Saved from Sin
Directed by Paul ScardonJohn Morton, brooding over the death of his wife and child, decides to commit suicide. So that none of his friends may know of it, he dons the attire of a poor workman and goes down into the slums. A poor little girl, unable to purchase milk for the baby, thinks she will rent one of her squalid rooms. Morton, passing, sees the "room for rent" sign and enters to find the child's drunken father who willingly gives him the room and takes a few dollars. A little later, the girl returns and finding the stranger, she understands. "You are my boarder," she says, "Give me the rent please, the baby is hungry." He had given his last cent to the father and he tells her so. Heartbrokenly she goes into the other room to comfort the starving baby. Morton, alone with his gun, hears the pitiful sobs of the two children in the next room. He cannot commit suicide and leave them there to starve. Unable to bear it any longer, he goes to them and says that, although he has no money, he can pawn his revolver. At this word the little mother grabs the gun, and bidding him watch the baby, she goes off to "hock" it. Alone with the child, Morton takes it into his arms and somehow the little clinging fingers bring memories of the past. The little mother returns and, as Morton helps her with the baby, a policeman enters to tell them that the children's father has been killed in a drunken brawl. Against Morton's wish the children are taken to the society, no one paying any attention to him in his workman's clothes. But the next day, when he arrives at the rooms of the society, dressed faultlessly, it is another story. He adopts the children and brings them to his lonely home where he finds happiness and content in their love for him.
