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- General Lee gives Lieut. Archer a dispatch to be carried to General Jackson. The young soldier meets a Union scooting party, and wounded, he finds sanctuary at the Allen mansion. The house is subsequently searched by the Union party, but Virginia Allen, by conducting the officer through a secret door in the wainscoting of the dining room, saves him. She then takes him away and hides him in a cave. She takes General Lee's dispatch from the lining of Archer's coat and tucks it in her hair, and then rides away with the Union soldiers toward the Confederate lines. She takes this document to Gen. Jackson without difficulty and he is deeply grateful. Eventually she returns to her own home and finds Lieutenant Archer recovered. They plight their troth and he goes back to the field of war.
- Jim Sherman, a Northerner, living in the South, joins the Federal forces. His heroic wife, Jane, and his baby daughter, Lillian, bid him a sad farewell. The Federal recruits are quartered some miles down the river, and there come tidings to the new soldier from his wife and little daughter, and he returns them a letter, which they open feverishly for news. He encloses a little letter for the child, and she is delighted. Immediately she laboriously starts out to send a letter to her father in reply. Just about this time a lot of Confederate officers, who are making a daring reconnaissance toward the Federal lines, drive into the yard of the Sherman home and take possession of the house. The mother is very much frightened at this invasion, but the officers are gentlemen, and are soon made at home. Lillian quickly makes friends with the men. The business of the officers, however, is urgent, and they soon dismiss the family from the room, get out a war map and as Lillian has returned and is playing on the floor with her doll she is allowed to remain in the room. They set her down from the table, where they have been showing her the map, and while she is apparently innocently playing with her doll, she is all ears, listening to their plans for the capture of the Federal camp, where her father is stationed. This plan is embraced in a message that Col. Mooney places in his hat. Lillian purposely breaks the head of her favorite doll, then shows it tearfully to Col. Sayles, who tells her to take it to her mother to be mended. She exits in presumable great grief. Once out of the room, she rushes joyously to her mother and explains to her what she has heard. The mother realizes the importance of the message, and when she invites the officers to lunch, instructs Lillian to get the note if possible, and make a copy of it. The child follows instructions, replaces the original in the hat that has been left in the front room, and afterwards gives her mother the copy. While the men are still at the table, Jane, the mother, rushes to the stables, secures a mount and quietly rides toward the Yankee lines. As the officers are weary from the hard riding, and wish to give the horses a rest, they take long leisure at the luncheon, but after a while time presses and they go back to the front room. Maj. Mooney, examining his hat and finding his message still there, is unsuspicious and sends the orderly to the stable to get their mounts ready. Meantime, little Lillian uses her wiles with such charm that the officers are loath to leave such pleasant company and resume their hard ride. When the orderly returns from the stable and reports "one horse shy," there is instant commotion. Until now the lady of the house has not been missed. There is a grand rush to the stable and the old hostler is threatened with death if he does not tell them who has taken the horse. He stolidly refuses to give the information, and they return to the house, questioning the child and threatening to cut off her ears unless she tells them where her mother is, but she simply laughs in the faces of the officers. They see questions are useless and as time is passing, decide at once to ride forward. In the meantime, Jane is speeding toward the Yankee camp with the information safe in the sole of her shoe. Eventually she comes to a bridge, where she sees a picket-post that will make her passage impossible. She deserts her horse and, running a distance through the woods, swims the stream a distance above the bridge. She reaches the Yankee camp and is led to headquarters with her news. Instantly there is a commotion in response. The entire camp is up in arms. Jim meets his wife, and is ordered to take personal charge of her. The Union soldiers take the bridge where the picket-post which blocked Jane's path is stationed and quietly advance on the general body, and the Confederates, instead of surprising them as originally planned, are themselves surprised and overcome. The Federal charge is quick and decisive. The Confederates retreat in disorder. The Colonel in command, out of gratitude for the valuable service of Jim's brave wife, gives him a three months' furlough to visit his home, where the Confederate coup was frustrated by the cunning of baby Lillian.
