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- Enemy agents under the leadership of "Emanon" conspire with pacifists to keep the American defense appropriations down at a time when forces of the enemy are preparing to invade. The invasion comes, and New York, Washington, and other American cities are devastated.
- A gypsy seductress is sent to sway a goofy officer to allow a smuggling run.
- Three acts and a prologue. Act 1: A nation falls. Act 2: The heel of the conqueror. Act 3: The uprising two years later.
- When a couple of swindlers hold young Alice Faulkner against her will in order to discover the whereabouts of letters which could spell scandal for the royal family, Sherlock Holmes is on the case.
- An imperious Egyptian princess awakens from a 3000-year trance and wreaks comic havoc in the modern world, but it all turns out to be the dream of a young man, inspired by a mummy left in his care overnight.
- William Skinner is very pleased with the news his wife Honey is expecting their first child. He eagerly prepares for the new arrival, as he is sure it will be the next William Skinner Jr. When the bundle of joy finally arrives, much to his surprise, it's a girl. However, Honey and William are just as happy as if she were a he.
- Edgar Allan Poe, while at college, incurs many debts and is sent home in disgrace. He is ordered from the house by his father. Shortly after, he marries, and tries to make a living by writing, but is a failure financially. His wife dies because he is unable to furnish her with even the bare necessities of life. He is plunged into great grief and despair. All night he sits brooding over his loss. Through his distorted imagination he sees the ominous raven enter his chamber and croak gloomy forebodings. The spirit of his wife also appears and finally he himself dies, and is wafted to heights supernal, where he is united with his "Lenore."
- A scientist who is married to an amoral woman lives next door to a happily married couple. At first envying their happiness, the scientist eventually falls in love with his neighbor's wife. When her husband goes on a business trip to Africa, the scientist also goes abroad to avoid temptation but finds himself sailing from Cairo aboard the same ship as his neighbor's wife, who is traveling to join her husband. The ship is wrecked when it collides with another vessel, and the two are marooned together at the edge of the jungle, with the woman suffering from amnesia and mistaking the scientist for her husband. About to kill himself to save the honor of his neighbors' marriage, the scientist is saved by the return of the woman's memory and by the subsequent arrival of her husband. Electing to remain in the jungle, the lonely scientist toasts the couple's happiness from afar.
- A grandmother has an adventure for the first time in her life when she decides to have a night out.
- Who stole "The Millionaire Baby?" Did the plotting Doctor Pool finally accomplish his bold determination? Did Valerie Carew, former Burlesque Queen conquered by Mother-Love seize an advantageous opportunity and steal away her loved one? Did Marion Ocumpaugh have knowledge of Gwendolyn's disappearance? Did Justin Carew, finally recognizing his wife and desiring a reconciliation, see the light and kidnap his own child?
- James Warrington, a successful architect, is fortunate in the possession of a happy home presided over by a loving wife and gladdened by the presence of a fine young son, Jerry Warrington. When the morning newspaper is thrown into the home carrying in staring headlines the news that war has been declared, the husband hides the newspaper and goes to his office. Frank Archer is a partner of James Warrington, and when Warrington reaches the office. Archer informs him that he, Archer, has determined to enlist as a volunteer. Archer tells Warrington that he, too, should enlist. Warrington hesitates, thinking of his wife and little son. Then his duty confronts him and he agrees to join a volunteer regiment with Archer. Then comes the first note, of sadness, for Warrington tells his wife that he has enlisted. Archer lives with his little daughter, Mercy, in a house adjoining that occupied by the Warringtons. He and his daughter call at the Warrington home. There Mrs. Warrington pleads with Archer to remember his little daughter and to remain at home, but he answers firmly that it is his duty as well as Warrington's duty to go to the firing line. The bugler sounds the "assembly" and the regiment which includes Warrington and Archer, marches away and Mrs. Warrington watches with tear-dimmed eyes. Time passes. Battles have been won and lost, and father's all too brief notes to little Jerry and his mother cease. Then one day Archer arrives home. He has lost an arm. His little daughter Mercy is overjoyed that Papa has returned home again. Archer calls on Mrs. Warrington. As little Jerry and Mercy play together in the yard, Archer tells Mrs. Warrington of the heroic death of her husband. Later the newspaper headlines declare that peace has been restored. Seventeen years pass, and Jerry has grown to young manhood and Mercy has blossomed into a beautiful young woman. Their childish affection has grown apace and they are sweethearts. Again comes the morning paper into the Warrington home. Mrs. Warrington reads the fateful headlines stating that after seventeen years of peace, war has again been declared and that invaders have landed upon our coast. The dawn of despair comes to the loving mother. She resolves to hide the newspaper from Jerry. But bulletin boards everywhere confront Jerry, and they state that volunteer regiments will be equipped immediately to go at once to the front. At the office, Jerry tells Archer, "It is my duty to enlist." He repairs to his home to tell his mother. She reels when she hears the news. She goes to her husband's portrait: "I lost him in war. I cannot lose you, too, my boy. Promise not to enlist." But Jerry's determination is unshaken. As war takes its toll, Mercy goes to the front as a Red Cross Nurse, while at home Jerry's mother creeps to the attic and fondles the toys belonging to Jerry when he was a child. One day Mercy Archer returns. With her father she goes to Mrs. Warrington's home. Mercy, too, tells a story just as her father told one seventeen years before. And as Jerry's mother sits gazing grief stricken into the fireplace in her cottage, oblivious of the comforting arms of Mercy, there comes a vision of a great battleship firing a broadside of guns which later dissolves into a great threshing harvesting machine at work, implying peace and industry.
- This silent film presents drama to prevent a train from falling from a damaged railroad bridge.
- Mr. Jack was never interested in things artistic until he discovered one Dottie, oh, so sweet, and an artist's model. Of course, Jack makes it his business to call at the studio as often as possible, to see a picture which Pazzini, the artist, is making of Jack's son, Albert. The latter has also been bitten by the same bug as his father, and is madly in love with Dot. After Albert was supposed to be back in college, when his vacation was over, he was still visiting Dot, at the studio. On one of these occasions our Mr. Jack also entered, and he in turn, has to hide when his wife comes in to look at their son's picture, cuts out the face, and sticks his own face through the opening. Mother isn't satisfied with the color of her son's nose, so Pazzini obliges by adding a little red, and is rewarded by having a strong set of molars close on his index finger. Jack is discovered by Albert, squares matters by announcing his engagement to Dottie. The gay old Lothario in kissing his prospective daughter-in-law, deposits a streak of red on her cheek from his nose, and almost starts another light, but things are finally smoothed over, and Jack is ready for a new adventure.
