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- Having lost his fortune through poor speculation, stockbroker John Porter goes West with his wife and young daughter Bab. After ten years on the ranch, Bab develops into the real cowgirl and falls in love with neighboring ranch owner Richard Sterling, a former clerk who, through shrewd maneuvering, struck it rich. Bab's mother, who has social ambitions, frowns upon the affair, and when oil is discovered on their ranch, she seizes the opportunity to send her daughter back East to finishing school. Returning home for vacation, Bab discovers that her mother and father have separated. Bab then decides to fix everything up, beginning with her parents' marriage and ending with her own wedding to Sterling.
- Dick Mathews is left penniless through the death of his father and his friends shun him. He secures a position as representative of an American mercantile firm and goes to Japan. One day when calling on a Japanese of integrity to purchase some antique article, he meets the man's daughter, Cherryblossom. Dick is impressed by her beauty, and later asks the girl to marry him. She does so. Dick buys and furnishes a pretty little American house and instructs her in American ways. About six months after their marriage Dick receives a letter from his home in San Francisco, informing him an uncle has died, leaving him his entire fortune and that his presence is desired at once. He prepares to leave. He tells Cherryblossom he is called to America on business, but will return in a month or so. She asks to go along, but he refuses. She is dazed and heartbroken by his sudden departure. Months go by and his letters grow less fervent and less frequent and then they cease entirely. In the meantime Dick, back among his old friends, forgets his wife. He meets a beautiful American girl and falls in love with her, but his manhood keeps him from telling her of his love. Yet every time as he starts to write Cherryblossom something prevents him. Cherryblossom determines to go to America to find him. Arriving in San Francisco she discovers him in company with Helen Morrow and realizing the situation, returns to Japan without revealing her presence to Dick. She writes a cablegram the moment of her return to Japan. She takes off her American attire and puts on her Japanese kimono. She takes an American flag and wraps it about her body. Taking up a little jeweled dagger, she goes to the windows which open out on the sea. Dick becomes remorseful and, realizing his duty to Cherryblossom, writes her a letter, in which he tells her he will return to her. Just as he is about to mail it, a messenger delivers a cablegram which informs Dick that Cherrybloom died that morning. Dick slowly burns the letter he had written her, and, clasping the picture of Helen to his breast, buries his head in his arms.
- No one seems to understand or love Fay, the little spoiled granddaughter of William Van Loan, a hard-hearted capitalist, but the old family butler, who tells her fairy stories. In Powhatan, a mining town controlled by Van Loan, Bessie, a sweet motherless child of Jasper Hunt, a mine foreman, lives with their housekeeper, Mrs. Flannigan. The mining company raises the price of food stuffs at the only store; the men resent this, and failing to get increased pay, strike. Van Loan refuses to yield and decides to use scab labor. Scenes of violence follow and, compelled to go to Powhatan, Van Loan takes Fay with him. Fay meets and plays with Bessie and for fun they change dresses. Separated, the unusual likeness deceives the Van Loan governess, who supposes Bessie to be Fay and whisks her away. Mrs. Flannigan finds and takes Fay, sick from exposure, to the Hunt home. Business hurriedly recalls Van Loan and mistaken for a changed Fay, Bessie revolutionizes the Van Loan household by her sweetness. Hunt, the real leader of the striking men, is summoned to meet Van Loan. During the unsuccessful arbitration meeting, Bessie comes in to bid her "grandfather" good night and, seeing her father, rushes to his arms. Hunt, busy with the strike, supposes her to be ill at home. They are all dumbfounded. Bessie tells them how she and Fay changed clothes. Looking up the family trees, the likeness of the "twin" kiddies is explained, and, completely won over, Van Loan yields to the men and Hunt is made mine superintendent. Years of dread follow, and just as a report of the other's death reaches him, his foe appears, immensely wealthy and wreaks the vengeance in a spectacular manner.
- After a love triangle results death, St. Elmo falls from grace and is eventually redeemed in this now lost silent film based on the best selling novel by Augusta Jane Wilson.
- Just after Bob's fiancée breaks off their engagement, he meets young Mary, whose mother has just died, and the two of them comfort each other.
- Episode 1: "Fate" This episode tells of an English nobleman banished from home because of his attachment to a girl "not of his class." He marries the girl, comes to America with her, and a child, John Burton, subsequently the hero of each chapter of this serial, is born to them. John grows up, a poor man, working in the steel mills, his only heritage that of "good blood" and its consequent effect on his mental attitude, which, instead of being inert as that of his fellows, is keen and questioning. He is in a way a crude philosopher, seeking answers rather than giving them. He is a leader among his fellows, and persuades them to strike for more money. Mary Temple, his employer's daughter, has been promised a diamond necklace by her father, who now tells her that because of labor conditions, she will have to forgo her present. And Mary thinks of the possible effect of her charm of John, with whom she has a slight acquaintance. She goes to him, and "in the name of suffering humanity," persuades him to send the strikers back to work. John later discovers her selfish motive, is repudiated by his fellow workers, and is about to end it all when he finds he is heir to a title and $10,000,000 and decides to spend his life in an attempt to solve the question "Is Humanity in the Grip of Evil?"
