Alcohol and Its Victims

Lubin summary: Drama in five pictures. 1st Picture. Interior of a happy workman's home. 2d Picture. The first step to the public house. 3d Picture. His wife comes to fetch him. 4th Picture. In the garret--Misery. 5th Picture. The Asylum--Delirium tremens.
       Pathé summary: 1. Interior of a Workman's Home, Happy and Prosperous. We are inside a workman's home where everything is orderly and clean. Whilst the husband is out working, his wife is still able to do some sewing to increase the meagre pittance of the household, and thanks to her mother who looks after the little ones, it is easy to see that nothing is wanting. But the hour is advancing. The husband will soon be back from his work so the cloth is quickly laid. Indeed he is not long in arriving. He places his tool-bag in a corner and everybody runs to kiss him. The hot soup is served, and judging from the general satisfaction, nothing seems to indicate that the most frightful curse is hovering over this respectable family which is soon to be reduced to the most dire misery. 2. The First Step to the Public-House. He is on his way to work one morning when he meets some of his comrades of rather bad character; good-for-nothings who pass the greatest part of their existence in the public-house instead of being at work. They offer him a glass as is usual when they meet. At first he refuses, but the sarcasm to which he is subjected induces him to yield. And then! What? After all, he is a man, and just one little glass has never killed anyone. Unfortunately, these exchanges of politeness are common among workmen, and he feels bound to pay his turn; in this way one glass succeeds another, the alcohol finds its way by degrees into the system of these poor creatures, and soon the habit becomes a vice. From that time they are not able to find their way to the workshop, they follow the downward track which leads to ruin and then to folly. 3. Alcohol and Its Ravages -- His Wife Comes to Fetch Him from the Public-House. The poor fellow does not think that during this time his wife and children are suffering at home, and Saturday being pay-day, whilst he is gambling away his wages so hardly earned, she is often obliged to come to the public-house to get out of him the few pence which is left in order to give the little ones something to eat. Perhaps a rash thing to do, for alas! excited by drink he is no longer conscious of what he is doing, and drives her away pitilessly. 4. In the Garret - Misery. The home, which was formerly so prosperous, has passed through every stage of decline until at last we find it in an absolute state of misery in a garret without fire or bread, and with only a heap of rags for the poor starved children to sleep on. The mother has found a crust of bread in the bottom of the cupboard which she divides between her two children who devour it ravenously. But, someone is coming up stairs, it is the father. In what condition will he be! He opens the door bruskly; he is drunk. His wife, maddened with rage, rushes at him, she wants money and bread for the hungry children, but he has not a halfpenny; he has spent everything at the public-house. The unhappy woman is done up and sinks down under the blows given by the husband who is mad with drink, and he breaks up what is left of the furniture in the garret. 5. The Asylum. - The Padded-Room. - Delirium Tremens. Drink has done its work. We are now confronted with the asylum where our poor hero is confined in the padded room. He is no longer a man, but an abject brute and is forced to wear a sort of suit which prevents him from harming himself, as he is now suffering from that mania which is peculiar to drink, viz: Delirium Tremens. At first he seems to be in a state of complete prostration, but under the influence of alcohol which has turned his brain, he is the victim of the most frightful hallucinations, such as fires, funerals, massacres and scenes of carnage. Then he fancies he sees such animals as rats, dogs, cats, spiders and better still, living monsters which do not exist but in the disordered brain of a man subject to such a mania. Ultimately, he gets in such a state of terror which gives him such strength, that he succeeds in tearing off the jacket which should prevent him from injuring himself. He is now free and begins to tear himself to pieces; he wants to get away from the animals which he thinks are round about him, but the cell is too small, he cannot escape from them. in striving to avoid the pictures which run through his brain, his nervous system has reached its climax, and the brute, quite overcome, falls down to rise no more.