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- Abandoned by her maidservant in an isolated country house, a mother must protect herself and her baby from an invading tramp while her husband races home in a stolen car to save them.
- Years before the story opens Ned had loved Dorothy, but a young artist had come to the village and took her away with him. Since that time her father, the Rev. Silas Winterburn, has been a broken-hearted man and has gone about his duties in a mechanical way. Once each year Ned has dinner with the old man, each hopeful that the other will have some word of their loved one. As they are enjoying their dinner on one of these occasions a ring at the doorbell is heard. The old servant opens the door and finds a small child crying in the falling snow. Upon investigating further he finds the mother. It is the long-lost Dorothy and the child, Dolly, her daughter. Silas calls for his servant, who has taken Dorothy and Dolly into the kitchen near the fire. Silas tells the servant to bring in the child, but the man dares not tell him that it is Dorothy. Dolly comes in and sees the food which she so greatly needs, but she refuses to eat until mother can share with her, Silas orders the mother brought in. The surprise of the two men may be imagined when they find it is Dorothy. But Silas becomes hard and cruel. He listens sneeringly to her story. In his heart he is glad to learn that the artist married the girl. Finally he declares that Dolly may remain, but that her mother will have to go. The child will not leave her mother, and both make preparations to go. Then the heart of the old man melts, and he welcomes them back to his home.
- Agnes Duane, a young woman of the twentieth century, full of good red blood and with plenty of spirit, returns to her New England home and its prim atmosphere, after completing her course in college. Arriving there, she finds that her considerate parents have chosen for her a husband. The individual whom they have chosen for this honor happens to be an effeminate, insipid, very sanctimonious little minister. Upon meeting him Agnes laughs in his face, much to the humiliation of the minister and the consternation of her strait-laced parents. Thinking to cure her of some of her crudeness, her father sends her to his brother down in Kentucky, where she roams the mountain fastness in untrammeled freedom. One day while wandering about in the hills she becomes lost and is found and taken to her uncle's home by one of a queer duo of mountaineer brothers who harbor an inborn and intense hatred for each other. One of these men is a veritable giant in size and strength while the other, the one who rescued Agnes, is of small build and slight strength, but is possessed of a superior cunning. Soon she becomes acquainted with both these brothers and both fall deeply in love with her. Finally, one night the younger and smaller brother, tries to force himself upon her and he is confronted by the giant. In a dissolve the reason for this hate is revealed. As a result of this encounter the weaker man devises a diabolical scheme to put his brother out of the way. Fortunately for the giant, the scheme fails and he passes the trap unscathed. In the meantime, Agnes has felt herself drawn to the larger man by his sheer animal magnetism. She seems on the point of confessing her love for him when, through a cruel act, his true nature is revealed and she turns from him. Soon after she meets the Rev. Hugh Baxton, a real man at last, and to him she surrenders unconditionally.
- The war had turned a splendid chateau into a hospital. Sister Genevieve, a woman who knew the sorrow of suffering but not the sorrow of sin, helped to care for the wounded soldiers therein. Fifi, on the contrary, had known sin in all its ugliness, but like many another of the half-world, had given everything to the great war, even herself. Fifi was a most carefree sort of girl, and sang for the soldiers and brought them flowers. Sister Genevieve disapproved of Fifi's light-heartedness, especially after she had sung a frivolous song at the request of a dying soldier, but Fifi's answer was that she could see no real difference between a prayer and a song. Lieutenant Dubois, of the guard, was at the time in love with Aimee Renfret, a pretty woman and a weak one, whose husband was in the trenches. She returned his admiration and made arrangements to go to Paris with him during his furlough. Fifi overheard their talk. The enemy began a sharp attack and the stream of wounded poured into the hospitals. Among them was Raoul Renfret. When Sister Genevieve saw him, she recalled the days when he and she were sweethearts; they had quarreled and he had never returned. After three years with no word from him, she had become a nun. While thinking of the past, Sister Genevieve was startled by Fifi, who sank to her knees by the bed of Raoul. Asked by the Sister if she knew him, too, Fifi told her that he was the first man who ever treated her as a good woman. She said that while trying to protect her from a jealous lover, he was stabbed and she had taken care of him for three months. After he had gone, she couldn't go back to the old life. The doctors said there was no hope for Raoul, who called continually for Aimee. Fifi hastened to her cottage, and in spite of Aimee's protests forced her to come to her dying husband's bedside. The change for the better was so marked when Raoul quieted down with his arm around Aimee, that the doctor said that there was now a chance for his life. Running to the cottage, Fifi found the lieutenant waiting for Aimee to start to Paris. She told him that Aimee had to stay with her husband, and suggested that he take her to Paris instead. At first astonished, he agreed, for she, too, was a pretty woman. Fifi had made her final sacrifice.
- Betty and Molly, sisters, are employed at the railroad station as waitresses. Molly has been married by her step-father to a brutal drunkard, Steve Moran, while the mother of the two girls is married to Dan Morgan, who is also a slave to drink. A theatrical troupe visits the eating house and Betty meets Burton Howard, a theater magnate. He is taken with her appearance, and giving her his card, invites her to visit him should she ever find herself on Broadway, in New York. Martin Dane, who has just arrived in town to take a job as foreman at the Morrison Steel Works, admires Betty. He saves the girl's stepfather from a drunken brawl and is invited to call that evening. Betty, anticipating another marriage such as her sister's, does not encourage Dane. Molly's husband dies in a drunken stupor, and she, seeing that her sister is about to be forced into conditions like those under which she suffered, plans to use the money she had received from her husband's insurance policy to free her sister. Betty is thus enabled to run away just before she is to be married to Dane. She goes to New York, where she calls on Burton Howard, who finally recognizes her and gives her a minor position in one of his companies. He enables her to rise in her new profession, but Betty soon finds that his interest has strings to it. Meanwhile the brutal husband of Mrs. Morgan has also died, and Martin Dane has taken the poor woman to keep house for him in the cottage he had furnished in anticipation of his marriage to Betty. Molly shows him the letter she has received from Betty, realizing at last Martin's true worth and the mistake she and her sister have made in thinking otherwise. Dane visits the city and locates Hetty's boarding house. Betty has been endeavoring to stave off Howard's advances with the excuse of not having fitting gowns to accompany him to cafés. He has bought her a fine gown and now insists that she spend the evening with him. Dane gains admittance to Betty's room before she arrives home and conceals himself. When she arrives home she is surprised when confronted by the man she promised to marry and later deserted. She at first refuses to return with Dane as his wife, repelled by the sordidness she imagines will follow. Howard calls in his taxi to take her out. He is admitted to Betty's room and the two men come face to face.
- The artist had a friend, a sincere person who earnestly desired to help the artist's weak finances. He knew the Serpent was interested in modern art, so he took some of the artist's work in the hope that they would be sold. The Serpent glanced casually at the paintings, but his eyes returned to and rested upon a particular portrait, the portrait of a sweet young woman, with a child's face and a woman's hopes and courage. He was interested in that fare, so he called upon the artist and questioned him as to the woman's identity. He found that she was his wife, but the man knew not that man's right and God's law were greater than millions of dollars, and perhaps they're not! All his life his whims had been the laws of others, his wishes the most important thing in the lives of thousands of his minions. Now he wanted her and determined to have her. And his eyes were the eyes of the Serpent. He met her, and the devil's glance gleamed into her eyes. She was fascinated by the look, hypnotized by the lure. And another victory was added to the devil's list of conquests. He invited them to a reception at his home, and there and then it was that the husband first became suspicious. One of the world's talkers came to him and told him that the Serpent and his wife were in the conservatory, but when he came there he found only the Serpent. But he knew! That night he declared war. He told his wife he was going to slay the Serpent, and he snatched a dagger lying near. There was a little struggle, she obtained the weapon, and rushed from the house to warn the Serpent. The devil is an optimistic citizen, so it didn't worry him. She was there, alone, with him. Her husband and the rest of the world didn't count, so he took her in his arms. But suddenly the right and the truth in her were reinforced by some stronger power, and she plunged the dagger into his heart.