- Aunt Ray Innes leases Sunnyside House, the country home of Paul Armstrong, and invites her nephew and niece, Halsey and Gertrude Innes. En route, the young people stop at the Greenwood Club to take Jack Bailey, the intended husband of Gertrude and cashier of the Armstrong Bank. Halsey appears in time to prevent a fight between Jack and Arnold Armstrong, son of the banker. At three o'clock in the morning a pistol shot awakens Aunt Ray, who summons her servant, Liddy. They are joined by Gertrude, and the women discover that Halsey and Jack are missing. Investigations disclose the lifeless body of Arnold Armstrong lying at the foot of the circular staircase. Mr. Jarvis, who had been summoned from the club, recalls that Jack and Arnold were bitter enemies because of banking affairs. The next morning Mrs. Watson, the housekeeper, appears suffering from an injured arm, which she explains she sustained in falling down the circular staircase. Frank Jamieson, the detective, on the case cannot trace Jack, and when Halsey Innes returns he refuses to say why he left. Then the newspapers announce that the Armstrong bank has failed; that the cashier has been released under bond; that Dr. Walker, who has accompanied Paul Armstrong to the west, has wired that the banker is too ill to travel, and that securities aggregating a million and a quarter are missing. Aunt Ray searching for Tom, the butler, comes upon Louise Armstrong, daughter of the banker, who was supposed to be out west with her father, at the Lodge. Dr. Stewart, the family physician, attends to her. Dr. Walker wires that the banker has died, and that his summer home must be vacated as the body will arrive soon. But Aunt Ray refuses to leave on such short notice. Louise is not apprised of her father's death, and as she leaves for her mother's home she tells Aunt Ray to leave Sunnyside House, as she has forebodings for its future. Mrs. Watson's injuries develop into blood poisoning, and she is taken to a hospital. As Tom, the butler, sits in the Lodge one night, he sees an apparition and drops dead of fright. Dr. Walker warns Aunt Ray to leave the house before she regrets it. Again she refuses. Several nights later as Halsey and Alex, the new gardener, are keeping watch over the circular staircase, the stable catches fire, and the men rush to give assistance. Meanwhile the women are terrorized by the movements of a strange object outside. Halsey disappears and a tramp with the missing man's watch on him is caught by Detective Jamieson. Upon being questioned, he says that he found the watch under the freight car into which had been thrown Halsey, bound and gagged. Mr. Watson, who is dying, tells Aunt Ray that when she was carried to the lodge by Tom, the butler, she found Louise Armstrong ill and that she (Mrs. Watson) was struck on the arm by a golf club by Arnold because she refused to give him the key to Sunnyside House. Mrs. Watson returned to the house and when she was ascending the circular staircase found that Arnold was creeping up behind her and shot him. Gertrude learns from Halsey, who is in a neighboring hospital, that Paul Armstrong, aided by Dr. Walker, looted his own bank, and that is why Louise left her father. Meanwhile the casket containing Paul Armstrong's body is exhumed and when opened it is found that the corpse is not that of the banker. Aunt Ray discovers a secret room and upon investigating she is locked in by the door automatically closing upon her. Here she is found by Paul Armstrong that night. The sight of him frightens her and her cries bring the detective and Alex, the new gardener, who break open the door as Armstrong escapes by another secret passage. He slips down the circular staircase and is killed, and Dr. Walker is taken into custody. Alex removes his disguise and reveals himself as Jack Baily. A cash box containing the stolen securities is found in the secret room by Jack, and as Aunt Ray comes into Sunnyside House she finds Louise and Halsey in a loving embrace, and Jack and Gertrude in a like attitude at the bottom of the circular staircase.
- A young woman chooses to enter the convent after losing her lover.
- Robert Carrolton Jinks and his companions form a marching club to boost the presidential campaign for General Grant. They design fantastic costumes and set the club in an uproar when they appear in them. Jinks is made captain of the marching club and dubbed "Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines." While discussing plans for the campaign Jinks sees a bill poster pasting up a great placard announcing the coming of Madame Trentoni, a famous opera singer. Jinks and his two friends decide to go to the boat to meet her dressed in their marching uniforms and accompanied by a band, just for a joke. Jinks bets $1,000 with his friends that he can make love to her. The boat is an hour late in docking and the band leader discovers that he has been playing his music for nothing. He becomes angry and the entire band adjourns to a nearby saloon for drinks. Jinks and his friends go with them. Reporters who have gone to the boat to meet Madame Trentoni fear that if Jinks and his band are present at the arrival of the boat it will interfere with their interview. So they bribe the band master not to play. Jinks and his friends arrive at the boat late, having been delayed by a violent argument with the band master. They finally discover Madame Trentoni, however, and Jinks falls madly in love with her. She has great trouble with the customs inspector and Jinks pulls out a roll of bills and hands it to the official. He is immediately arrested for attempted bribery and taken to jail. He finally is released on bail and goes to call on Madame Trentoni, who is stopping with her foster father. She is as much in love with him as he is with her and the courtship progresses rapidly. Jinks tries to call the bet off with his friends, declaring that it is an insult to Madame Trentoni. They refuse to listen to him, and he finally agrees to pay the bet, giving them a card reading "I.O.U. $1,000 for the bet regarding Madame Trentoni." The two friends are also much taken with Madame Trentoni and attempt at various times to see her. She refuses to have anything to do with them. This makes them angry and they decide to get even with Jinks. They tell her foster father that Jinks intends to marry Madame Trentoni for her money only. He refuses to believe it until shown the "I.O.U." when he flies into a fit of rage. He tells Madame Trentoni and she then refuses to see Jinks. Jinks finally discovers why she is angry and after several unsuccessful attempts to see her gains admittance to her apartment and tells her the facts of the case. She throws her arms about him. As they are in this position a detective enters the room to arrest Jinks. His bribery case had come up in the court the day before and he had forgotten to appear. Trentoni tells the detective that she and her sweetheart have had a tiff and want a chance to make it up. Her pleading, with the promise that Jinks appear in court the next day, wins the detective's assent. The two then embrace and everything ends happily.
- Helen Steele, who has theatrical aspirations, has been told by Sidney Parker that, owing to her lack of stage experience he cannot entertain her proposition of giving her the leading part in his new production, "The Siren." Believing that she can get Parker to consent if she is persuasive enough, Helen has her fiancé, Henry Tracey, invite the theatrical manager to the party to be given by John W. Cannell so that she may work upon him. At the affair Helen manages to obtain Parker's consent to give her a trial it she is successful in having Jack Craigen, a friend of Cannell, who has been living in Patagonia for a long time and who is a woman hater, propose to her. Helen works her wiles upon the adamant Craigen and finally elicits a proposal from him. The guests in the next room, who have been listening, come out at the critical moment, and congratulate her. Craigen demands an explanation, and he is told that it is all a joke. He refuses to accept the incident in such a light, however, and makes preparations to leave for his home in the mountains. At this juncture. Tracey, who had been called out of town on important business before the commencement of the party, returns. When told of Helen's episode with Craigen he becomes very angry and upbraids her. Tracey then goes in search of Craigen, whom he does not know, and mistaking Keen Fitzpatrick, a reporter, who has been waiting in the next room for an interview with Craigen on Patagonia, for the man he is in search of, he starts to pour a scathing indictment upon him. The guests hear the tirade and inform Tracey of the identity of the man to whom he is speaking. Meanwhile Craigen, having packed his belongings, is leaving in his auto. As he is passing the back entrance, Helen jumps in front of his auto and tells him that, inasmuch as he does not know anything about women he should adopt the Patagonian savage method and carry her off to his home where he could study her. He puts her suggestion into effect and Helen is carried off in the auto to his home in the woods, where he brutally orders her about. She attempts to escape, and Craigen chains her to the floor. While he leaves her for a moment to put his car into the garage, "Boney," an escaped lunatic, makes his way into the cabin. He styles himself Napoleon Bonaparte, and raves about his armies. As he is swinging his sword about the room, Craigen appears, and by diplomacy succeeds in getting "Boney" upstairs to review his armies where he is locked in a room. Craigen returns to Helen. His back is turned to her and she knocks him unconscious with the telephone. Taking the keys from his pocket, she releases herself and escapes into the woods. Craigen recovers his senses and, finding the note Helen left informing him that she feels sorry for her action and has gone for help, fears for her safety, and goes out in search of her. During his absence Fitzpatrick, who was trailing, arrives. On searching through the house for Craigen, he comes upon "Boney," whom he takes to be the man he is searching for. He demands to know where the girl is, but "Boney" only raves about his armies. The two are just on the point of clashing when Craigen returns. He reveals his identity to the reporter, and tells him that Helen has fled into the woods. The asylum keepers trace "Boney" to Craigen's home, and take him away. Tracey, who has also been following, arrives at the cabin and confronts Craigen with a revolver. He demands Helen or his life. Craigen manages to convince Tracey, after an argument, that Helen has fled into the woods. Helen has seen Tracey's car going in the direction of Craigen's home, and fearing trouble, makes her way back. She arrives just after Tracey has left. The other members of the house party arrive to take Helen back, but she refuses to leave Craigen.
