Rags and Riches
Directed by Herbert BrenonRichard Harvey, the superintendent of the works, has a close friend in Frank Hart, the foreman. Their children are engaged to each other, and the fathers anticipate the marriage with pleasure. One day Harvey is ordered to place the men upon half time. This enrages them and a fracas ensues, and Hart, hoping to save his old friend from injury, pushes him away from an angry workman. Harvey falls to the ground and is severely injured. When convalescent, his nature is changed, and from a kindly, genial man, he becomes a confirmed misanthrope, and upon his return to the works acts like a tyrant, and his unreasonable methods cause the men to complain to the owner, and he is discharged. He blames this upon his old friend, and forbids the marriage between the young people, and when his daughter refuses to break the engagement, he disowns her and moves to a distant city. The young couple marry. Years pass. Harvey, now a miserable miser, living in a cellar, has amassed a considerable sum of money through self-abnegation, and is despised and dreaded by all. The young people have a little girl, circumstances compel them to move to the city, and they rent a flat next door to the old miser's cellar. One day the little girl rolls her hoop down his cellar, and when she goes there after it, is brutally repulsed by the old man. She notes the crust that serves for his meal, and goes to her home and piles a plate full of fruit and good food and brings it to him. They soon become great friends, and he never dreams that she is his grand-daughter. One day he misses her. She is very ill. The case baffles the doctor, and he insists upon calling a distinguished specialist whose fee is very high, far above the means of the young couple. In afright the wife leaves the dying child with the doctor and runs to tell her husband of the new development. She dreads the worst, for they have no money. The old miser creeps from his dingy cellar into the sunlight, and asks the landlady where his little friend has gone. She tells him of the sickness, and he decides to visit her. The doctor tells him of the desperate need for the high-priced specialist, and the old miser decides to use his hoarded money to obtain the services of the famous doctor. He hastens to the depths of his rag-filled cellar, but his good impulse oozes away, and he dreads to think of parting with his gold. At length his better nature prevails, and he gives the money to the doctor, and bids him hurry back with the specialist. When the young father and mother return they are surprised to see a wretched old beggar bending over their darling. The slow recognition is mutual, and there is a speedy reconciliation.