- A fishwife tells her young daughter a fairy story about a princess imprisoned by a hunchback in a seashell, a story that parallels her own life.
- During the American Revolution, an innkeeper's daughter learns of a plot to assassinate George Washington while he will be staying at her father's inn.
- Eleanor, who earns her living working with her mother as a laundress, is courted by a bad man who will try to induct her into crime. Surprising finale. One of the few Cleo Madison surviving films.
- The story of a two jewel thieves whose lives intersect during the course of their crimes.
- Stoddard, who graduated in law but who has never practiced, at his thirtieth birthday finds himself bored with life. He is in a frame of mind in which he cannot have faith in anyone, not even the girl with whom he is in love. His friend, Denton, likens the friendship of Stoddard and his sweetheart, Nina, who is a clever actress, to the story of Ivy and the Oak. Stoddard broods over the simile. At last he determines to ask Nina to tell him of her past life, but when he does so, she says that she has as much right to know of his past as he has hers. He will not take this for an answer, and finally she tells her experience. When she has finished, Stoddard informs her that their friendship is at an end. Brokenhearted, she accepts the ultimatum. Stoddard seeks out his father's friend, Edward, a practicing attorney, and enters partnership with him, but first takes a month's vacation in the country. There he meets Ivy, a sweet country girl, and later they marry and return to the city. Ivy proves to be of the vampire type, but as long as Stoddard can procure for her all her heart desires she is happy. The time comes when Stoddard is practically ruined; still not daring to refuse her slightest wish, he takes some bonds from the firm's safe, of course with the intention of replacing them. Later, the owner of the bonds, who is none other than the actress Nina, calls for them. To the astonishment of Edward, the bonds are missing. As he is about to call detectives, Stoddard rushes in. He has come from a stormy scene in which he has told Ivy of his ruin. She has decided that since he cannot provide her with luxuries they must part. Stoddard and Nina are surprised to see each other, but he confesses the theft of the bonds. He says that he did not know that they belonged to her. Begging her forgiveness, he promises to return them. She forgives him and signifies her willingness of sharing her lot with him, even though he is ruined.
- A girl picks a bum from a park bench and marries him, finding out later that he was once rich and they knew each other as children.
- A trapper, falsely accused of murder, is saved by an Indian whom he had once rescued from death.
- The little boy was lonely. He never had any one to love him, as he could not remember his father and his mother was always away resting her nerves. He would picture how it would be to have a real father and mother, but he had to be satisfied with his housekeeper. Every night after supper he would go to the gate and see the little girl next door meet her father. One night he looked through the window into their living-room, where the little girl was playing with her father. The housekeeper not noticing the little boy's absence had locked the door, so he sat on the step to wait. There he fell asleep. Later the man to whom the housekeeper had rented a room in the house, in order to turn an extra penny during the time her mistress was away, found him. He carried the little boy to bed. The next day the little girl was swinging on the boy's gate, and she taunted him with having no father. A plan came into the boy's mind. That night he proposed to the man to rent him as a father for so much every week, the man to agree to "bring things home every night." That night he rushed out with joy to meet his father, with the little girl. Both found things in the men's pockets, and both were supremely happy. One night the boy dreamed that his mother had come home, that she met the rented man, and that he turned out to be his real father. He woke up fully to hear voices in the next room. He went in and there to his joy he found that he had dreamed true. Both his parents promised to stay at home forever afterwards and love him.
- She was the princess, and a human girl. Sincere, simple, with an earnest love for all things everywhere, she hated royal pomp with a hatred that was passion. In her light, bright eyes was the uncopyrighted story of human struggle, of contending human emotions. You were impressed at first glance that she was composed of the purifying and preservative forces that have made civilization. For a princess, she was refreshingly real. This, then, was the girl to be sacrificed for a political alliance. The prince selected was a jellyfish personage with enough blue blood to give a girl with as much red blood as the princess the blues. With all her stubborn individuality, she rebelled against the selfish decree of the Court, but when her aged father, the king, sternly commanded her, as her father and sovereign, to fulfill his mandate, the girl choked down the rising lump, acceded and accepted the ring as a pledge of the betrothal. Then she flew to her room, and the girl conquered the princess. In a wild abandon of grief, she sobbed her pitiful apology to herself, and felt better. And the thought was born. She would go to the home of her old nurse, and live among the people. She would live free from the iron fetters of regal birth, free from the slavery of royal lineage. She went out and met life, merged and mingled with its rushing tides and varied sides. And among the people, with hearts that beat with the heat of life, she found love and lost her heart. The blow was too great for the weak heart in the old frame of the king, and he died, as he had lived, a martyr to royalty. And the girl was proclaimed queen. For the moment the realization and appreciation that she was queen and could do as she willed and wished, surged through her, and her being filled with fervent ecstasy. Then she remembered the cost of her birth, remembered the state and the people and her duty to them, saw and realized that she had contemplated turning traitoress to the government of which she was queen; and in sadness and resignation she dismissed the man she loved, to marry the thing her nation needed. For she was queen, to live in garish grief and wear a golden sorrow until death emancipated her from the slavery of the throne.
- Baby Early lived in a poor neighborhood with her mother and little crippled brother. Her mother had estranged herself from her own family by a runaway match. Her husband was dead and her mother seriously considered appealing to her father for aid in support of the two children. Baby went to school, but the rich little children were not very kind to her, and she would not have been invited to Erma's birthday party without the intervention of her teacher. Mother dressed Early in her best frock and gave her some flowers for Erma, which were not much noticed by the spoiled little girl who was showered with gifts. Her grandfather gave her a locket and while the children were at the table, the trinket was passed from hand to hand to be admired by all. Baby was looking at it, when the entrance of the butler with the cake distracted the attention of all. Presently Erma missed her present, and all remembered that Early had been the last to hold it. She tried to run away in the confusion, but was stopped by Erma's mother. Baby was hiding something in her dress. It looked suspicious, and she was forced to reveal her poor little secret. Out came a piece of cake and some bonbons. "I saved them for my brother," said Early through her tears, "He is a cripple and I wanted him to have a party, too." Touched to the heart, Erma's mother packed a big basket of goodies and her grandfather accompanied Early to her home, carrying the basket. A surprise was in store for him, for Baby's mother proved to be the daughter whom he had so harshly renounced years before. Jimmie had a real party after all, and the little family was rescued from poverty forever.
- Doris Lowrey, a famous novelist, in order to get material for her new novel - "Sally Scraggs, Housemaid," leaves her home of luxury and, impersonating a housemaid, seeks and secures a position as such in a typical boarding house. Her desire to discover "characters" meets with instant success. Part of her arduous duties is to wait on table, where congregate a varied assortment of boarders. Possessing a pretty face and an attractive personality, she is made the recipient of bold advances on the part of a young clerk. Frank Norcross, a poor, struggling author, gallantly protects her. Doris is astonished to discover while cleaning Frank's room, that he, too, is a novelist. His finished novel is submitted to one of the foremost publishing houses. And then comes a letter not only telling of acceptances but advancing royalties. Norcross is in a predicament on account of his shoes being worn beyond repair, and it is Doris who prevails upon him to accept as a loan one of her rings which is to be pawned for sufficient money to purchase a new pair. Elated with his unlooked for success, Norcross forgets for the moment the apparently poor girl who has been so much to him. The months slip by and Norcross is being dined and feted by the elite, while the girl, hurt by his neglect, throws aside her desire to further seek characters , and returns home where she finishes her novel, which strange to say, meets with equal success. Norcross is going over his papers, discovers a valentine that the housemaid had given him, inside also being the long forgotten pawn ticket. His neglect and ingratitude cause to burst into flame the tender sentiment of his struggling days. He searches days and days to discover her whereabouts. His "Personal" is seen in the paper by "the Girl" wherein he asks that she communicate with him. She phones him and makes an appointment. Norcross keeps the appointment and meets her, she having hunted up the old dress to make him think she occupies the same position as when he knew her. He shows his sincerity of purpose, as he returns the ring and asks for her hand. She pretend anger and dismisses him. She, meanwhile, discards the old dress, and gowned in stylish garments, hastens to his home. Her card is given to the valet, however, and sees him tear the card and refuse to see her. The valet is enjoined to remain silent: then "Sally Scraggs" steals up to Norcross, silently slips into his view the title page of her own book, and stands waiting. Dazed momentarily by the revelation of her true identity and the realization that she has come in answer to his most sincere desire, he staggers to his feet. And the time of lingering doubt ends.
