The Drunkard's Fate

• 1909
• Other, Drama

Paul Dupont and petite Marie are in love. Lizette Cortuse also admires the handsome mechanic Paul and in our opening scene Paul shows his preference for Marie, and Lizette, chagrined, throws herself into the arms of the wealthy M. Dorel, a vineyard owner, who is smitten with her charms. Then we are present at a fete Dorel gives to his employees. Paul indulges too freely in the wine Dorel provides for his guests. High words between these two end in a brawl, in which Dorel is roughly handled by the younger man. Dorel is violent tempered and the enmity born of this quarrel is destined to darken the lives of both Marie and her future husband. We next see Marie in the garden weeping over Paul's misconduct. He comes and craves forgiveness. Marie induces him to take the pledge; he consents, and together they repair to the Curate's parlor and before the assembled villagers Paul swears to abstain from liquor. Marie asks the priest to announce her wedding, "For, father, if he keeps his pledge, we will be the happiest couple in France." Lizette hears the news and promptly indites the following note to Paul: "So you will marry petite Marie? Well, I sha'n't go begging. I am to marry the rich M. Dorel. He hates you as I hate her and we shall yet triumph over you both." Eight Years Later. We get a glimpse of Paul's home in Paris; he is now sober and industrious. He, Marie and their pretty daughter, Nanette, are very, very happy. Temptation. Lizette and her elderly husband have come to reside in Paris; she still nurses hatred for the Duponts, and her opportunity for vengeance presents itself. The pair are seated at a wine table, outside a boulevard café. Paul passes. Dorel recognizes him, feigns friendship and desires to renew old relations, "Come, man, join us: we will drink to our village days. My wife and I are strangers in a strange city; you shall show us this Paris of yours. We have plenty of money; you shall help us spend it." The old craving returns. Paul drinks and is lost. Hours afterward, the Dorels lead the intoxicated man into the presence of his wife and child, and laugh with satisfied derision at poor Marie's horror. Days of poverty and sorrow follow; then comes another reformation. Return to work and weeks of sobriety, happiness again seems to have entered the home. This does not, however, suit the Dorels. They learn that Paul is at work on a new building near their home; they visit the scene; he is on a scaffold high in the air; they stand just out of sight watching. It is the noon hour. Marie brings Paul's dinner. He descends and greets her. Lizette's crafty brain has decided upon a plan. "Climb that ladder, take this saw, weaken the staging; perhaps a few months in the hospital will change our friend's good resolutions." The plan succeeds only too well, and poor Paul, hurled to the ground, maimed and shattered, is carried away, to hover for weeks between life and death, while Marie slaves to keep a roof over the heads of herself and child. At last the injured man is brought home. The kind-hearted doctor calls and leaves his instructions: "Deny all alcoholic stimulants, as the sight of liquor might bring on a return of the mania." The constitution once weakened by drink, becomes a prey to hallucinations. The Dorels have kept informed of how things were going with the Duponts. They make a call. Lizette discovers and reads the doctor's orders, ner perverted mind immediately forms another plan. She goes to a wineshop, secures a bottle of wine (gives Dorel his instructions), he returns with it, finds his victim asleep and with cunning malice places it temptingly before the unconscious man. Paul awakens, sees the wine and struggles to resist the craving, but his tortured mind yields and a drunkard's fate overtakes him. His tormentors climb the rickety stairs outside his garret window and stand gloating over their work, when an accident occurs. Lizette, in the height of her triumph, falls to her death. The stair rail against which she had leaned was old and rotten and broke with her weight. Vengeance Is Mine, Saith the Lord, I Will Repay. A startling ending to a picture story that teaches a great temperance lesson.