Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
Search filters
Enter full date
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
to
to
Exclude
Only includes titles with the selected topics
to
In minutes
to
1-50 of 2,001
- 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.
- 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.
- Sam could not help spooning any more than he could help eating. He had three square meals a day and spent the remainder of the time spooning pretty Sue. Sue was quite willing to be spooned, though there was another chap who wanted to marry her and Sam had a fine time. But Pa Sprague, Sue's father, had forgotten long ago the time when he himself was young, and he had no sympathy with spooners. He told Sue she could not see Sam except in the house where Pa and Ma could keep an eye on them, and dutiful daughter sent word to Sam. But Sam spooned just the same. That was too much for Pa, and he went after the minister. Sam made a record-breaking sprint for the door and didn't stop running until he saw a young married couple admiring their first baby that made him think he might like to get married, and he went back after Sue. Meanwhile, the other fellow had come along and she had decided that she would rather marry a man who didn't spoon so much but meant it more. The minister was still there and the knot was tied before Sam poked his face through the doorway and announced that after all he thought he would be married if it wasn't too much trouble to the minister. Pa Sprague told him what he thought of him and Sue added an appendix. Then Pa Sprague took a malicious delight in putting Sam out of the house, so Sam went and spooned somewhere else.
- Dick McKnight, a deputy sheriff of Santa Cruz County, Ariz., receives a telephone message from Sheriff Wheeler, of the adjoining county, to the effect that Pedro Aquilla and his band of cattle rustlers and outlaws are in San Luis Canyon. His brother, Bill McKnight, the sheriff, being away, the young deputy determines to go out alone and corral some of the gang. He leaves a note to that effect for his brother and starts upon his mission. After getting into the mountains he runs across a note fastened to a tree, which reads: "Go Back or You Die With the Sun." Dick is not an impressionable young man, but the words make him think and he gives it more weight than is usually given to anonymous communications. He continues on his journey, but cannot get the note out of his mind. As he goes forward the words burn into his brain and every little noise in the mountains startles him until fear grabs him in its deadly grasp and drives him, a frightened thing, into an old abandoned adobe hut, where his nerve is worn to a raw edge by the fear which the words signified to him. He places his pistol to his head, the revolver explodes and we leave him in darkness. His brother Bill, the sheriff of Santa Cruz County, coming home after a hard ride finds the note that the youngster has left for him and knowing the difficult task that Dick has taken upon himself, he determines to follow his brother. He trails him to the cabin and entering same finds all that is left of a once brave, light-hearted boy. He takes the cursed note from his brother's clenched hand and receives the same fatal suggestion of fear that his brother had felt and when his innocent horse inadvertently rubs his head, against the door of the adobe, he is more startled than he has ever been before. He clutches his revolver, running from what seems to him to be a haunted place. He mounts his horse and rides from that which he had loved most, his brother. Continuing madly along divers trails not knowing just what to do, the insidious note causing that destroying thought, fear ever augmenting and increasing until from a brave man. Known throughout the territory for his loyalty and bravery, he becomes a cringing, incapable child trying to hide from that thing which is seizing him in its grasp. He attempts to hide in an old abandoned monastery, going back further into the depths of the broken walls until he eventually sinks into a deep crevice, almost an imbecile, firing his revolver at unseen things. The last cartridge of his revolver loosens the old clay and they tumble down upon him, burying him in the tomb. The sun breaks through as we see his hand twitching as he smothers, paying the penalty of the suggestion offered by the piece of paper clenched in his hand even unto the end in the agony of fear. -- Moving Picture World synopsis