- Jack and Dolly, his sister, live together in the west. On Jack's birthday, Dolly presents him with a peculiar ring. The brother and sister attend a masquerade ball that evening, each dressed in the other's clothes. Dolly, being taken for a man, meets Big Bill, a new ranchman, and he offers her a cigar, which she tries to smoke. Jack sees her in distress, and coming to her rescue, is introduced as the sister. The next morning Jack leaves to look over his stock. While riding through the sage brush, he takes a shot at a rabbit and the bullet lands near the spot where a cattle rustler is plying his unlawful trade. The cattle rustler and Jack meet. The former believes that Jack tried to kill him and a fight follows. Jack is killed. The murderer takes all Jack's money, including the ring. After two weeks of search the sheriff and his posse return without having seen the murderer and so report to Dolly. She determines to run the man down herself and sets out disguised as a cowboy. Her funds soon run low, however, and she is forced to seek work to carry on her search. Dolly approaches a ranch house and meets the owner, who is Big Bill, and as he has taken a liking to what he thinks is a young fellow, he gladly gives her a job. In the days that pass, Big Bill begins to doubt the sex of his new employee, but keeps his suspicions to himself. One day he asks the cowboy to accompany him to town, and while there, Dolly wanders into a saloon to watch the games in progress. Bill follows, keeping a close watch. Suddenly one of the players who is heavily losing, pulls out a sack and empties its contents on the table. Dolly receives a shock when she sees the ring she had given Jack, and at once guesses his identity. Dolly denounces him and they have a terrific fight. Bill tries to interfere, but the boys, thinking she is a man, hold him off. In the melee, Dolly's hair comes down and her sex is revealed. The fight is quickly stopped and Dolly tells of the murder. The rustler is delivered to the sheriff, and Big Bill takes Dolly home, where he offers her a new job as boss of his ranch.
- Lorna and Denis have been engaged for some time. One day she receives a missive from Denis, breaking the engagement. She is heartbroken, but writes, telling him if the time comes when he has need of her, she will welcome him back. Denis is infatuated with the singer, Nina, who is of the vampire type and sees in him only a means toward a luxurious life. Ferrando, an organ grinder, plays continually a certain melody as he goes from door to door and seems ever on the lookout for someone. One night he plays in front of Nina's apartments. The tune brings back to her the memory of the days when she was happily married in faraway Italy, content with her husband, Ferrando, and their baby. The maestro of the opera had heard her sing, offered her instruction, and finally made love to her until she ran away with him to America. Taking a few coins, she throws them to the organ grinder. He thus catches a glimpse of her. That night he steals into her room, and portrays the death of their child and his vow of vengeance. He threatens her life, but she manages to wrest the knife from him and throw It into the street. But the hatred of the long months was not to be so easily thwarted and Nina pays the ultimate penalty. The next morning, when Denis finds that Nina is dead, his thoughts revert to Lorna. As he is making his peace with her, fate decrees that Ferrando shall play his oft-repeated melody in front of their garden.
- Genevieve, the head saleslady of the Elite Cloak Store, is admired by the manager, Jerry Holden. But she treasures in her heart her love for Will, who had several years before married Martha, a timid little woman. A bargain sale is in progress at the store and Martha is examining the dresses, which are reduced to twelve dollars. Genevieve, not knowing who Martha really is, hastens to her, and the little woman, shabbily dressed, says she will come again with her husband. Soon afterward, Genevieve meets Will and accepts his invitation to dinner. The following day, she is delighted to receive a note from him urging her to accompany him again. She has listened to his recital of how his wife henpecks him and nags at him from morning until night, and has the sincerest sympathy for "big, generous Will," as she still thinks him. Martha enters the store with Will. Genevieve is horrified to think that this timid woman is Will's wife. She insists that Martha buy a $150 gown. Will is afraid to refuse. Genevieve suggests to Jerry that he rent a larger store and that they go into business together and for life.
- A magic spell has turned a handsome prince into a hideous and repulsive beast, and only the love of a beautiful woman can change him back. ]
- John Sloan is sheriff of Long Butte. One day, while wandering about the countryside, he sees some bushes move. Thinking it is an animal, he fires and misses. Later he takes another shot and is more successful, knocking off the hat of a man in hiding. The man comes forth and tells the sheriff that he is called "Frenchy." The sheriff leaves him and starts to cross the stream nearby where he sinks up to his armpits in quicksand. He is saved by Frenchy, who tells the sheriff that he is a fugitive from justice and begs his protection. The sheriff realizes his debt to the criminal and takes him home, where he gives him the best in the house, telling him that he will give him shelter for the night and assist him out next morning. Years before the sheriff was in love with a French girl, but she was won over by the honeyed words of a Frenchman. Although he lost the girl, her likeness is always before him and he nightly dreams of what might have been. The Frenchman bunks in the next room of the sheriff's house, and on looking on a table nearby sees a picture of the girl of the sheriff's dreams. He recoils in superstitious horror for he sees the face of the wife he has murdered staring him in the face. The next morning the sheriff's deputies arrive, and tell him of the murder. Seeing "Frenchy," they recognize him as their man and capture him. The murderer pleads with the sheriff and so appeals to his honor that the sheriff, in order to pay his debt in full, allows him to escape, giving him five minutes' start.
- Mrs. Burne-Smith and Mrs. Winthrop have determined to make a match between their respective children regardless of the fact that the two in question have never seen each other. Mrs. Burne-Smith thinks by making the brilliant match with wealthy Allen Winthrop she will be enabled to pay off some of her pressing debts. Enid Burne-Smith has a mind of her own, and has often had thoughts of a handsome lover who would carry her off despite her protests. Naturally she does not fall in with her mother's plans and it takes quite an argument before she is brought "in line." Allen Winthrop has just returned from abroad and views with amusement the efforts of his mother to try and win him to assent to the matchmakers' plans. He finally agrees to accompany his mother that night to the Burne-Smiths. Allen has received an anonymous letter stating that the agent who is in charge of one of his tenements is a crook. He decides to investigate the matter. Allen and his mother arrive at the Burne-Smiths and are delayed waiting for Enid She has flatly refused to meet Allen, and, after tying the maid up, makes her escape and finally ends up in a tenement house, where she gets rooms. The next day Allen disguises himself and secures rooms in his own tenement. This is the same place where Enid is staying, and she has become acquainted with Mabel and her sweetheart, George. Enid secures work and Mabel helps her. Every evening after work, the girls are met by their lovers and Enid sighs as she thinks she has no one to look after her. Enid notices that the landlord is familiar with Mabel and later finds that the girl has coaxed him to put off collecting the rent. With the rent money she has been buying clothes with which to get married. She and Allen meet several times and are mutually attracted. George has noticed Martin, the landlord, around Mabel, and has told her to "cut him off" her calling list. She tells of her indebtedness to him to Enid, and the latter pawns her last piece of jewelry to secure funds with which to release Mabel from the landlord's clutches. Martin comes to the girl's room and, while they are arguing, George and Allen come to the door demanding entrance. Mabel has refused to let Enid pay her rent and when she hears George at the door, she is frightened and persuades Martin to hide in the closet. George sees the money on the floor and is still suspicious. Martin then comes out of hiding, claims the money, and says that he bought the dresses for the girl. Enid, seeing that the love between George and Mabel is about to be broken up, takes all the blame and says the dresses are hers. George takes Mabel in his arms and tells her that she had better quit going with Enid. Allen is very much disappointed in the girl and leaves her. too. Enid then determines to return home and forget her little adventure. Allen places George in charge of his tenement, discharging Martin. Allen then tries in vain to find some trace of Enid. He and his mother are invited to the Burne-Smiths for dinner and he listlessly goes with her. The two mothers are delighted when Enid and Allen meet. The two stare at each other like long lost friends. The plans of the two matchmakers have been more than fulfilled, and as the story ends, Enid and Allen are planning their honeymoon.