- Fred Watson and his wife, Alice, attend a dance given on a neighboring ranch. The exertion of the dance is so thirstful that Watson goes out with a friend and irrigates for fair. During his absence, Dillon, a gambler, smooth as the cards he deals, engages Alice in conversation and invites her for a stroll. They meet Watson returning, and be remonstrates with her in bitterness and at length. A few days later Dillon visits the Watson ranch and persuades Alice to promise to elope with him. Shortly thereafter he encounters Watson, and both unlimber artillery, and the unfortunate ranchman goes down. The gambler, thinking he has killed the husband, hurries back to the ranch and persuades Alice to leave with him at once. She insists upon taking her little girl, a child of two, with them. While they are making camp the baby wanders off in the brush and is lost. They make a futile search and then Dillon, who is now in dread of pursuit, forces the unfortunate mother to go on with him down the now-broken trail of life. Two ranchmen, the brothers Jordan, hunting stray cattle, find the little one, and after fruitless inquiries adopt it as their own. Fifteen years later, Watson, who escaped death, heartsore and weary after a long, fruitless hunt for his own, happens to hit that range and rescues a young lady at the risk of his life by snatching her from the back of a runaway horse. He is given employment at the ranch of her foster parents. Through some strange whirligig of fate Dillon, who has given up gambling for horse thieving, comes into that corral, and Watson is suspicious of him, but is not sure. He compels Dillon to shave, and this discloses a tell-tale scar that makes his identification complete. The latter unworthy then tells how he abandoned Alice, who died years ago, and that the child was his. The Jordans, hearing this, by comparing dates and localities, restore their ward to Watson's arms as his daughter. As for Dillon, the all-around bad man, he gets his a-plenty.
- Bob Walton is apparently a very prosperous young broker, but when he asks Edith Gates to become his wife, her father is a bit dubious about his finances and reluctantly gives consent. Considering the fact that he is a broker. Bob is very careful. As he has begun to build a home for himself and his prospective bride, he does not deem it advisable to act upon the suggestion of his brother, and buy stock in the Golden Cloud mine. Troubles, however, never come singly. He has discussed the proposition with Edith Gates and discarded her advice, and she has left, when he receives a telegram that the bank holding a large deposit of his father has failed and left that aged man prostrated, and fast following it comes an appeal from his old mother. He hurriedly calls Edith up, summarizes to her the bad news, giving no explanation beyond the fact that he will be away for a few days. She determines to catch him at his office, but arrives there too late. On the desk she finds the message from his mother and immediately understands the sacrifice he is making to save his parents from distress. She looks for the mining tip on the Golden Cloud, that she had seen at a glance on her previous visit, and finally finds it in the waste basket. She is something of a speculator herself. She hies to her father's office and demands $10,000 to be used in a certain investment. As she has been accustomed to having her own way, she gets it. After a few days Bob returns and requests that the marriage be postponed because of his parents' troubles, to which fact, she now understanding, readily assents. Family cares not only harass Bob, but the market seems conspiring against him; he is hard bit and growing desperate. He picks up the paper and roads of the phenomenal rise in Golden Cloud securities and casts it away from him in disgust. The picture flashes to Edith's home, showing her reading the same paper, but she clasps the paper in ecstatic fashion, rushes to the phone and shouts to her brokers, "Sell. Sell. Sell!" The next day dawns dark for Bob, until Edith and her father invade his office and she slips into his hand a large official envelope crowded with important money, remarking, "I stole your tip and invested in the Golden Cloud." He opens the envelope, finds a draft for $100,000 and the crumpled tip on the Golden Cloud.
- A spirited drama of the track, featuring one of its most famous figures, Budd Doble, and several equine stars from his racing stables in California, has an interest strong in the past and telling in up-to-dateness. For play purposes it is assumed that evil days have fallen on the famous stock farm. Oliver, a rival, having secured a mortgage on the place. This canny individual offers to give up the paper for a certain likely two-year-old. As Doble has secured means to take care of the pressing interest, he declines the proposition. Crafty Oliver finally induces him to race the two-year-old against his own filly, the stakes to be the mortgage. This looks game and attracts Doble, but Oliver has a bad one up his sleeve and slips a bribe to have Doble's driver "throw the race." Oliver's son, who is in love with Doble's daughter, frustrates this villainy and wins the girl as handily as her father wins the race. So Doble gets an Oliver, from either viewpoint.