- John Thorpe and his wife, people of once large means, are very desirous of bringing about a marriage between their daughter, Helen, and a young millionaire named Morton. The demands of creditors press heavily upon the much-distressed Mr. Thorpe, and in response to his earnest pleas his daughter consents to the engagement. The Mortons call on the Thorpes to ratify the engagement, and invite them to a sumptuous betrothal party at their magnificent home. At the outset of this function, Helen begins to regret the engagement. While showing the Thorpes through the mansion they enter the picture gallery, and Helen is deeply attracted to a portrait, which she learns is that of her fiancé's grandfather. Later in the evening young Tom Thorpe engages in singing and dancing with some of the younger people. Helen steals away into the picture gallery and sits looking at the old portrait, which presents her ideal of a lover. She talks to the portrait, "Oh, why can't some good fairy send me a lover like you?" A fairy does appear and in response to the statement of her grievances, the fairy endows Helen with two wishes; the first wish will bring you your ideal lover, the second one will send him away. The fairy fades away. Helen calls for her ideal lover, and the picture steps from its frame. The new lover becomes very ardent in his protestation of affection and his manner of doing it is so courtly and refined, that she falls completely under his influence. She becomes cold and indifferent toward Harry in spite of the protests of her parents. He is particularly snobbish to Harry, calls attention to his many unrefined habits and is disagreeable to him. Harry, however, in his good-natured way, bides his time and waits for the finality. The picture lover complains of the abandon of modern social ways, of the glaring vulgarity in dress, and of the dangerous liberties permitted young women. Disillusioned, she makes the second wish given her by the fairy and the picture lover is paint and canvas again. The fairy appears again, reads Helen the moral of the story, "Let well enough alone," and she permits Harry to take her in his arms.
- Bob and Lena want to get married, but first they have to get around the objections of Lena's father.
- The story of a girl who only wants a boyfriend with a car.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Percival is a spoiled mama's boy. When two toughs make time with his girlfriend he sends a telegram to his mother for help.
- Dave Ryland, an old prospector with a grub stake leaves his wife and grandson to seek his fortune. After a month in the hills his grub runs low, during which time he has not been able to strike anything or communicate with his wife. She, in the meantime, has been dispossessed by the landlord. Two drunken cowboys see old Dave asleep and, being fall of whiskey, determine to play a joke on him by locating a claim beside him while he is asleep. They build a monument and write out a location notice. Old Dave wakes up and finds that his hand falls upon one of the richest pieces of ore he has ever seen. Robert Adair, meanwhile, has found old Dave's wife and grandson and taken them into his home. Dave rushes into town, but has not sufficient money to record his claim. Robert, who happens to be in the vicinity, assists him, taking him to his home, where the old people are re-united. Robert assists old Dave in developing his claim, which turns out to be one of the wealthiest mines the country has ever known. Ten years later we see old Dave and Bob giving a little banquet celebrating the tenth anniversary of the discovery of "the sleeper."
- Estelle Royster induces by auto suggestions the thought that she has the white plague, and gradually hut surely acts upon her own suggestion, until we find her an invalid. Her physician, not understanding the case, orders her to the land of cactus. Her father, who worships her, takes her to the Mexican border and there they establish themselves with one, Henry Arce, a very wealthy cattleman and ranch owner and incidentally an old friend of Royster's. Shortly after arriving, Arce's two favorite foremen meet Estelle and both fall in love with her in their own ways. Estelle favors Bob Armabile, the American vaquero, but is fascinated by Ramon, a white Mexican. Bob's suit is favored by Estelle's father, but with love and everything that can be had for money, Estelle continues to sink as days go by. Ramon's love gives him power to see that the girl's illness is purely mental. He decides to steal her and take her into the mountains and force her to regain her health. He does so, and after a month of roughing it among the cactus and the boulders of the big mountains on the border of Mexico, she wholly regains her strength, when Bob and Arce, the cattleman, come down upon them after days of weary searching. The girl explains. The two men stand with hands out and the girl does not know which one to take, but finally turns from the Mexican boy to the American, leaving the man who had worked the miracle alone in the mountains, she returning to her home, health and happiness.