- James Lee is an artist, light and selfish. His wife is that tragic type of woman who loves intensely and feels deeply. In a pretty milkmaid the artist finds a model to his liking. She is fresh, young end appeals to his imagination. In the petit liaison that springs up between them, James Lee forgets his wife, and the milkmaid turns with scorn on her fisherman lover. Hurt to the quick and happy light dies out in the wife's life when she observes James Lee caress the girl. When the artist takes the milkmaid in his arms and she feels the brutal warmth of his kiss, she shrinks away in fear and returns penitent to her fisherman. When James Lee returns to his wife she is gone. He tries to reason it out. He misses her and her thousand little wares. A deep love never felt before now awakens. She goes to a holy hermit who advises her to pray and fast. In a lonesome spot in the rocks where the waves break, James Lee finds his wife praying. In shame he kneels beside her. She looks and the fond light returns to her eyes and she knows that her prayer has been answered.
- June Lathrop, an orphan under the guardianship of Rupert Spaulding, a rejected suitor of her now-deceased mother, meets John Henshaw, a young surgeon just home from college. Their attraction is mutual. June learns of the love her guardian bears for her. He tells her how he loved her mother in her youth, but delayed his proposal so long that she at length married Tom Lathrop, June's father. He tells June of her mother's dying wish that he care for her, which request he has so faithfully fulfilled through all the years. He now asks June to allow him to care for her all through life. She is at first inclined to refuse, but realizing his true love for her, she finally consents. Spaulding does not live long and just before his death he enacts a promise from June that she will never marry again, having her make a written promise to that effect, which is filed with the other legal papers of the estate. Henshaw calls after Spaulding's death and again pleads his love, only to learn of June's promise. Spaulding's spirit hovers about his wife and she becomes a victim of sleepwalking. One night she falls from a balcony while asleep and suffers concussion of the brain. It happens that Henshaw, now a celebrated surgeon, receives the case and he sees that a very delicate and dangerous operation is necessary. While under the influence of the anaesthetic, June's spirit meets that of her dead husband. He tells her that he has witnessed her intense suffering and offers to free her from her promise. In spirit she follows him to the vault where me papers are laid, extracts the copy of June's written promise and it becomes ashes before her eyes. He then bids her an affectionate farewell and says she will never be troubled by him again. Meanwhile, Henshaw and his assistants have been working feverishly to revive June from the influence of the anaesthetic. They finally bring her to consciousness. She does not know whether it was all a dream or a spiritual reality. She orders her lawyers to bring her the package of documents; upon opening it the lawyer and all present are dumbfounded to find that the topmost slip which formerly bore the promise in June's handwriting is indeed ashes. June now realizes that her dream has been a reality and that she is now free to marry the man she loves.
- Isaac and his faithful wife Rachel deplore that in America their children are forced to work on the Jewish Sabbath. Leah and Sam are not so strict as their parents and the old customs pall about their more American spirits. Sam is employed in a cloak house and secretly loves his employer's daughter, but she refuses to recognize him. Leah is loved by the handsome gentile floorwalker, and despite her father's objections, she marries him. Isaac orders Leah from the house. Later, the daughter of the cloak manufacturer marries an admirer and Sam is invited to the wedding. He drinks and disgraces himself; returning home, is turned out by the heartbroken rabbi. He leaves, telling the old man that he will return when the father celebrates the Christian Christmas. Two years pass. Leah presents herself at her father's door with a baby in her arms. The old Jew refuses to see, but the mother longs to take the girl to her bosom. Julian falls under a street car; his legs are severed at the knees. Leah visits him at the hospital and is grief-stricken. Ten years later the rabbi and his wife are in poor circumstances, though he is as rigid as ever. Leah and Julian have adopted flower-making as a means of livelihood. Without knowing, the family have taken rooms above those of the rabbi. One afternoon their little girl meets the old man in the yard and assists him. An attachment springs up between the child and the old man, and the latter is impressed many times by instances of the kindness of the gentiles towards the Jews in this country. It is this child, on a Christmas night, that finally brings about reconciliation between the girl and the old father.
- Old Ben Morrison and his daughter, Jen, an unsophisticated girl, live on an island not far from the mainland. Jasper Crane, middle-aged sensualist of the rougher type, bargains with Jen's father, in hopes of marrying and gaining possession of the girl. Morrison is willing, and explains that she is like her mother, who deserted her home and baby for a city man. Jen, hearing of her father's plan, makes her escape by swimming to the mainland, where she seeks protection from Mrs. Hilton and her daughter, Dorothy, members of a camping party. James Hilton, Dorothy's brother, falls in love with Jen. Kent, a refined sensualist of the party, covets the girl, but finds his plans checked at each turn by James. Knowledge of James' affection for Jen reaches his mother's ears, and she informs her daughter that things are going too far and the strange girl must go. Jen overhears the conversation between Mrs. Hilton and her daughter, and realizes that she is not wanted. Kent, noticing the girl's discomfiture, gives her a sum of money for expense and advises her to call at his office in the city, should she ever want for anything. Alice, Jen's mother, served for a time as the plaything of John Newton, the man with whom she ran away, but when he tired of her she drifted into a vulgar blasé set. Jen unable to secure work in the city, writes to Kent for aid. Kent is engaged to marry Dorothy Hilton and plans to celebrate the closing days of bachelorhood on board his palatial yacht. John Newton, who is just returning from an extended European trip, is also to be in the party. Kent and his cronies plan a surprise for Newton. Knowing his former relations with Alice Morison, they plan to have her as one of the party. At the party Alice is discovered by Newton and strange emotions surge in the breasts of the pair. At the height of the party Kent receives Jen's letter asking for aid and he plans to add to the zest of the party by showing them an unsophisticated girl. He accordingly sends for Jen. She arrives, and Alice recognizes her daughter, although she cannot reveal her true identity her child. Back in the offices of Kent and Hilton, who are partners, news comes of a financial crisis, and James Hilton leaves hurriedly to communicate with his partner aboard the yacht. When he finally arrives he is shocked to see Jen, plainly embarrassed, in the midst of the mad riot aboard the yacht. He takes her from the place, and Newton, seeing what Alice is undergoing, suffers a change of heart. He asks her for a chance to atone for the past, and begs her to lead a life worthy her of daughter, he to supply the means. Kent drops out of the party suddenly and hurries to the mainland. On the deck of the yacht alone, James and Jen plight their love anew. Alice, the result of her past sin apparent, sinks down overcome, while Newton endeavors to quiet her tumultuous emotions, realizing his own part in the tragedy so narrowly averted.