- Surgeon Crisp announces to his student doctors and friends that he has solved the problem of limb-grafting, and shows proofs. Among those deeply interested is Mortmain, a friend of Dr. Crisp's. Mortmain is a gentleman of leisure and collector of rare art subjects and is heavily in debt to his friend, Cordon Russell. He is warned of that debt by Russell's lawyer, a friend of Mortmain's. While Russell at first has no desire to call in the loans, when the two men become rivals for the affections of Russel's ward, Bella Forsythe, things change. Knowing the weakness of her brother, Tom, Russell gives the latter a chance to fall into trouble, hoping to turn that fall into his own advantage. Tom falls into the trap and Russell uses this fall against Bella, who has become engaged to Mortmain. Meanwhile, Mortmain is told he is completely ruined by Flynt, Russell's lawyer. He curses Russell and his declaration that he would like to kill the man is overheard by Flaggs, the clerk of Flynt. Mortmain is informed of the murder of Russell, also that the police are after Tom Forsythe. Mortmain faints and in falling injures his hand terribly. Dr. Crisp informs him he must lose his hand and suggests he get another man's hand to graft upon the stump. He consents and Crisp finds a man who will give his hand, it is Tom Forsythe. During the operation Tom dies. Dr. Crisp has recognized Tom and keeps the news from Bella. Mortmain regaining consciousness after the operation, sees an uncanny vision of Flaggs and learns that Tom Forsythe, who gave him his hand died in the operation. He finally awakens from his terrible dream to learn that Tom is alive and well, and that the real murderer was Flaggs' while Mortmain's hand is his own.
- The son of a gardener on a millionaire's estate is treated cruelly by the wealthy man, who one day strikes the boy across the lad across the face; enraged, the young lad kills his tormentor. He manages to escape suspicion in the murder and soon he starts to believe that since he has gotten away with murder, he can get away with anything. However, he soon learns differently, as he begins to see the face of the man he has killed everywhere he turns.
- Margaret Fowler is a daughter of the city. Her mother, mean and avaricious, ground down to poverty, is willing to sacrifice her daughter's happiness and love for wealth and position. The girl longs for the beautiful things of life. Prompted by her own mother's pleadings, she turns her back on love. But her heart is pure and she shrinks back in horror from the lure of evil when it confronts her, although it wears a golden mien. She sees behind the mask of the man who pretends he wishes to befriend her. But she knows not which way to turn. Her sweetheart, however, unknown to her, steps in to protect her. Through the aid of a good woman he succeeds in saving her. She discovers at last that happiness lies only with the man she loves.
- The Pasha's servant Mohamed, is entrusted to guard the Sacred Carpet of Bagdad with his life. In New York, after banker Arthur Wadsworth forces his brother Horace to give up his inheritance, Horace joins a band of crooks and plans to rob the Wadsworth Bank by tunneling from the adjacent home of antique dealer George P. A. Jones. The gang follows Jones to Egypt and Bagdad, where Horace steals the carpet and sells it to Jones. Fortune Chedsoye, the innocent daughter of a gang member, falls in love with Jones. When Fortune discovers that Mohamed plans to kill Jones to retrieve the rug, she hides it with her mother's belongings. Mohamed forces Jones, Wadsworth, and Fortune into the desert, but they escape his torture during a sandstorm. Wadsworth then rejoins the gang at Jones' home in New York. When Fortune and Jones catch the crooks tunneling, Jones, sympathetically, gives them a two hour head-start before informing the police. Fortune and Jones keep the carpet, while in the East, Mohamed bows in resignation to Allah's will.
- Urged on by his wife and daughter and against his better judgment, Texas cattle-baron Maverick Brander, finds himself in Washington D. C. as an elected congressman. However, when the Brander family arrives in Washington, they are met at every junction by snobbery and ridicule. Then an investigative committee arrives from Texas to check up on how Maverick is representing their interests.
- The sole survivor of an Indian massacre, a baby called Jack Trail, is raised in the shadow of an overhanging eagle's nest by the Silsbees, two immigrants. Meanwhile, Geoffrey Milford, the partner of Jack's deceased father, forges his signature to use money from his property. Years later, Milford's partner, Robert Blasedon, desiring to marry Milford's daughter Rose, who rejected him, seeks to recover the papers and force the marriage. After Jack saves the Milfords and Blasedon from a runaway coach, Mrs. Silsbee, while trying to protect Rose from Blasedon, is killed in a scuffle. Accused of the murder, Jack, who now loves Rose, saves her from Blasedon, but Rose marries Blasedon when he threatens to kill Jack. After Blasedon steals the forged papers, Jack pursues him through the mountains until their struggle ends in Blasedon's fall into a ravine. When Milford learns of Jack's origin, he offers the papers, which Jack declines, saying that Rose is all the wealth he wants.
- Esther dreams she is a fine lady, beautifully dressed, and being wooed by Captain Jingle and Count Espanol.
