The Coward and the Man
Directed by Ashley MillerThe only excuse that can be pleaded for Joe Brown is that he was hungry and desperate on account of the apparent impossibility of finding honest work. When he asked Preston Senall for a job, and Senall not only refused, but added an gratuitous insult by telling Joe that he was a worthless loafer, Joe was certainly wrong in losing his temper. Whether his offense merited the severe prison sentence given him when he was arrested on Senall's complaint is another matter. The fact that Joe saved the life of one of the wardens during an outbreak in the prison had much to do with his early release. In the tenement in which he roomed after his release, Joe met Mrs. Burrowes, who supported herself and daughter by sewing. Joe was able to be of some service to her on a few occasions, and intimacy sprang up between them. One day he learned that Preston Senall had been the cause of Mrs. Burrowes' poverty. When Joe found Preston Senall's young son Harry, who had strayed away from home, he sent an anonymous letter to Senall, directing him to meet him in a certain deserted building at a certain time. After one vain attempt to catch the writer of the letter with detectives, Senall came to the appointed spot. Joe met him and handed over his son. When Senall, overjoyed at regaining his son, offered to pay him the reward, Joe threw it into his face. Then he confronted him with the woman he had robbed, "Do you remember what the judge said to me?" he asked the trembling Senall, "Only cowards take advantage of the weak." Preston Senall was not a good man, but he was not an absolute villain, so he refused to leave until he had arranged to repay Mrs. Burrowes the money she had lost.
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