A Newsboy Hero

John Bailey is a struggling young workman, but he is fond of drink. His conduct is long a source of sorrow to his wife, but her prayers and entreaties are disregarded. Finally the climax comes when John returns home one evening and is so much under the influence of liquor that he strikes his wife. Believing that life is unbearable, the woman takes her child and goes out into the world, preferring even death to further mistreatment and humiliation. The woman and helpless child, with no refuge in sight, wander around in the snow, and finally fall exhausted into the sleep that precedes death. Fortunately for them, Jim Sands, a crippled newsboy, sees their plight, goes to their assistance, and takes them into his poor little home. When they prepare to start out again, Jim offers to share his all with them, and they remain until the mother can obtain some other refuge. John, in the meantime, has hunted vainly for his wife and child, and a newspaper story of the death of a woman and child in the storm convinces him that May and Marie are the victims. Remorseful, he decides that he has no right to live, and plans to drown himself. He is saved from this crime by Jim, and a Salvation Army band, that is holding services nearby, offer to care for him. He realizes that the one thing to do to atone for his fault, is to live a manly, useful life rather than to seek suicide, the refuge of the week. Jim by accident learns of the relationship that exists between May and Jack, and brings them together. They are reunited and Jack promises to be in the future what he should have been in the past, a husband who puts home and family above everything else in the world. - IMDb