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- The scene is laid in one of the trading posts of the Hudson Bay Company and the young factor, Malcolm Young, loves Utoka, the pretty daughter of the chief of a nearby tribe. Jules Laprese also loves the girl and the half-breed hates Malcolm as much as he loves the pretty Indian maiden. Only Utoka's watchfulness saves the young factor's life on several occasions and this loving care is relaxed only when Jules brings her a letter and photograph which he has stolen from the factor. The picture is that of a beautiful young white girl and the loving message that accompanies it leaves small room for question of the factor's lack of good faith. Utoka is prostrated by grief and Jules leads her father to believe that a more serious wrong has been wrought by the head of the trading post. With his braves the old chief captures the factor and drags him, a prisoner, to the camp where Malcolm is put to torture before the fire is to mercilessly end his sufferings. Meanwhile Utoka, who cannot believe her lover guilty, seeks the post and discovers what has taken place. With the good father, the missionary who keeps pace with the advance of the Hudson Bay posts, Utoka returns to the camp and saves the life of the factor. He proves that the letter was from his sister and not from some sweetheart in Montreal and the half-breed is made to suffer punishment for the affront he has put upon the tribe.
- During a rehearsal of his new play, Peter Richards recognizes in Mary Walters a well-known leading lady of 20 years before. She has met with reverses and is now employed as wardrobe woman in the company which is producing his play. On opening night, the play is a failure, and the manager who financed it decides to take it off immediately. Mary Walters is the only one in the theater who has feeling enough to show sympathy for the author in his misfortune. An extra girl's chance remark gives Peter an idea for another play, which he writes and calls "Granny," and he has enough confidence in Mary Walters' ability to offer her the leading part, which she gratefully accepts. Confident of its success, Peter's ambition is to produce "Granny" at the same theater where his former play met with such complete failure, but the manager refuses to produce it and Peter is forced to sell his home in order to secure enough money to put on the play. During his days of trouble Peter sees Mary's worth and as he walks with her to the theater on the opening night, they pass a quaint little church and Peter asks her to share the future with him, no matter what the night may bring them. Mary consents and they enter the rectory and are quietly married, after which they go to the theater for the opening performance. Peter's judgment is vindicated and the play is a hit.
- Tillie inherits her aunt's fortune.
- Mrs. Snowden and her daughter Elizabeth see an advertisement in the newspaper stating that Dr. Richard Gordon desires board and lodging in a private family. Elizabeth answers the ad and the doctor is installed in their home. Being alone in the world he enjoys the young girl's company and after a few months of attention and courtship, they are sweethearts. One day the doctor is out on a call when a note is received stating that Jack Harley, who has been absent for some years, has returned and will call. Elizabeth and Jack had been childhood playmates and she and her mother are eager to see him again. The doctor returns in just the frame of mind to ask Elizabeth to name the day when Mrs. Snowden and Jack bounce in. The reunion is so effusive that the doctor is jealous and retires to his office with the blues. Jack takes Elizabeth for an auto ride and an accident occurs in which Elizabeth is badly hurt. She is taken home in a farm wagon and the doctor attends her. Dismissing the mother for a while he watches by the sufferer until nearly dawn, when the mother again takes the watch. Elizabeth, who has rested fairly well, wakes and asks for Gordon, who has had another call. On his return he finds Jack in attendance, but a full explanation of their friendly attachment satisfies the doctor and the mother and Jack leave the sweethearts alone.
- Freda Glodden, a settlement worker, devoted her time trying to improve the conditions of the people living in one of the poor sections of a great city. Several times, on her way to and from the settlement house, she had been insulted by toughs and corner loafers. Jim Boggs, a thief, happened along one time when the toughs were having their daily sport and several of their noses came in contact with Jim's fist. Naturally, Freda was thankful. She invited Jim to the settlement house and Jim came. It was the first time he had been treated as a real man by a real woman. Freda taught him to read and write. Later she helped him out of scrapes with the police and still later she proceeded to induce Jim to leave his wicked ways. Jim got a position and for Freda's sake he reformed and became a man.
- The Russian Czar sends his trusted confidant, Michael Strogoff, to warn his brother the Grand Duke of a Tartar rebellion that will be led by Feofar Khan and Ivan Ogareff. Calling himself Nicholas Korpanoff, Strogoff poses as a trader to journey to warn the Grand Duke. On his way he meets Nadia Fedorova, a young girl trying to join her father Wassili, a political activist who has been exiled to Siberia. Strogoff is captured by the Tartars, who don't believe he is a trader and threaten to torture Strogoff's mother Marfa unless he reveals his true identity.
- Rastus Johnson, a happy-go-lucky coon, after eating a large meal, lies down on the dock to take a nap. While he is slumbering three roughs happen along and see him, and knowing a sea captain who is in need of men to fill out his crew, they seize Rastus and shanghai him. He is placed aboard the ship and the voyage started. The vessel is wrecked off the African coast, and poor Rastus is the only survivor. While wandering along the beach he is seen by the Zulus, who immediately give chase. Rastus runs through the jungle, but is compelled to give up. They capture him and take him before their king, who orders him to be cooked. One of the women of the tribe, who happens to be present when Rastus is brought in, knowing the king's daughter is ambitious to be married to some man outside of her own tribe, runs off to tell her of the captive. Rastus is led to the royal kitchen, where the cook pot is prepared. They are just about to thrust him in, when the daughter pleads with her father, for Rastus' life. This he grants on one condition, that Rastus must marry the daughter. This he tells to Rastus, and Rastus, after a good look at the daughter, decides to take to the cook pot. This enrages the king so that he orders Rastus to be seized and given a sound beating. They seize him and throw him on the ground and commence. They beat him so hard that he wakes up to find a policeman tapping him with his club. The blue coat orders Rastus to move on his way, which he does, little the worse for his terrible dream.
- The wild man is not wild, at least when he starts out to be. Nothing could be less suggestive of wildness than the fun-loving college boy who is induced by his chums to turn professional freak. There is a circus in town and when the boys find a masquerade suit dropped by some guest at a ball just closing about sunrise they conceive the idea of getting one of their number up in the wild man suit and selling him to the circus proprietor as a side show attraction. Jim Hanley is something of an athlete and shines in college theatricals, so he is appointed the wild man while another chap assumes the role as manager and starts off for the circus to negotiate with the proprietor. The man who owns the side show is quite willing to buy a wild man or anything else that will add to the daily receipts and expresses a desire to see the freak. The boys go back for Jim and presently make their appearance on the lot towing the wild man along on a chain. He is pretty convincing looking wild man to an outsider but the old showman knows a lot about the manufacture of Egyptian mummies, three legged boys and things like that and it takes him just about 1/27th part of a second to determine that the boys are trying to have some fun with him. A wild man with burnt corked hands and a white face isn't regarded in show circles as a strictly high grade wild man suitable for a forty-car show, and the manager decides that since the boys are looking for fun he will see to it that they have all they want. Taking Jim into the tent he sends back word that he will try out the freak at the matinee and make the purchase if the audience finds the new attraction to its liking. The others go off in gleeful anticipation of the fun they are going to have at the afternoon show guying Jim, but they are denied this little amusement for as soon as Jim is inside he is thrust into an empty cage and is given a gorilla for company. This is rather more than he bargained for and so Jim goes away from there with some difficulty and in a great hurry. The gorilla is about three feet behind him as he makes the start but he gets a better lead once he is in the open and heads for the dormitory. Terror lends wings to his feet and he makes all sorts of short cuts, through windows, over pedestrians, street stands and whatnot until he distances the gorilla and panting and worn out arrives at the college. Not until he reaches the room does he feel safe and recites the story of his perils to his chums. But the gorilla is not through with him yet, for a hairy face appears at the window, as uncouth form tumbles through the sash and as the boys are about to give themselves up to a painful death the gorilla removes his mask and with the proprietor's compliments explains that the wild man's wildness is not of the proper sort to make him acceptable to a circus management. It's about as good a laugh as you've had lately and we've been generous with laughs at that.