- Carl Brauer, a blind musician, has a daughter who is a nurse at the city hospital. She and the house physician, Dr. Harvey, are interested in each other. Frank Hoag, a wealthy but unfeeling husband, brings his wife to the hospital to be operated upon, and soon after leaves to keep an engagement with an adventuress. On the way out he happens to pass Miss Brauer in the corridor and attempts to flirt with her. On his next visit before the operation, he finds Miss Brauer taking his wife's temperature. The latter introduces them. Hoag, in order to make a hit with the nurse, shows great solicitation for his wife. In the meantime a famous specialist, who happens to be in the city, brings a wealthy blind patient to the hospital to be operated upon. The operation proves successful. Mrs. Hoag, however, dies. Hoag pretends deep sorrow. The nurse is very sympathetic. Later the husband's true character is revealed by showing him drinking at the club and dining with different women. By chance he happens to see Miss Brauer go into a surgical supply house and decides to wait for her. She has called for a hypodermic needle which she left to be repaired. The druggist demonstrates that the needle is in working condition and she requests him to fill it as she desired to use it on a patient who is suffering intense pain. He does so. She exits, meets Hoag, who asks to accompany her home. She agrees. Meanwhile the blind father of the girl has gone out for tobacco and falls into a trench. The ambulance is called. Dr. Harvey responds. By this time Hoag and Miss Brauer have reached home. She invites him in and calls for "daddy." Hoag thinks she is bluffing about "daddy," and makes advances. When he roughly forces her back she reaches for the needle on the table and thrusts it into his arm. He backs away and laughs. Dr. Harvey arrives and finds old Brauer not seriously hurt. The latter insists on going home. Dr. Harvey walks with him. Just before they enter Hoag begins to feel the effects of the needle, grabs the nurse who is trying to get to the door, is overcome and collapses. Dr. Harvey enters with her father. Doctor Harvey sees the body on the floor and picks up the needle. They explain to each other in pantomime orders not to alarm Brauer. Hoag is removed to the hospital. When he comes to at the hospital Dr. Harvey stands over him, gives him a tongue lashing and tells him to get out before he is arrested. Mr. Thompson, the wealthy gentleman who was successfully operated upon for his eyes, calls at the hospital and makes out a substantial check to Dr. Harvey, his assistant and the nurse who attended him. The nurse sees this from a distance. She asks Dr. Harvey to interest the specialist in her father's case. The specialist advises Dr. Harvey how to handle the case. The operation is successfully performed. Dr. Harvey calls to take Miss Brauer out one evening. They are seen in a café together by Hoag, whose interest in the girl is reawakened. The next afternoon while drunk he decides to visit Miss Brauer. In the meantime Dr. Harvey and Miss Brauer have an afternoon off. She is home expecting the doctor to take her for a spin in his car. The blind father goes to take a nap and Hoag forces his way in. The old gentleman hears sounds of a struggle. Old Brauer goes to a bureau and gets a revolver but realizes that without his sight it is hopeless for him to try to help his daughter. The old man knows it is too soon to remove the bandages, but prays for momentary sight in order to protect his daughter's honor. He tears the bandages off and sees dimly. He shoots Hoag through the curtains and rushes to his daughter's grateful arms. Dr. Harvey hears the shot outside and runs in. "God blessed me with providential sight to protect my daughter's honor, let the darkness come," the old man explains. He goes hopelessly blind again. Dr. Harvey cares for them both.
- Juanita, a Spanish girl, lives on a ranch with a couple of old servants. The place is run down and she is distressed at her inability to make anything off it. So pressing is her need that she has to consider marriage with Rafael, a prosperous Mexican landowner, whom she really dislikes, but who is much in love with her. Just as she is about to accept him, Gray, a young American surveyor, offers her $1,000 for a right of way across her land. To her this is fortune and she hails it is freedom from Rafael's attentions. Rafael's anger is increased by the fact that Juanita and Gray fall in love with each other. Rafael comes upon Gray making love to Juanita. He turns Gray's horse loose, steals up unseen by the lovers and stabs Gray in the back. In his anger he is about to kill Juanita also but she, determined not to die and leave Gray unavenged, uses all her powers of fascination and succeeds in making Rafael think that she really loved him all the time. Meanwhile, Brooks, an associate of Gray's on the surveying party, has discovered Gray's riderless horse and comes to the ranch seeking him. Just as Juanita, in her desperation, is kissing Rafael over Gray's body, Brooks knocks at the gate. Rafael suspects a trap and hastily covers Gray's body with a rug, seizes Juanita and presses his knife against her, warning her that if she makes a sign he will kill her. Brooks appears and is surprised to see the two on such intimate terms, but Rafael tells him that they are engaged when Brooks asks for Gray and Rafael tells him that Gray has not been there. Brooks, however, sees Gray's hat on the table. Juanita manages to "telegraph" a look to him, and Brooks, seeing wine on the table, proposes a health to her future happiness, and Raphael, to avoid suspicion, is forced to drink, but never relinquishes his hold upon Juanita. As she is about to drink she throws the contents of her glass in Rafael's face and wrenches herself free. Brooks has Rafael covered and Juanita, throwing herself upon Gray's body from which she has torn the concealing rug, finds that he is still alive.
- Tom Walsh, his daughter, Pauline, and his son, Pete, live in a tenement known to the police as a nest of crooks. Tom and Pete force Pauline to act as their "lookout" in various small robberies by means of which they make their living. Pauline, however, is good at heart and, although forced to meet crooks and ex-convicts in her father's squalid apartment, has little liking for the life. Tom and Pete plan a new "job" and appoint Pauline to keep watch for patrolmen and passersby. While acting as "lookout," Pauline becomes interested in a band of Salvation Army singers and enters into conversation with the captain of the band. The captain gives her a pamphlet to read, which greatly influences her life. Meanwhile Tom and Pete have been frightened away from the house they planned to rob. They find Pauline gone from the spot where they told her to stay. Angered by her desertion they go home to await her coming. When Pauline arrives she tells her father of her experience with the Salvation Army band and begs her father to lead an honest life. Enraged by her talk, Old Man Walsh starts after her with a large knife, intent on killing her. Pauline rushes from the room, pursued by her father. Walsh stumbles at the head of the stairs in his drunken anger, falls and is killed. Pete returns from the corner saloon and finds his father dead. In his intoxicated condition the sight interests him little. He inquires for Pauline and when he learns that she is gone he leaves the tenement intent upon bringing her back. Pauline obtains a cheap room in a better part of the city and in a few days secures a position as nurse in a wealthy family which is preparing to leave for the west. Her brother finds out where she is working, however, and when she leaves town follows on the brake beams of the same train. Pauline believes that she has left her old life behind, but one day while in the park with her little charge her brother confronts her. She refuses to go with him and asks him to leave her alone in peace. Pete is about to drag her away when Paul Reeves, a rich young mine owner, knocks Pete down. Reeves introduces himself to Pauline and sees her safely home. A strong friendship springs up between the young people. Peter, in an ugly mood after his beating, enters a cheap saloon, where he finds a crowd of loafers bullying an emaciated "dope" fiend. Pete knocks several of them down and thereby gains the deep devotion of the unfortunate. Meanwhile Paul Reeves and Pauline become increasingly fond of each other and after a short courtship are married. Reeves builds a beautiful home for his young wife and does his best to allay her fears of her brother's return. Pete, in the meantime, has become the leader of the gang which he soundly thrashed. After a successful raid he gets drunk. Shaking an unopened beer bottle the neck bursts from the gases within and blinds him for life. The dope fiend whom he has befriended nurses him back to health and waits upon his idol hand and foot. The "dope" reads for hours each day to Pete, who becomes the brains of the gang and engineers their operations. While the "dope" reads the papers for likely "prospects" Pete hears of his sister's wedding and orders the "dope fiend" to take down the address. That evening, led by his companion, Pete arrives at his sister's mansion. Pauline invites her brother in and commiserates with him on his misfortune. Pete, however, pays no attention to her sympathetic expressions, but bides his time to be revenged. Pauline leads him into a room and Pete, who has familiarized himself with the locations of the doors and windows in a hurried survey of the room during his sister's absence, locks the doors on her. He then demands a large amount of money. When Pauline refuses him he attempts to choke her. Pauline eludes him and fights desperately for her life. Finally she reaches the door and escapes down the stairs. Attempting to follow her, Pete falls down the steps and breaks his neck. He is still breathing when Pauline's husband enters. Pauline tells her husband of her narrow escape from death and the photoplay ends with husband and wife locked in each other's arms, the only bar to their happiness effectually removed.