- A picture dramatization from Sir Ed Burne-Jones' famous painting, with suggestions from that world famous poem by Rudyard Kipling, each conceded a peer in the literary and world of art. This great subject handles deftly the realms of the imaginary inner circle of society. (Even as you and I) A fool there was and he made his prayer, To a rag and a bone and a hank of hair (We called her the woman who did not care) But the fool called her his lady fair (Even as you and I). Guy Temple, as "the fool there was" marries his brother's ward, his boyhood sweetheart, Emily. The young husband becomes ensnared in the toils of the Vampire (a destroyer of souls). Clandestine meetings are arranged and the cunning, unscrupulous, satanic actions of the Vampire compels the poor weakling, Temple, to falter and fall before her charms. John Temple, the other brother, determines to save the young husband when he discovers his perfidy, and to recover the jewels given the Vampire by Guy. In a dream he remembers where he had seen Loie before. She it was who had ruined the life of Emily's father and rendered the then slip of a girl an orphan. Seeking out the brother, John Temple told him Loie was a Vampire, that she had ruined his own wife's father and to quit her under threat of his life. He offers Loie a large sum of money to leave America. But her promise is soon forgotten; her direful work continues, the tightening strands on wrecking souls of mortals. The fool was stripped to his foolish hide (Even as you and I). Which she might have seen when she threw him aside (But it isn't on record the lady tried) So some of him lived but the most of him died (Even as you and I). The young husband's mind is rent; his honor gone and the yawning abyss of the great beyond seeks its own.
- Guy Morris, a promising young medical matriculate, is in love with Stella Razeto, but he has a false friend in Henry Walker, who forges a letter from him to the girl, which causes her to dismiss him without explanation. Then the rival having cleared his way treacherously steps in and wins the girl. Ten years fly swiftly by; the medical student has achieved distinction in his chosen profession end gone steadily up, while Henry Walker has gone down. The woman that he married under false pretenses has suffered and shared his ignoble lot uncomplainingly and is left a widow in reduced circumstances. She is compelled to take in sowing. She sends her child out on an errand and the little one is struck by an automobile and appears to be seriously injured. She is carried to a hospital, where Dr. Walker, her mother's former sweetheart, is the interne. The mother visits the place to see the child; the elderly pair meet face to face for the first time since the fatal letter parted them. Through his marvelous skill the doctor restores the child, and from the mother he learns the truth about the forged letter that parted them in the long ago. A new light flashes across the meridian of their lives, the old love lives again and romance becomes a reality.
- The sensational crux of jealous revenge in "The False Order" is a head-on collision of two enormous locomotives. A realistic effect that heavily discounts any stage device ever materialized to thrill. A page of vivid romance torn from the life of a young engineer, who is lured on to seeing certain death by the deadly lie of a drunken rival. Happily he is saved for a long and useful life by a trick of fate, and the well directed energies of a wrecking crew.
- Detective Rand is assigned to search for Slick Jim, a notorious thief who has recently escaped from the penitentiary. Mrs. Rand, left alone in her house during his absence, writes a letter to him, telling him of a certain payment of money to be made her on the following day. While she is engaged in this wifely task, a man who claims to be Deputy City Assessor, calls and asks to inventory the personal effects in the house. Although she is the wife of a smooth detective, he cunningly gets her out of the room and manages to read the letter that she has inadvertently left on the table. This letter follows Rand to another city and is accidentally burned before he has an opportunity to peruse it. The unburned portion of the missive, however, has a thrilling appeal from the wife, begging the husband to hurry home, as she is in imminent danger. He rushes to the telephone and finds the wires dead. His train is late as a result of a storm. Desperate, he hires an auto, and starts for home, forty miles away, arriving just in time to capture the bogus assessor, who is about to rob Mrs. Rand. When he tears the disguise from the villain's face, he proves to be Slick Jim, the escaped convict that he was hunting in another city, so he adds a new charge to that one as an incorrigible criminal.