- Two members of the Never-Drop Aero Club claim that they can reach the moon by the aeroplane. They get an astronomer to get his telescope out and see how the conditions are on the moon. He comes on with a big telescope and looks through it, finds everything in fine condition from earth to moon, so the party start out. As they rise and turn upside down then right side up, they start on their journey to the moon. They pass over a busy city, knocking down buildings and chimneys. After passing over the city they come in contact with the planet Saturn. Bump it, encircle it, and then on their way to the moon they ride through the air and see an old man coming out of the planet Mars. The anchor on the aeroplane accidentally catches the old man by the neck and carries him off. The old man tries to get away, and he sees Halley's comet coming along and he grabs hold of the tail of the comet and goes away. One of the men in the aeroplane sees him and takes out a lasso. With a couple of swings he catches the old man around the neck and drags him behind. At last the moon is reached. The man in the moon opens his mouth and they all go in. The party drop from top of the moon all in a heap. They get up, look around and a large bird comes in and lays an egg larger than itself and flies off. The travelers put the egg on a fire, which is burning nearby. The egg cracks and a lot of little birds are hatched. Suddenly a strange animal comes on the scene and eats the little birds one by one. The animal fills up and bursts. Another enormous crazy-looking animal comes out of the cave and chases the men off the moon into the sea.
- This stirring poem by F. De H. Janvier, tells the story of a brave and overworked young soldier who slept at his post during a critical period in an engagement and was court-martialed and sentenced to death. The picture begins with a scene showing the unfortunate soldier on his pallet of straw on the eve of his projected execution. Before him appears the visions of his New England home, his enlistment amid the cheers of his townsmen, and the farewell with his devoted mother. Then comes the news that his mother is making efforts toward securing his pardon, and failing with the military authorities, she decides upon making a personal appeal to President Lincoln, who was never known to deny audience to anyone with a just cause to plead. Then follows the interview with the great martyr president, who is so deeply moved by the plea of the little mother that he at once orders his carriage and proceeds with her to the scene of execution. Now we are on the parade ground with the regiment ready to witness the awful penalty of a soldier sleeping at his post. The firing party files into line, the prisoner is placed before it, and the commanding officer is about to give the fatal word to fire, when a far off call to "halt" is heard. Turning in the direction of the voice, the onlookers are surprised to see a carriage with horses lashed into a foam, and the commanding form of Lincoln, with outstretched hand demanding, to be heard. He has come just in time, for he orders the release of the prisoner, who rushes into his mother's arms. Then comes the order for an attack, the prisoner takes his place in his company, and bravely atones for his first and only fault, by gallantry of the field, but, in the words of the poem: "The first to fall in the unequal strife, Was he, whom mercy sped to save, When 'justice claimed his life."
- A sympathetic showgirl assumes the guilt for her cousin who is cheating on her husband.
- Jack Halliday, working as City Editor of the "Sun," is granted a few weeks' vacation by his employer and journeys to Lakewood's winter hotel. At a dance given by the hotel's management, he meets Mrs. Buckley, widowed mother of an 8-year-old boy. Jack marries the widow and takes her to his home. A few weeks of happy wedded life and the family is broken up through the jealousy of Jack's bride towards his mother. The two ladies have words and Jack's mother decides to leave the house. She gives her services to a mission, spending her time in the settlements. One day, Jack's stepson is enticed away from the playground and follows an organ grinder and his monkey and the boy accepts the Italian's invitation into the house in the slums. There he is kept a prisoner. The boy while alone drops a watch and locket containing his parents' photos out of the window which is found by a waif who takes it to the mission and gives it to Mrs. Walter Halliday. She recognizes the photos and asks to be taken to the Italian's house, where with police assistance she safely returns the boy to the family and secures a warm place in the heart of her once-unjust daughter-in-law.
- The sole survivor of an Indian massacre, a baby called Jack Trail, is raised in the shadow of an overhanging eagle's nest by the Silsbees, two immigrants. Meanwhile, Geoffrey Milford, the partner of Jack's deceased father, forges his signature to use money from his property. Years later, Milford's partner, Robert Blasedon, desiring to marry Milford's daughter Rose, who rejected him, seeks to recover the papers and force the marriage. After Jack saves the Milfords and Blasedon from a runaway coach, Mrs. Silsbee, while trying to protect Rose from Blasedon, is killed in a scuffle. Accused of the murder, Jack, who now loves Rose, saves her from Blasedon, but Rose marries Blasedon when he threatens to kill Jack. After Blasedon steals the forged papers, Jack pursues him through the mountains until their struggle ends in Blasedon's fall into a ravine. When Milford learns of Jack's origin, he offers the papers, which Jack declines, saying that Rose is all the wealth he wants.
- Michael Duggan, an ordinary laborer, receives word from a firm of lawyers that an uncle in South Africa has died without any near relatives, and that he has inherited his entire estate, valued at a million. His wife and daughters immediately want to enter society, but Duggan doesn't care for style. The newspapers bear of Duggan's fortune and interview Mrs. Duggan and daughters. When it appears in the papers a real estate man immediately offers them a furnished mansion one month rent free, while they are besieged with invitations and offers of credit. They take the new house and Mrs. Duggan tries to teach Duggan manners much to his disgust. They go to a swell reception. Duggan introduces his daughters to the supposed noblemen, and the daughters invite them to dinner. The guests, fearing they may not behave just so, decide to watch Duggan and imitate him. Mrs. Duggan tells Duggan to watch the Lord and Duke and imitate them. At the dinner there is a general mix-up, at the end of which the butler brings in a note saying that the fortune will have to go to Mr. Daniel Duggan's son, who was supposed to have been drowned at sea, but who has returned. The creditors make a fuss without avail. Wife and daughter are overcome with grief. Duggan is happy to get away from it all, and back to his overalls and corned beef and cabbage.
- After Henrietta has eaten all of Buster's candy, Brooks appears with a story book. The fickle maiden puts Buster out of her hammock and invites Brooks to sit in beside her. Buster runs home crying. His father to comfort him takes him on his lap and shows him pictures of cannibals. Buster falls asleep and dreams that he is an explorer and has been wrecked upon a desert island. Being weary he lies on the sand to sleep. Fijiwiji, a cannibal girl, discovers Buster and awakens him. Buster, while he is making love to her is surrounded by cannibals. The cannibals tie him and lead him before the throne of King Kaliko. Calling his cook, the king told him to put Buster into the fattening pen. In the pen. Buster decides that he'd better make the most of his last moments and takes out his watch to see how many last momenta he has. Fijiwiji who has been hanging around to comfort Buster, sees the watch and hears it tick. She is astonished. She calls the cannibals. They release Buster and declare him king. Fijiwiji leads him to the throne and all the cannibals bow low before him. King Kaliko returns and Buster orders him prepared for dinner. Buster now reigns supreme and orders elaborate preparations for his marriage to Fijiwiji. But alas, although a savage, Fijiwiji is "a female of the species" and curious. Her curiosity is so aroused by the watch that she cannot keep her hands off it and at last she lets it fall. When they pick it up it is silent, it is broken. When the cannibals come again and bow before Buster's throne asking him to let them hear the watch, Buster tries to bluff it off. When Buster fails to make good on the tick-tick proposition, his subjects begin to mutter and finally Bolo Bill gets it into his head that Buster would be of more service to the island community in the pot than he would on the throne. He leads the others to the pen where they release King Kaliko. Buster is wise enough to know that his reign is ended and the jig is up, so grasping Fijiwiji's hand he cries, "Let's beat it." They do. They both run down the beach. Brandishing spears and emitting ear splitting and blood curdling cries, the cannibals pursue them until Buster wakes up on his father's lap and hangs on to his necktie for dear life.