- Howland is a trapper and is supremely happy with his wife, Jeanne, and son, Robert, in their cabin in the north. Blake, a trader, also married is traveling to the nearest trading post. Out with Robert for a sled ride, Jeanne runs her sled into a snow slide, and, but for the timely assistance of Blake, both would have been killed. Jeanne escapes unhurt, but Robert suffers injuries which necessitate an operation. While Howland takes the boy to the nearest doctor, Blake is left to look after Jeanne. In the lonely nights which follow, Blake wins her love and when Howland returns with his son, now recovered, he finds the cabin empty. Howland vows to be avenged on Blake. After some time, the latter tires of Jeanne and leaves her to return to his lawful wife. At home, he finds his three young sons in tears over their mother's death. Sorrowful now for his treatment of Jeanne, he returns to the cabin where he left her but finds that she has already gone. Twenty years later, Howland, now a lieutenant in the Northwest Mounted Police, tells his son, also a mounted man, of the sorrow which Blake caused him, and Robert joins his father in renewing a vow of vengeance if the scoundrel still lives. When Howland sees Blake by the side of a murdered man, an opportunity for revenge presents itself, and though he knows that Blake did not commit the crime, he succeeds in having him convicted. In escaping from his guards, Blake is fatally shot. In Blake's cabin, his three sons hear of their father's death and against the admonitions of David, the other two set out to repay Howland. After killing the latter and stunning Robert, they take to the trail to escape. Robert, with two other men, is detailed to track them. When the brothers separate to baffle their pursuers, Robert follows David, but is so spent when he finally catches up with him that he is helpless to capture him, and falls exhausted in the snow. David ministers to him, but when he recovers, through the other's efforts, Robert insists on a duel to square their account. Though reluctant to fight with one with whom he has no quarrel, David is unable to withdraw with honor. As they are preparing for the fight, a weak cry of distress is heard, and they both answer. Running in the direction from which it came, they find a gray haired woman, lost in the wilderness with her two daughters and dying from lack of nourishment. They unite for the protection of the trio and take them to the home of a nearby trapper, where, during the night, the dishonest trapper and his associates bind the two men and prepare to attack the women. Following their brother's trail, the other two Blake boys are just in time to chase the villainous band and rescue their victims. Then the brothers recognize Howland and bitterly denounce him for sending their father to his death. But Robert halts them by telling the story of how the elder Blake brought dishonor on his mother. After hearing the names of her rescuers, the old woman steps into the breach and tells Robert that she is Jeanne, his mother. After a touching reunion, she tells him of her aimless wanderings since she left his father and explains that the girls are not her daughters, but have been treated as such since the death of their mother. Both Robert and David did not remember their unfought duel, but the friendship which had sprung up between them, while they fought side by side for a woman's protection, prevents them from drawing guns on each other.
- Fearing former suitor James Armstrong, Louise Newbold accompanies her husband William on a trip to the Colorado Rockies. While riding a mountain trail, Louise and her horse fall over a high cliff. Her injuries are so severe that she begs her husband to kill her to end her suffering, and, out of love, he does so--and blames Armstrong for being the instrument that drove Louise to take the dangerous trip. Five years later, Armstrong meets Enid Maitland and falls in love with her, and they go on a camping trip with several acquaintances. While out fishing, Enid is caught in a sudden violent storm and is rescued by a mountain man: William Newbold, who has become a recluse. But the snow imprisons them in his camp for the winter. The spring thaw brings Armstrong and others searching for Enid, and Newbold recognizes Armstrong as his old enemy.
- Gloom overcasts the palace of Count Selim Nalagaski, governor general of Morovenia, Turkey. All efforts to make the count's elder daughter, the Princess Kalora, fat, synonymous with beauty in that country, have failed. Popova, the Princess's tutor, devises a terrible revenge because the count called him a Christian dog. He feeds the princess pickles to keep her thin. The beaux of the country pay assiduous court to the Princess Jeneka, the younger daughter, but the laws of the country forbid her marrying before her elder sister. As a last resort the count orders the slim princess to stuff her clothing with pillows and invites all the dandies to a garden party. But they are deceived. They try the weight of the princess and find her as light as a feather. Coming uninvited to the party is Alexander H. Pike, an American millionaire. He falls in love with the princess and comforts her by showing her pictures in a magazine, proving that in his country slim persons are considered most beautiful. But Pike is discovered by the count's slaves and barely escapes with his life. He returns to America. The count finds an advertisement in a magazine Pike had dropped in his flight, which promises to make thin persons fat. He sends the princess to America to try the cure. T'here she meets Pike, who renews his courtship. But the impatient count learns from the ambassador that the princess is getting no fatter and orders her to return. Pike follows. The young American then visits the court, tells the count he is Grand Exalted Ruler of a fraternal order, a Knight Templar and King of the Hoo Hoos, and asks for the hand of his daughter. The count, much impressed with the titles, consents, especially after he finds that it is the slim princess the American loves. The cloud of gloom is lifted from the palace and Pike prepares to leave with the princess for America, where she can have all the varieties of pickles to suit her taste.
- Count Ludwig von Leun-Walram, a German army officer, meets Marguerite Clairon, an actress, while at a watering place on the border line of France. She falls in love with him and reveals her feelings. He rejects her in such a kindly way that she only loves him the more. Later, the count meets Marcelle de Lembach, daughter of a French general, whom he had known in childhood. He falls deeply in love with her. While he is still courting her, however, war breaks out between Germany and France and he is called back to his command. Marcelle is intensely patriotic and goes to the front with her father. She leads a troop of soldiers against a German scouting party when the officer is killed. She is captured by the count, who sends her safely back to the French lines. Paul D'Arblay, a spy, is one of the suitors of Mlle. Clairon, whom she hates. He swears that he will get her into his power. She joins the French army as a Red Cross nurse. On the battlefield she finds the count wounded and nurses him until he is almost recovered. She then arranges to send him back to his command. Arblay discovers this and threatens to denounce the count as a spy unless she yields to his wishes. She consents in order to save the count, promising to meet him at the home of her aunt nearby. He goes there that evening and finds her dead. She has kept her promise, but takes poison rather than submit to him. The count meets Marcelle after the war is over and they are betrothed.
- To keep his social-climbing wife and daughters in the lifestyle they are accustomed to, wealthy John Hunter makes some large investments in the stock market, but the stocks crash and he loses a great deal of money. When he discovers that his son-in-law Dick Sterling has lost $3 million making investments in his name, Hunter kills himself. His wealthy aunt offers to bail the family out, but on the condition that the money she gives must be under Sterling's strict control. Complications ensue.
- Miss Olivia Martindale, at a dinner, announces: "There is no longer any romance in American life," and immediately arouses a storm of protest. Nevertheless, she describes to the assembled company the days of old when men had to scale the heights of hazard to win their women, adding that that is the way she would wish to be wooed. That evening, while strolling in the grounds, a muffled figure steps out, seizes her, and forces her into a waiting racing car. At the Bermuda Apartments. The Unknown unmasks and proves to be a handsome gentleman in immaculate evening clothes. He quietly escorts her to a chair, hands her a police whistle and a pistol to reassure her, and begs her to listen to what he has to say. He bids her call up her anxious relatives and simply tell them she is safe, asking them to come and get her without the police. Attracted by the man's magnetic personality and the glamour of the adventure, she obeys him. Then he tells her how he had seen her in the far west, how her face had been his guide through all the rough gold mining camp life, and now that he had wrested his fortune from those hills he had come east to meet her. His narrative takes them right up to the present, then as the girl, swayed by overpowering emotions, arises, he pleads his suit eloquently and passionately until she surrenders, and he sees in her eyes the dawn of love. Sweeping her into his arms, he kisses her, just as the door bursts open and Mr. Martindale and the others enter. Olivia calmly introduces "Mr -er-er" (she has to ask the gentleman his name) Billy Williams, the well-known millionaire, to her speechless papa as her fiancé.