- Willie is made up as a cannibal for a movie. His sweetheart visits the studio, but doesn't recognize him, and flirts with Fred, Willie's rival. Still in makeup, Willie goes on a rampage. Fred runs off, leaving her in the hands of the cannibal. Willie reveals his identity and his sweetheart agrees to marry the 'cannibal.'
- Tillie inherits her aunt's fortune.
- 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.
- A long-existing and bitter feud between two clans of the Kentucky hills culminates in a fierce battle, the factions being headed by Bill Knox and Pete Harris. Knox's wife, fleeing from her burning cabin, is hit by a stray bullet and falls with her baby in her arms. Harris' young child has also been killed, and the mother in mad fury, picks up a rifle and joins the battle. She chances upon the dead Knox woman, and her rage melts away as she takes up the motherless baby. Harris is killed in the fight, and Jane Harris rears the baby as her own, at first with the idea of working a splendid revenge upon the Knox clan by making the boy a deadly enemy of his own blood, but later forgetting this motive as she comes to love the boy, whom she names Tom. Tom grows up a kind, lovable youth without the other mountaineers' fierce warlike instincts. By chance he meets Mary, a girl of the Knox faction who is really a distant cousin of his, and they fall in love, though their courtship is necessarily secret and dangerous, as the feud suddenly flares up again. Bill Knox, grown old but more savage than in his youth,learns that Mary is meeting one of the enemy and determines to ambush Tom. The boy's foster mother learns of old Bill's plans, and reaches the ambushed trysting place just in time to throw herself in front of Tom and with her own body stop Bill's bullet. Before the old man can fire again, he is disarmed by Tom, whose swift vengeance is stopped just in time by the wounded woman, who, before she dies, tells them that Tom is old Bill's son. Though old Bill endeavors to keep his new-found son, Tom hates this fierce, bloody land, and with Mary turns his back forever on the mountains, passing down into the peaceful valleys.
- 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.
- A rag man calling up the alleys for trade disturbs the slumbers of two tramps. They awaken. They are very angry and determined to be revenged. They find that the rag man has left his bag outside of a gate. They take the bag to a freight yard, where they decide that the smaller of the two shall get into the bag and cover himself with rags while the larger tramp will take the bag to a junkman and sell it. Then when the opportunity offers the little fellow is to cut the bag with a knife and escape. All goes well and the bag is accordingly sold and the big tramp forgetting his companion goes into a saloon to enjoy himself. In the meantime the rag man has come out of the gate, and, seeing that his bag is gone, starts in pursuit. He proceeds to the junk yard, where the bag with the little tramp inside is still on the scales. When the rag man questions the junk man the bag starts to move. They become alarmed and start to kick the bag along the street. The bag is later opened and the tramp captured.
- 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.
- Senor Don Alma Bendadoso, who has been away from his native home, has sent word to his adherents that he is returning to his castle for the purpose of teaching the true word of God. One of the local newspapers printed a warning to the natives, who are all superstitious to a terrible degree. In his boyhood, the don, while out hunting, met with an enraged mountain lion, which he held with his eye and escaped unharmed, the people then giving him the title of "He of the Evil Eye," and fearing him from that day forward, therefore the unjust title held fast to this quiet man of love. Upon his arrival the people were warned by one Don Immonco Superstisioso and his daughter's sweetheart, Ocloso Ignoranto. The girl, Sobre Superstisioso, wishing to know more about the man with the evil eye, fled the house to the thick of the fray and there met the cursed one, who fascinated her, much to the chagrin and envy of the one who has been selected for her. Later the girl cultivated the acquaintance of Alma, and finds him to be a master, and superior in every way to those with whom she had come in contact, and respect and admiration slowly ripened into love, which was returned by he of the evil eye. Her father demanded that she marry Ocloso Ignoranto, and she finally declared herself by saying that one month hence she will marry him who is most worthy. Senor Don Alma Bendadoso rises clear from the darkness of ignorance to that lightness of reason and understanding, enveloping the girl with the halo from his own soul.