- Dr. Guy Hartwell, a young and wealthy Louisiana physician, was a man of strange personality. Five years previous to the opening of the story he married and bestowed sincere love upon his wife. In return she basely played him false and shortly afterward died. From that moment he was a changed man. Embittered against the world, mankind and even distrusting God, the silent and melancholy man lived on. With the doctor lived his widowed sister and her daughter, whom everyone considered as the heir of the physician's wealth. In the same city lived Beulah Benton, who was sent from the orphan asylum out into the world to earn her living as a servant girl, while her little sister Lillian found a home as the foster daughter of a rich lady. At the orphanage Beulah learned to love Eugene, another inmate, but he, too, was adopted by a wealthy family and sent abroad to be educated. He promised upon his return to make Beulah his wife. Beulah yearned to see her sister, but Lillian's foster parents forbade the two to meet. This affected Beulah deeply, but the crushing blow was about to descend. Lillian fell ill, and in spite of every effort of Dr. Hartwell the younger sister died. Beulah, seeing the crepe on the door, forced herself in and for the first time met the doctor. The kindness of his nature was reawakened by the grief-stricken girl, and he took her to his home, attended her through a serious illness, then placed her in school. But Beulah found her new surroundings far from pleasant. While the doctor as yet refused to trust any woman, he treated her with marked respect and consideration, but his sister fearing that the adopted girl would become the heir instead of her own daughter, lost no opportunity to humiliate Beulah. It was more than she could bear, and at last the girl sadly left the doctor's house and returned to the orphanage, but the doctor, however, brought her home again and provided other quarters for his sister and her daughter, both of whom were wholly dependent upon him for support. The years passed and Beulah's lover, Eugene, returned from Europe, a dissipated wretch, his love for the orphan girl forgotten and his hand pledged to the frivolous niece of Dr. Hartwell's false wife. The physician warned the foolish youth to give her up, pleading with him to remain true to his promise to Beulah, but without avail. It was now that Hartwell realized that he himself loved her and declared his affection. Beulah expressed her great gratitude, but still grieving over her false lover told him that she could not return his affections. Hartwell went North and Beulah became a school teacher. An epidemic broke out and people were perishing by the score. Doctor Hartwell returned to the stricken city. The doctor and Beulah met and side by side they fought the ravages of the disease. Clara Saunders a friend of Beulah's fell in love with Hartwell but becomes a victim of the plague, and with her departing breath joined the hands of the two, and bade them be happy. Through comradeship with Beulah, the doctor's faith in God and Man was restored, and his life made still brighter by her voluntary confession of her love for him. Their marriage followed, and Beulah and her husband fearlessly faced the future.
- Country girl Claire Marley goes to the city to pursue a life of excitement, while her twin sister Ida remains home to care for their aging parents. Immersing herself in life with the fast set, Claire becomes the mistress of wealthy bachelor Roy Vangrift who promises to marry her. After Roy tires of Claire and casts her off, she leaves him to earn a respectable living, but failing at this, returns home. Shortly afterward, Roy goes fishing and makes his camp near the Marley home where he meets Claire's sister Ida with whom he falls in love. Discovering that Roy plans to elope with her sister, Claire - with the aid of the minister - takes Ida's place and the two are married. She then reveals her true identity and Roy, realizing that he really loves his bride, forgives Claire.
- Who Pays? (1915) was a series of twelve three-reel dramas, released between March and July 1915. Henry King and Ruth Roland starred in each episode, playing different roles each time, with a variety of supporting players who varied from one episode to another. Each episode told a complete and individual story, but they were all inter-related by a uniform theme. Although there were no cliff-hanger endings, each episode did, in fact, end with a challenge to the audience: Who was responsible for the misfortune of the principal characters? The titles of the twelve episodes were: #1: The Price of Fame; #2: The Pursuit of Pleasure; #3: When Justice Sleeps; #4: The Love Liar; #5: Unto Herself Alone; #6: Houses of Glass; #7: Blue Blood and Yellow; #8: Today and Tomorrow; #9: For the Commonwealth; #10: Pomp of Earth; #11: The Fruit of Folly; #12: Toil and Tyranny.
- Alice, a little newsgirl known as "Sticks", spends her time fighting for her territory against a lot of tough kids. When Sticks witnesses an attack upon her favorite customer, the wealthy young James Morgan, she tries to defend him and, as a result, they are both knocked unconscious by the thugs and thrown on a baggage car. Awakening in a small town, they decide to stay. Morgan finds a job with the railroad and they take up house in a small cottage until Morgan's father and his sweetheart Ruth Borden discover his hiding place. Overhearing their conversation, Sticks thinks that Morgan is staying just for her and so she leaves him and later is adopted by a wealthy man. Morgan loses all sight of his little pal until years later when he chances to visit her adoptive father's house on business and finds her. Discovering that their strong attachment has endured through the years, the two decide to marry.
- John Cole steals a million dollars from the bank of which he is president, and shifts the blame to his cashier, Don Porter, an innocent man, and Porter is sentenced to a long term of imprisonment. Edith Hilton and her mother, in a far western town have never heard of either John Cole or Don Porter, and know nothing of the effect their little affair will have on Edith's life. Cole goes to the city in which Edith lives, changes his name to Richard Walker, and starts regally to "spread" himself. Edith's mother, with a calculating eye to business, notes the coming of the millionaire, and tries to persuade her daughter to note also, as seriously as she. But Edith feels the call of Youth to Youth, and creates in the heart of Hugh Keene the hope of a great love. Keene is a young broker and does business for Walker. He scents a rival in his customer, and appropriates money not his to cut the dash of a richer suitor. His financial ventures break frightfully, and he is forced to "borrow" from the Sunset Club of which he is treasurer. Urged on by her mother's importunities and Walker's supplications. Ethel marries the millionaire. Walker, suspecting Keene, asks for an accounting, threatening arrest. Keene, knowing he can't pay, and crazed at his loss of Ethel, decides to kill Walker that night. But his plans are spoiled by Don Porter, who has escaped from the prison and made his way to the west. Porter does well the job Keene had laid out for himself. Asked by the Sunset Club for the funds in his possession, and seeing disgrace ahead, Keene finds the path of the bullet "the easiest way." Walker dead, Edith flies madly to Keene's office, turning naturally to him in her sorrow. She finds him seated in his office chair, a revolver at his feet, his face wreathed in a hideous smile. And as she looks at the limp, lifeless figure before her, she realizes that even the price of his honor did not buy for him that one balm for which he sold it. Who Pays?
- Jack and Arthur, two art students, occupy the same room in the Latin quarter of Paris. Arthur loves Lucile, a model, but the girl seeks a wealthy suitor and repulses the artist. Shortly afterward the students attend a masque ball, both dressing as Dromios. While the affair is at its height, M. Durant, representing an American law firm, locates Arthur and the message he imparts to the boy causes the latter to return home. Later in the evening the attorney, mistaking Jack for his client, informs a friend that the latter has just inherited an immense fortune. This is overheard by Lucile, who at once sets her cap for Jack. Arthur returns to America. Jack turns his attention to a bust which he intends to place on exhibition. His model is Yvonne, a girl who secretly loves him. At Lucile's instigation, Jack dismisses Yvonne and substitutes the former in her place. The bust, when completed, is hailed as a masterpiece by the critics. Then comes Lucile's discovery that it is Arthur and not Jack who has inherited the fortune. Wild with rage, she steals into Jack's studio one night and destroys the bust for which she and Yvonne had posed. The woman cleverly contrives to throw suspicion upon Yvonne. Beside himself at the discovery of the ruin, Jack drinks heavily. Upon Arthur's return to Paris, Lucile tries to ensnare him. Later, half-crazed, Jack endeavors to kill the siren. The latter confesses her guilt and goes on her way despised by Jack and Arthur. Faithful Yvonne finally finds happiness in the arms of the man she loves.