- Far away, in the timberlands of the North, where the purity of woman is placed above all else, lived Josephine Adare, a kind, honest soul, whose face plainly bore an expression of deep sorrow and anxiety. Up to this, God's Own Country, came a man, Philip Weyman, to spend a year in that region. The man meets the woman and falls in love with her. He begs her to confide in him her great sorrow, which he sees she is constantly thinking of, but she tells him that she cannot do so. Seeing that he is persistent, and really anxious to help her, she asks him if he would be willing to follow her wherever she goes, doing whatever she asks of him, asking no questions and with the hope of no reward but her undying gratitude. Owing to his great love for her, he consents, knowing that he will be working for a just cause. Through the long, bitter, northern winter, he travels with her, knowing neither where he is going nor what he is going to do. To aid her plans, they are married, but it is a marriage in name only. She then takes him to the home of her father, John Adare, a rugged woodsman, where she tells him to pose as the father of an infant which she shows him. For a moment, his faith in her wavers, when he sees the child, but his manhood conquers and he determines to stand by his promise. Then, on one eventful day the infant dies. After the baby's death Philip notices unusual activity about the camp, and suspects that Josephine's enemies are about. Though he knows not who they are, he longs to fight them, but Jean Croisset, Josephine's half-breed protector, who has also been assisting her in her trouble, tells him that he can do nothing but wait for orders from her. He is tempted to cast caution to the winds and search for them himself, but his better judgment prevails and he realizes that he must be satisfied with anxiety and inactivity. Josephine's ferocious wolf-hounds have grown to love Philip as they love their mistress. These terrible beasts, though born for fighting, have big hearts in their savage breasts, and at a word from one whom they love, would tear an enemy to pieces. One day, Josephine, who is known throughout the neighborhood for her kindness and love of children, is called to another village to tend a sick child. Jean follows to protect her, and Philip trails him with the dogs. Philip learns that she was kidnapped by Lang, who, Jean tells him, is responsible for all her troubles. Philip rouses all the honest woodsmen in the neighborhood, who love Josephine for her kindness, and they set out to rescue her. They also enlist the aid of a tribe of Indians in their cause. After traveling for some time, the rescue party traps the villainous gang in its lair, "Devil's Nest." Here Lang and his gang barricade the doors and windows and prepare for the attack. A battle ensues, and Lang's followers, seeing they are being beaten, try to escape but find themselves hemmed in. In the midst of the battle, Jean is shot, and, knowing he is about to die, calls Philip to his side. He tells him how, a year before, Josephine's mother had fallen into Lang's clutches while her husband was away, and of the birth of the child, which Josephine had claimed as her own to shield her mother's honor. The story told, the faithful half-breed dies, with a parting injunction to Philip to kill Lang and destroy the incriminating papers in his possession. During a lull in the fighting, Lang tries to escape through a window with Josephine. His action is seen by Philip, who rushes over to protect her. In the struggle which follows, Lang manages to gain the upper hand, and reaches for his knife to end Philip's life. Seeing his danger, Josephine releases the dogs, with a command to kill. As though they knew the sorrows of their mistress, the shaggy beasts leap upon the struggling forms, single out Lang and kill him with their merciless fangs. Philip informs her that he knows all, and that she need no longer fear for her mother's honor, as he has destroyed the papers. She tells him that she has always loved him, and Philip looks forward to a happy future, in God's country with the woman of his choice.
- Former college football hero Kirk Anthony, to the disappointment of his father, a railroad magnate, refuses to enter the business world. Kirk prefers to coach the university team and carouse, until he is drugged during a drunken victory party and put aboard a steamer bound for Panama by an embezzler who switches clothes with him. During the trip, Mrs. Edith Cortlandt, who has married her diplomat husband for convenience, falls in love with Kirk. In Panama, Kirk and Allan Allan, a Jamaican friend, are arrested when Kirk's efforts to use American firefighting methods cause a riot. After Mrs. Cortlandt's influence gets Kirk out of jail and into a job, he falls in love with Chiquita Garavel, the daughter of a Spanish grandee. When Mrs. Cortlandt warns Kirk not to marry Chiquita, her husband overhears. He insults Kirk in public, and Kirk vows revenge. After Cortlandt commits suicide, and Kirk, who has secretly married Chiquita, is arrested, Mrs. Cortlandt withholds Cortlandt's suicide note, but Kirk's father arrives and convinces her to help arrange Kirk's release.
- Young and athletic John Peabody is sick of city life and visits his uncle's lumber camp and is put to work, although his uncle will not recognize him as a nephew. But after John wins a lumber-sawing contest and subdues a drunken brawl among the lumberjacks, his uncle, "Wolf" John, is pleased and announces him as his nephew and as a future partner. John falls in love with with Belle, and adopted daughter of his uncle. Another lumberjack, "Bull" Bart is also in love with her. "Bull" quits and goes to work for a rival company where he plans to sabotage John's work on the big King Pines job, which would forfeit "Wolf" John's rights to the timber. However, all of "Bull's" efforts are for nothing, and he challenges John to a gunfight duel in the street.
- David Whiting belongs to a fine old aristocratic family of the south and is an officer in the United States Army. He believes in the Union and he is opposed to slavery. When the Civil War breaks out he frees his personal slaves and joins his regiment to fight for the north. His brother, Walker, is an honorable man, but hot-headed and impetuous, the opposite of his brother. He joins the southern army fighting against his brother. Edith Whiting, the sister, and her parents are extremely bitter over David's defection. The play opens shortly before the Civil War, when David is visiting his home with a friend and brother officer, Jack Spencer, who is engaged to Edith. Edith quarrels with Spencer over their differences in principles and returns his engagement ring. David is in love with Ruth Tyler. During the war the Whiting family, deserted by the slaves, have a hard time to make ends meet, and borrow from a professional money-lender, Thomas Spicer, giving mortgages on their property. Spicer is anxious that his son be recognized by the better class of people. He is ambitious for him to marry Edith Whiting. Edith always spurns him, even though word reaches her that Spencer has been killed. After the war David, now a colonel, returns to his home town with his troops as military commander of the district. He pays off the debts on the plantation and saves his sister from further humiliation at the hands of Spicer. A few days afterward Spicer is found murdered. Walker Whiting is found leaning over the body. A gun belonging to Walker is found by the man's side. It is well known that there was bitter feeling between Walker and Spicer, so he is arrested and accused of the murder. It devolves on David to court-martial and try his own brother. However, Rufus, a slave, confesses he killed Spicer because he once horsewhipped him. Although David had done all of this and much more for his family, had restored order and saved the residence from great humiliation and outrage, both his family and all his old friends are still cold to him. The sting of victory comes when the woman he had long loved, Ruth Tyler, rejects him and throws herself into the arms of his brother. David has won the fight for his principles, but lost the girl.