- Fred Lusk wants to marry Nell Nelson, but he is not able to get solid with her father. A friend gives Fred a cigar, which he in turn gives to father. The cigar turns out to be loaded and explodes in the old man's mouth. It looks as if it were all off, but one day Fred finds Nell's father leaning over a bridge rail and tips a thug to throw the old man into the water. He then makes a brave rescue in three feet of waves. Father lets them get married then and there. Just as the ceremony concludes the thugs come back sore because the bill was a counterfeit. But it is too late then; Fred has the girl and father decides to be nice about it.
- Peter believes that finding a pin is lucky. Peter's rival buys a packet of pins and scatters them on the road leading to the train station where Peter is planning to meet his bride-to-be. Peter insists on picking up every pin and misses the train, and his fiancee rides off with his rival.
- Lena's dancing causes jealousy between her boyfriend and a tango champion.
- A sympathetic showgirl assumes the guilt for her cousin who is cheating on her husband.
- Sisal fiber as a substitute for manila is a comparative recent industry, but it meant the commercial establishment of the British West Indies and is a most important industry in the Bahama group. The long, sword-like leaves of the sisal plant, a species of cactus, are cut close to the base and are fed into a machine which strips the watery pulp from the long, silky fiber. The fiber quickly dries and bleaches under the hot sun and the strands are woven into rope said to be fully as strong and lasting as the longer known manila. Most of the work is done by negro hands, for no white person could toil under the sub-tropical sun and long endure, and the young girls and comfortable appearing matrons make picturesque spots against the background of fleecy fiber. All of the interesting operations are shown, including the crude rope walk in which the strands are twisted into a stronger body. Although an industrial, a number of the scenes possessed marked scenic beauty and all of them possess the touch of oddity due to the presence of the negroes who are unlike the negro of the South and still retain almost unimpaired their quaint customs of their African ancestry.
- Romanzo Fernandez, a vaquero noted for his bravery, courage and honesty, is appointed Chief of Scouts on the Mexican border, which is infested by Rock and his rustlers. Rock visits Mary Burke's ranch, with a view of stealing her cattle, and incidentally makes love to her. Fernandez appears. Mary has never met him and being attracted by his picturesque costume, asks for an introduction which Rock grudgingly gives, Fernandez being his old enemy. Mary and Fernandez are mutually attracted, much to the disgust of Rock, who later has his rustlers steal a bunch of her cattle, and while she is out riding she accidentally stumbles across one of Rock's camps. She realizes then for the first time he is a cattle rustler. Rock insults her but she gets away from him. He gives chase with some of his men. Fernandez having been warned of the cattle stealing by one of his scouts comes upon the chase, gets the girl under cover in the rocks and requests her to go for help while he holds the rustlers off. The girl secures aid from some prospectors who return and overpower the rustlers. Fernandez, who has been shot requests that he be permitted to smoke a cigarette. With a puff and a smile he sinks into Mary's arms, dying as he lived, "a man."
- Mike Clancy and Pat Murphy work fur Sam Duckett who is Chief of the Volunteer Fire Department. They scrap a great deal and Clancy, who is the smaller, gets the worst of it. The chief tells Murphy that the next time they scrap he shall be fired. That afternoon there is another mix up and Clancy hustles off to tell the Chief. Now when he is excited, Clancy stutters dreadfully and the least interruption throws him off the track. The moment he manages to stammer out "FIRE" someone asks him where the fire is, and he has to start all over again. The alarm is rung and the crowd gathers while Clancy is still trying to get the speech out. At last the chief warns the crowd back and gives Clancy a chance. His oration is, "Fire Murphy, he hit me again." That is all that is necessary. The irate crowd jump for him and Clancy is tied to a pole while the boys play the hose on him.
