Ten Nights in a Barroom (1913)

At the age of twenty-one, Joe Morgan inherits his father's grist mill. Soon after he weds Fannie Owen. Happy-go-lucky Joe soon feels the responsibility of the mill irksome and he engages his companion, Simon Slade, as manager, leaving Joe free to indulge in his desire for drink and idleness. Joe spends his money freely, but the shrewd business-like Simon Slade saves his and when Joe, who has mortgaged the mill, is unable to meet the note when due, Simon advances the money, thus buying half interest in the business. Having less to do than before, Joe slides the downward path. Through all of these darkening days the ever-loving and devoted Fannie clings to her dissolute husband without a word of reproach; even the birth of a baby girl, whom Joe worshiped, did not stop him from his downward course, Slade has sold his share in the mill to Judge Hammond, and has opened a tavern; Joe became his best customer. Spending his money lavishly, Joe was a welcome visitor at the saloon, and when he lost the mill, he mortgaged his home, the proceeds of which went in the same manner as the rest of his money, "over the bar." Eventually the time came when he has to meet the mortgage on his home, and being unable to meet the obligation he knows not where to turn for assistance, except to his friend Simon, with whom he spent his money. When he called upon Simon, he finds no longer the Simon Slade of boyhood days, but a hard-hearted tavern keeper, with no thoughts of the past, who refuses to lend the needed amount, and gives Joe to understand that he was no longer a welcome visitor at the tavern. Joe awakes to a realization of what a fool he has made of himself, but now it is too late. In a short while his home is sold, he and his wife and child are thrown out in the world, without home and friends. Joe, who now has sunk to the level of the village drunkard, tries to drown his thoughts in drink; his faithful wife is compelled to do washing and other drudgery. She becomes dangerously ill, and instead of going to get Joe, as she has been accustomed to do on other occasions, she sends her child, now a girl of ten, to the saloon to bring her father home. At the time of her entrance into the saloon, Joe is having an altercation with Slade. They come to blows; Slade attempts to strike Morgan with a bottle. Joe's daughter in an effort to save her father, steps between the two men and receives the fatal blow. Joe, frenzied with grief when he realizes what Slade has done, attempts to strangle him. Joe takes little Mary in his arms, and rushes home with her. His wife realizes what has happened and for the first time since their marriage she upbraids him. The excitement is too much and Joe is seized with delirium tremens. After days of agony and torture, he is brought to a realization of what has happened, but only in time to see little Mary die from the cruel blow of Simon Slade. Before her death, she exacts from her father a solemn vow that he would never drink again. The wheel of fate turns in Joe's favor, while Simon Slade begins to reap the harvest of his ill-gotten gains. His son becomes addicted to drink and gambling. When his father remonstrates with him for drinking, they quarrel. The father strikes the boy, who being intoxicated and not realizing what he is doing, strikes his father and kills him. Soon after at a mass meeting presided over by Joe Morgan, now a strong temperance advocate. It is decided to do away with the tavern and thus rid Cedarville of the curse of rum. From the day of Mary's death, Joe Morgan resolves to make a man of himself, and after losing his desire for liquor, he is again a respected citizen, regaining possession of the old mill, his home, and the love and respect of his wife and neighbors.