- Betty, an orphan girl of sixteen, is abused at an orphanage, and one evening after an unusually trying episode, she escapes. She rides a freight car to a distant city. There she wanders cold and hungry, and at last falls fainting in a park. Francis Seeman, a Raffles, driving by in his limousine, rescues her. He adopts and educates Betty. At the school she meets Gladys, the daughter of a wealthy man, and the girls become very good chums. At the end of the four years Betty returns to Seeman, and then he discloses his purpose in adopting her. She is horror-stricken, but forced by threats to follow instructions. He and Betty go to another city to begin their operations. Seeman forges a letter of introduction to one of the wealthiest men of the town, and thereby gains social recognition. He and Betty are invited to a fashionable function, Betty posing as Seeman's daughter. There she meets Gladys, her school chum and a niece of the hostess. Seeman forces Betty to steal the latter's diamond necklace. A few days later Gladys calls on Betty, and incidentally shows her a beautiful rope of pearls. Just as she is showing them to Betty, Seeman enters. After Gladys has gone, Seeman commands Betty to get the pearls. Betty refuses, and Seeman, enraged, tries to choke her. Betty, frightened, seizes a hat pin and stabs Seeman with it. He falls to the floor. She then goes to the safe and takes some money, and finds Mrs. Mills' necklace. Deliberately she takes the jewels and strews them across Seeman's body, so the public may know who stole them. Betty retires to the country, posing as a widow, and takes a little cottage, as it happens next to the young clergyman, Roger Neville. She and Roger become very good friends, but the villagers disapprove. One day a little boy comes for Roger to go to the bedside of a dying woman. Betty goes along. The woman they find already dead, leaving a boy of four. Roger suggests one of the villagers adopt the orphan, but all the women answer that they already have too many mouths of their own to feed, and to send the child to the orphanage. The picture of what she had suffered at the orphanage rises before Betty, and she begs to take the boy. The villagers sniff and turn up their noses, declaring Betty did this only to make an impression. In the meantime Seeman is taken to the hospital. He lies between life and death, held for the robberies. Seeman at last is on the road to recovery, and determined not to go to prison alone, he tells the detectives Betty is his accomplice, and gives them a picture of her. They begin their search. One day when the papers are delivered to the villagers, they see a picture of Betty on the front page, telling why she is wanted. The minister receives the paper, and reads the article. Upon his persuasion, Betty tells her story. In the meantime the detectives arrive, and the village people are only too eager to show them where Betty is. At the trial Betty tells her story to the judge and jury, and it wins her case, the judge giving Seeman a long term in the penitentiary. Gladys is at the trial, and shows her loyalty toward Betty.
- The only survivors of an annihilated wagon train, ambushed by bandits, are Fowler and his daughter, Teresa, and Hart. Teresa is wounded and Hart leaves them to seek aid. Fowler by chance discovers the famous lost "Peg Leg Smith" mine. This is shown on a map inside a yellow bullet left among nuggets by the miner just before he died. Fowler and Teresa later rescue Hart, who has succumbed to desert thirst. Fowler tells of his find to Hart, who that night steals Fowler's gold, their only canteen of water and abandons them. A scouting party led by Surgeon Lloyd rescues Fowler and daughter. They reach a ranch about the same time that Hart does. Fowler starts out to locate the mine. Hart divines his reason and follows. Fowler has duplicated the map. Hart follows Fowler to the shack. Fowler is bound and made a prisoner. Hart inflicts cruelty to force the secret from Fowler, who determines to die if necessary. A siege of cruelty and suffering follows between Fowler and Hart. Lloyd sets out at the head of a party to rescue Fowler. Teresa later steals away herself to locate her father. She becomes lost. Hart chances to see the searching party make camp. He determines to take Fowler to a more secluded spot. Through a chain of dramatic incidents Hart is killed by Fowler. Fowler, after much suffering, is rescued by Lloyd, who has also rescued Teresa.
- Seductive vamp La Belle ( Lillian Lorraine ) sets out to steal Jack Holmes ( Henry King )away from his loving wife Mary ( Mabel Van Buren ). He foolishly spends every penny on the vamp , leaving his wife almost destitute. La Belle is killed by a jealous suitor and the evidence points to Jack. However, he is given an reprieve by the way of a letter written by La Belle claiming she had intended to commit suicide. Should his wife now forgive him ?.
- Old "Dave" Washburn, the millionaire of Glenn Center, is devoted to his Billie, who is returning from college. He plans to have him go into business with him, but Billie returns and has other plans and the father, though heartbroken, does not oppose him. Nettie Blake, who lives next door, sweet, womanly girl, has loved Billie since they were childhood sweethearts. He goes to the city and marries Katha, a woman older than himself. She has an affair with an artist, Baxley, and Billie becomes interested in the artist's model, Nanine. Things are in a grave condition when Dave decides to visit them. Later he brings Nettie on, and she stays at Billie's home. Through her sweetness, conditions are adjusted, and she saves Billie from murder by a clever strategy. Katha is killed while rescuing a child. Before she dies she tells Billie the truth about Nettie and joins their hands. A year later Billie returns to his home forever.
- Jean Kelly, a reporter, is outside the seashore home of Lynn Morril when a burglar enters. Scenting a story, she waits. Morril surprises the burglar, notes that the man resembles him, and changes places with him, for his aunt and cousin, Lillian, whom he dislikes, are coming on a visit. The new watchman fires a shot at Morril and he flees, dragging Jean with him. Hard pressed, he boards his motorboat. The girl jumps overboard and he tries to rescue her. They are cast upon a small island, from which they later escape on a raft. Reaching home, they find the masquerading burglar in disgrace. He makes a quick exit, and Lynn introduces his fiancée to the guests.