- The story of a man's gratitude to a snake for saving his life: He takes the snake home to live with him and then conceives the idea of having the snake kill the man who stole his sweetheart. He places it in the other man's bed. But when the little daughter of the girl he had once loved creeps into the bed, he has a change of heart.
- John Cummins, a wealthy society man, while out in his auto, discovers he is out of gasoline. He stops at a country store and meets Flo Page, the daughter of the proprietor. It is a case of mutual attraction, causing many a heartache to Si, the clerk, who adores Flo. Cummins manages to have sundry excuses for visiting the little general store, and finally realizes he is head over heels in love with the girl. Cummins, while purchasing cigarettes from Flo, so arouses the anger of Si, who is carrying a bag of potatoes, that he deliberately drops the bag upon Cummins' foot, and that worthy gentleman proceeds to make capital of the injury to remain with the Pages for a week, nursed tenderly by Flo. Si, finding an envelope dropped by Cummins, calls at his (Cummins') club, and asks if he lives there, that he has stolen his sweetheart. Cummins' friends accompany Si back to the village and find Cummins sweeping out the store, having usurped the clerk's position. Cummins is unmercifully "kidded" by his fashionable friends, and Flo and her father, imagining that Cummins has been deceiving them, become very indignant, and he is ordered out, but eventually succeeds in proving that he is genuinely in love with Flo, who reciprocates.
- Don Remero, blind cattle king of Mexico, leaves his home, and dresses in the garb of a peon, determining to seek a mate who does not know of his great wealth. He steals a ride on a train which carries him across the Mexican border into the United States. There he is discovered at a station and upon being taken from the train is arrested. Miss Barnes, who is out riding with her father and mother, see this and gets her father to intercede with the railroad detective, they taking the blind man home. This is done by Mary without any other thought than helping a blind man. Afterwards Mr. Barnes becomes incensed to think that he allowed a tramp to be brought into his home and he puts the blind man out. Mary's heart has gone out to the afflicted one and she seeks a lawyer friend and asks him to help her find her protégé. The blind man wandering into the hills finally falls exhausted. Mary, who is riding a spirited animal, unknowingly follows almost in the blind man's footsteps. Her horse becomes unmanageable and runs away, running into a lake. The blind man hears her cries and goes to her assistance, saving her from being drowned. They return home to find the father and lawyer worried over her absence. The lawyer recognizes the cattle king, but Don Remero stops him from disclosing his identity. Later Don Remero returns to the home of Mary and meets her. She determines to run away with him; they are married and he takes her back to Mexico with him. Arriving upon his own immense lands he tells her they are all hers. Later they come to his magnificent home where he introduces her to his mother and his retainers.
- Ed Watson and Billy, the rat, crooks operating in New York, are "breaking in" Nell Forest, who has had the misfortune of being brought up in an evil atmosphere. The crooks spot Maurice Fielding, son of a jeweler, having stores in New York and Chicago, as a victim, and Nell makes his acquaintance. Maurice proves to be a different kind of man than any she has known. He falls in love with her and she with him. With this comes a hatred for Watson. Billy and all that they stand for. Maurice proposes marriage, but she refuses because she knows she has no right to wed an honest man; she wants to break away from her evil companions. Then perhaps she can tell Maurice everything and he will keep on loving her. But Watson is not to be so easily shaken off. He learns that Maurice is going to Chicago and that his trunk will contain jewelry. He and Billy hatch a plot to rob the trunk. They send for Nell, who is forced to come at their call. They tell her she is necessary to the proposed robbery. Nell refuses to help them and threatens to warn Maurice until they threaten that they can put Maurice wise to Nell's past. She would do anything rather than have Maurice know just yet. Watson also promises to give Nell her freedom after just this one more job. She is to buy a ticket for Valley Springs, a summer resort on the road to Chicago, and to travel on the same train with Maurice. A trunk is secured and lock arranged so that it can be opened from inside. Billy gets into the trunk and it is checked to Valley Springs, to which place Watson has gone the day before. Maurice is delighted that Nell will make part of the journey with him. The two trunks are put into the same baggage car. While the train is going Billy climbs out of Nell's trunk. The baggage man sees him in time to dodge. A fierce battle with revolvers ensues until Billy wounds the baggage man. It only takes a minute to transfer the jewelry from Maurice's trunk to