out to try to beg a bottle of milk.  While she is away, the husband, thoroughly disheartened, resolves to ask her to die with him, confident that neighbors will care for the child.  She returns home empty handed, and, though at first shocked and horrified by his proposal, finally consents.  Just as the husband covers his wife’s eyes with his hand and raises the pistol, the two friends of former days burst into the room.  One of the husband’s shop-mates has told the third friend of how “Jim fired him”—­as a leader tells us—­and the reproaches of the third friend have been instrumental in bringing about a feeling of remorse in the heart of the foreman.  The two hurry together to the little home, arriving just in time to prevent the tragedy.

All through this picture the cut-back is used most effectively.  Early in the action, supposedly a day or two after the young man had met his future wife, we are shown the two other men waiting for him at the saloon, the three glasses of beer standing untouched upon the table.  The scene then switches to the young man and the girl out walking, gazing from a bridge into the river.  Back to the saloon again, and we see the two friends looking at their watches, about to leave, the third glass still standing untouched.  Then, back to another pretty exterior, where the young man proposes and is accepted.  Toward the climax, the use of the cut-back becomes even more effective:  we see the wife go out to get the milk; the two friends at the same old table in the saloon; the husband bending over the child, taking out the revolver, and indicating what is in his mind to do; then the scene in the saloon, where the fourth man tells the kind-hearted friend how the foreman has discharged his former comrade; back in the house again, we see the man and the woman prepared to die together; then the exterior of the saloon, with the two friends coming out; another home scene leading up to the expected tragedy; the two friends hurrying down a street—­and even though they are hurrying, we know that they are unaware of what is going on in the house which is their destination, and we are fearful lest they may arrive too late; the man with his hand held over the eyes of his wife, the revolver being slowly raised; the two friends at the gate of the cottage; and then the climax as they enter the room just in time to avert the tragedy.  Thus the cut-back effect kept suspense and interest at highest pitch every moment.

Some years ago the same company released a drama, “The Cord of Life,” in which the cut-back was used so effectively to heighten the suspense and add to the thrill that many people in the audience of the theatre were leaning forward in their seats and making excited comments—­the supreme test of a picture “with a punch.”