- Through negotiations with the neighboring monarch, the King of Zollenstein arranges for his son to marry the Princess of Saxonia, but later discovers that the prince already has wed Lady Maulfrey Le Fay in secret. The king angrily exiles his son to England but while on his deathbed, calls him back to Zollenstein where Lady Le Fay dies in childbirth. After the prince succeeds to the throne, Boris, his father's illegitimate brother, bribes Betta, Lady Le Fay's maid, to kill the baby boy as part of a plot to overthrow the prince. Instead of slaying the child, Betta hides him and raises him as her own, calling him John Mortimer. When the new king dies in an accident, Boris claims the crown, but the Grand Chancellor, his enemy, meets John by chance and, struck by his resemblance to the Royal Family, declares him the true heir. Boris attempts to discredit John, but Betta produces proof of his heritage. Crowned king, John then marries Princess Zenia, the daughter of his father's jilted betrothed.
- Judge Livingston, a wealthy jurist, lives happily in a mansion with his young wife, Josephine, and his daughter, Eleanor, child of the judge's first wife. Dick Winthrop, the judge's private secretary, is in love with Eleanor, and she returns his affection. They become betrothed, and the judge approves their engagement. Mrs. Livingston, Eleanor's step-mother, buys goods extravagantly at fashionable shopping places, and has the goods charged to her account. Dick receives a letter from a bank, saying that Mrs. Livingston has overdrawn her account $1,100, and requesting settlement without disturbing Judge Livingston. Dick tries to persuade Mrs. Livingston to attend to the overdrawn account, but she becomes angry and resolves to break Dick's engagement to Eleanor. Mrs. Livingston then tells the judge that Dick is not a proper fiancé for Eleanor. Eleanor finds recreation in doing settlement work, attracting the attention of several men engaged in white slavery acts. These evildoers forge a note purporting to be from a poor woman, asking Eleanor to come to her aid in the tenements. Leaving the note on a desk in her home, Eleanor goes to render the aid asked, and when she arrives at the address given, the white slavers seize her and make her a prisoner. Dick accidentally finds the note and rushes to rescue Eleanor, as he feels that the note was forged. Dick arrives at the house where Eleanor is held captive, and, after a desperate fight with the plotters, the men are taken prisoners. Eleanor and Dick manage to return home. The debts Mrs. Livingston owes become pressing; she tries at night to steal funds from her husband's safe, and Dick finds her near the safe. To escape accusation, Mrs. Livingston charges Dick with the theft, and he, to shield her, shoulders the blame in the presence of the judge and Eleanor. The judge believes his wife, and tells Dick he must leave the house forever. Mrs. Livingston then repents, tells her husband she alone is to blame, begs his forgiveness.
- Bethesda Carewe is the spoiled daughter of wealthy indulgent parents. When Mr. Carewe loses his fortune, he plans to replenish his bank accounts by marrying his daughter to the rich Mortimer Hunt. Bethesda refuses to cooperate however, and when Hunt calls at the house, she does everything in her power to repulse him. This only excites Hunt into wanting her more, so he plots with Mr. Carewe to kidnap Bethesda. She is taken into the mountains and held in a cabin until she is willing to admit that she loves the man she is unwilling to love. Hunt then arranges for a gang of desperadoes to lynch him, and to save the man she unwillingly loves, Bethesda declares her love for Hunt and proclaims that she will marry him immediately.
- The greed of Edmund Stark, employer of thousands, brings sorrow to the laborers. Mary Martin, so-called "Mother" to the laborers, appeals to Stark for the people. Stark refuses. She recalls her early romance with him which left a scar upon her heart. Her husband had lost his life in the mills through Stark's inhumanity. A committee of infuriated laborers attacks Stark's home. Mary Martin pleads with Stark to accede to their demands and thus prevent the attack. She finally succeeds in calming the laborers. As she leaves she hands Stark a copy of Poe's "Conqueror Worm," bidding him read the poem, and reflect on the part he is playing in the Drama of Life. Mary leads the laborers away and Stark reads the poem and in a frenzied state of mind sinks into sleep, while the Tides of Time roll before his troubled mind. A group of angels led by Mimes is about to witness a drama. Finding two unborn souls. Mimes launches them upon the Sea of Life, saying that they will go to earth and enact the drama of life. The Tide of Infancy rolls in upon the Sea of Life, and the angels see the home of plenty blessed by Time with a baby boy and into the poor home comes a baby girl. The next Tide shows us Childhood. The poor girl and the rich boy are playmates, while another boy is rival for the girl's favor. The third Tide is the Tide of Youth, in which we see the triangle romance between the poor girl, the rich boy and the farmer lad. As a result of the rich boy's cunning, the girl elopes with him, and there follows a shipwreck and finally the return of the girl, who is turned from her home. Her lover, the farmer boy, saves her life and gallantly makes her his wife. The angels look on with confused emotion while Mimes points out to them the fourth incoming Tide with its struggle, in which we see the two boys starting for war, witness the harrowing scenes of the battlefield, the blowing up of a battleship and wholesale slaughter of men. In sorrow and sadness the angels look on the scene of death, as Mimes points out to them a scene of humanity. The poor boy is seen saving the life of his enemy, the rich young man, carrying him from the battlefield to safety. The fifth Tide is Ambition and shows the rich man accumulating his fortune. The poor man meets a tragic death, while his wife, the poor girl, frenzied in her grief, clambers at the door of the rich man. Stark, who finally gives her bread which she throws back through his window. The angels look on in sorrow as they see the lonely woman prostrate on the grave of her husband. The sixth Tide is Success, and shows us Edmund Stark and Mary Martin as they were at the beginning of the drama. We learn what Success is in ideal and in fact. The last Tide is second childhood, and shows the closing hours of life for the two actors. The death of Mary, surrounded by all that makes unselfishness beautiful. Edmund Stark, driven to a miserable end by his greed, unable to swallow a drop of water. Mimes announces to the angels that the drama they have seen covers eighty earth years, to them a passing scene, and then points to the stream on which are seen returning the principals of the drama the boat guided by Father Time. Mary Martin, an angel in white, joins the happy group while all are stricken with horror as Edmund Stark appears bearing his flaming burden to the edge of a precipice from which he casts himself in despair into the flames of hell Edmund Stark suddenly awakens finding himself with the book in his hand just as Mary had left him. He springs to the window; his works are in flames.
- The Red Circle is a birthmark, on the hand of the heroine, noticeable only in times of stress and excitement, which forces her to steal, leading to no end of complications and intrigue.