- When Vivien and her husband, Pierce, come Into their new home, she comes face to face with her husband's secretary, Bolles, and a shadow is cast over her happiness. Bolles is a dope fiend, supported by the charity of his half-brother, McGregor, a man of splendid character, and holds over Vivien and McGregor the fear of scandal because of a trap he had laid for Pierce and Vivien, by which he succeeded in compromising them. McGregor meanwhile meets and falls in love with Alicia, Pierce's young sister, and Bolles, also being in love with her, threatens to reveal everything, in revenge. Through a peculiar combination of circumstances, Bolles, one night half crazed by the drug, shoots Alicia by mistake, and McGregor, to protect Vivien, who was at his home at the time of the shooting, confesses he is guilty. Pierce does not believe his friend is guilty and quietly investigates, confident that McGregor is shielding someone. He learns that it is Vivien, and heartbroken, he refuses to listen to her explanations and determines on a separation. Rolles, whose mind is giving way, sees the trouble he has wrought, and worried over Alicia's condition, which is serious, kills himself. Then the whole story comes out and, receiving proof of his wife's innocence in both instances. Pierce begs for forgiveness, and the two are reunited in complete understanding and love. Alicia recovers slowly, and McGregor is her constant attendant. Eventually the two find happiness when he declares his love, and they are married.
- The Earl of Clanranald, obliged against his will to attend a meeting of conspirators against King James (II) of England, is arrested. His death warrant is signed by the King and dispatched to Edinburgh by Sir Harry Richmond of the King's Bodyguard. Lady Katherine, the Earl's daughter, dresses up as a highwayman meets and later holds up the King's messenger. She receives a sword wound in her shoulder, but secures the warrant and burns it. Upon hearing her story, Sir Harry promises to do all in his power to secure the release of Lady Katherine's father.
- Crooky, Convict No. 9999, decides he needs a vacation, and, eluding the vigilance of his guards, escapes from prison in a barrel. About the time Crooky gains his freedom, Bob Roberts, a wealthy rancher, arrives in New York on a vacation, bearing a letter of introduction to John W. Dough, a Wall Street magnate, who is financiering a big railroad deal. Dough needs money with which to further his operations and Roberts comes prepared to invest. Calling on Dough at his office, he is refused an audience with the Wall Street man, the letter of introduction finding its way into the pocket of the financier's chief clerk. Crooky, in the meantime, has secured a suit of clothes, which he dons over his prison garb. In wandering about the city, he meets Roberts and the two form a mutual admiration society and start in to celebrate. The rancher in displaying a huge roll of bills, arouses the cupidity of his new-found friend and Crooky finds means of conveying them to his own pocket. Roberts, who does not seem to mind the loss, resorts to his checkbook and Crooky innocently asks him to sign several of the checks that he may see how it is done. The two finally engage a room in a fashionable hotel. In the morning, Crooky is the first to awaken and dressing himself in his roommate's clothes, leaves his prison suit in their place. Dough receives word from his broker that $50,000 is needed immediately to protect him in the deal and the financier is at his wits' end as to how he can raise the money, when Willis, his clerk, rushes in with the forgotten letter of introduction. The two frantically call up hotel after hotel until they locate Roberts. Willis jumps into a machine and breaking all speed laws arrives at the hostelry as Crooky is about to leave. Mistaking him for the Westerner, he bundles him into the waiting auto and whisks him off to the house of his employer, where Crooky is treated like a king. Finally, Dough, plucking up courage, makes a "touch" and Crooky hands him a signed check to fill in the amount. Meeting Susan, Dough's old maid sister, Crooky begins to flirt and then carries on a little love-making with her until he meets Miss Dough, to whom he transfers his affections. Between the two women and Dough, who touches him frequently, Crooky is having the time of his life when he gets a scare from seeing the prison guards, who are in search of him. They question Susan, who recognizes a picture of Crooky in his prison suit, but refuses to tell his whereabouts. She makes up her mind that unless she secures a husband at once, she must give up all hope, and determines to marry Crooky and reform him. At a reception in honor of the engagement of Dora Dough and Willis, Susan plans to elope, and gains Crooky's consent by disclosing the fact that she is aware of his identity. When Roberts awakens and discovers his friend has flown, he commences to raise a disturbance. He is arrested and on finding the prison suit left by Crooky, the officers hold him as an escaped convict and place him in a cell. He finally proves his innocence and, learning there is a "Col." Bob Roberts at the home of Dough, divines that it is his former friend and induces the officers to accompany him there. They arrive on the scene when the ball is at its height. Crooky instinctively senses danger and makes his escape. Roberts, in Crooky's striped suit, and the officers follow. Seeing that it is impossible to escape capture, Crooky makes for the prison, where he is caught at the entrance by Roberts, who makes him exchange clothes at the point of a gun. Crooky once more in convict garb knocks on the prison door and is admitted just in time to avoid being ill-treated by the male members of the party who have discovered his theft of Susan's rings. Once more behind the bars, he feels safe, and, coming to the window of his cell, gives his pursuers the laugh.
- Mouroff's aim is bad; the bomb which he threw at Karatoff, the butcher, explodes harmlessly many feet away. Karatoff's son Paul, puts spurs to his horse, and chases the nihilist. The latter is elusive, but Paul trails him and enters a house after him. Once inside, Valdor, another nihilist, stuns Paul with a blow from his club and carries him to his apartment. Valdor would willingly let him die from loss of blood, but Sophie commands him to heal the wound. This, at first, puzzles Valdor, coming as it does from Sophie Karrinini, leader of the nihilists and one who has ample reasons to hate Karatoff and his kin, but in an undertone, she explains. The sight of Paul Karatoff rouses to her mind vivid recollections of the scene, years before, when Paul's father compelled her to stand helplessly by, while her father was tortured to death, and her mother had died from the effects of the gruesome sight. Now what is the one little life of Paul Karatoff? She can find better ways to strike at the butcher's heart, by allowing him to live. Paul returns to consciousness, and Sophie gives him her most tender care. She listens, apparently horrified, to his tale of the attempt on his father's life. Soon, he is well enough to be moved, and is returned in safety to his father, cherishing in his heart, a love for Sophie. He asks her to be his bride. This being the first step in her plan, she readily consents. Karatoff's son the husband of a nihilist. But then their child is born, and with the boon of motherhood comes the realization that she loves Paul more than the cause. Having heard rumors of his wife's affiliation with the nihilists, Paul confronts her with the evidence and she confesses. He leaves to expose her, but is waylaid and stunned by Valdor, who throws his apparently lifeless form into the ice of the river. Mouroff, on the way to the market, finds the body, and seeing signs of life, takes it home with him. When Paul awakes, his memory is gone and Mouroff brings him up as a nihilist. Valdor returns to Sophie and tells her that the police have killed her husband. Five years later while traveling in England under an assumed name, Sophie meets Sir Richard Stanhope, an English nobleman, and they become interested in each other. Karatoff captures a nihilist messenger from whom he learns of a meeting of the band, and being unknown to the members, he takes the place of the messenger. He meets Richard, to whom he is known, and explains the reason for his assumed name. Mouroff receives the call to the meeting and takes Paul along. At the meeting Mouroff recognizes and denounces Karatoff and the true identities of all are established. While Karatoff is greeting his son, a shot is fired, intended for Karatoff, but it kills Paul. The police rush into the place and arrest all present, including Richard who had just appeared on the scene. Little Jack, Sophie's son, is now a Prince. His pleas for his mother's freedom are finally granted by his grandfather, Karatoff, with whom he returns to Russia to fulfill the duties of his heritage. Sophie now leaves her nihilistic tendencies behind, as she travels, in peace, at last, to England with Richard.
