Oh, You Uncle!

Billy Hodges, living in a boarding and rooming house in New York, is about twenty-eight years old and is employed in an office at $25 a week. He is badly in debt. Billy remembers just after receiving a lot of bills by mail, that his uncle, Oscar Hodges, of Pickwick Corners, Ind., wrote him recently to the effect that when he (Billy) decided to marry he'd send him $10,000 as a wedding gift. Billy decides that he'll have to get married at once in order to pay his debts. He is very fond of Mazie Gay, an actress, and she cares for him. He calls her up and proposes. She accepts. Then Billy writes his uncle that he is to wed and suggests that the $10,000 be sent him. Uncle Oscar is an old bachelor of perhaps fifty-five. He is, to put it mildly, something of a sport, but has managed to conceal the fact from his nephew. He decides to drop in on his nephew suddenly. Billy has always believed that Uncle Oscar was a quiet, religious man and Uncle Oscar has thought the same about Billy. Therefore, when they do meet, each is prepared to treat the other as a quiet, religiously inclined person, albeit Uncle Oscar was a bit skeptical. Billy has been playing poker in his room all night when Uncle Oscar arrives. Uncle Oscar first meets Cutey, the landlady's daughter. Uncle and Billy give each other "quiet" presents and Billy starts out to entertain his relative simply and modestly. There is a dinner with chorus girls who are told to act modestly, etc. Finally Uncle Oscar and Billy discover that each is really a sport at heart and they then proceed to have a high old time. As a finish Billy marries Mazie and receives his $10,000 and Uncle Oscar surprises them by marrying Cutey, and telling Billy that he could have had twice that amount if he had been on the level with Uncle.