- Tom Harding and his chum, Dick Woods, lolling at ease in the smoking room of their club, recall the fact that they are both due at a masquerade party to be given by the mother of his fiancée. As time is pressing, they have no opportunity to get even dominoes, but hustle into conventional evening dress. Close to the entrance of the ballroom they are accosted by two hobos, and it inspires Tom with a highly original and aromatic idea. He hustles the tramps to the club, exchanges clothes with them, and gives them the freedom of the club. The tramps, after enjoying their smokes, like monkeys, search their pockets. Finding the invitations to the ball, they decide to take advantage of their clothes and the credentials, so Tom and Dick are refused admission, as they are odoriferous and have no tickets, whereas when the hobos come they are welcomed. Finally, Tom and Dick get in, and the comedy complications amplify with amusing rapidity. The conclusion is as ridiculous as it is satisfying.
- Buster Holmes receives a letter from his late uncle's attorney in the east, stating that he has inherited an income for life, if he will take a course through the university. Owning nothing but his spurs, boots and saddle, he concludes to favor the education. Six years after the old spell of the west urges him back again, but the east has so bleached him out that, disguised in store clothes, he goes back to the ranch looking like a true tenderfoot. All the boys naturally take advantage of the callow newcomer, but the ranchman's daughter is much disgusted by what she considers their cruelties, and her interest presently ripens into affection. One day at the corral the boys are saddling up an outlaw, and Buster Holmes manages to get from the girl a promise that she will marry him if he can ride the bad horse. He gets firmly upon the hurricane back of the "bronc," who does all the stiff-legged and hunch-back stunts his wild and vicious brain can conjure, but Buster sticks to his mount like a centaur. This makes the other shame-faced cowboys hide behind the fences of the corral, and the girl is angered because the dude has been deceiving her. Presently she stops her pouting, flaunting and protesting as she finds him, after all, a better man than she thought, and is happy with him heart and hand.
- John Morton, a rising young businessman, comes under the fascinating spell of Vera Violetta, a burlesque actress, and lavishes costly gifts upon her. His infatuation soon becomes subject for invidious remark, and a fellow employee of his company, writes to Morton's mother that her son is trembling on the verge of ruin, because of the evil influence of this adventuress. The grief-stricken old lady comes at once to the city from the little village where she has lived so long, to see if she can break up this unholy attachment. Mme. Violetta has played her trump card and induced John Morton to sign a $5,000 cheek in her favor. The next day she takes her automobile and speeds to the bank to cash the paper. Her chauffeur runs down and injures an old lady, but Mme. Violetta is good-hearted and takes her in the machine, rushing her to her own apartment, where she nurses her back to life. When the old lady regains consciousness and strength, she tells the woman of the mission that has brought her to the city. Unscrupulous as she is, the adventuress is immeasurably moved and her better nature is aroused. She rushes into her own room and there, in a dissolve, is shown the vision of her own innocent childhood, her blooming girlhood, and then the lonely grave where reposes the dust of her broken-hearted mother. She tears up the check to save Morton from disgrace, and leaves him a note severing their union. When he calls on his inamorata, he finds her gone and his mother waiting with forgiveness such as only a mother can give.
- John Morrison, educated for the ministry, is all the true stature of a real man. He goes west to preach the gospel in the cattle country. He likes the men, the cowboys and the country, and at the same time he has a hankering for the fair sex; in fact, he falls in love with Rose Craig, the daughter of a ranchman. This last move is not so highly relished by the male members of his congregation, as girls in that section are really rarer, and he, picking the choice, consequently wins the enmity of many men, who felt they had the right of prior claim. A bunch of disappointed suitors plan to thrash the successful preacher, but much to their astonishment, he trounces the entire crowd. The cowards sneak off ingloriously, but one plans to "fix" the stigma of "cattle-rustler" upon him. However, the real cattle thief is discovered just in time and "with the goods." Again the parson takes the initiative and persuades the revengeful parties that having recovered their property, they can afford to allow the thief a minute's leeway to get out of sight. The rustler takes advantage of the situation to drop over a cliff, and the parson is reinstated as the master of the situation.