Nell's and when the train reaches Valley Springs, Billy stands at the door of the baggage coach and throws Nell's trunk off. Nell hands the baggage master her check and requests him to lift her trunk on an automobile. (Watson is in the auto.) Nell also climbs in and is waving good-bye to Maurice when the wounded baggage man recovers and springs on Billy. Billy has intended to go to the next station. The recovery of the baggage man spoils everything. Billy jumps out of the car, catches Watson's auto as it is turning a corner and jumps into it. A race ensues between the crooks' auto and pursuers, The road leads to a river. The drawbridge is open and Watson sees it too late to stop, turning the machine it plunges over the cliff into the river. Watson goes to the bottom with the car, but Billy and Nell are thrown out into the river. Maurice, who is in the pursuing auto, sees Nell struggling in the water. Although he now knows her for what she is, an impulse which he cannot resist compels him to dive to her rescue. A row boat picks up Nell, Maurice and Billy. Before he dies, "the rat" exonerates Nell, tells how she was forced into the robbery, tells how she confessed her love for Maurice and fought against the scheme. Well! Maurice does the right thing -- Moving Picture World synopsis
- A young sheep herder, whom his associates had dubbed "The Cringer," because of his physical fear, was one day attending to a sick kid out of his flock, when some cowboys, who are a sheep herder's natural enemy, come upon him. They make sport of him and rough him up a bit, leaving him cringing on the ground. They then ride into town and have a blow-out. Muck Peters, the owner of the sheep, a renowned character for stinginess and brutality, happens to see the cringer nursing the goat and in his anger strikes the cringer to the ground. The cringer drags himself away from him back to his sheep, where he tells Joe, a stoic herder, of his mishaps and is again knocked to the ground by his fellow herder. His thoughts are not so much of himself as for the poor little kid. When he thinks of the suffering of the little goat his whole nature transforms itself. He determines to show them that he fears nothing. He steals one of his employer's horses, rides into a mountain city, sets fire to a barn, so that the citizens may be drawn thereto by the conflagration, enters a hank and holds it up, the cashier being alone as the remainder of the clerks have gone to the fire. He falls an easy prey to the cringer, but presses a button to the Protective Service Office, thereby giving the alarm that the bank is in danger. The cringer gets away with a sack of money, but through a daughter of the captain of the Protective Service, who runs to the fire and warns the cowpunchers that the bank has been robbed, the cringer is soon compelled to take to cover in an old abandoned log hut, where he makes his last stand, and he compels the posse to shoot him, dying with the words on his lips, "I wasn't afraid."
- Mrs. Van Vechten, a society woman, in the midst of a pink tea, receives a letter from her husband, who is hunting in the mountains, to the effect that he will not be home for some time. His comrades are the husbands and fathers of Mrs. Van Vechten's guests. The women, on learning the state of affairs, determine to go on a hunting expedition of their own. Later we find them in camp all starting off on a hunting trip. Mrs. Van and her friend, Mrs. Morris, use an auto and penetrate well into the mountainous district, finally coming upon an Indian woman with a papoose laying on the ground beside her. The squaw leaves the papoose to return to her camp, and Mrs. Van determines to steal the baby and take it back and show it to the girls. Mrs. Morris, her friend, protests and refuses to have any hand in the matter whatever. Mrs. Van drives away alone with her spoils. Mrs. Morris returns to the camp of the white women and tells of Mrs. Van's act. The white women leave to search for Mrs. Van. In the interim the squaw, returning to the stream with more washing, misses her papoose and trails the guilty party. Mrs. Van in her haste and eagerness, drives her machine over a cliff, wrecking it, and she herself is found insensible by the squaw, who comes upon her after the accident. The Indian woman secures her babe and starts homeward. Mrs. Van recovers, follows, and takes from the squaw the second time her offspring. The Indian woman in her turn recovers from Mrs. Van's warlike blows, trails the white woman, coming upon her, chokes her insensible, secures her papoose and drags her natural enemy back to a camp of the Indians. The white women arriving at the camp the same moment, an awful hand-to-hand encounter ensues, the whites being victorious. A new day dawns and we find the inimitable Mrs. Van playing with her prize, which she didn't want. Looking up she sees the Indian women coming and she quickly hides the papoose and meets them with haughty mien. One old squaw steps forward and pleads, "White women please give back Indian babe." Mrs. Van finally succumbs and gives the papoose to the Indian mother. Who is the savage?