- Little Dot Jarvis is tolerated, but not loved, by her ambitious parents, who send her to boarding school so they can move into a fashionable apartment building that does not allow children. At school, Dot is treated so cruelly that she runs away, but a kind farmer takes her to the police station and she is returned to her parents. When Dot's father becomes involved in a scheme to smuggle arms into Mexico, Dot's photograph prevents newspaper owner Robert Chase from exposing him. Repentant, Dot's parents finally give her the love she had so sorely missed.
- Philip Norton's life is saddened by the homecoming of his daughter Laura, a vain widow who thinks more of dress and clothes than she does of her ten-year-old son, Frank. His anguish is quite apparent, as he observes his daughter openly make love to Richard Harding, his trusted secretary. Fortunately for the banker's peace of mind, Harding receives Laura coldly and expresses his preference for Helen, a poor seamstress. Laura finds a notebook that Harding dropped, and learns from it that he and Helen have secretly married. Taking the butler into her confidence, Laura outlines a plan for revenge that will put Harding behind prison bars. A few mornings later, Norton discovers his private safe open and the contents scattered about. Suspicion points to Harding and when a pencil inscribed with his initials is found in the room his doom is sealed. A few months later Helen dies as her baby daughter comes into the world. Fifteen years later a dramatic meeting occurs between Laura and the butler who was her accomplice in the safe robbery. The shock kills Laura who leaves a confession absolving Harding of the crime. Meantime Harding's daughter has grown up as a pickpocket, the tool of some clever crooks. The closing scenes of "The Path of Sorrow" picture the reunion of father and daughter, her welcome into the home of Laura's son, the butler's attempt to blow up the banker's home, and for a climax the butler's confession, clearing Harding's name.
- Mary Jones, better known as Flora De Vore, is a struggling, half-starved chorus girl, in love with Billie Rogers, a chorus man, who has consumption. Mazie Stewart, another chorus girl, is loved by Billie. It is Mary's $50 left her by her mother that sends Billie out west for his health, but it is Mazie he sends for and marries. Mary's life is changed. She is embittered and hard. Three years elapse. Mary is still a chorus girl. She is called "Hard as Nails." Mazie and Billie die, leaving their baby an orphan. Mary hears of it and is elated. That night as she is having supper in the apartment of Thad Jackstone, a man about town, she hears a new-born baby in the apartment above cry and instantly she thinks of Billie and his child. She leaves the apartment and runs into Dr. Fremstead. who is interested in her. On the impulse of the moment, she sends for the child, but when Nancy arrives, she resembles her (Mary's) mother and Mary leaves the home. Later Nancy is taken ill and Dr. Fremstead is called in. Mary again having supper with Jackstone, when she has a premonition that things are not as they should be at Nancy's home. She returns, frenzied, sees Dr. Fremstead and instantly maternal instinct is aroused. She promises the doctor she will take care of the child. A few months elapse and Mary and the baby live in the country in the cottage which her mother left. Dr. Fremstead comes to see them and of course all ends happily.
- Mildred Vandeburg, an heiress who devotes her time to a hospital that she has built in the slums, breaks her engagement to her fiancé, T. Huntington Forbes, because Forbes is only interested in horses and sports. Meeda Jones, a nurse employed in Mildred's hospital, is married to a criminal named Spike, who steals some jewels and convinces his brother Dan to fence them for him. When Dan is killed as the police try to arrest him, his wife dies of shock, leaving their baby girl homeless. To help the baby, Mildred decides to take her to Forbes's home, where she informs her former fiancé that there is a "lady in the library" waiting for him. When Forbes sees the child, he decides to adopt her and devote his time to her, thus curbing his interest in horses. Spike Jones learns about the baby and decides to kidnap her and hold her for ransom, but he is outwitted by Mildred and Forbes. Finally, the happily reunited couple decides to marry and raise the child as their own.
- Elsie and her sister live on a ranch with their father, Robert Duncan, a wealthy city man, comes to stay at their house while on a hunting trip. He becomes infatuated with Elsie's sister and persuades her to run away with him and marries her. Through a telegram, Elsie and her father learn than Duncan is already married and has a child. This news kills the father and Elsie sets out for the city and finds her sister. She tells her that Duncan has another wife and pleads with her sister to return home. The sister, feeling the disgrace, disappears. Elsie later finds her in a hospital as she lies dying and plans to trap Duncan so as to avenge the wrong he has done her sister. She becomes an entertainer at a café which Duncan frequents. Being masked Duncan does not recognize her but becomes quite fascinated and shows her marked attention. Elsie instructs the chief of police that she may soon need his services as a married man is annoying her. One night when Duncan calls Elsie springs the trap she has set for him. She tells the story of her wronged sister and then for the first time tears off her mask and he recognizes her. She holds him off at the point of a revolver, tells him that she has sent copies of his letters to the newspapers, and the originals to his wife, and then telephones to the police who come and arrest him. Elsie then returns to the ranch and the foreman whom she loves.
- While he digs for gold day by day, "The Easterner," a young miner, gambles by night. A woman of the camps, named Moll, takes an interest in him and tries to break him of the habit that is his ruin. He laughs at her, but after she saves his life he promises to quit playing. Kate Gardner, a girl of the west loves him, and she is turn is loved by Bill Turner, a miner. Turner proves to her that the Easterner loves Doris Wendell, daughter of a wealthy land owner. She, with Moll, is instrumental in saving the Easterner's life when he is about to be lynched by a mob at the command of the jealous Turner. Peter Gardner, her father, covets the Easterner's claim and bribes Dick Weed, the gambling house proprietor, to help him get the claim. They attempt to make him gamble, but he is true to his promise. Later he discovers that Moll is his mother, whose passion for gambling he has inherited. Oby, a half-wit. Haunts the camp. Moll and her son try to live respectably after Doris has broken the engagement because the Easterner refuses to disown his mother. But the passion for gambling proves too strong. Moll rushes out of the house to the Hall of Chance. Her son is inveigled by Weed and Gardner into betting his claim. As he loses, Oby snatches away the tablecloth, jumbling the cards. Gardner, in a rage, strikes him down. His memory returns and he recognizes Gardner as the man who robbed him many years before, and shoots him. Dying, Gardner admits that Kate is Oby's daughter. Reunited with her father, she marries the Easterner.
