The 'Pay-As-You-Enter' Man (1913)
Henry Rosser is a man who has worked at the silk counter of a big department store for 20 years, this service being rewarded by the large salary of $20 a week. On this sum he has managed to buy a tiny house in the suburbs and raise a healthy brood of children, on $20 a week. The family, the children especially, look forward to the Day of Thanks, with anticipation and pleasure. But the father does not know where the turkey is coming from, because there are innumerable small things that take money, pressing him, and also a payment upon the house. The eve of their holiday, while on his way to the ferry, going home, he accidentally meets a friend coming from a saloon, the friend has under his arm a large gobbler, which, he explains to Henry, that he has just won. This gives Henry an idea, and on the spur of the moment, he goes in and takes a chance on the next raffle. He wins. However, at this exact moment, the police enter and arrest the proprietor for running a lottery, holding the inoffensive commuter as a witness and taking the big turkey along with them. Imagine the heart-rending predicament of the long patient and suffering father as he is thrust into a cell to spend a night of misery. Consider the little family, which not only will lose its holiday dinner, but the misery and uncertainty the mother suffers. What happens? A happy ending? Sure. Rosser, on the spur of the moment, and desperate, takes a losing chance and calls his employer, Mr. Straussman (whom he has never seen), asking him to come and bail him out. Much to his surprise, Mr. Straussman, his employer, does bail him out, and not only that, gives him $50, and tells him that he will see that his salary is substantially raised, and sends him on his way home rejoicing. Thanksgiving the next day? Well, I should say so. The turkey was eaten to the last bone, but not the turkey that caused all the trouble, for Rosser said "No, we won't kill this fellow, he has brought us too much good luck, we'll buy another one instead."
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