- Miss Cornelia Alster, a wealthy spinster, secretly makes George Swan, a poor lawyer's clerk, executor of her estate. That night, she goes to a theatre and returns home unexpectedly, discovers her two wards, Beatrice and Linda, in what she thinks is an affair with two men. As a matter of fact, Linda is fighting Keith, the butler, who is using some knowledge of her to force her to give him money. Beatrice is entertaining her sweetheart, Allen Longstreet, a young inventor. Miss Alster waits in her room, determined to see who the men are. The next day she is found murdered. Trask, a noted detective, is put on the trail. He runs down five clues, the last leading to the criminal. It is a baffling story and an unexpected denouement. The criminal is in the cast. Which one do you think committed the crime?
- To the town of Tombstone, in which Goodrich Mudd is known as the "Blacksheep," comes a burlesque company headed by Lida, a captivating woman. Mudd, the sheriff and Underdog, who works a mining claim in Tombstone and who is the boon companion of Mudd, compete to win the charmer, and in order to raise money with which to entertain Lida, Mudd, whose daily occupation is that of lolling in a hammock, plays a game of cards with the sheriff. During the game the manager of the theatrical company also takes a hand, but loses considerably. The money the manager takes from the company's cash box which is fastened to the treasurer of the company, who is handcuffed to the bedstead. Mudd takes Lida to dinner, and when he is far under the influence of wine, the burlesque queen hoists the $19 worth of fried chicken and other delicacies in a basket to the girls in the room above who have not eaten a thing for several days. But Tombstone's omnipresent bad man is always on the job, and when he sees the basket full of eats going up, he empties the contents into the cash box, which he had previously discovered and from which he had abstracted the balance of the company's receipts, lowers the box into its original place and "beats it." The theatrical manager cannot pay the hotel bill, so the proprietor attaches the wardrobe of the players, leaving them nothing but their stage costumes. Subsequently a lawyer arrives from Chicago, who tells Mudd that he has been left $2,000,000 by his aunt who recently died, and that he may obtain the fortune if he complies with the provisions in the will which are: (1) he must live in the Mudd mansion in Chicago; (2) must acquire culture; (3) must place a wreath on his grandfather's grave; (4) must get married to his cousin, Ada Steele, within 99 days; (5) if Ada refuses to marry him, he must marry someone else in 99 days; (6) to decline the terms the money will revert to his other cousin, Percy Vere. Great is the consternation of all present at the reading of the will when Mudd refuses to abide by the terms, and it is only when the crowd threatens to kill him that he finally agrees. He goes to the Mudd mansion in Chicago and takes all his friends with him. The lawyer informs Percy and Ada of the terms of the will, and as these two young people are engaged to be married, Ada contrives to get the fortune by "stringing" Mudd along until the last day when she will flatly refuse to marry him. It will then be too late for Mudd to get a wife, and the millions will go to Percy. Then he and Ada will get married. Percy and Ada go to the Mudd mansion, and Mudd tries to make love to Ada. She blows a whistle, which is the cue for Percy to come to her assistance, but he does not appear, for he has been captured by two female burglars who find upon him an incriminating letter from Ada Steele. The burglars offer to return the letter for $100,000. Some time later Ada and Percy are walking in Lincoln Park when they observe Mudd trying to put a wreath upon the spot in the lake where his grandfather met death by rocking a boat. He also recognizes the female burglars nearby, and tells them to kidnap Mudd until a certain time has passed when he (Percy) agrees to reward the burglars. They comply and Mudd mysteriously disappears. The time for Mudd's marriage is near at hand. Fearing that Percy may not live up to his word, the female burglars decide to watch him, and their suspicions are confirmed when they hear him say to Ada that the millions will soon be his and "The Spiders," whom the female burglars are called, can go hang. In revenge "The Spiders" give orders to release Mudd, who arrives at his mansion at 11:53. "The Spiders" are there, too, and they flaunt the letter found in Percy's pocket, revealing its import, and adding that Ada's absence proves that she has turned Mudd down. Mudd doesn't become alarmed, for he, at the last minute, marries Lida, who has always loved him.
- Prince Oscar of Ostrau, about to marry a princess from a neighboring country to please his father, King Gustave, is saved from that fate when an uprising causes the princess to leave. After Prince Oscar indulges in a dalliance with a burlesque actress in London, England, King Gustave arranges for his American friend, Peter Hart, to take Oscar to the U.S., where Oscar marries Peter's sister, Isabelle. The wedding news, coming as the king returns to the throne, causes him to send his chief of police, Baron Hagar, to have the marriage annulled and return the prince home. After Peter, Isabelle, and Oscar escape from the baron, they discover an unemployed clerk, Barry Lawrence, who looks just like Oscar. They give him $1,000 to lead the baron off their trail, but when Barry's sweetheart, Shirley Rives, thought to be Isabelle, is endangered, Oscar reveals himself to the baron and refuses to return. He then renounces his claim to the throne and becomes an American citizen.
- Matthews Brainerd, a wealthy contractor and head of a grafting political gang, has formulated a plan for a great scoop from the City Treasury in the form of the forging of city warrants. This is hanging fire, however, because his chief minions, McGrath and Williams, have been unable to find someone who would be willing to stand trial for the crime for a sum of money. The stool pigeon is eventually found in the person of Frank Pierson, a clerk in the Warrant Office, who is betrothed to Helen Knight, but their marriage has been many times postponed on account of his inability to improve her condition in life. Tempted by McGrath and Williams, Pierson agrees to stand trial for the crime for the sum of $50,000, with the understanding that after serving a few months in the penitentiary the ring will exert its influence to have him pardoned. A meeting occurs between Pierson and the gang, and instead of a cash payment he demands five notes for $10,000 each, and these he entrusts for safe keeping with Mrs. Varrick, his lodging housekeeper, until such time as he shall be discharged from prison. But the gang decide that in order to secure their own future safely their victim must be kept out of the way, and three years elapse without anything having been done toward the release of Pierson. He writes to Helen to interest herself in his case, and at the same time makes his story known to General Ruggles, editor of a great reform newspaper, who has been for some time conducting a bitter fight against the ring, and both seek to have the case reopened through the district attorney. This is no less a person than Brainerd's son-in-law, John Stratton, elected to the office through the influence of Brainerd and his gang. After many attempts to secure an interview with Stratton, Helen interests him in her case, with the assistance of his wife, and Stratton decides to bring Pierson before the Grand Jury to prove his allegation that he was the victim of a plot. To keep Helen from being tampered with by the agents of the gang, she is made a visitor in the Brainerd home, and while there receives a letter from Frank Pierson, telling her to proceed at once to Mrs. Varrick's, secure the papers which will prove his innocence, and deliver them to the district attorney. The ring is plunged into a lever of dread lest its members be exposed through the efforts of Ruggles and the district attorney, and the most desperate plan of action is determined upon. McGrath is entrusted with the duty of expunging the pages of the trial from the court records, while Williams is sent to Sing Sing to "get to" Pierson. But the district attorney has given orders that no one is to be allowed to see the prisoner without an order from him, and in lieu of an interview with Pierson, Williams secures from the letter clerk of the prison a copy of Pierson's letter to Helen giving the address of the house where the incriminating papers are concealed. Helen arrives at the house before him, however, secures the papers and takes them to the Brainerd home. Here Brainerd succeeds in convincing her that the district attorney's purpose is to see that Pierson is not to be released. She entrusts the papers with him and he burns them in the fireplace. Full of the conviction that Stratton is Pierson's enemy and Dot his friend, Helen refuses to give her evidence to the Grand Jury, and on Pierson alone devolves the onus of giving the only testimony that can clear him. He tells the story of his agreement with the gang, and when Brainerd's name is mentioned as being the head of it, he collapses in the court and is taken home in a dangerous condition. McGrath is arrested for having tampered with the court records; Williams departs for Canada, and Brainerd finally confesses that Pierson has been the innocent victim of a cruel plot. Now the crushed and broken "boss" pleads for mercy, but even his own daughter cannot bring herself to see him cleared at the expense of her husband's honor, and since Brainerd's death seems only a matter of a very short time, his arrest and trial are left for future consideration.
