Volume II: Filmography

THE CHARITY OF THE POOR

April 4, 1911 (Tuesday)

Length: 1,000 feet

Character: Drama

Cast: Marie Eline (the little girl), William Russell

Location: Certain scenes were filmed at a railroad wreck in Saugatuck, Connecticut.

ADVERTISEMENT, The Moving Picture World, April 1, 1911:

"A story with a striking theme and moral, for it tells of the reformation of a rich old codger with a heart so steeled you will vow at the outset he never could be reformed! What brings a change of heart is indeed wonderful to see, and pleasant too. With the change vanished a peculiar quality of selfishness that the rich man actually believed it was love, and in this place came an affection so true and so lasting that you will marvel at it even as the chief recipient marveled at it."

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, April 8, 1911:

"A self-centered rich man loves but one person in the world, his daughter. The girl has no mother to plead for her and finally she elopes. The father hears nothing of the girl for a year. Then a doctor brings her and her little baby to his home. The husband has met death in a railroad wreck. The father takes her in, but he hates the child. He directs his butler to leave the little one in an asylum, and tells his daughter that her baby is dead. The girl, separated from her baby, becomes sick, and the physicians tell the father that without her little one she will soon die. So he goes to the asylum to reclaim the child. But there they have no record of the infant. The servant, it seems, had carelessly left the child on the doorstep, half buried in the snow, and had gone away after a ring of the bell.

"But fate was kind to the unfortunate babe. On the day it had been abandoned, a poor couple, starving and helpless, decided to turn their own babe over to charity. The husband set out to the asylum, and meaning to leave his little one there. On the steps he found the other infant, half dead in the snow. Bravely he determined to renew the fight for existence, and not abandon the baby while he had the strength to stand. The rich man, after his trip to the asylum, started back, bowed in grief. On the way his auto broke down, and the cold caused him to seek refuge in a nearby cottage while repairs were being made. In the course of a conversation the rich man learns that these kindly people are the finders of his daughter's babe. He rewards them lavishly, and takes the little child home to its mother, who greets it with a mother's affection."

REVIEW, The Morning Telegraph, April 9, 1911:

"A goodly sermon is preached herein. It is a strong story, well told and similar to other good productions of this firm. The railroad wreck scene is very good, though the preceding one showing the car before the accident could have been improved upon. The scene in the railroad station is also deserving of praise. The automobile scene before the father enters the house of the poor man is posed too near the cameras. The film is a good offering and should be secured."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, April 22, 1911:

"A rather pathetic picture; this film shows how mother pined for a child which her rich father selfishly took from her. The little one had its share of vicissitudes, but happily was found by a poor man and taken to his own home and cared for. Later, when the mother became sick, the child was found by chance by the wealthy grandfather. The poor man and his wife were rewarded, and the mother recovered under the influence of a little one. While the picture has little dramatic interest it tells a heart story that is interesting."

REVIEW, The New York Dramatic Mirror, April 12, 1911:

"This story points its moral to well connected scenes that are pleasingly enacted. It tells how the young couple were obliged to elope and go West, because of the obdurate will of her father. Some years later they are returning with their baby in the hope that it will soften his heart. In a realistic wreck scene the husband is killed. The wife is taken to her father, who, while the daughter is being cared for by the physician, sends the butler to a foundling asylum with the child. A poor family is compelled by their necessity to do the same, but when the poor man sees the other baby in the doorway, he cannot leave his own, but takes both back to his home. Meanwhile the mother, deprived of her child, has become dangerously ill, and her father seeks the child at the institution, only to find that such a child has never been received. At last he finds it in the home of the poor family, where he has sought shelter while his chauffeur repairs his machine. The story is, perhaps, a little forced in places, such as the poor father taking home the baby, and the automobile accident, and the opportunities for a few natural touches are sometimes omitted, such as the rich baby that is already clothed before the grandfather enters; the preparing of this child for the journey would surely have been more consistent and added life to the scene."

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