- The picture opens with a series of diaphragm effects that retain the courtroom atmosphere. The judge is seen seated. Garwood, the prisoner, is laboring under a terrible strain as he looks up at the judge. A look of pity comes over his face as he looks at his mother. Then we see his sister. Her brother meets her gaze. Then the foreman of the jury finishes speaking. The prisoner registers that his doom is sealed. He sets his jaw and looks at his mother. Then the mother and his sister look toward him and he at them. The judge speaks: "Rene Haggard, you have been found guilty of murder in the first degree and it is the order of this court that on the morning of March 27 you shall be hanged and may God have mercy on your soul." The prisoner's jaw sets. The scene shows the heart-broken mother and the distraught sister. The mother turns to her son, and looking at him with tearful eyes, asks, "My boy, why did you do this?" The boy turns to her and looks into her eyes. As he does so the scene fades away to tell the story. The fade shows the sister leaving her little country home to make her way in the city. She is bidding good-bye to her mother and her farmer brother. Then is shown her hopeless fight in the city, her marriage to a good-for-nothing drunkard, his supposed death; then of her meeting with her present husband under different circumstances; of their marriage and then their baby, the crowning joy of her life; then home, a picture of blissful content. The boy leaves home to visit his sister. She tells him her story. Then her first husband, rescued from apparent death, discovers her and endeavors to blackmail her. He is still her legal husband. She gives him all she can, and driven to desperation, pleads with him to spare her but he refuses. In despair she goes to her brother. He tells her to meet the man at night in a certain place and that he will be there. She agrees and the appointment is made. The night of the murder arrives. The brother meets his sister, and the sister leaves. The brother, masked, waits. The man comes up. The brother shoots and kills him, just as an officer turns the corner. The boy is arrested. The sister pleads with him to keep her past a secret. He agrees to do so. Friday, the 27th. A hill looking toward the prison can be seen. Over the prison the black flag, the sign of an execution, rises slowly. The mother sees the flag as it fills out. Then is shown the tear-stained face of the resigned mother as she gives one final look at the flag and turning, starts off down the hill, to disappear up the road.
- To give her sister Alice an education and dress her properly, Annie labors in a local canning factory. Unknown to Annie, Alice has engaged herself to Seadey Swaine, the son of a well-to-do businessman. Time passes and Alice is about to graduate; Annie works nights to provide her with the proper graduation dress. At this time, Alice exhibits a diamond ring and informs Annie of her engagement. Later, against her sister's advice, Alice goes to work in the canning factory to provide herself with a suitable trousseau. In the factory Alice meets Duncan Bronson, manager of a department. Bronson, who bears an unsavory reputation, is attracted to Alice and succeeds in winning her approval. Annie looks on with troubled eyes. She gives Alice a bit of sisterly advice, but the younger girl refuses to listen. Annie seeks out the manager, but is only laughed at for her pains. She suddenly blooms forth prettily adorned with dresses purchased with money she had laboriously saved. The manager discovers that Annie has charms far superior to Alice's, and turns his attention to Annie. After Alice is married to young Swaine, the danger past, Annie returns to her plain dress and tightly-combed hair. She is suspected and gossiped about, and even her own sister refuses her the consolation of a good deed done. In the little village, Annie continues her work in the canning factory alone, heart-hungry, suspected. Annie was a martyr to Virtue. But was she justified?
- A soldier finds strength after being given a rosary at the hospital where he was treated.
- Bosnovia, a strong foreign power noted for its advances in aerial navigation, succeeds, through its diplomatic secret service, in getting possession of the first model of Carlton's invention for detecting the coming of an aeroplane. The spies have injured the model by trying to disclose its secrets. Prior to this, Constance Chambers, United States Secret Service agent, has been assigned to the case and in carrying on her operations she has met the young inventor and fallen in love with him. Carlton has fallen in love with the girl also. While trying to rescue Carlton from danger, Constance is captured by the Bosnovian spies. Through threats of injury to her, Carlton is forced to give in to the demands of his captors and repair the machine which they have broken down in endeavoring to extract its ominous secret with their lack of experience. Constance, however, escapes with the aid of her chauffeur. The exciting pursuit by the Bosnovian secret agents and her wild ride for help on the desolate country road is shown to the bound and helpless Carlton on the reflector of his invention and his prompt use of the wireless to save the day and win the girl he loves supplies plenty of excitement and a happy ending to the drama.
- Mario Busoni, a young sculptor, is the ward of his uncle, Father Busoni, pastor of the Church of the Holy Name at Fiesole. The boy has shown wonderful skill in his chosen profession, so much so that he is selected to execute a life-sized statue of the Madonna for his uncle's church. This commission fills both uncle and nephew with great joy, and the lad's departure from the studio at Naples to fulfill his commission is made the occasion of much rejoicing among his fellow-workers. A discordant note is struck by Janice, a model. This girl passionately loves the young sculptor. She begs and entreats him to remain with her, and he is on the point of yielding to her blandishments when the timely arrival of his uncle puts Janice to flight. Uncle and nephew arrive at the scene of the boy's future labors and the work is commenced. A month later an important letter arrives at the studio for Mario, and Janice undertakes to deliver it to him. She arrives at the church, delivers the letter and attempts to ingratiate herself with Mario. She is again defeated by the watchful uncle, but determines to bide her time. Meanwhile Mario becomes dissatisfied with the conditions under which he is working, and finally induces his uncle to permit him to have a living model. It is found in the person of a beautiful young fisher girl, the widowed daughter of Pietro Ferrari, a fisherman. Later Mario heroically rescues the girl's father from the sea. Soon after the girl and her baby boy pose for the young artist. Tomasco, a hulking fisher lout, is in love with Mario's model. He offers marriage, and being refused, suspects Mario of being his rival. Meeting with Janice, her heart like his, aflame with jealous rage, the two plot the destruction of Mario's masterpiece, the almost completed statue of the Virgin and Child. Mario has proposed and been accepted by the fisher girl and the news of his betrothal determines Janice and her accomplice to put their plot into effect at once. Arriving at the church, the man carrying a heavy sledge, they are confronted by the finished work, a marvel of beauty of the statue. He throws down the hammer and refuses to perform the bidding of the jealous woman. She laughs at him for his sentiment and, seizing the hammer, swings it aloft. The destruction of the statue is imminent, but Divine intervention is at hand, and the eyes of the beautiful Madonna open. The poised hammer is dropped and both man and woman fall to their knees at the base of the statue, where they sob out their penitence in contrite prayers. The curtains hiding the statue are pulled aside and the bishop and his followers view the marvelous work of the young artist. Enthralled with admiration, the bishop extends his hand in blessing. The scene changes to a quiet nook near the seashore home of the fisher girl, where we find her and Mario in loving embrace, the patriarchal father holding aloft the baby boy, who is clapping his hands at the incoming rollers of the mighty sea.
- A southerner who is volunteering for the Union army is saved from assassination by a Negro girl who is in love with him. she dies in his place.
