Volume II: Filmography

AN ERRAND OF MERCY

July 11, 1913 (Friday)

Length: 1 reel (1,000 feet)

Character: Drama

Cast: David H. Thompson

SYNOPSIS, The Moving Picture World, July 19, 1913:

"The little American girl, returning home from Europe, where she had been studying art, met a young doctor on the steamer and fell in love with him. They were married soon after the steamer reached New York. Her parents, who lived on a farm in the West, were unable to attend the wedding, but the bride wrote them enthusiastically, telling them how happy she was. And she was happy for more than a year after the marriage. Her husband was devoted to her and their baby, but in spite of his many good qualities, he was of an intensely jealous disposition and resented the admiration which his pretty wife excited. Quarrels were frequent, and finally the girl left him with her baby and returned to her parents, leaving a note in which she said that she would never see him again, and that she and the child were provided for. The husband believed that she had gone away with another man and plunged into the practice of his profession to forget a wife who he deemed unworthy.

"The young mother and baby were tenderly received by her parents. The girl told them of the jealousy of her husband, whom they had never seen, and her indignant father told her that she must never return to him. In a short time the young wife died, and the little girl was brought up under the loving care of her grandparents. The child's father, who had prospered as the years passed and was now a famous physician, left New York for a tour of the country. But success had not brought him happiness, for he was a lonely man. The train stopped at a little western town and the physician noticed the conductor talking to a little girl of 10, just the age his own child was, he thought sadly. The conductor entered the car and told the doctor that the child's grandfather was dangerously ill and that there was not medical help available. The famous physician left the train and accompanied the child to her home, arriving just in time to save her grandparent's life. He did not expect any reward for his errand of mercy and yet he received one, for he discovered that his little guide was none other than his little daughter."

REVIEW, The Moving Picture World, July 19, 1913:

"A rather obvious story is this, telling of the doctor who becomes jealous of his wife, and is brought back later by a hurried call from his own child. It seemed to us that the doctor had good cause for jealousy when he discovered his wife at the piano, with a man's arm resting about her shoulder. This opening feature weakens the observer's sympathy with the wife."

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