- William Beerdheim Van Broon, the descendant of an old, respected family, works in Tom Tarney's bowling alley in the slums. When William knocks someone out, Tarney foresees William's pugilistic possibilities and starts him in training to fight Buck Stringer, the local champion. Buck's sister Madelyn and his brother Grafton work for Bruce Crosby, whom they plan to blackmail. When Crosby and his sister Eva get a flat tire in the slum district, Buck and his gang insult them until William fights them off. Eva invites William to their home, and they soon grow fond of each other, but after William - fighting under the name of "Brown" - beats Buck in the first round, Crosby learns that William is a boxer and is outraged. Although Eva is also displeased, she stands by William when, after saving Crosby from Madelyn's and Grafton's plot, he is accused by Crosby of complicity in it. After Eva goes to William's home, his family's attorney sees his picture in the news and notifies him of his inheritance of several million dollars.
- Episode 1: "The Woman Alone" Horace Kennedy, a successful lawyer, is drifting from his attentive and loyal wife, Mary, for no apparent reason, save that she is fading and he is losing interest in her. On the charge made by Margaret Warner, a struggling magazine writer, Kennedy disbars Attorney Doyle, contending that as a man must protect the honor of his wife and home, so must we guard our courts from prowling jackals. Because of his masterly handling of the disbarment case, a magazine requests Kennedy to write twelve articles dealing with the subject. Mary, his wife, persuades him against his wishes, to write these articles, suggesting that she will take his dictation on the typewriter. She proves an inefficient helper and the first night on which they work she falls and sprains her wrist, making it necessary for Kennedy to look elsewhere for assistance. Margaret, living in a cheap boarding-house is poor, as her short story manuscripts are returned day after day by the magazines. Desiring to help her Kennedy engages her for the work. Doyle, forced out of his profession, continues his work in the field of crooked-stock jobbing, taking the hard-earned savings of the poor for bogus mining stock. The last night of their joint work, Kennedy accompanies Margaret home, but on their way they are caught in an accident. Kennedy escapes injury, but Margaret faints. Calling to her to speak to him, Kennedy, with Margaret in his arms, rushes to a physician. Is the girl he is beginning to love to be thus taken from him?
- Herbert Randolph, son of a well-to-do country clergyman, becomes engaged to Matilda Rankin, prim, homely, prudish young woman of his home town. He has proposed to her more to gratify his parents than because of any real love for her. His ambition is to be an author. He finishes his first novel and carries the manuscript to the city to a publisher. The editor of the publishing house to which he first submits it turns it back, telling him that his characters lack reality and naturalness, and calling special attention to a passage in which he portrays the lover experiencing his first thrill of love by kissing the heroine on the forehead, which is the limit of Herbert's own experience. Jane Conway, a reader in the publisher's office, has seen Herbert and becomes interested in him, believing that he has talent. She takes it upon herself to call upon him and offers to assist him in revising his novel, and he very gratefully accepts her assistance. She learns of his engagement to Matilda, sees her picture, and realizes not only that Herbert does not love her, but that with such a woman for a wife he can never hope to succeed in a literary career. Matilda and her mother come to the city, and Jane determines for Herbert's sake to break the engagement. Jane has an apartment below that of Herbert's in the same house, and while he is out one evening with Matilda and her mother, she gets into his room and places cards, chips, wine bottles and a pair of her gloves and slippers about the room. Herbert brings Matilda and her mother back to his apartment for some refreshments, after their evening's outing, and the two woman discover the suspicious evidence of a gay life that Jane has placed in the room. The two prim women are shocked. Matilda, ignoring Herbert's protestations of innocence, gives him back his ring and she and her mother depart in great indignation. Jane, who has been watching the scene outside the French window, falls into the room. Herbert accuses her of the plot, and she admits it, much to Herbert's amazement. Later she comes back for her things, finds him on the couch, and kisses him, and runs out. Herbert has been sensibly falling in love with Jane and this kiss in his sleep awakens him to the full realization of his feelings, and under this inspiration he revises his story and does it so well that it is promptly accepted. Jane in the meantime, fearing that she has gone too far and that she has offended Herbert, makes it a point to avoid meeting him, not realizing that he has fallen in love with her as she has with him. When he receives the letter from the publisher telling him of his acceptance of his manuscript, he takes it to Jane to thank her for her share in the good luck. He finds her asleep in a chair, and kisses her, thus revealing to her his love for her.
- A child, Mary Sunshine, filled with a desire to play with other youngsters, was forbidden to do so by her mother. But one day Piggy, a young negro child, appeared over the top of the fence and the temptation was too great. From that day on, Mary was given to running off with Piggy. As punishment for her first offense, she was sent to bed without supper, but neither her father nor mother could sleep when they realized that Mary was hungry, so they caught each other bringing food to the youngster. On a nearby estate lived Daniel Graham, rich, alone and grouchy. To him came the awakening when he heard the laugh of a child. Looking over the fence to locate the laugh, he found Mary and Piggy encouraging a chicken fight. From then on, day after day, the child visited him and brought cheer to the big mansion, which had never known the sound of childish laughter. On the off days, when not at the big house, Mary and Piggy ran wild for ways in which to make passersby lose their seriousness and smile. Not aware of the friendship of the child for the rich man, Mary's father, in order to make up for foolish ventures on the stock market, attempted to rob the big house. This same evening, Mary remained at the house after her birthday party given her by Daniel Graham. Being restless in her sleep from so many good things to eat, Mary started downstairs to frighten her friend, but instead she walked in the big room just as her father was in the midst of his attempted wrongdoing.
- The story tells of the hardships of a factory girl whose father, a man of despicable character, uses the girl's small earnings to purchase liquor, thus depriving her of many of the necessities of life. Comes a time when his drunkenness is the cause of his death. The girl's chum, at one time employed in the same factory with her, but now a cabaret entertainer, obtains for the girl a position in the same place. The young doctor who attended her father at the time of his death, loves the girl, and learning of her whereabouts from Spike, one of the girl's admirers, a tough but good-hearted character, he becomes a nightly visitor at the café. Later, he asks her to become his wife, but she refuses, pleading illiteracy. A vicious millionaire bachelor who frequents the café notices the girl, and learning that she is unsophisticated, asks her to come to his home, where he promises that his wife shall look after her future. She is saved from the fate which many girls had met at the hands of the millionaire, by the ever-vigilant Spike, who had been on the alert to guard her against such men as this. The picture ends charmingly with the girl wistfully accepting the second time what she refused, and so wanted, the first.