- The boob has ambitions; he imagines that if he can become a detective, he can win the admiration of his Margarita. Among the guests at Van Zant's party is Count Alberti, and his sister. Van Zant is Margarita's father. Van Zant places the count and his daughter together as much as possible, with the hope of making an alliance with nobility. Mr. Count proceeds to steal the girl's necklace. Carrying it to his room he places it in a vase in which he has poured glue. Guests discover the loss, the party is convulsed and Margarita telephones for the famous detective, Long, who arrives the following day. The Boob, who has repeatedly tried to get a glimpse of his dream girl, meets Detective Long on the street. Long has broken down. The Boob is asked to take care of his grip. Learning who Long is, the Boob gets him to a barn, locks him in and dons the detective's clothes and goes to the house, where he sets to work, posing as the real detective. While he is nosing around he observes the count in some shady work, and failing to get a satisfactory explanation, he searches the count's room. By accident, he knocks over the vase and finds the necklace. The count escapes, but the girl is satisfied and after Long has returned to the city in a dudgeon, the Boob has tea with Margarita and receives her approbation.
- Henry Ganton is a bacteriologist whose researches have brought him considerable fame. Most of his work is carried on in the laboratory at his magnificent home and about the grounds, where he is at present engaged in vivisectional experiments with guinea pigs. An advertisement for a French maid is placed in the newspapers by Mrs. Ganton. A comely young woman applies for the position and is engaged forthwith. As soon as her eyes fall upon Ganton and his upon her there is instant recognition. The wild, youthful days of Ganton while a student in Paris are focused upon his vision. The maid, too, is plainly affected, and all the bitterness and anger of her nature seem to possess her. The maid goes about her work. All the while, however, she is burning within for revenge. An idea comes with the reading of an article on scientific experimentation, which she chances to observe. So, when preparing an orange for Ganton in the morning, she designingly inserts some of the poisonous germs with which he has inoculated one of the guinea pigs and which she has cleverly drawn from the little animal. Ganton dies suddenly, and the whole affair becomes a perplexing mystery. The case is diagnosed as one of ptomaine poisoning, when Professor Felix Westerly, a well-known scientist and expert on bacteriology, is called in. Westerly, being of an intuitive turn of mind, begins work instantly. Finding some of the orange peels be examines them closely. Then going to the maid's room, he discovers the clipping from the scientific paper. Quickly scribbling a note on the back of an envelope, asking the maid to call at his home that evening, he leaves. The maid finds the note shortly afterwards, and after some hesitancy decides to go to the Westerly home. Hardly has she become seated, when Westerly works her into an hypnotic spell and draws the whole story of her early life from her: the meeting in Paris with Westerly, when she was a nurse, their intimate relations, the birth of her child, her desertion by Ganton, and finally the death of the baby. It is all revealed to Westerly. He dismisses the maid, and. after turning the facts over and over in his mind, pens a report in which he states he is unable to find any positive proof of foul play, at the same time expressing the opinion that the case will ever remain a mystery.
- Unaware that they are related, children born to the octoroon (1/16th Black) mistress and a white wife of a white man meet and fall in love.
- Mr. and Mrs. Kendall are, for some mysterious, unknown reason, drifting apart, no longer do they manifest the interest in each other of by-gone days. The change is there, yet the reason for it is beyond their understanding, until one day Miss Smith, Mrs. Kendall's seamstress, brings her baby sister to the Kendall home, for her mother is ill and she intends to find time throughout the day to care for the child. Mrs. Kendall hears the baby's laughter and the sweet music of it finds a responsive chord in her heart. At on she understands, realizes the reason for the strange unhappiness in her home. They need a child to draw their two cold-growing hearts together. They need the tie that binds. That evening it also occurs to Mr. Kendall, he hears the baby cry and he too understands. The next day troubled thoughts haunt him; he cannot work at the office, he cannot concentrate his mind, so he goes home, arriving there just in time to see Mrs. Kendall enter an automobile with the doctor and drive off. At once the green-eyed gnome of jealousy pierces his heart with its talons, he misunderstands and in a rage follows her in a taxicab. He sees her enter the home of the seamstress's mother. He realizes that charity and noble kindness have prompted his wife to bring the suffering woman medical assistance and his heart goes out to her.
- Mrs. Van Jessalyn-Smythe and her daughter are annoyed at the prospect unfolded by the receipt of a letter from her married sister, saying that her daughter Jennie has married Bill Simpkins, because they are expecting a distinguished visitor, Lord Brighton, on whom the daughter intends to impose all her feminine charms. However, the boob and his bride arrive. The following evening there is to be a ball in honor of Lord Brighton. The hostess sends a complete set of full evening dress to their apartment. The boob and his bride manage to get into the clothes, but in each case, the shoes are too small. They limp into the ballroom. Mrs. Smythe is disgusted with the boob's awkwardness. When the tight shoes become unbearable, the bride goes into the conservatory, and attempts to take them off. She is seen by Lord Brighton, who immediately runs to her assistance. While he is tugging at her shoe, the boob happens upon the scene. "How dare you make love to my wife," the boob roars, and chases him through the ballroom. He follows the aristocrat until he is well down the driveway, and then returns to relate the joke to his wife. The boob and his wife decide that fine clothes are not for them, and they return back to Spoonville on the first train.
- In the prologue of this picture, Fergus McClain is left a widower with a young son. His sorrow is bitter, but he directs all his love and attentions to the little boy. Follow a lapse of twenty years, the boy Donald has grown to manhood; he is the apple of his father's eye. Returning from college, Donald is taken into his father's office. Here he meets Jessie, his father's stenographer and the daughter of an artisan. The boy is attracted to her and in time Jessie loves the handsome collegian "not wisely but too well." As time goes on the boy wearies of his conquest; he returns from the girl to bury himself in club amusements. The girl is in a delicate condition; she confides in her father, who appeals to the boy's father to have justice done his daughter. McClain, the elder, agrees with the girl's father that the couple shall marry. Donald, returning from the club, is confronted with his guilt and appealed to. He refuses. His father is puzzled to know what to do. Then it is that the girl's father decides to take the law into his own hands. He waits for the boy as he comes from the house; he shoves a gun against the boy's side and commands him to go along. Once in the house with the girl, in her suffering before him, Donald's feelings undergo a transformation. His fury is changed to sympathy, akin to love, and a desire for forgiveness. He gladly consents to the marriage and the girl's father goes for the minister. In the meantime, the elder McClain has decided to attempt an atonement of his boy's sin by marrying the girl himself. He comes to the house with this purpose in mind. He is surprised and glad to find his boy there, crushed and repentant. The wedding ceremony is performed with the boy folding the girl in his arms, his love revived. A lapse shows the happy family gathered on the lawn at the McClain's home. The nurse advances and places the new arrival in the arms of the father. The baby is the "link that binds."
- A marital romance in which a married artist woos the wife of another man.
- Two brothers live together in the Kentucky mountains. Wally, the younger, is a wood-cutter, while Phil is a cripple. The brothers receive word from a city physician that Phil can recover from his infirmity only by means of an operation which will cost $800. The amount, however, is far larger than they ever expect to own at one time. In the meantime, Nan Leslie, of the U.S. Revenue Service, is detailed to go into the mountain districts of Kentucky and get evidence against a gang of moonshiners. Nan meets Wally and Phil, neither of whom suspect her identity. Nan and Wally soon learn to love each other. When it becomes apparent that Phil must undergo an expensive operation or remain a cripple for the rest of his days, he joins the moonshiners. In making her investigations, Nan learns that Wally is one of the gang. The moonshiners discover that Nan is a revenue agent and take her prisoner. Wally divides the money he has saved for Phil's operation among the moonshiners with the understanding that he alone shall deal with the woman. When he and Nan are alone he explains to her why he became a moonshiner. She softens, renounces the government service to wed Wally and together they go out to honestly earn the money for Phil's operation.