- Lou, a young bachelor, receives the following letter from his friend, Hawkins: Dear Lou: I must leave at once for Europe on important business and not knowing where to put her, I send you my little girl to watch over her until I return. I know she won't be any great trouble to you. Thanking you in advance, hoping to see you after my return, I remain, your dear old friend, Emmett Hawkins. Lou rings for his butler and together they go out and buy the necessary things for the "little girl." Pretty soon they return loaded with toys of every kind, clothes and baby furniture, when the bell rings and the "little girl" arrives. Imagine Lou's surprise when a young lady of 18 enters, "Hawkins' little girl." Three months hardly passed when Lou calls "his" girl "my little girl" and after another year, when old Hawkins returns from his trip to Europe, the happy couple present to Grandpa "our little girl."
- Bob Fulmer lives in the mountains with his sister Joy. The Civil War is at its height, and 16-year-old Bob is anxious to join the Southern forces, but because of his youth and ill health, Joy has prevented him. Unknown to Joy, Bob steals away, and joins a band of guerrillas under the command of Webb. Joy accidentally runs into Lieutenant John Gladstone of the Union force and helps him bandage his slightly-wounded arm. assists him in bandaging his slightly-wounded arm. In time, Bob becomes a successful scout for the guerrillas, and Gladstone receives an order to go on a special mission to capture the "boy spy." He learns the locality of the boy's home and establishes a camp. Again he encounters Joy, and rescues her from insult at the hands of one of his men, but he does not guess that she is the sister of the boy he is trying to capture. Joy learns Gladstone's mission. She warns Bob of his danger, but does not tell him of the presence of the soldiers, Gladstone, seeing Joy often, finds that he has fallen in love with her. She in turn confesses her love for him. Joy has steadfastly refused to allow Gladstone to accompany her home, always disappearing from him like a sprite when she leaves him. Finally, however, Gladstone tracks her to the cabin. That night Bob arrives, sent by Webb to find the camp of the Union soldiers. He meets her near the cabin and shows her a false mustache he has made, so that no one will suspect him of being the "boy spy." Gladstone, coming to the cabin, sees Joy pleading with Bob to go, and mistakes it for a love scene. Too honorable to watch them through the window, he raps at the door. Frantically Joy forces Bob into an inner room, and opens the door. Gladstone demands that she tell him whom she is concealing. She denies that there is anyone there, but Gladstone opens the door, and discloses Bob. To save her brother from capture, Joy tells the lieutenant that the man is her lover. He turns without a word and leaves the cabin. But now Bob knows that the Union soldiers are near, and he determines to find them. Joy rushes from the cabin, trying to warn her lover. Joy overtakes the lieutenant, but Gladstone refuses to listen to her. As she is pleading with him, they hear shots. Gladstone rushes off toward the sound of firing, and finds the "man" from the cabin, shot by his men and dying. Joy follows him. As she bends over Bob, he raises himself weakly, pulling off the disguise. Then Gladstone understands. He has found the boy spy. The next morning Gladstone prepares to return to his duty. He is leaving Joy alone in the mountains. Then comes the news; Lee has surrendered at Appomattox. With the reunion of the nation, a life of happiness opens before Joy and Gladstone.
- The Jordans, Phil and Ruth, accompanied by Philip's wife, Polly, and Dr. Winthrop Newbury, a suitor for Ruth's hand, bid old Mrs. Jordan good-bye at the station of Milford Corners, Mass., and depart for the west, to work over some unredeemed desert land, which was left to the Jordans by their dead father. Arriving in the west, they take up their work, but it proves anything but a success. On the brink of the Great Divide lives Stephen Ghent, an untamed and untrained man of the west, and on account of his manner is respected by the habitués of Miller's saloon and dance hall in the town, which he and two of his acquaintances in the persons of Pedro, a half-breed Mexican, and Dutch, a brutal type of the west, frequent. Polly tires of western life and jumps at the chance to take a trip to Frisco. Philip drives her down to the station that night. On an adjoining ranch a cowpuncher is seriously hurt and a boy is dispatched for Dr. Newbury. After cautioning Ruth to retire early, the doctor takes his leave. Stephen Ghent, Pedro, and Dutch are down in the town drinking. They afterward depart and start up the Coldwater Trail, which runs alongside of the Jordan home. As they pass the dimly lighted cabin, they see a woman standing in the doorway. Cautiously approaching the door, they enter the cabin and Ruth is overpowered. Dutch and Ghent fight a duel for her in which Dutch is killed. Pedro is bought off by Ghent with a string of nuggets, and Ruth belongs to him. In the man of the woods, Ruth recognizes the ideal man she desires for a helpmate. Ruth agrees to marry Ghent and live as his wife in name only until he has changed his character. Ghent agrees and they are married. Ghent then brings her to his cabin. As day by day goes by, Ruth begins to see other qualities in her husband and also to believe in him. One night, however, Ghent filled with a desire for her and goaded on by the whiskey that is in him breaks his promise. Ruth denounces him for his actions and tells him that not until he has purged himself through suffering will she ever believe in him again. She also tells him that she is going to earn enough money to buy back the string of nuggets from Pedro, with which he managed to get her into his power. Some time later Ruth departs for town to sell her last blanket. She has been weaving Navajo blankets in order to raise the necessary amount to buy back the nuggets. In the meantime the Jordans become disgusted and prepare to go back east. While waiting at the station they find Ruth, who has just completed the sale of her blanket. They see her start up the trail and follow her on foot. Ruth buys back the string of nuggets from Pedro, but she has not time to turn it over to Ghent upon her arrival at the cabin before she is overtaken by the others. It is her desire to have them believe she is happy and refuses to go back east with them. She introduces Ghent to them just as they are ready to catch the train. Ghent, unable to understand her changed attitude, starts to thank her. She tells him that circumstances forced her to act as she did, but that she is now able to buy back her freedom from him. Ghent is stunned, and at first refuses to let her go, but when she tells him of the life that is to come and that it is their duty to protect its happiness through a mother's love, he finally releases her from her promise, and Ruth, with the sense of newfound freedom, starts down the trail to overtake the others before it is too late. Ghent's attention as he looks after her is suddenly attracted to a bit of trembling earth on the mountainside. He realizes the great danger that Ruth is in and starts down the trail to rescue her. He is just in time and has thrown her to one side when the landslide comes upon him and carries him into the valley below. The rumbling sound has caused the others to look back. A reunion takes place over the injured Ghent. He is brought to the cabin, where he recovers under the care and attention of Dr. Newbury and Ruth. Ruth tells him that he has purged himself through his suffering and once more the couple start out in life upon a happier basis.
- Jared Austin and Ben Gray are contractors who use convict labor. A bill is introduced in the legislature to abolish the system, and Gray assures Austin he will speak against the bill when it comes up. Austin's son, George, is infatuated with Pearl De Lyle, an actress. She tells him she must have $200. George meets a friend, Larry Graham, who nervously explains that his employer had entrusted him with some money to take to the bank, but he stopped on the way and the bank was closed when he reached there. He had lost some of the money. George asks for what remains, and promises to return the entire amount the next morning. Larry hesitatingly consents. George gives Pearl the $200 and buys wine for her. He reaches home intoxicated, and Austin bitterly attacks him. When George awakens he discovers that it is after nine o'clock, and remembers the promise he made to Larry. He wonders where he can get the money now that his father is angry with him. He goes to the office, finds the safe open and steals some of the money. He rushes to Larry too late, for already he is in the custody of the police. He finds that Robert Orme, the bookkeeper, has been accused of the theft. Both Orme and Larry are sentenced to the convict camps, and George seeks to quell his conscience by spending the stolen money in drink. Austin and Gray need convict labor and bids in a large number of convicts, among them Larry and Orme. Austin leaves the city on business on the same train with the convicts going to his camp. There is a wreck in which Orme escapes and Austin's face bruised, almost unrecognizable. He wanders dazedly to the woods, falls unconscious and Orme, finding him, changes clothes with him. The guards come across him, and lead him to the train. Orme takes Austin's place, and is not suspected. At the convict camp, the superintendent laughs at Austin when he declares he is not Orme. For the first time, Austin realizes the cruelty that is practiced in the camps. Larry attempting to escape from the camp is killed by the guards. The sight profoundly affects Austin. George seeks Pearl in order to forget his crime. He finds her with another admirer, and his head turned by wine, he shoots her in a jealous rage. He is jailed and makes a full confession of his past deeds. The order is given to release the prisoner, "Orme." Austin arrives at his office the day the bill against the convict lease system is to come up in the legislature. Gray is about to start on his way to speak against the bill. Austin tells him that he would sooner lose every cent than have his son go through the hell he did. Gray becomes furious, and when Austin says that he, too, will address the legislature. Gray locks him up in a closet and goes off alone. At the state capitol, Austin makes a masterful speech for the bill, with the result that it is passed overwhelmingly. Austin begins anew with Orme, who has returned, as a partner, and George, under proper prison condition, is given a chance to reform and become a useful citizen.