- Nor, a half-breed girl, is beloved by Jacques, a French Canadian. Jacques and "Killer" Joe have a fight over her in "Killer" Joe's gambling hall, and Nor separates them. Meanwhile, Cedric Ralston, the younger son, leaves home in England, his fiancée having broken her engagement with him to marry his elder brother, Lord Ralston. He goes to the Canadian Northwest and there meets Nor for the first time, while she is defending Loco Ike, accused for cattle stealing. He admires her greatly and takes side with her. Later, he discovers the real cattle thief, "Killer" Joe, and is shot by that gentleman. Nor discovers him and carries him to her cabin. Jacques is the only one who knows the truth and though realizing Nor loves Cedric, he defends him. Later, Nor and Cedric are married, and on the day of their wedding, Cedric hears of his brother's death and he goes to England, taking Nor. She is very unhappy and longs for her mountains and Jacques. Cedric falls in love again with his brother's widow Margaret. At a ball one night, Nor overhears Margaret and her husband talking, hears his declaration of love and his resolve to have Margaret. Overjoyed, she goes to him and says she will leave him and he may divorce her. When he refuses she tells him she loves Jacques. In the end she returns to her mountains and to Jacques.
- Bernice becomes an heiress by her sudden inheritance of a fortune and throws four ambitious men of doubtful ages into consternation. They invade her home with heartrending proposals, each armed with a diamond ring. Bernice, taking a hint from her overindulgent father, accepts them all. She then escapes to the beach home of her aunt, leaving Dad to adjust matters. He disposes of the heart-breakers by declaring that his daughter has run away, owing to mental breakdown brought about by the unusual excitement. Jimmy Morris, a reporter, gets a line on the affair, loses his job and goes to his mother's home at the beach, chagrined and disappointed. Jimmy meets the heiress, believing her to be a maid, which belief she strengthens. While fishing, Jimmy plots with his supposed 'maid' to get the heiress's story about her strange suitors. Jimmy promises to divide the fee for the scoop. Jimmy and his 'maid' have a startling romance, all of which is disturbed by the coming of the heiress's parents, who decide to take her home. Jimmy confesses his love to the heiress, though believing her to be a maid. The heiress at last finds herself in love. Bernice at home, tells her father of Jimmy. Father, who is a silent partner in the newspaper company, orders Jimmy installed in a good position. The four heartbreakers, startled at the return of the heiress, gather at her home. Her plea of disinheritance and demand that her suitors fight duels for her hand, cause their departure in dramatic fashion, while Jimmy, coming to meet his 'maid,' finds he has won the heiress.
- A former Annapolis cadet is thrown out of the Naval Academy for cheating on an exam. Of course he was framed, but he must enlist in the Navy to clear himself. Meanwhile he and his sweetheart search for a buried treasure on Lost Island, which everyone is after.
- A father's strict upbringing of his beautiful but innocent young daughter may backfire on him when he finds she is being pursued by a lecherous cad who is determined to take her virtue.
- Jane Dwight possesses an overactive imagination and spins romantic tales in which she is the heroine. When oil is discovered on her father's farm, young millionaire James Thornton comes to purchase the land, is attracted to the tomboyish Jane, and offers to send the girl to boarding school. A year later, Jane returns home from school posing as a grand dame, hoping to please Thornton. But Jane's airs have the reverse effect because Thornton is disappointed in the change that has come over the tomboy he once knew. Consequently, Jane dons her calico dress and hides in Thornton's car. Upon discovering his tomboy once again, Thornton orders his chauffeur to drive to the nearest justice of the peace.
- Judge Hoover, who presides over a small county court in the middle west, is a man beloved by all and metes out justice according to his lights. One day there comes to him an orphan. Myra Wilson, homeless and charged with delinquency. Moved with pity for the poor girl, the judge orders her sent to his house, over which a spinster sister reigns. The girl is just tolerated by the sister and everything possible is done to make Myra feel uncomfortable. Later, Hoover is elected State Senator and forced to go to Washington. He then sends Myra to a boarding school, feeling that she will be treated better there than at home while away. But the girls of the school soon learn of Myra's court experience, and such is the chaffing she receives that she leaves the institution and hurries to the Capital to her guardian. Big-hearted Hoover wires for his sister to come on at once to take charge of the apartment he has taken. while, the Senator has been "rushed" by a crowd of lobbyists anxious to secure the passage of a certain bill in the Senate. It is their idea to catch Hoover in a compromising position with Marie Straska. a female lobbyist, and they bend all efforts in this direction. The Senator is about to prove a willing victim when Harry Lentham, a suitor of Myra, learns of it and arrives at Marie's house in time to prevent trouble. Later, Myra, who kept secret her love for her guardian, discloses it to him, and he is overjoyed, having thought that Lentham was the man in whom she was most interested. The spinster, of course, turns up her nose, but what care the happy Senator and Myra?
- Carol, a young and attractive woman, is recognized as a great painter. Her life has been rather commonplace, particularly in light of the fact that she is of a nature that craves excitement and adventure. She tells her fiancé that she is tired of the monotony of society life. She wishes a man for a husband, a man who can hold her by force. Their engagement is broken. Chance throws her in the way of a band of crooks. They hold her up for her pocketbook and she is stopped in her pursuit of them by their leader. Her anger toward him changes to interest as she recognizes in him a handsome specimen of manhood and realizes that he would make a wonderful subject for a painting. She persuades him to pose for her. A young inventor is showing much progress with a new explosive. He discovers his Japanese servant about to steal his plans and discharges him. Meanwhile Carol has discovered a growing infatuation for this man of the slums. It frightens her, but she finds herself passionately drawn to him. He tells her of his life and she asks for a glimpse of it. He takes her to the slums (she disguised as a bowery tough) and the rough life fascinates her. She craves for it more and more and finally becomes a habitué of the lower world, always in company with this man. One day she expresses her desire to see a real holdup. One is planned and the inventor's father is chosen as the victim. The police have been warned and in the fight that follows both the inventor's father and the crook are killed. Carol escapes in the taxi in which she came, changing from her disguise to her regular clothes while in the machine. She then jumps out, boards a car and thereby evades the police, who later find her discarded disguise and hold it as a clue. Carol, for several months after the affair, is ill, and while convalescing, meets the inventor. Months before he had met her at a ball, and since that time, has been ardently in love with her. He now tells her of his love and she responds after a time. In going through his laboratory he explains to her his inventions and shows her a little switch which, if turned, would destroy the house and all in it. Wishing to keep no secret from her, he produces her old disguise and explains that the woman who wore it was the cause of killing his father, he has sworn that she shall suffer for her crime. He is called to a neighbor's phone, his own being out of order. Carol is left alone in the house. The discharged Japanese servant has been watching and now sees his chance. He enters, points a revolver at Carol and starts to pick up the plans. She requests him to drop the papers. He refuses. She puts her hand on the switch and turns the power on. An explosion follows. The Japanese servant meets instant death. Carol dying, points to him. Her lover understands and she dies in his arms.
