1912 The Night Before Christmas

The Christmas season is approaching and Mrs. Corbin, who has been a sufferer from illness for many months, thinks over the past Christmas when John, her husband, played Santa Claus for their little daughter, and wonders what the outcome of the coming Christmas will be if the operation which she is contemplating should be fatal to her. John Corbin is very anxious about his wife's operation and is somewhat surprised to learn that it will cost about $500.00. One day, when a client leaves $500.00 in his charge to he invested in stocks, he is interrupted by the telephone bell and instead of placing the money in the safe, he unconsciously places it in his pocket. Answering the telephone, he receives a message from his little daughter Helen, saying that her mother is very sick. John hurries home and decides that the operation must be performed at once. He is troubled to know where he will get the $500.00 to pay for it, and at that moment thinks of the money in his pocket. He decides to use it and replace it before his employer discovers that he has taken it. Mrs. Corbin undergoes the operation and dies in its performance. Her husband's theft is discovered and he is sent to jail. His motherless child is left with Mrs. Corbin's sister. Corbin works in the shoe shop in prison, thinks of his little daughter and cuts from the spare pieces of leather, little dolls which he hopes to send her at Christmas time. The night before Christmas, he manages to escape. He makes haste for his home where he tells his sister-in-law that he has come to play Santa Clans for his little Helen. Hastily taking the Santa Claus suit from the cupboard where it was kept since last Christmas, he dresses himself in the disguise, goes into his child's bedroom and tells her that Santa Claus has come to wish her a Merry Christmas and present her with some leather dolls which he has made for her. The little one is happy to meet old Santa. Leaving the bedroom and entering the living room, he finds the prison guards awaiting him. Removing his costume, he goes with them back to prison. The next day, Christmas, is made brighter for Corbin by the thoughts of having made his child happier.