- A falling-out between a man and his ambitious wife results in their splitting up and moving far apart. She pursues a career as an actress, taking their son with her to Europe. Alone, they are miserable and they reminisce nostalgically for when they were together.
- An impoverished father is forced to give up his daughter for adoption. After she is grown, she realizes she has two fathers: her real one and her "adopted" one.
- Percival is a spoiled mama's boy. When two toughs make time with his girlfriend he sends a telegram to his mother for help.
- A photoplay is wanted quick. The manager calls in the director to give him one in a hurry. The director shows him several scripts, but they do not suit; so the director is compelled to call the scenario writer to have a play written in an hour. The director summons his company and reads the play to them; then tells them to make up, while he gives his plots to the stage manager. Being weary, he falls asleep in a chair in the center of the stage and dreams the following: A young girl, employed in an office, falls in love with the head clerk. The boss is a black mustached villain, who is also in love with the girl. To make an impression he gives her his photo, which she throws with contempt on the table. He then tries to embrace her. She calls for help, when her sweetheart (the head clerk) comes to her rescue. At this juncture, the heavy man is not strong enough in the part and the director stops the play and shows him what to do. The play is resumed, the "heavy" throws the head clerk into a vault and locks him in, then embraces the girl, who repulses him and runs. The clerk by his superior strength batters down the steel vault door and escapes. The "heavy" pursues the unfortunate girl up the fire-escape to the roof, then to the water tower, where she defends her honor by beating him over the head with an iron rod. Fearing she has killed him she makes her retreat, only to be pursued by the villain. Rushing to the edge of the roof, she sees her lover, and calls him. He tells her to jump. She does so and alights safely in his arms. Undaunted, the villain, saying she shall not escape me, leaps six stories to the ground. Landing uninjured, he starts in pursuit. Here is where the detective takes up the trail, and after a long chase catches the villain. The stage hands, in setting the stage, allow a piece of scenery to fall upon the director, which awakens him from his dream.
- Jack Snow was held up by an outlaw and robbed of his horse. At a bend in the road he was reloading his six-shooter when it went off, just as a stage-driver was rounding the bend. The bullet hit him in the arm. He halted his horses, and everybody in the stage emptied their pockets, thinking that he was a real bandit. One of the passengers was Dorothy Sherrod, who attracted Jack. He asked her for a flower that she was wearing. She gave it to him. As he was talking with her, the passengers got into the carriage and rode away. Jack followed, and the driver, thinking that he was after them, whipped up his horses and soon got out of his range. Later the sheriff was put on his track, but Jack eluded him. Later Jack's courage was proved when he rescued Dorothy from a band of outlaws, and he made such a hit that the sheriff himself led a movement to have Jack's offense pardoned. One of the most enthusiastic workers in this movement was Miss Dorothy Sherrod, who later became Mrs. Jack Snow.
- About the time that General Lee was preparing to invade the North, Alfred Archer was sent by the Federal Government into Pennsylvania to look after the secret preparations to circumvent that wily general's further advance. He advises his old friend Applegate that as he will be in his vicinity he will call upon him and renew his suit of Cicely, Applegate's daughter. Applegate is delighted, but Cicely resents her father's desire to marry her off to Archer. Applegate in a rage tells her she shall never marry the man of her heart, Everett Kenyon, as he is a rebel. About this time Kenyon is sent by Lee to get information regarding the country through which he intends to march. Kenyon runs across Archer and knocking him senseless, gets away with his papers. He sends Cicely a secret message to the effect that later in the evening he will throw a pebble against her bedroom window so that she may come out and meet him. Archer is taken to the Applegate home. As the guest room is not in order Applegate compels Cicely to give up her room to him. Cicely protests and Applegate locks her in the guest room to get over her temper. Archer discovers a photograph of Kenyon in the room and realizes it is the same man that stole his papers. At the same time Kenyon shows up and throws a pebble against the bedroom window to attract Cicely. Archer, seeing who it is, shoots him from the window. Kenyon is brought in unconscious and the papers recovered. Cicely is apprised of her sweetheart's condition and told to take care of him. Then Kenyon is revived, but with a resulting loss of memory. Archer leaves to complete his mission, placing Kenyon in Applegate's care until his return, when he intends to give him over to the authorities. When he returns some weeks later he finds Kenyon recovered, but still in the dark as to who he is and what has gone before. Cicely tries to arouse the resemblance of their former love and to get him to escape, but fails. After Archer and Kenyon leave. Archer sees a better way to revenge himself on Kenyon. Without realizing what he is doing Kenyon allows Archer to enlist in his regiment and later, when the two armies meet, Kenyon is fighting side by side with Archer against his old companions in gray. At a crucial moment in the battle Kenyon gets the Confederate flag away from the flag bearer. Then his memory returns and he tears the hated blue and rebel flag clutched in hand and turns on the Yankees in an effort to help drive back their advance. One of his former fellow officers sees the action and remembering that Kenyon turned traitor and entered the Northern ranks has him captured and sent back of the lines under guard. After the battle, Archer is brought dying to the Applegate home. There he makes a clean breast of the matter and Cicely hurries off to the Confederate lines to help her lover in his extremity. Kenyon is court-martialed, but Cicely gets to the general in command just in time to get his release.
- At college, Jack is spending his dad's money and not studying. When dad comes for a visit, Jack gets one of his friends to dress as a woman and flirt with his father. Another friend pretends to be the jealous husband, forcing dad to buy his way out of trouble.
