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Mrs. Jones-Smith-Cary married a second time without telling her latest husband that she had previously been married. Through some circumstance Mrs. Jones was forced to assume two other names. The servants recognize the wife, asking her husband if she was not Mrs. Jones at one time. The colored butler recalled her previous husband tipping him five cents for bringing a ton of coal. The wife, much alarmed at the possible disclosure, bribes the servants not to tell, but they do. It turns out that Mr. Jones died by taking poison by mistake. This impressed upon the new husband so much that each move if the wife indicates a desire by her to likewise remove him.
Lawrence Grattan's sketch was written with the theory of "obtaining laughs." While this is a good theory, there are various styles of laughter. If the sketch writer will bear in mind that a laugh drawn naturally is worth a dozen of any other kind, its odds on always he will turn out a vehicle that will secure recognition. The scene in which the husband, seeing his wife pick up a revolver from the table exclaims to put it down, he will read the newspaper story "which explains it all" is a natural situation, bringing natural laughter. Everything else in the sketch is manufactured and thus the farcical inner story never convinces. This is an error in which Grattan and ninety-nine percent of all sketch writers have fallen into. Incidentally, the company is so much better than those usually found in these sort of sketches. There is enough comedy for the small big time.
Source:
Variety 24:2 (09/16/1911)