- Three tramps steal some whiskey. Two of them are caught and thrown in jail. The third tramp hides in the distillery, which is next door to the police station. He rigs up a hose to the jail and all three get drunk.
- There is no reliable documentation that any film bearing this title was either produced or distributed by Lubin at this time. It's not the same film as The Sheep Herder (1914), which is a Victor production. Most likely, either the film was announced but never made, begun but never completed, or else completed but released under another title, unidentifiable at this time.
- John Strongheart, an actor of the old school, finds himself after a very bad season without enough funds to get through the summer. He places an ad in one of the leading papers for actors of both sexes to form a stock company. He receives many responses and organizes a troupe. He puts up a call for their first stand and after much "flim-flamming" for expense money, lands in the little town of Hipswitch. The hour of the show arrives and the performance begins but it is so bad, that the audience, a boy and dog, becomes so weary they leave after the first act. Strongheart and his troupe return to the hotel to dress. The hotel proprietor tells them they must pay up or lose the trunk and leave the hotel. Having no money the players are forced to walk the streets in their stage clothes. They are seen by the boy, dog and villagers and are stoned out of town by the freight car route. After many bumps along the railroad the boxcar comes to a standstill, only to find themselves in the very same town and are treated to a second battery of stones, ripe tomatoes and unsalable eggs.
- The entire police force of Hotelsville revel in pie. Regan and Finn, champion eaters, make themselves strong with the pretty servant girls of the town. Regan is very happy when he captures an extra large pie that Rose had intended for the grocery boy. Rose retaliates by placing a bucket over Regan's head. Rose and Lily, another servant girl, later meet the two cops. Rose sees Finn gossiping with Lily and gets the cold shoulder. The affair merges into a free fight. Regan starts to wipe up the road with Finn. The girls interfere and, after succeeding in separating the men, enjoy a rough and tumble scrap themselves. Regan and Finn, fearing murder, separate the girls. The preacher sees the disgraceful affair and hastens to the police station. The lieutenant and the sergeant quell the riot and get Rose and Lily, and the cops are arraigned to get what the judge will give them.
- Two tramps look so much alike that they can outfox the police time after time. When one of them is locked in a shack, the police manage to catch the other one and expose the trick.
- Lena's two jilted suitors try to stop her from marrying another man.
- A troupe of unemployed actors comes across a town where there's a baby contest. They dress up the fat boy as a baby and he wins the prize, but before they can leave town smallpox is discovered and the town is quarantined. When the 'baby' refuses to be vaccinated, the disguise is discovered.
- A group of tramps lure the police force out on a chase. They take over the nearly-empty police station and throw the police chief out the window.
- Hans falls asleep on a park bench and dreams that he overhears a gang of train robbers who have a chest of gold. Hans kills all the gang with a club and takes the gold. He meets his friend Jake, and together they buy dress suits and call on a lady. They run afoul of a French Count and his friend, a Baron.