- At the beginning of hostilities, Tom Winston, despite the pleadings of his sister Ellen, an ardent Confederate, goes North and acquires a commission in the Federal Army. Frank Carey has entered the Confederate service, though his sister Ethel, furiously denounces him as a traitor, and asserts her intention of herself serving the Union. Both girls become identified with the secret service department of the South and North, respectively. Tom is with Grant, Frank with Johnston, and the armies' movements bring them into the neighborhood of their homes. Tom has with him Don, a dog that had been used in the old days to carry messages between his master and Ethel. Union headquarters are established in the Winston home, affording Ellen an opportunity to acquire many valuable secrets which she communicates to Frank, and it is the belief that some officer is proving a traitor. Tom watches his sister closely, and one night observes that as she sits merrily chatting with the Union officers, she is using her fan in such a manner as to make the dots and dashes of the Morse code to Frank, who is concealed in the shrubbery, making notes of the information. Tom discovers Frank, overpowers him, and succeeds in taking from him the memoranda, but allows him to escape. Tom places the memoranda in his pocket. The Battle of Shiloh has begun and Tom is given an important dispatch, ordering up supporting brigades. He proceeds on his mission, but is pursued and badly wounded. Unable to go on, Tom gives the dispatch to Don, telling him to carry it to Ethel. Don does his part, and Ethel undertakes to deliver the order. She is hotly pursued by Confederate cavalry, and only escapes by jumping her horse from a cliff into the river, a deed which none of her pursuers will attempt. They do not fire upon her, but wave their hats and cheer as her horse swims the stream and climbs the other bank. The dispatch is delivered, and the reinforcements begin a forced march to the assistance of the Federals. Meanwhile, Tom has been picked up by a Federal party, unconscious, but not dangerously wounded. The memoranda taken from Frank is found in his pocket, and it is concluded that he is the supposed traitor. A drum-head court-martial condemns him to he shot. The battle is now raging fiercely, the victorious Confederates pressing steadily forward. The Federal position is carried. Tom is captured and sent to the Confederate rear, where he succeeds in eluding his guards. Despite the sentence hanging over him, he determines to rejoin his troops. Johnston is killed, the triumphant advance of the Confederates falters. Tom reaches the Union lines, he rallies a breaking regiment and leads a fierce charge. The tide of battle is turned; Frank is captured. The battle lulls, the Confederates sullenly withdraw from the field. Tom is immediately arrested and placed under guard. Frank learns of the fate in store for Tom, and to save him, confesses himself to be the spy, Tom is released. Frank is held as a spy, but cleverly effects his escape. Frank goes to his home to attempt to induce his sister to go South with him, as he must accompany the southern army further into the Confederacy. Tom has gone to see his sister, to endeavor to induce her to give up her dangerous work as a Confederate spy, and has been captured by a squad of Confederates while at his home. He sends a note to Ethel informing her of his situation. Ethel secures several Federal troopers and makes her brother a prisoner. Under a white flag, Ethel and her squad approach the Winston home, and Ethel proposes an exchange of prisoners. This is agreed to, as well as a temporary truce; then Tom and Ethel turn to the North, while Frank and Ellen ride away into the Confederacy.
- Bobby Burns, one morning while working in the office, receives a photograph from a friend of his, who is in Atlantic City. The photograph is a picture of his friend and two young ladies in bathing suits. On the back of the photograph a note is written telling Bobby of the swell time they are having at the shore. Bobby loses no time in cooking up a scheme to get away for a few days. He has a friend send him a fake telegram to the effect that his mother met with an accident, spraining her ankle while at Atlantic City. Bobby's employer, a sympathetic old gentleman, gives Bobby some money and hurries him off to his mother's side. While Bobby is enjoying himself with the party in Atlantic City, his employer finds the photograph and, after reading the note, decides to go to Atlantic City to find Bobby and fire him. The next morning finds Bobby's boss in Atlantic City. Bobby and his friends are about to leave to go sailing when the girls' chaperon, afraid of sea-sickness, remains on shore. While the party is out sailing a flirtation has taken place between Bobby's boss and the chaperon. He is so taken up with the chaperon that he forgets all about looking for Bob. The party has returned from their yachting trip and are on their way to the hotel in an automobile, when Bob is discovered by his boss, who runs after the automobile. Bob sees the boss and thinks the gig is up. They hunt up the chaperon and make her act as mother with the sprained ankle. Handkerchiefs are tied around the ankle of the chaperon. When Bob introduces the boss to his supposed mother, they are all surprised to see that the boss and the chaperon are friends and have met before. The boss is so pleased to meet the chaperon again that he forgets all about firing Bob. The picture closes with the boss and the chaperon leaving the party for a stroll.
- A serving girl receives a telegram that she has come into an inheritance. The family she works for suddenly starts to treat her well, and several young men come to court her. Then she receives another telegram telling her the inheritances is only $25. All her new 'friends' desert her, except her poor boyfriend, Cy.
- Three travelers board a submarine. A man and woman go out fishing in a little boat and the woman casts her line overboard. The hook becomes attached to the submarine in the bottom of the sea. A man in a diving helmet opens a porthole of the submarine, untangles the line and pulls the woman out of the boat above down through the sea and into the porthole. The fishing boat capsizes and the man saves himself by clutching the legs of a big flying bird which bears him off. The girl meanwhile, is made love to by the three men in the submarine. She fights them off, knocking them insensible. She pulls the lever and the submarine ascends to the surface. The girl appears on deck; the bird with the man clinging flies by the girl, catches hold of the man's legs and is carried aloft with the submarine in pursuit. As the bird flies over an island the shots of the pursuers kill it, leaving the man and girl unharmed. A soldier from the fortress fires a cannon at the submarine, which sinks. At the bottom of the sea foolish looking fishes frisk about, retreating in terror when the submarine comes on and discharges two men in diving helmets They shoulder guns and march off. Later, after they shoot a brood of baby sharks, the mother swallows the hunters. From the submarine the remaining traveler hurries to their rescue He finds mother shark weeping copiously and sponging away her tears with seaweed. After a fight the man cuts open the fish and rescues his two companions, alive. No sooner have they returned to the submarine when a whale swallows the craft, finally coming to the surface near the island where the girl and her lover are. The whale ejects the submarine, the lover and the soldier break it open with an axe and the three occupants are marched away to prison. Presently an aeroplane sails by with an anchor dangling from it, which catches hold of the island and flies off with it. The prison slides off and drops into the sea. The lover and his sweetheart climb up the anchor rope to the aeroplane, followed by the soldier. There is a fight in mid-air for the possession of the airship, which finally plunges into the sea, where all are rescued by a pursuing vessel.
- Virginia Carey, a southern girl and Confederate spy, in order to facilitate her work and disarm suspicion, pretends blindness when the Union headquarters are established in her house. She is, however, suspected by the Union general, who orders Lieutenant Wilson, of his staff, to watch the girl. A love affair develops between Wilson and Virginia, but each continues to do what appears to be their duty. Virginia obtains a copy of an important dispatch, and carries it to the Confederate picket lines. Wilson, scouting at the time, observes the delivery of the paper, follows the officer to whom it was given, and recovers it. Meanwhile, the Union troops have been engaged in destroying a bridge over which Virginia must pass on her return home. When she comes in sight of the bridge she realizes that she must either continue on her way or by her actions admit that she is not blind, which would be fatally compromising. The Union general, realizing that fate has prepared a test for the girl, arranges for her rescue in case she proves her blindness by plunging through the broken bridge, and allows her to go on. Virginia, trusting that she will be able to survive the plunge, steps through the opening in the bridge floor. At the same moment, the Confederate advance attacks, and the soldier who had been posted to rescue Virginia is killed. Wilson, cut off from his friends and swimming the stream lower down, rescues Virginia. Knowing now that she is a spy, his sense of duty forces him to place her under arrest. Coming in sight of the house they find, however, that the Confederates are triumphantly in possession. Virginia urges Wilson to flee, and guides him to where her horse, a beloved pet, is hidden. She induces him to take the horse and escape, setting the Confederates upon the wrong track. A year later, the war over, Wilson returns and the lovers find happiness.
- Mr. and Mrs. Heckla are spending the day at the beach. Mrs. Heckla falls asleep and her husband uses the opportunity to start flirting with pretty young Helen. Her escort, the Count, starts fighting with Mr. Heckla, waking up his wife. She grabs a gun out of her bag and starts chasing Helen, the Count, and her husband.
- Mrs. Youngwife has become stage struck. She purchases a book, "How to Become a Great Actress," and soon imagines she is ready for her debut. The husband tries in vain to bring her to her senses and follows her in disguise. He breaks up her first performance, thrashes a too ardent admirer and tells her he will get a divorce. She prefers to sacrifice her "art" to her darling hubby and peace reigns forever.
- An interesting picture showing the manner in which Uncle Sam makes flags, chevrons, clothing, tents, etc., for the equipment of his army. Among the many interesting operations shown is a machine that cuts cloth for fifty uniforms at once. The punching out instead of cutting the cloth for chevrons for the non-commissioned officers of the army and the artistic and skillful embroidery work that beautify the insignia of office is seen in full activity, and also the picturesque atmosphere of a government factory, where thousands of industries and well paid women enjoy the advantages of ample space and every comfort that contributes to health and contentment. Official flags of the president, the ambassadors, governors and consuls are being made, to include the extra stars needed to recognize the new States of the Union.
