Dough and Dynamite

The bakers in the employ of Monsieur La Vie go on strike. In the emergency Pierre and Jacques, the waiters, take possession of the kitchen, and as there is quite a bit of jealousy between them, on account of the female waitresses who smile impartially on both. It is not long before the dough is flying. Meanwhile, the strikers have conspired. They drill a hole in a loaf of bread and insert therein a stick of dynamite, cleverly replacing the piece of crust on the end of the loaf. Then they give it to a little girl, instructing her to carry it to the bakery and explaining that because the bread is too heavy her mother has sent it back. The wife of Monsieur La Vie returns the child's money and orders are given to the bakers to put the loaf back in the oven and bake it some more. They comply. The whole establishment is in a demoralized state. Customers in the cafe cannot get waited upon. The cook is in a towering temper. Pierre is clubbed on the head by the strikers, and goes about in a maudlin condition, getting himself and everybody else into all sorts of trouble. And then, the dynamited loaf explodes. The innocent victims are buried in splintered ovens, broken china an earthquake of pastry and bursting flour sacks, and huge mounds of dough heave fitfully where human hearts once throbbed. At the very end of the tragedy we see the yeasty mass churning and swelling, and then, out of the sticky lump, the unfortunate Pierre thrusts a gluey head.