Author Archive: Retro

Arthur Rogers had been in the worst of luck for some time. Honest and industrious by nature, he was in the depths of despair at the sight of the misery his little family of a wife and two small children were subjected to. They were, in fact, on the verge of starvation. With crushed spirit, he seeks solace in drink, and in a drunken condition feels his wife would be better off without him, so he leaves. Immediately after his departure a lawyer calls to apprise Mrs. Rogers that her aunt’s estate, long in litigation, has been settled, leaving her a moderate fortune. This indeed is pleasant news, but if it had only come before her husband’s rash act. However, they remove to new quarters, and the children, at least, are happy. It is the night before Christmas, and they are ready for bed. They want to wait for Santa Claus, but mamma tells them [...]

The story told is a simple one, and grips from the very start. John Wharton, the husband of a true and trusting wife and father of an eight-year-old girl, through the association of rakish companions becomes addicted to the drink habit, and while the demon rum has not fastened its tentacles firmly, yet there is no question that given free rein the inevitable would culminate in time. Arriving home one afternoon in a wine besotted condition, he is indeed a terrifying spectacle to his little family. Later, after he has slept off the effects to some extent, while at supper, the little girl shows him two tickets for the theater, begging him to take her. After some persuasion he consents to go. The play is a dramatization of Emile Zola’s “L’Assommoir,” which shows how short a journey it is from peace and happiness to woe and despair by the road of rum. Here the picture [...]

The little one is playing with her doll while her mother lies sick. The poor woman dies, and the child, thinking her asleep, goes downstairs in search of a playmate. First she visits an austere old maid, and by her artlessness soon melts her coldness. Nest she goes across the hallway to a crabbed old bachelor and affects him the same way. The old maid misses one of her hair puffs and goes after the child, thinking she took it. While she is in the bachelor’s room talking to the child, several tenement-house youngsters steal a “scarlet-fever” notice and stick it on the bachelor’s door. This quarantines the three until the health officer appears and releases them. They then take the child to find its mamma and are horrified at finding her dead. As each wants to take the child they end the argument most logically. A wedding results.

Mrs. Wharton, a dashing widow, gives a party at her beautiful villa in honor of the presentation to her of a handsome diamond necklace by her fiancé. During the evening bridge participated in by a number of the guests, among whom is Myrtle Vane. Miss Vane is playing in wretched luck, and is advised several times by Mrs. Wharton to desist, but she still plays on in the vain hopes of the tide of fortune turning, until at last, in the extreme of desperation, she stakes her all and loses. Shame and disgrace stare her in the face. What can she do to recoup her depleted fortune? As one of the guests there is Professor Francois Paracelsus, the eminent palmister, who of course, was called upon to read the palms of those present. Sheets of paper were prepared and each imprinted their hand on a sheet to be read by the erudite soothsayer at his [...]

Mike breaks into an apartment to steal an old man’s money, not realizing it’s his girlfriend’s father. When he discovers whose apartment it is, he begs her for forgiveness.

The elder daughter has always been her father’s favorite because of her strict adherence to his rigid precepts. The younger daughter is rather gay and frivolous, though innocently so, and horrifies her elder sister when the latter catches her in the act of powdering and painting her face. To the mild reprimand of the elder daughter the younger exclaims, “Well, you have to do it if you want to be attractive.” The strength of the assertion is proven at the church lawn festival, the younger sister being surrounded by a host of friends while the elder passes the time in almost absolute ostracism. However, a stranger appears at the festival who pretends to be attracted by the elder daughter, she, in turn, being surprised and flattered. This is for a sinister purpose, however, for the stranger is a crook. Under the pretense of affection for the girl he gains her confidence regarding her father’s business [...]

The orphan Dora is courted by two different gold miners.

A young girl who lives by the sea with her parents, is the object of one fellows affection. One day she meets a wily artist painting on the beach, he seduces the young girl and gives her a ring, with the promise of marriage. When the young admiring fellow comes to propose, she proudly announces her engagement to the artist. Shocked he leaves and her parents demand meeting her husband to be. She goes to bring him home, and finds he already has a sophisticated fiancée. Distraught she hurries home, and when her father realizes what she has done, he orders her out of the house. As she wanders despondent along the sea, the young fellow who has found out about her betrayal,immediately goes to see her. Finding she has been disowned by her father, he goes looking for her and sees her body floating in the sea. He now carries her lifeless body back [...]

Pippa awakes and faces the world outside with a song. Unknown to her, the music has a healing effect on all who hear her as she passes by.