets, she is picked up by a poor student, named Herman Heins. He is a young man, prematurely aged, round-shouldered and stooping, with heavy horned spectacles. Daisy has reached the stage where she decides to embrace the career of a woman of pleasure. Herman is a very decent boy and offers to marry her. She is, of course, not free, and on the advice of the Anarchist, Z., agrees to a free union.
Daisy has been purified by adversity and her love for Herman, although lawless, is redeemed by gratitude and sincerity.
Scene 4. Herman and Daisy have a son, names Isidor. Their financial circumstances constantly deteriorated. They put Isidor in a basket and leave him one night at the door of a hospital. They buy a sack of charcoal, return to their room, and commit suicide together.
Part 2 — 22 Years Later.
A. & B. although still enemies, have made a convention as to the price of Eldoradine and both are in flourishing circumstances. Franks, the son of A. and Daisy, is a fine specimen of manhood. Gertrude, the daughter of B. and Dora, is a charming and beautiful girl. Isidor, the son of Herman and Daisy, inherits his mother's intensity and his father's intellect, the combination producing genius.
He has shown promise from his earliest childhood, and has been adopted by James Jordan, the director of the hospital where he was left. James has been given a scientific training and he is entirely devoted to research.
Frank and Gertrude, despite the hostility of their parents, have met in society and fallen in love with each other. Neither of the fathers will hear of their marrying. The young people are disgusted at the cut-throat commercial methods, and the bitter animosity of their families.
On a national festival, the Mayor of the city gives a banquet followed by a dance to prominent citizens. A. & B., G. & F. are there. F. & G. dance together; A. & B. interfere, and there is an actual interchange of blows. In shame at the scandal and in despair about their love, F. & G. agree to elope. They leave the ball, motor to a suburb, get married and go out to a ranch in the N.W., which F. has bought with what he has saved of his allowance. There they settle down to a simple life.
Scene 2. The scene at the ball embitters the hatred between A. & B. still more. They make secret deals with buyers of their product to undersell each other. In order to support the loss of their war, they mortgage all their possessions. C. constantly tries to reconcile them.
Both men are absolutely ruined. C. comes to them in their extremity and forces them to agree to a partnership. They are both bankrupt; but their secret will make them millionaires again in the course of a year or so.
With this secret as their sole asset, they are able, through the intervention of C. to borrow new capital and re-establish their factories on a larger scale then ever.
Isidor has been interested in various newspaper reports describing the fluctuations in the price of Eldoradine, caused by the quarrel between A. and B. He devotes himself to discovering a process of manufacture which shall prevent these unjust manipulations of the market. He discovers a process by which a product can be manufactured even more cheaply than by the secret process known to A. and B.
He has a friend, a newspaper reporter, to whom he confides his discovery. This reporter has confidential relations with a dry goods manufacturer, to whom he discloses Isidor's achievements. The manufacturer tries to buy the secret from Isidor but the young man is incorruptible, saying that the secrets of nature belong to all mankind, and not to individuals. He tells the reporter to publish the formula in the Sunday issue.
[The remainder is missing]
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