- Mabel Merritt receives a letter from her chum, Lillian, requesting her to procure her jewel-case which she had left at home, and hastens away on her errand. John Macklyn, once a wealthy man but now reduced to the lowest dregs, resorts to burglary to eke out an existence, and, spotting a house to rob, he gains access to it. In the meantime Mabel arrives at Lillian's home to procure the forgotten jewels for her friend. While searching for the jewels, she hears suspicious sounds, and is horrified to be confronted by Macklyn, the burglar. She leads him to believe that she is also a thief and that she is there for the same purpose that he is. He confesses to her that it is his first attempt at burglary and tells her the story of his dissipated career. He inherited the business of the Macklyn Safe Company from his father, and he wasted his competence in riotous living. He became engaged to a young lady, but her love also was soon sacrificed for his love for strong drink, thereby wrecking both his own happiness and the girl's. Soon after that he was forced to close down his business, and his effects were sold under the hammer. Being then forced to seek employment from others, his task proved futile. Mabel listens to his story with absorbed interest, and her sympathy for him is aroused, and she is overcome. Recovering her mental poise, and while he has gone to get her a drink of water, she 'phones for the police. He returns with the drink and suspects that she has 'phoned for help. Repenting for her duplicity, she determines to let him escape before the arrival of the police. In the meantime, by a strange coincidence, the house is burglarized by other crooks, who are unfortunate enough to fall into the hands of the police. Seeing in this an opportunity to be generous to Macklyn, she averts suspicion from him by telling the police captain that he is her personal friend. She determines to play the reformer further, and through her efforts and interest she procures a position for Macklyn. He determines to make good, and by honest and conscientious efforts succeeds in firmly entrenching himself in his new position. Accompanying Mabel to a reception at the home of mutual friends, Macklyn comes face to face with his sweetheart of bygone days. The old love is awakened in her, and she pleads with Macklyn to come back to her, but he is obdurate. It is not the same with Mabel, however, for a deeper love is rooted in their hearts, and they determine to blot out the past in the light of their new love.
- Bob Seaton, paymaster of the Tomboy mine, is in love with Dot Cory, daughter of the owner. Buck, one of the foremen, admires Dot, but she repulses him. One Day Buck forces his unwelcome attentions on a miner's daughter and Bob gives him a sound thrashing for his effrontery. This angers Buck, and he and some of his accomplices plan revenge on Bob. Accordingly they hold up the paymaster and drag him to a deserted house in the woods, where he is securely bound and gagged. After a hot game of tennis with her brother Jim, Dot decides to don his riding outfit and take a spin in his roadster. While spinning over the mountains at a good clip, the car skids and is smashed. Dot being thrown out and rendered unconscious. Regaining her senses, she goes for help and while passing the apparently deserted house, hears voices within. She peers through a crack in the wall and sees her lover bound and gagged. She then rushes back to her car, but is unable to fix it. The conspirators accost her in her plight and she is carried off on horseback to another deserted house and locked up. She finds herself a captive and learns, to her horror, that snakes infest her prison, and throws Jim's cigarette case, which she finds in the coat pocket, at the reptile. Later her captor comes back for her and is bitten on the leg, but fails to notice the wound. He is taking her to the prison where Bob is kept when the venom takes effect and he is thrown from his horse. Dot then wheels the mount and dashes for town where she telephones her brother of her plight and that of Bob. Jim jumps into the Cory touring car, in which his mother has just returned, and gathering help, goes to Bob's assistance and releases the paymaster from his captors. The men at the mine become uneasy at the absence of their pay envelopes and Bob, Dot, and the rescuing party receive a hearty reception when they come into camp. Bob and Dot are married later, but she doffs her brother's riding suit and dons the "conventional white."
- Nora, or the tomboy, as she is called, lives alone with her dissolute and drunken father in an old tumbled down shanty. Father is killed in a fight by Jim Lopez and afterward when Lopez attempts to make love to the Tomboy she threatens to kill him. She meets Tom Avery, a well-groomed, wealthy college man, who is the silent owner of Bar Z Ranch, and Tom becomes interested in her. She applies for a job cowpunching after her father's death and after argument gets it, and proves herself as good if not better than the men. Meanwhile Mrs. Byrne Grahame, a wealthy society woman living with her daughter, Lillian, and son, Harry, traces her brother (Nora's father) and Nora to Red Gulch and sends the attorney for them. Nora wanders out one night and encounters Lopez, he makes violent love to her, and the girl, furious, takes out her gun and shoots him, thinking she has killed him. Tom coming on the scene takes her home and goes back to look for Lopez. Morson, the attorney, arrives meanwhile and Nora goes away with him, leaving only a note for Tom. She fully believes she has murdered Lopez. Two years elapse and Nora returns to her aunt's house, a polished young woman. Harry falls in love with her but on the evening Nora is presented at the ball, she meets Tom, who is Lillian's fiancé. They fall in love again but it is Nora who says they must break it off because of Lillian. A few weeks elapse and one day at the country club, Nora in her polo togs, sees Tom again. A wild horse, a mankiller, is brought out and Nora decides to ride it. Tom, in anguish, forbids her to ride it, confessing publicly his love for her. Lillian overhears it and is furious. Nora, however, catching Lillian's look, brings the whip down on the horse and it seemingly runs away. Tom, of course, as Nora expected, pursues her. At a safe distance she slides off the horse and when Tom comes up, he finds her lying face down and thinks she is dead. As he flings himself down beside her, she starts laughing and explains her ruse. He gathers her in his arms and they hide behind a tree trunk, like two mischievous children while Lillian and Harry go past them. Of course, happy ending clinch, etc.