Hans Sprudel, clerk in Jacob Schmidt’s grocery and delicatessen, is discharged because he has the audacity to make love to Lena, his employer’s daughter. Hardly has Hans left the house when Mrs. Schmidt reads in the newspaper that Hans is a relative of Peter Sprudel, the steel king of Essen, Germany, lately deceased. Hans, it is claimed, is one of the heirs to the vast fortune. Despair is written in the faces of both the storekeeper and his wife, for their former clerk can be no other than the Hans Sprudel wanted. Schmidt, resolved to get Hans back at any cost to his pride, goes to the young man’s lodgings, and patting him affectionately on the back, drags him back to the store, where he is immediately married to Lena. It is not until then that he is apprised of his good fortune. As it is necessary for Hans to go to Germany to claim his share of the fortune, Schmidt writes out a check for five hundred dollars and gives Hans steamer tickets for Lena and himself. A few weeks later Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt receive the following letter from their son-in-law: “Dear Mother and Father, the estate of Uncle Peter is now settled. Owing to the enormous debts and the fact that we are only one out of hundreds, our share is only one dollar. With love, Lena and Hans.”