He Swore Off Smoking
Directed by Ashley MillerOn the first of January Mr. Jones "swears off," gives his cigars and tobacco to the maid's best man and figures up for his family how much extra money they are going to have to spend during the year. The next day he starts for business feeling still quite happy and proud of himself, but somehow things don't seem to go well at the office and he finds himself feeling for a cigar and missing something all day. At luncheon the man opposite him lights a good cigar when he is finished his meal and poor Mr. Jones is obliged to beat a hasty retreat from the tempting odor. The afternoon proves a bad one for his office force and he starts for home early much to their relief. At the station a friend offers him a smoke and blows the fragrance of a good cigar into his face until he is nearly beside himself. Consequently he arrives at his home in a very unenviable state of mind. He don't kiss the children but goes up to his room to change his clothes without even taking off his hat. The clothes fall down in the closet. He tears his collar into ribbons in taking it off, drops his watch on the floor and breaks it and finally sits down on his hat as a climax. At dinner the soup burns him and he creates such a riot as he leaves the table that his wife decides that something must be done. She sends the children for smoking tobacco and cigars and they hold him in his chair, put a cigar in his mouth and light it. His protests grow more and more feeble and the last scene shows us a happy family reunion to the firelight.
