• Title: Redemption
• Year: 1912
• Duration: unknown
• Rating:
• Genres: Drama, Short

Summary Redemption (1912)

A young working girl, Nana Aumont, lives happily with her father and little sister. One day she is sent by her employer to deliver an order to a wealthy customer and there catches a glimpse of luxury which dazzles her. While waiting in an ante-room, she becomes drowsy and sinks to sleep among the soft cushions on an elegant couch. One of the guests, the Count of Aubiers, comes upon the child and is charmed by her innocent beauty and grace. With soft words he tells her of luxuries and riches which she does not enjoy and finally induces the girl to leave her home and come to live with him. Months pass and Nana has forgotten her people in the whirl of excitement and gaiety in which she is engulfed. The Count has become greatly infatuated with the girl and showers her with costly gifts. But her sin finds her out and soon her momentary happiness is changed to sadness. One day, while delivering a parcel to the house, Nana is confronted by her little sister, who, seeing her finery and guessing from whence it came, rushes from the house to inform her father. The old man, care and sorrow written on his brow, flies in a rage when told of his daughter's disgrace, and straightway hurries to the home of the Count, where he finds Nana surrounded by hundreds of admirers in the spacious ballroom of the palace. The old man raises his cane to strike his daughter when he is stricken with apoplexy and dies before Nana's eyes. After this event, the girl falls lower and lower. She becomes fascinated by a handsome café singer, and forsakes the Count when he suffers financial reverses. Then she becomes a dancer and soon grows famous. At the Moulin Rouge all is excitement. The spacious hall is filled with thousands. "Azayade," the wonderful danseuse is the star feature of the evening. Here is presented with all its beautiful and constantly changing colors the Kaleidoscopic Dance of Inferno, in which Nana, as "Azayade," flits among the flames, apparently, while her costume changes many, many times as though by magic. During the evening. Nana's new-found sweetheart, the handsome singer, finds another girl who attracts him, and he leaves the ballroom with his new acquisition. Nana, dressed for the street, looks in vain for her escort, while the crowd laughs knowingly at the girl, which adds to her confusion and anger. An old gentleman approaches her and volunteers his aid and protection. Nana reluctantly accepts, little caring what happens. The friendly old man, however, proves to be a heartless adventurer, who drugs Nana's wine, and, when she falls asleep, robs her of her jewels and money, leaving her friendless and penniless. To add to her discomfiture, she is arrested on complaint of the café proprietor for not paying the bill for the wine, which the old adventurer failed to do. The magistrate discharges Nana with a rebuke after listening to her story, warning her if she appeared before him again he would surely give her a prison sentence. Nana sinks lower in life's strata as time wears on. We next find her dancing in a low dive. A band of ruffians precipitate a fight and a riot call is sent to the police. Nana is caught in the raid and is again brought before the magistrate with torn costume and disheveled hair. This time she is sentenced to prison and is later escorted to a cell where she joins a half hundred other unfortunate women. Here she is subject to sudden fits of anger, culminating in a terrific fight, in which all the inmates join. The Sister Superior of St. Lazare, while visiting the prison, comes upon the belligerents and attempts to separate them. Nana, wild with fury and goaded on by the taunts of her companions, strikes the Sister on the cheek. But here she at last meets her conqueror, for the holy Sister Superior does not strike back, nor does she cry out in pain or rebuke the girl. Kind words, the first she has heard in months, are spoken to the unfortunate wretch. Every syllable burns Nana's ears like hot coals. Ashamed of her conduct, she bursts into tears. She kneels and kisses the hem of the Sister's garment, thoroughly broken. Remorse has entered the heart of the sinner. Worn out physically and mentally, Nana is stricken with fever and is tenderly removed to the Infirmary of St. Lazare. Here, as the moonbeams stream through the window and rest on her white-robed cot, she fancies she is living her life all over again. In her hallucinations she sees her home, the palace of the count, her first false step, and every subsequent one in her wretched life of shame until she strikes in anger the good Sister Superior. She struggles furiously and is only quieted by "The Angel of the Infirmary," who comes herself to calm the poor unfortunate. Subsequently Nana becomes well and strong, and her prison sentence over, is able to leave the infirmary. She firmly resolves to redeem her past and asks the Sister Superior to assist her to secure honest employment. The good woman sends her to one of the large hospitals armed with a letter of recommendation to the doctor in charge. Here she becomes a nurse. Suddenly and without warning, the dread plague breaks out in the city. A man staggers into the hospital and is examined by the doctors who diagnose his case as cholera. The nurses are thrown into a panic and they all retreat in fear, excepting Nana, who bravely volunteers to nurse the patient. Notwithstanding her terrible experiences while witnessing the awful agony of the unfortunate in his dying moments, she does not falter in her duty, but bravely closes his staring eyes and breathes a prayer for the salvation of his soul. Thus she goes on lending her efforts to combat the plague, rarely sleeping or eating in her desire to save human lives, until the Sister Superior is stricken. Nana, almost exhausted, will allow no one to nurse the good woman but herself. Careless of the danger she rarely leaves the pillow of the one whose merciful kindness kept her from moral destruction. She succeeds in saving the life of the Sister, but at the sacrifice of her own. Nana falls victim to the scourge and in her weakened condition cannot withstand the ravages of the dread disease. She dies surrounded by those who loved her, and, just too late, she is decorated by the Cross of the Legion of Honor, which has been conferred upon Nana for her remarkable work during the ravages of the plague.

Synopsis Redemption (1912)