When the Ham Turned

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A. Hamo, tragedian, is chased out of town by the angry audience. After a long, weary walk he arrives at Slumberville, a town from which he had been chased before; but tired out and unable to walk farther, he lies down on a pile of straw to sleep. He is found by the chief of police and a detail of cops who beat him up and then throw him in jail. After ten days he is released, beaten up again and kicked out of the station house. He returns later looking for revenge and finds the chief asleep outside the station house. Hamo sneaks up and steals the chief's club and gun, beats him up and forces him out into the woods where he ties him to a tree, takes off his uniform and disguises himself as the chief. Hamo then starts out and acts like a wild man. The village, believing Hamo to be the chief, complain to the mayor and he starts out to find that wayward official. Hamo, after cleaning out a saloon, returns to the woods, soaks the chief's clothes with whiskey, puts his uniform back on him and drags him away. The mayor, followed by a crowd, meet Hamo dragging the chief along the road. Smelling whiskey on the dead dazed chief, he lauds Hamo as a hero and makes him chief of police. Then Hamo vents his pent-up anger on the disgraced chief.