- Brought up in idleness, Geoffrey Manning is one of the most self-complacent individuals possible to imagine. His hardworking father often reprimands him for his laziness, but he only laughs, until a young social "uplifter" gives him a verbal jolt that sets Geoffrey to thinking. The result is that, taking only Mathews, the family lawyer, into his confidence, Geoffrey tells his father he is going hunting indefinitely, and disappears from his little world. In a cheap suit of clothes, and with very little money in his pockets, he sets out determined to make his own living unaided. What a rude awakening he experiences. No training, no experience, he finds himself unable to secure a job, of no use to anyone. Finally he gets work tearing up the street with a rough gang, and although he is strongly built, the work almost kills him. But he is game. Then he gets a job in the big steel mills, the very one owned by his father. Under an assumed name he goes steadily up the ladder of promotion in the huge forge room. Becoming interested in labor troubles. Manning has become a popular leader among the men, who go to him for counsel in all their troubles. Meanwhile he has met and fallen in love with Harmony Laurie, a pretty music teacher and a girl of sterling character. He rescues the girl from a fire at the mill, nearly losing his life. On his return to work he finds the men on the verge of striking, and as their old leader, takes up their grievances in person with his father and "boss." His lather, on learning his identity, is overjoyed and makes him superintendent of the mills. Then Geoffrey secures justice for the mill workers. He marries Harmony, allowing her to think him a poor man until the very day he brings her into their beautiful home.
- While traveling by train from Denver to Washington, DC, wealthy young Grenfall Lorry meets a beautiful young girl. When they are accidentally left behind in a mining town, they race through the mountains and finally catch it. They travel to Washington and have a great time, but they soon part. They meet again later in the small European country of Graustark, where Grenfall and his friend Harry rescue her from kidnappers, and they then discover that she is actually the country's Princess Yetiva. She is engaged to Prinze Lorenz of Asphan in order to pay off Graustark's enormous debt from the war, but Lorenz is murdered and Grenfall is framed for the crime. Complications ensue.
- Realizing the folly and superficiality of society, Madeline Mischief, in the spirit of a wager, claims she could choose at random any man from the streets and make of him in a very short time a leader of society. Her friends laugh at her, but she determines to prove her contention and places one-half of a $100 bill in an envelope with a note reading: "If the finder of this is a woman, give it to the nearest man; if a man, call at Room 1798, Clarion Hotel, at once, for the other half of enclosed bill." Hanlick Smagg, a burly coal-heaver, finds the envelope and, after some hesitation, goes into the fashionable apartment house, still carrying his shovel. Then follow many amusing Incidents of Hanlick's introduction to society as a sociologist, for, although Hanlick proves very tractable, he is like a bull in a china shop. However, a barber, haberdasher and the necessary accoutrements of a gentleman convert Smagg into a very passable type, but his temporary breaks are only put down as eccentricity, for is he not studying the life of the "submerged tenth"? When he passes upon a painting, all listen breathlessly, and under Madeline's coaching he soon becomes a social lion. But the inevitable follows. Hanlick falls in love with Madeline, and Dolly Van Dream, her friend, falls in love with him. But Hanlick breaks up threatened complications by reverting to the old type and going back to the "submerged tenth," and coal-heaving. Finally he gets a job at the steel works, turns out a valuable invention and gains a fortune. Now a genuine man of the world, he once more meets Madeline, who has never forgotten him, and the joyful outcome is that he elopes with her, without opposition in the old caveman fashion and romantic way.
- There's a tradition in a certain section of England that the unwed eldest daughter in a family must wear green stockings when a younger sister gets married. Celia Faraday is forced to do that once, but when her younger sister Phyllis announces she will marry Robert Tarver, Celia refuses to go through that humiliation again and invents a fiance for herself, "Colonel Smith". To make it seem more real, she writes letters to her "fiance", but never mails them. One day one of the letters accidentally gets mailed, and is received by a real Colonel Smith, who decides to check out who his "fiance" really is.
- Fate has not stopped being cruel to Edna Hall after orphaning her. She walks innocently into more tragedy when, thrown upon her own resources, she applies for employment at the Stanhope home. Little did she dream that her letter from Mrs. Stanhope would bring her across the threshold to find that lady stretched out dead, stabbed, and robbed of a precious pearl ring. In his house, where she knows no one, further terror is hers when from behind a curtain stretches a sinister hand that drops a dagger. Edna is paralyzed at the sudden appearance of a man from behind the curtain. This man is kind but cynical. He declares it looks bad for Edna, all this, but he believes in her innocence. But, ah, can she prove it? He sagely doubts it. She had better fly while she is yet undiscovered. This poor Edna does, leaving behind certain clues. Driven by the appearance of guilt, Edna goes far away and is finally happy as a governess for another family. One day one of her little charges plays truant and drifts in the path of racing motorboats in a skiff, from which position the child is rescued by Harry Leland. Harry, although a young man of wealth, becomes enamored of the pretty governess and marries her. At the end of their true-love honeymoon he takes her to his home. With amazement she recognizes this as the house of the murder. With a shock she learns that Harry is Mrs. Stanhope's son by her first husband, with terror she realizes that she is recognized by Perkins, the butler. Now begins a campaign of torture of the unhappy bride by Perkins. It culminates in the accidental discovery of his demands upon Edna for money, whereupon he exposes her to Harry as the woman who was in the house the day of Mrs. Stanhope's murder. Mr. Stanhope, just back from Europe, also recognizes Edna as the woman who passed hurriedly out of the house on that date as he entered it. The broken-hearted young man, in loyalty to his mother's memory, is forced to turn his back upon her until she can prove her innocence. Edna is now practically an outcast. She is spurred by hope, however, when she chances to see Mr. Gardner, the mysterious man who bade her flee from the house. Adopting the disguise of a street boy, Edna discovers much about him, and soon has him attentive to her under her proper guise. She bears his odious attentions while biding her time. In the meantime, Harry, still fast in love with her, sends a detective to find her and bring her back. This detective discovers her just as she has received the stolen ring of Mrs. Stanhope as a gift from Mr. Gardner. This detective she is at once able to put on the trail of Mr. Gardner. He is captured after he has lured the blackmailing Perkins into a burglary of his own house and killed him. Needless to say that Harry rejoices enthusiastically at the vindication of Edna.