- Betty Brown, a talented writer, having little luck selling her stories, starts for a walk to the park. She is caught in a jam in the street traffic and forced to wait at the crossing. Horace Limpton, short-story editor for one of the magazines, has weakened his eyes by hard work and reading and his doctor tells him to wear blue glasses and get away from the grind for several weeks until his eyes are well or he will go blind. Leaving the doctor's office, he reaches the congested crossing, stands nervously tapping the pavement with his cane, waiting for a chance to cross. Betty Brown is standing beside him; thinking he is blind, she takes his arm and volunteers to pilot him across. When they reach the other side, Betty tells him that she is going for a walk and she would be glad to take him. They walk to the park, sit on a bench, and feed the squirrels; Betty tells how the little fellows are enjoying the nuts. Betty explains that she is a story writer, but has been unable to "place" her manuscripts. At Limpton's request the next day she reads one of her stories to him. He is much impressed with it and volunteers to "place" it for her. The next day when she calls, he hands her a check for $50; he has sold her story. She returns to her lodgings, calls her landlady in, and tells of her good fortune and pays her arrears. The next day she calls as usual for her "blind man." He can stand it no longer and tells her who he is and that he is not blind. He has fallen in love with her and when he bares his identity to her, he takes off his blue glasses. She consents to his wooing and the scene closes on the bench in the park.
- A man takes his wife to a play, where every situation is resolved with a wave of the flag. He tries this one night when he comes home drunk, but waving the flag doesn't save him from his wife's wrath.
- John Pemberton has a ward, Nan Fuller, who is in love with Pemberton's secretary, Stanton. Pemberton is against the relationship, but Stanton defies him. While reading a book on hypnotism, Pemberton gets the idea of placing Nan under his influence and turning her against Stanton. With Nan under Pemberton's control, she denounces Stanton. Stanton writes to Nan telling her he believes she is under some influence, vowing to take her away and kill Pemberton if he interferes. Pemberton intercepts the note, and struggles with Stanton when he arrives. Stanton's chauffeur enters the home, ties up Nan, and shoots Pemberton. The scene now shifts to Nan coming up the steps of Pemberton's room. She sees him reading the book on hypnotism. He had imagined the whole scenario. Pemberton throws his arms around Nan, and when Stanton comes in, Pemberton brings them together.
- Sisters Assina and Malmama love Giafar; he loves Malmama. Assina tries to win Giafar from her sister; failing, she resorts to incantations. She lights a fire, casts poisonous herbs and leaves into the camp pot and prepares the potion. It fails utterly and Malmama and Giafar are happy in their love. Assina is furious and resolves to get rid of her sister/rival by having her abducted and sold at the slave market. She negotiates with a slave dealer, promising to deliver into his hands a woman so beautiful that she commands a big price and that Assina will add 50 pieces of gold. By arrangement with Assina, Masrond's men seize Malmama and carry her off. Assina pretends great agony and concern, but she continues to try to fascinate Giafar, but he's inconsolable. Malmama is sold at the market to the Caliph's eunuchs, who rejoice that they have secured so beautiful a slave for their royal master's harem. Giafar sees her dragged away but is powerless. He follows the eunuchs to the palace and bribes the chief eunuch to give him a position as gardener in the palace grounds. Malmama is dragged into the harem where Saad ibn Maad, the Caliph, endeavors to kiss her. She struggles and screams. Giafar hears her cries, leaps into the room, and drags her from the Caliph's arms. Malmama pleads that they may tell their story of the abduction and their love. Saad grants permission and after hearing the narrative, comforts the lovers and orders them to be set free.
- On the street of a little Tennessee town a mob is attacking Banty Tim, a hunchback negro, with the intent of driving him out of the community. To the rescue of the poor black comes Tilman Joy, a Union soldier. He places himself in front of Tim and commands the mob to fall back. Two or three times the mob press forward, but Tilman demands that they hear his story. It was at the battle of Vicksburg Heights that he, Tilman Joy, was wounded. Presently he saw a crippled form crawling on hands and knees toward him; it was Banty Tim, who in the past had received some kindness at the hands of Joy. Tim raised the body of the helpless soldier upon his back and with the rebel bullets flying all around him reached the Union lines with his burden. The negro hunchback had saved the soldier's life, and as Joy tells the tale to the infuriated mob reaction takes place. They press upon Banty Tim and in turns grasp his black hands and with many expressions of good wishes resolve that he is a man and a brother and henceforth a good citizen of Spunky Point.
- The Veteran is an ardent patriot and given, as old men are, to the relation of his past exploits. He is proud of his battle record and when a park lounger jeers at the oft-told tale his indignation overpowers him and he suffers from a stroke that leaves him faint and weak and tells of organic trouble. Proudly he starts off for the meeting of the G.A.R. post where he will mingle with the comrades and live again in the midst of a heated debate over some trifling executive matter. There is a recurrence of the attack and this time when the kindly comrades come to his aid they find that he does not know them; that some blood clot, pressing upon the brain, has destroyed his memory. Sorrowfully they lead him back to his home, the Post Commander giving the family warning of the shock. Even the arrival home does not bring back the sense of memory and wonderingly he looks about the familiar room and into the faces of his wife and daughter. Other troubles come quickly. The mortgage upon the little home is foreclosed and the house and its contents sold at auction. The Post in the small town is not rich; they cannot raise the mortgage, but the kindly old men do their best, each buying some of the things the old veteran loved best, his easy chair, the little things that contributed to his comfort, while the manly young sweetheart of the daughter purchases the sword and flags and the picture of Lincoln that were the veteran's most cherished possessions. These are installed in the more simple home that the two women can maintain. The veteran shows no improvement in his mental condition and for the first time he does not take part in the Memorial Day parade. Some of the comrades come from the cemetery with flowers for the living and as they file into the little home the sight of the uniforms rouses some vagrant memory. The veteran recalls the days when he carried a sword and reaches for the blade that once he waved over battlefields. As he draws the blade from its scabbard there flutters to the floor a certificate of deposit for $10,000, the proceeds of the sale of mining stock that the veteran concealed in the scabbard the evening of the stroke. With the financial worries cleared away and with reason once more on her throne, the evening of the veteran's life promises to be a pleasant and peaceful one.
- John Fields, his wife, and little daughter, constitute a happy family, until the husband and father falls into the habit of spending his spare hours at his clubs, often remaining away from dinner at home. At last Mrs. Fields decides to play the pleasure-seeking role herself. After a last vain protest to her husband she plunges into the social whirl, employing a nurse maid for the child. Returning one evening after a busy afternoon of calls and other feminine affairs, her husband takes her severely to task for neglecting him and the home. She retorts and a quarrel follows. Within a few days a breach has widened between them so that they plan to seek a divorce. Just before the culminating quarrel and the final decision to separate. Mrs. Field, expecting to remain at home, excuses the maid for the afternoon. Later, when she is about to accompany her husband to a lawyer's office the problem of what to do with the child arises. Expecting that their legal business can be transacted within an hour, the child being asleep, the husband suggests locking her in the bedroom. The wife, against her better judgment, agrees, and they leave the child alone in the house. While in the lawyer's office Mrs. Fields, idly scanning a newspaper, finds a notice inserted by the local gas company warning consumers that the gas in the public mains will be turned off between 4 and 4:15 o'clock for repairs. It lacks but ten minutes of the fatal hour and half of this time is wasted in indecision. Then begins a frantic chase for home to rescue the child, but delays occur and it is 4:30 before they reach the house. Meanwhile the gas has been turned off and the flame which Mrs. Fields left burning in her bedroom goes out. The cock remains open, ready, at 4:15 to pour out the deadly fumes into the room where the child is sleeping. As the frantic parents burst into the room they find the child unconscious and their worst fears are apparently realized, but the sound of their voices causes her to open her eyes. Then, with a sleepy smile she reaches her little arms up and places one around the neck of each parent. They, realizing the depth of their love for the child, are reconciled. How the child escaped death is explained in the final scene.