- Colonel Robert Carey, a young southerner, and Lucretia Gray, his sweetheart, have a lovers' quarrel, and before they could make up he is ordered to the front. Foolish pride keeps the lovers silent and a year passes. Carey is on the staff of General Jackson, and has become famed for his reckless courage. Lorena, ardent for the Southern cause, and seeking forgetfulness of her unhappy love affair, has entered the Confederate secret service, and is ordered to report to General Jackson. As she approaches Jackson's headquarters, the sound of a cannon tells her that a fierce battle is in progress. Jackson has ordered the demolition of a bridge over Cold Creek. The Union general at the same time orders a brigade to cross the bridge and attack Jackson. The Confederates succeed in mining the bridge, but are driven off before they can explode their mine. Carey volunteers to swim down the stream, the only possible method of approach, and explode the mine, though this will entail his certain death. In making the attempt he is badly wounded by a sharp-shooter and cannot proceed. He is found by Lorena and a joyous reconciliation takes place. Carey, however, soon remembers his mission, the failure of which will mean a crushing defeat to the South, but he is helpless by reason of his wound. Lorena proposes to go in his stead, and though he knows he is sending her to certain death, he gives to his cause far more than his own life, and bids her go. Lorena reaches the mine under the bridge piers as the Union brigade is pouring across, and fires into the loose powder with the revolver Carey has given her. Her life is the price she pays for the victory. Through the bloody years that follow, Carey is ever in the forefront of the battle, but the swift death for which he longs passes him by. After the war Carey lives on through the lonely, weary years. At last, half a century after the day on which his real life ended, he makes his way to the grave of his girlish sweetheart, and falls asleep, to find the weary waiting done.
- Bess and Rose, two sisters, are envious of a chum's engagement ring and when they see a matrimonial advertisement, they decide to answer it even though the advertisement emphatically reads that only homely women need apply since the advertiser has already lost three pretty wives. With the aid of hairdressing and make up, they contrive to qualify for the position of a homely wife and when Bess is eliminated she knocks out a few front teeth and tries again. This nearly snatches the victory from Rose, but Bess is finally outdone by an older and much homelier woman who captures the "beauty" prize, and the girls are glad their beauty is only skin deep.
- 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.
- Two stranded actors being down and out, ask a carnival manager for work. He tells them he has no work, but he has a good scheme to make money. He says he has a large wild man's cage which is empty, but if one of them will blacken up and play the wild man and the other act as lecturer and barker, he will share the profits equally between the three. They accept and an argument arises as to who will be the wild man. Finally the short fellow says he will be wild man. They start in business and a large crowd comes to see the savage. The barker then says he has a scheme to double business; he will frame up an escape and cause the farmers for miles around to join in the chase. That night the wild man is let loose and given an hour's start. Then the barker rings the fire bell and tells the farmers that the wild man has escaped. He is liable to kill all of the women and children he meets. They form a posse and start out to hunt him. They see him two or three times in the moonlight, but he always eludes them. Finally, at an arranged place, he is captured by the barker and several of the show boys, who chain him down to the bottom of a wagon and stand guard over him. They bring him back, put extra chains on him and a large guard around the cage. Next day the farmers for miles around bring their families to see the savage they helped to catch last night. On the last night of the carnival the manager, wild man and the barker are busy counting their money and laughing when an old maid from the village peeps in through the curtain and sees them and hears them talking. She rushes away and pulls the fire bell, arouses the village and tells them what she just saw and how they had all been humbugged. They are all excited when the constable suggested to turn the hose on them. They run a line of hose over the tent, pull open the flap and play the hose on them, washing all the color from the wild man. Then they tear down the tents and chase the showmen out of the town.
- Hamo, a bad comedian, is chased out of every town. Finally he gets revenge by dressing as the police chief and going on a rampage through the town.
- A young man feigns blindess in order to retain his sweetheart's affection. She discovers his ruse, leaves him, but returns again when he suffers an accident and is truly blinded.