The so-called depravity and crimes of these derelicts are fundamentally the depravity and criminal anti-social attitude of Society itself that first creates the underworld and, having created it, wastes much energy and effort in suppressing and destroying the menacing phantom of its own making,--forgetful of the elemental brotherhood of man, blind to the value of the individual, and ignorant of the beautiful possibilities inherent in even the most despised children of the depths. LEONID ANDREYEV KING-HUNGER Leonid Andreyev is the youngest and at the present time the most powerful dramatist of Russia. Like Tchekhof and Gorki, he is very versatile: his sketches and stories possess as fine a literary quality and stirring social appeal as his plays. No one who has read his terrible picture of war, "The Red Laugh," or his unsurpassed arraignment of capital punishment, "The Seven Who Were Hanged," can erase from memory the effect of Leonid Andreyev's forceful pen. The drama "King-Hunger" deals with most powerful king on earth,--_King-Hunger_. In the presence of _Time_ and _Death_ he pleads with _Time_ to ring the alarm, to call the people to rebellion, because the earth is replete with suffering: cities, shops, mines, factories and fields resound with the moans and groans of the people. Their agony is unbearable. _King-Hunger._ Strike the bell, old man; rend to ears its copper mouth. Let no one slumber! But _Time_ has no faith in _King-Hunger_. He knows that _Hunger_ had deceived the people on many occasions: "You will deceive again, King-Hunger. You have many a time deluded your children and me." Yet _Time_ is weary with waiting. He consents to strike the bell. _King-Hunger_ calls upon the workingmen to rebel. The scene is in a machine shop; the place is filled with deafening noises as of men's groans. Every machine, every tool, every screw, holds its human forms fettered to it and all keep pace with the maddening speed of their tormentors. And through the thunder and clatter of iron there rises the terrible plaint of the toilers. ---- We are starving. ---- We are crushed by machines. ---- Their weight smothers us. ---- The iron crushes. ---- The steel oppresses. ---- Oh, what a furious weight! As a mountain upon me! ---- The whole earth is upon me. ---- The iron hammer flattens me. It crushes the blood out of my veins, it fractures my bones, it makes me flat as sheet iron. ---- Through the rollers my body is pressed and drawn thin as wire. Where is my body? Where is my blood? Where is my soul? ---- The wheel is twirling me. ---- Day and night screaks the saw cutting steel. Day and night in my ears the screeching of the saw cutting steel. All the dreams that I see, all the sounds and songs that I hear, is the screeching of the saw cutting steel. What is the earth? It is the screeching of the saw. What is the sky? it is the screeching of the saw cutting steel. Day and night.