- Ivan Mussak, the head of the Russian secret police, is responsible for the murders of thousands of Jews and the forced exile of thousands more. Isaac Gruenstein and his infant daughter Miriam are the only members of his family to survive one of Mussak's massacres, and Isaac is exiled to Siberia. Miriam, however, becomes Mussak's ward and is raised by nuns in a convent. Eighteen years later Isaac dies in Siberia, but before he does he writes a note to his daughter and gives it to fellow prisoner Rachel Shapiro, who manages to escape and, by chance, finds Miriam. However, circumstances have changed in the past 18 years--and Miriam is now Mussak's mistress.
- On New Year's Eve, outcast John Merrill finds himself outside a gay café. He goes to his garret room and declares that he would give his soul for youth and gold. Then appears His Majesty, the Prince of the Nether Regions, who agrees to grant his desires if, in return, Merrill delivers to him one soul each year. Merrill consents, and the bargain is on. Merrill meets banker's daughter Ruth Ashton and falls in love with her. Ruth's brother Archie is weak-willed, but good at heart. A year goes by. Merrill receives a communication from His Majesty, demanding Archie's life. He is in a quandary, but decides to obey. Through Merrill, Archie is found cheating at cards and feels disgraced before the club members. Merrill takes the boy into the next room, but there his manner changes and he advises suicide as the only way out. The boy takes the revolver and His Majesty claims his first victim. Ruth, grieved at her brother's death, postpones the wedding, and Merrill becomes troubled by visions of Archie. The end of the second year comes and His Majesty demands Ashton as the next victim. Ashton's bank is weathering a panic by the assistance of Merrill's promise not to withdraw his funds. But Merrill forgets his promise, and soon there is a run on the bank. Ashton tries in vain to reach Merrill, and finally chooses the same death as his son. His Majesty has claimed the second victim. The memory of the part he played in the death of the two men soon preys on Merrill's mind. He begins to drink. Ruth, although poor now, will not think of marriage. As the end of the third year approaches, he is in a state of collapse. The dreaded letter again falls into his lap. He opens it. On it is the name of Ruth Ashton. Merrill looks up and sees the leering face of His Majesty. He defies him, but His Majesty merely mocks him. Finally Merrill sinks into a chair and now he changes to the old man again in the garret room, where he dies, while His Majesty laughingly claims the soul of his latest plaything.
- Bob and Lena want to get married, but first they have to get around the objections of Lena's father.
- Lily Adair is forced by her society-struck mother to live far beyond their means. Her mother hopes that Lily will eventually make a good match, and to this end encourages the advances of Stephen Peters, a multi-millionaire, seventy years old. On a day when the bills have come in thick and fast, when the servants have been asking for wages overdue, and the girl feels at the end of her resources, old Peters proposes. The girl is horrified at first, but feeling it is the only way out, she accepts him. But later the girl realizes the immensity of her act and sends back his ring. As he walks up and down the room in anger he hears a noise against the window. He opens it to disclose a man in convict garb cowering on the ledge. There is no fight left in the hunted starving man, and he pleads for shelter. Peters gets an idea. He will dress this ex-convict as a gentleman, introduce him to society, force him to pay attention to Lily Adair and when they become engaged, humble her pride by a disclosure of facts. A month later the convict, as Sir John Clyde, meets Lily Adair at a ball. They fall in love and before long become engaged. On the day the engagement is to be announced Peters calls up the warden of the jail and tells him where an escaped convict is to be found that evening. As John rises to toast his bride- to-be, the warden and the police enter. As John is about to be lead away two gentlemen enter. One announces himself as the British Consul and tells them his companion is the Earl of Clyde, John's brother. Proceedings are stopped as the Earl tells that years before John and the present Earl (Seymour), brothers, came to America to work in a large bank. They were of good family, but poor. Seymour was addicted to gambling and lost all his money at cards. One day he borrowed some funds from the bank, hoping to recoup his losses, but he lost that also. Desperate, he returned to his rooms to find a letter from an English law firm, stating that his cousin had died, leaving him next in kin to his uncle, the Earl's title. He does not know what to do and confesses his crime to John, who feels that, as younger brother, it is his duty to protect the name. He shoulders his brother's crime and sends Seymour back to England. When John realizes his love for Lily he wrote his brother, asking for the truth at last, and in response to his letter, the Earl came to America. All are convinced of John's innocence. Peters, his plan of vengeance frustrated, leaves the house angrily. The Earl enters into conversation with the warden, while Lily goes into John's outstretched arms.
- One morning, stockbroker Richard Marston is attacked with a fit of nervous breakdown. He sends for the doctor, who gives temporary aid, but tells him to immediately go south and rest up or the consequence will be serious. Marston, his wife, and their son Roy pack up and hasten to a bungalow at Snake River, Florida. A few days pass and Roy encounters Dolores, a girl who runs a motorboat for hire. She lives with her father and mother and little sister Rosita in a shack near the shore. The baby girl visits the Marstons and is petted and treated kindly by them. Marston discovers Roy's attachment for the boat girl and is annoyed. The little girl falls sick and Marston visits the shack and gives the mother money. The doctor is called and advises that if the child gets worse that he be sent for quickly. Marston receives a message that his stocks are being raided and he must catch the next train for New York. He hastens to the boathouse to get Dolores to take him to the nearest station, 30 miles up the river. Just then Rosita gets worse and Dolores must go in haste for the doctor. Marston storms in and demands to be taken to the station: he has a million at stake, he offers $10,000 for the service of the boat. Dolores refuses the offer and turns her boat down the river for the doctor. The child's life is saved and Marston's millions also. He then resolves that Dolores is the right sort of a girl to be his daughter-in-law.
- Duncan Cadman, a civil engineer, is much older than his wife, Olive, who is very much of a butterfly. The two quarrel when Duncan, thinking she is ashamed of his lack of society manners, objects to going to a reception with her. She meets John Temple, who is Cadman's direct opposite, and is for the moment interested in him. Temple becomes infatuated with Olive, and his bold attentions cause many an embarrassing moment for Olive. Cadman misconstrues what he sees of the affair and becomes jealous. Howard Brooks, Cadman's young assistant, is badly injured about the time Cadman is called south to work on some lighthouse construction. Ho brings him to his own home and when he leaves, fearing Temple's nearness, places Olive under his protection. Brooks has already fallen in love with his nurse and her pity and sympathy for him and her pique at Cadman's attitude bring about a fooling she thinks is love for Brooks. When a friend from the south writes Brooks to take a trip south in his yacht, he gets Olive to run away with him. Temple has overheard the arrangement and ships with a motley crowd as one of the crew, there being a seaman strike on at the time. Olive regrets the move when they are out of sight of land and begs to be taken back but Brooks refuses. That evening fire breaks out and the crew become panic stricken; so does Brooks. Temple and the captain fight the crew but fail. The captain is killed and Temple left for dead. Brooks breaks away from Olive and leaving her in a faint, jumps in mad terror for the lowered boat but misses it and falls into the sea. Temple rescues Olive after he gets to his feet and, throwing over the hatch, leaps overboard with her. On the hatch there is room for only two and he fights Brooks who tries to come aboard, finally forcing him under and down. Cadman and his men have seen the fire out to sea and go in rescue boats. He finds his wife unconscious in Temple's arms. Temple scorns to give him any reasons and when they reach land stands up bravely before Cadman, who tells him he is going to kill him. Olive comes to in time to prevent Temple's death and to explain. Cadman offers his hand but it is refused. He leaves and finds Brooks' body washed ashore far from the point where husband and wife stand reunited.
