The Price of Human Lives

Beth Cort, a wealthy young society girl, becomes interested in social service work among the poor, despite the opposition of her father. She becomes deeply interested in two young people, Nell Linn and Edward Grant, both of whom are suffering from the early stages of consumption. For some months, Nell and Edward have been taking "Concura," a supposedly infallible remedy which boasts of hundreds of commendatory letters from cured patients. Nell, who has been particularly hopeful of being cared by the marvelous medicine, suddenly gets a letter from her cousin telling her that her aunt has just died despite "Concura." Nell shows the letter to Miss Cort, and the latter in a fury of just indignation, rushes to the office of the "Concura" manufacturers to denounce them. To her horror she discovers that her lover is the advertising manager of the "Concura" company, and that her own father is the actual manufacturer. The scene in which the young girl confronts lover and father in their office is one of stirring intensity. The story ends on a Christmas Eve exactly a year after its commencement, and shows the wonderful difference effected in many lives by the work of this one courageous girl.