- Dr. Kaishian, an adept at hypnotism, visits a department store, where he meets a young saleswoman. Unable to resist his magnetic eyes, Nora becomes a willing slave, and is duly ensconced in his home. Here she is soon disillusioned, but the Oriental servant, Nagon, prevents her from escaping. Dr. Kaishiau in the park observes a beautiful woman walking with her husband, William Armstrong. Contriving a ruse whereby he can scrape an acquaintance, he brushes rudely into the couple, and in profuse apology, tenders his card. When the Armstrongs return home, they find one of their children ill, and their regular physician being out on a call, they think of their chance acquaintance with Dr. Kaishian, who is summoned. The wily doctor loses no time to enmesh Mrs. Armstrong, and before he leaves he has reduced her to a state of servility by the exercise of his hypnotic talents. He compels her to follow him immediately from the house. She attempts to write a letter to her husband, stating that she is going against her will, and just has time to blot it, when the hypnotist tears it up, and forces her to inscribe another, stating that she is leaving voluntarily, and that he will never see her again. The distracted husband is told by the maid that she suspects Dr. Kaishian is at the bottom of his wife's elopement, and Armstrong rushes to the home of the doctor, who professes deep solicitude. He extracts an apology from the husband, even while the wife sits in a hypnotic state behind the curtains in the same room. Nora, burning with anxiety to expose the evil doctor, is ruthlessly seized by the Hindoo servant, who bears her away, When Armstrong leaves, the doctor hastens to the room where Nagon has concealed Nora and orders him to place her in a dry cistern, and drown her by turning a flooding device. While the Oriental is manipulating the mechanism, the girl seizes the opportunity to wrest from him the iron lever, and deals him a terrific blow on the head, and escapes, while the water wells up and makes him suffer the fate he had intended for her. Upon Armstrong's return from his futile quest, the maid rushes forward with additional evidence that the wife is a prisoner in the doctor's house. This is furnished by the blotter she used when she wrote the first message that the doctor tore up. This time he determines to succeed. The Armenian is prepared for the terrific encounter that ensues. Through the rooms the wrathful Armstrong and the now terrified hypnotic battle until he reaches where he has a gun concealed. He stands in front of a curtain, and just as he is about to fire at Armstrong, Nora, who is on the opposite side, plunges a stiletto into his side, and he falls dead. Armstrong recognizes his wife's scream, locates her, and is again happy with her and her children. The police come and discover the evil doctor's body, but not before Nora is far from the house of iniquity.
- There is a fine opportunity for bravery during the height of battle. But there is probably a finer opportunity at the moment of defeat when the cry increases to a roar, "Every man for himself." The man worthwhile is the man who does not heed this cry of the panic-stricken. Such a man was George Tate, moonshiner by birth, but possessing the qualities of which heroes are made. His father was murdered by a half-breed. His sister, Amy, was assaulted and was in continual danger from the same source. Although he lived in the shadow of the law, an outcast with other moonshiners, he believed in a square deal. One day the revenue officers swept down upon the moonshiners' still. Tate and Neut Haigh, who loved Amy, led the forces of the moonshiners. At the deciding moment in the battle the half-breed exposed the secret defenses of the rugged country to the revenue men. Tate, Haigh and Amy were finally driven into the Tate college. They were surrounded and the battle was at that stage when the weaker ones cry, "Every man for himself." Tate looked into the faces of Amy and Haigh. They were lovers. They had something to live for. His thoughts ran in leaps and bounds. He lifted a trap door in the floor. He knew that he was looking upon his sister for the last time. He could say nothing, except, "go."
- Hiti was a little Japanese maid, but her feminine heart was the same as that organ of any other woman in the world, and it played the same tune. Hiti had big black eyes, soft olive hands and a stubborn will. Hiti fell in love. He was only a poor little Jap, but a manly chap. It was just like in your own little town; the more Hiti's parents objected to the fellow, the more determined was Hiti to marry him. Then a wealthy Japanese merchant came a wooing Hiti. Many miles he came, advising Hiti's parents that he was en route to bid for the hand of the enchanting Hiti. The parents were filled with joy, which of course Hiti didn't share. There was a little American girl in Hitl's town, the daughter of a consul or something, and the two girls had long been friends. It was the East's appeal to the Western, and the Western heart's silent response to the East. So Hiti went to the American girl and told her of her great sorrow, and American strategy and Oriental sagacity combined to defeat the logic of the old. It was thought of by we don't know whom; it might have been Hiti, or it might have been Elsie; but at any rate, when the mighty merchant reached the house, he found a very ugly Hiti indeed. Her face was enough to stop a Japanese automatic toy, and the merchant fled. Hiti married the right man. Hiti and Elsie often talk about the stunt that made her sweetheart her husband, and sometimes they laugh so loud that they wake the little Jap baby, who evidences his displeasure at the interruption of his siesta with a very ordinary baby wail.
- Pauline's uncle is the proprietor of the only hotel Maplehurst boasts of. The girl is an orphan and has been adopted by her relative. Dick, the young hotel clerk, is one of those "best hearted fellows in the world." His only fault, in the girl's eyes, is his rusticity. He is a country boy. Pauline is a country girl, but with a love of romance and pleasure implanted deep in her impressionable nature. A stylish young snob from the east arrives at Maplehurst. Pauline sets her cap for him, and it is one of the greatest moments of her life when she strolls down the village street with the dandy. The little hotel clerk is hurt to the quick when Pauline disregards his homely love. Woman-like, Pauline makes the most of the Snob's visit to the village. At the little town's social gatherings she appears in a beautiful pink gown, while The Snob scorns the village beaux when they show up at the country dance hall in their "store clothes." The Snob wears evening clothes, and while the girls of the village are impressed by his appearance in contrast with their brothers and sweethearts, the boys themselves despise him for his attempt to lord it over them. The Snob cares little for local opinion, however, nor makes any attempt to accommodate himself to village customs. The town boys are able only to hire a "rig" on Sundays to take their "girls" out for a ride in the country. The Snob, however, once he has won the heart of the prettiest girl in town, orders his high horsepower racing car and takes Pauline out for perilous drives for long distances. On one of these long tours The Snob, with cruel cunning, takes Pauline to a wayside inn. Outside the inn is a terraced garden with grape arbors hiding the diners from the view of passersby. Suspecting nothing, Pauline is induced to partake of a heavy dinner, and then, when The Snob sneers at her "countrified temperance," she sips slowly at a stinging drink he orders. Pauline takes the drink merely to please her companion and little suspects the sinister ulterior purpose he has in view. One drink follows another, and soon Pauline has passed beyond the point where good judgment rules her actions. Late that night they return to Pauline's home town. The chill air brushes away the fumes of the liquor from Pauline's brain and the deceived girl weeps bitterly in a rear seat of the big racing car. The Snob, at the steering wheel ahead, sneers to himself as he helps her alight at her humble home. The inevitable happens. The Snob goes east, leaving an invitation for Pauline to visit him at his home. The moth flies into the flame. She runs away from home. A year afterward Pauline is cast aside by The Snob. In a big city boarding house, where the good, the bad and the indifferent live, she gives birth to a child. She is penniless, and The Snob's people will not recognize her. The Snob himself is sent away west. Here he begins life anew. Pauline's predicament is seemingly hopeless. A procurer of women who lives in the house, is touched, and he advises her to make a living on the street. Another neighbor calls and advises her to commit suicide. Either of these things might have happened had not an elderly childless couple taken an interest in the case. They told her it was the greatest thing in the world to be a mother. Pauline writes her uncle for help. Dick, the hotel clerk, reads the letter and sends her money. About this time the uncle dies. When Dick becomes the proprietor of the hotel his first act is to go after Pauline. In the meantime life in the west has made a man of The Snob. He returns east to Pauline, but she scorns him and refuses to let him see his child. This time the man "paid."