- Jack Rogers and his wife, Ethel, are happy on their first wedding anniversary. Jack is a successful architect in partnership with his father, while Ethel seeks amusement as an amateur sculptress. Diggs, an unscrupulous competitor of Jack and his father, schemes with his dissolute nephew, Guy Denton, to prevent Jack from winning a $5,000 prize the city has offered for a public arch design. Guy well known as a social lion, succeeds in luring Jack away from his home at evenings, causing him to neglect his work and to create misunderstandings between himself and Ethel. Ethel has just completed a bust typifying "Fashion." Her society friends urge her to live up to her ideals and embrace the social life. More as a rebuke to Jack than anything else, Ethel plunges into gaiety. In doing so, she meets Guy, who steadily cultivates acquaintanceship with her. Through Ethel's friendship he gains access to her home, finds a completed arch design in Jack's desk, which he had prepared, and destroys it by spilling ink on it. With the simultaneous discovery of his ruined design and Ethel's intimacy with Guy, the breach between the young married couple widens. Jack forbids Guy from entering his home again and with the end of the arch competition only forty-eight hours distant, he starts to work on a new design. Downstairs Ethel sulks in the living room. Not even the presence in the home of the housekeeper's seven-year-old daughter has awakened in Ethel the desire for children. As she sits brooding over her imagined wrongs, Ethel encounters a passage in a book marked by Jack, "Call not the man wretched who, whatever has he suffers, has a child to love." With her husband's longing for fatherhood thus freshly revealed Ethel falls asleep in the chair. In her dream she sees herself given over to Guy while her husband, now a ruined man, can only look on in mute anguish. She sees a horde of bright-faced children, led by Nell, swarm down stairs. They have possessed themselves of her gowns and finery, beseeching her to sacrifice Guy and the finery for Jack's sake. In her vision she is approached by Nell, who bears in her arms the design that fate willed to win the prize that would make Jack famous. Nell offers to give her this design if she will sacrifice the finery for the sake of Jack. Ethel at first angrily refuses. Jack enters, furious at finding Guy in the room with Ethel. The men struggle and Jack is killed by Guy. Ethel, in her anguish, now turns appealingly to the kiddies, repeating her ardent desire that they take the finery and give Jack back to her. She sees Guy standing sneeringly at her shoulder and she flies at him in a fury. She awakens to find she has seized her sculptured work "Fashion," and dashes it to the floor. Jack, hearing the crash, hastens from his work into the room. Gladdened at his appearance his repentant wife tells the story of the dream. Unobserved, little Nell creeps to them, and is received with open arms by Ethel. She then tells Jack of the successful design, as seen by her in the vision. Later he wins the prize and a happy future with Ethel, who is now made joyful by the thought of approaching motherhood.
- Jane Smiley has two sweethearts, Jim Dorsey, a husky young policeman, and Jack Barbour, a young fireman. Every day on the way to work she passes first Jim and then Jack. Both men think they stand first in her affections, hot Jane is simply leading them on for amusement. She works at the main board in the central telephone office and one day has a row with a stenographer in a factory office of Fred Jackson. Fred, in exasperation, takes the phone from his stenographer to call down central, but changes his mind when he hears what a sweet voice Jane has. The conversation results in an introduction to Jane, the manager of the phone company being an old friend. Much to the chagrin of Jim and Jack, Fred gets ahead famously with Jane and finally asks her to marry him. She hesitates, not being sure of her love. Fred works late one afternoon and lets his employees go home early. A crook has sized up the situation and takes that afternoon as his time to call on an errand of burglary. On the dark stairs he lights his lamp and the match is dropped into some waste. He enters and surprises Fred, after locking the door. In the struggle that follows the telephone is knocked over and Jane, who is just leaving, seeing his call goes back to the plugs and listens at his wire. She hears the struggle, and Fred's life threatened as he is tied and gagged. She frantically rings the police station wire. The officer in charge sends oat a few men, one of whom is Jim, to go to Fred's assistance. Meanwhile the stairway is ablaze and smoke curls in under the office door. Jane listening at the other end hears the burglar's frightened cry of "fire," as he opens the door and is forced back by the smoke and heat from the burning stairway. Crazed with fear she plugs the fire house and Jack with the engine starts out for the factory. The burglar loses his head and is starting for the other door when Fred gets his attention. He unties and ungags Fred and they try for the window. The policemen meanwhile have found it impossible to get into the building, the lower floor being a regular furnace, and seeing Fred at the window they shout not to jump as it would mean sure death. The fire is getting into the room so they dash for the next room and close the door after them. The firemen arrive and begin operations. The two men are forced from that room and have to "jimmy" the door of the room opposite. The office is now consumed in flames and the burning phone gives its message to Jane who is carried out fainting. The firemen get up into the office window but are forced back. The men are now in the hall but cannot make the rear stairway that also being in flames so they burst into the first door they come to which is a storage room with a heavily screened window. Upon this window the burglar commences work and finally cuts the screen through. Fred smashes the glass which is seen by Jim as he rounds the corner of the building. Jane arrives and is held back of the fire lines. Jim and Jack get to the window and Fred commands them to take out the burglar first. The burglar is taken fainting down the ladder. Fred falls exhausted back into the flames and is rescued by Jim and taken down by Jack. Upon his recovery Fred sends the burglar on the right path and finds that Jane has made up her mind in his favor. The night the engagement ring goes on her finger Jim and Jack call but seeing the situation from the window outside decide to "beat it" and leave the lovers to their own happiness.
- Lawrence Richards is a hard-working young business man, but his pretty young wife, Isabel, worships dally at the shrine of her demigod, society. This leads to extravagancies on her part. The husband is worried to distraction and incidentally Lucy, their little daughter, is neglected. The strain almost wrecks the husband. His mother, Elizabeth, visits him at his home for the week-end, and in despair he asks her aid. Thoroughly understanding young people, the mother promises a remedy. She studies Isabel and her acquaintances. Isabel, after a lavish social function, becomes prey to her usual obsession for fine clothes. She pleads with Richards for money. Angered, and somewhat surprised by his refusal, she confides to the mother. Elizabeth apparently sympathizes with her. She goes further. She tells Isabel the reason she is being refused is because Richards is spending all of his hard-earned money on a woman. Sparks of jealousy are kindled and speedily fanned into a flame when, on the following day, she sees from her bedroom window Richards bidding good-bye to a pretty young woman, who is carried speedily away in an automobile. She does not know it is her husband's niece. Some days later Isabel again receives an invitation to a reception, and once more she asks Lawrence for a large amount, to be spent on clothes. He refuses. His action leads to disagreement between the two and a quarrel. Isabel then hurls into his face the accusation made by Elizabeth, that Richards is squandering his money on a woman. Astounded by her charge, Richards returns to his office, miserable and worried. On the same night, Elizabeth reasserts her grave charge against him to Isabel, and is delighted with the progress she is making. She tells Isabel that if she will come to her house tomorrow, she will have the opportunity of meeting the woman face to face. The bait is tempting to the frenzied wife. Working herself into a state of rage and indignation, she goes to Elizabeth's home on the following day. Elizabeth receives her in mysterious silence. Giving whispered instructions, she tells her that if she will pull aside the curtains leading into the next room, she will confront the woman and will have her at her mercy. Isabel does as directed and sees the image of her own face gazing at her from the depths of a large mirror behind the curtains. She stares, dumbfounded, at her reflection, while Elizabeth reproves her for her past way of living. She cuts Elizabeth short in her lecture, and leaves the house in a flurry of anger. She enters her bedroom in the heat of anger. Gradually this wears away as the sound words of advice by the mother sinks into her conscience. The truth of the admonition and the distressful mental picture of Richards slaving at his office for her sake, causes her to succumb to tears. When Richards arrives home, he finds Isabel, dressed in a plain gown, embracing Lucy and telephoning that she will not be able to attend the reception that night or any other.