Strangled Harmony

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Ethel a penniless orphan upon the death of her father, goes to her Uncle Greedy Grab's home to live. With her is a note from the attorneys telling the Uncle, "she has music born in her," but the only music to Grab's ear is the jingle of coin in his pocket. So Ethel becomes the household drudge. Jabbs, the handsome stranger, happens to pass that way, and seeing Ethel, falls in love with her. Having plenty of money he is acceptable to Uncle Grab, but not to Ethel, whose soul is full of music. Pokes, the fiddler, is the apple of her eye. Pokes sees that he can never hope to win out without coin, so when Mr. Rich offers to buy his fiddle for $1,000 Pokes doesn't let the grass grow under his feet but consummates the bargain then and there. Returning to Ethel with a bunch of greenbacks, she tells him she ceases to love him without his fiddle. Pokes starts out to recover it. Meanwhile Jabbs wins Ethel's hand and Pokes returns with the fiddle only to find Ethel married to Jabbs. Pokes dreams of the happiness he has missed but he doesn't know that Jabbs is Ethel's henpecked husband, the father of ten children, all with music born in them and their mother trying to bring it out, while Jabbs labors over the wash tub. Pokes doesn't realize that it is sometimes better we do not get what we strive for the most, for Ethel improves her mind by reading novels and the children make father's life miserable improving their musical education.