The Enterprising Clerk

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Employed at the glove counter of a big department store, Jones is engaged in trying on a pair of gloves on the withered hands of a lady of uncertain age, when suddenly there stops at his counter a blooming rose of beauty, the sight of whom takes away the breath of poor susceptible Jones. He immediately drops his customer's hand and rushes over to see what the beauty wants. Taking her hand in his to judge the size, Jones cannot resist the temptation of imprinting a kiss on its smooth, white surface, for which impertinence he immediately receives a slap in his face, which almost takes him off his feet. The floor walker is called and dismisses the audacious clerk on the spot. The latter calls to see the customer whom he has offended, and tries to explain to her that it was her beauty that made him lose his head for the moment. (For Jones is a sly fox and knows how to get around the gentler sex.) The woman, however, seems very indignant and, showing him her husband's portrait, orders him out of the house. But Jones continues to plead in his own behalf, when just at that moment the woman's husband, a dignified looking lawyer, comes in, and she quickly hides Jones in the wood chest. As luck would have it, he is scarcely in the box when somebody dumps a whole load of wood on him and almost kills him. The woman fortunately has now induced her husband to go upstairs and take a nap, but he does not sleep long, and again she is compelled to hide Jones as he bursts in on them. This time she pushes him in the bathroom, where he accidentally touches the tap which turns on the needle bath and poor Jones gets a ducking. The woman is at her wits' end as her husband expresses his intention to take a shower; so, pretending to he suddenly seized with hysterics, she sends him flying for the salts and thus gives Jones a chance to escape. This is Jones' unlucky day, however. He jumps out of the window and into the one of the adjoining house, where he finds something to drink, and is soon hopelessly intoxicated and is arrested as a burglar. As fate would have it, the husband of the woman who has caused all his misfortune tries his case and pleads so hard for his client that Jones is acquitted. This being the first case the young lawyer has won, he invites the happy Jones to his house and introduces him to his wife, and they all have a great old time.