You Can't Beat Them(1914)

Overview

Ray Boggs sees a most enticing bargain advertisement in the paper and asks her husband for some money. He is not feeling very amiable and gives his wife only a two-dollar bill. When Ray carries her protest to the front steps he even takes the two-spot back. Of course she telephones to her mother, and mother comes right over and quickly concocts a scheme to play on Ben's jealousy. They write an anonymous letter, telling him his wife keeps another man's glove in her bureau. Ben gets the letter at his office just as he is signing an important contract, but he throws the contract in the other man's face and rushes home. After a vivid rough house he finds the glove, a boxing glove, and mother calmly admits that she wrote the letter to trap him. She suggests that it will make a fine story for the boys at the club. Of course Ben gives Ray half his roll to buy her off. and he has an increased respect for his mother-in-law's diplomacy.