The Mountebank's Son

• 1909
• Other, Drama

This picture is of the highest type of artistic and dramatic ingenuity, and tells an interesting story of a noble old mountebank, whose roving life has bred in him a strong desire to educate his son and thus give the latter an opportunity to become a man of standing in a respected profession. The young man returns to the group in high glee, for he has just received his diploma as a doctor, and the merry troopers gather around him extending their hearty congratulations. His father and mother are very proud of him, and shed tears of joy over the fact that they have lived to see the day when their boy has attained his chosen goal. There is a secret in the life of the young man which his parents know nothing of: the fact is that the young doctor is already married to Marie, the principal dancer with his father's troupe of strolling players. The good little wife is delighted to see him, and tells him to hurry home as their little baby will be so pleased to see his daddy. As time goes on the young man is thrown into a class of society so wide apart from his own people, that the latter soon begin to pall upon him, and he loses himself in the whirlpool of merriment, attending many social functions and always being a welcome guest. In his travels he meets and falls in love with another woman, and one day he sends a little note to his own faithful wife telling her that he will see her no more, as he feels that his social position is such that he must marry another woman in his sphere. Upon receipt of the letter, the grief-stricken woman takes her baby and goes to the mountebank and his wife, to whom she pours out her sorrows. She finds a staunch friend in her father-in-law, who takes her with him to the home of his son's rich fiancée, where they arrive just in time to prevent the indiscreet young man from marrying another woman. The young doctor is ejected from the place when the news of his double life is learned, and as time rolls on he sinks deeper and deeper, until he finally robs his own father of a large amount of money in order to pay a gambling debt. Finally, tired of his dissolute life, the repentant young man returns to his people, and when his father learns of his willingness to enter into the spirit of the show business, the old fellow gladly forgives the erring youth. His wife and child are again united to him and happiness once more reigns supreme among all the members of the mountebank's troupe.