- Bud Noble, a handsome specimen of manhood, is foreman on the Circle "D" ranch outside of Circle City, Idaho, and our opening scene pictures Bud as the cowboy roping and tying a steer. With its bucking bronchos, pitching mustangs, bucking steers, and the biggest novelty ever, the acme of all thrillers, "see Bud bulldog a steer." Only three men have successfully accomplished this feat and lived to tell about it. Then Bud receives a shock. The local operator appears with a telegram. "Your Uncle John dead. You are sole heir to his estate valued at several millions. Come to Chicago at once." The astounded cowboys tumble over with sheer amazement. Bud buys and the scene closes with a characteristic rush for the bar. "One year later" Bud tires of society. We see Bud and his new wife entertaining and our cowboy shows plainly that he is desperately weary of the effete East, then Bud goes to the club and the men he meets there and their conversation is getting on his nerves. "After the theater" a return home and Bud longs for the fresh air of the vast West. As he sinks wearily into a chair a Remington painting catches his eye. It is one he had recently purchased, a broncho buster and his locoed horse. The artist had caught the wild spirit of his subject, and as Bud's mind returns to scenes of a similar nature, a happy inspiration comes. "By Jove, I'll do it." He seizes a telegraph blank, rings for his butler, and sends the following message: "Col. Dalton, Foreman Circle 'D' Ranch, "This high-brow life is killing me. Am sending you special train. Bring the whole outfit, band, horses and all. This town needs excitement. Come and help wake it up. BUD." A few days later we see the boys at a swell suburban depot: Bud and his wife in their auto, and the punchers in chaps and sombreros soon create a world of excitement on the city streets. Then Bud takes the boys yachting; next to see a melodrama, where the Colonel takes exceptions to the villain's heartless treatment of "Bertha, the Sewing Machine Girl." "Bud, either send those horrid creatures back where they came from or I get a divorce," declares Mrs. Bud. So the boys are next seen in a palatial café car homeward bound. The Colonel gets into an argument with the colored cook and that worthy dives through an open car window to escape the cowboy's wrath. Our closing scene is in the cozy home of the millionaire. He and his wife are enjoying a quiet tete-a-tete when the butler bands in a telegram. It reads; "On root. Everybody enjoyin' theirselves. The Colonel sure some happy, he just shot a coon. Will send the bill to you. THE BOYS." Bud laughs heartily. The wife joins and as she nestles up to her big manly husband, says: "You won't ever want to be a cowboy again, will you, Bud?" Bud turns slowly; looks at the Remington painting which has been the innocent cause of their recent quarrel, and walking over, he turns the picture to the wall, holds out his arms to his wife, and as her head nestles against his shoulder, we plainly catch his words, "Never Again."
- In the grounds of a sanitarium are gathered a number of mentally (but harmless) deranged patients. The most conspicuous is a tall tragedian. When he escapes from his keepers the superintendent concludes that he will naturally make his way to the theater in search of an engagement. The various managers are notified, and the first man that excites suspicion is Montgomery Irving, a poor actor of the antique type, who honestly and vociferously applies for a position. He does not understand why he is detained without a contract, and is about to pull the house down when the manager receives word that the real "dip" has been recaptured elsewhere.
- Huntington Morgan, a leading man "out of work," finds himself one day penniless and breakfast-less. This is his lucky day, however, and fortune leads him straight to a wallet containing several hundred dollars in greenbacks. The wallet was dropped by footpads, who had held up a wealthy real estate man named Aleshire. In the wallet is Aleshire's address. Aleshire, however, has recently rented his townhouse to a spinster, Miss Mahaffy, and has moved to a suburb. Overjoyed at his find, Morgan crosses the street toward a restaurant to stay the pangs of hunger. He is knocked down and rendered unconscious by a passing automobile. The owner of the car finds Aleshire's address in the wallet, concludes that the victim is the owner of the name, and forthwith transports him to the Aleshire townhouse. Miss Mahaffy is out. A maid, who has just been hired that day, allows the frightened car owner to deposit the injured actor in Miss Mahaffy's bed. Miss Mahaffy soon returns. Also Mr. Morgan awakes. He takes in the situation in a moment, and cleverly allows the flustered spinster to believe him to be Mr. Aleshire, whom she has never seen in person, having done business through his agent. The fun waxes fast and furious. Mr. Morgan's false pretenses are at last discovered, but he handles his discoverers so cleverly that he gets away with the roll of greenbacks after all.
- An Italian, convicted by circumstances as the kidnapper of pretty Dolly Gardner, is pursued and arrested by a typical country constable, Perkins, who entertains the delusion that he has saved Miss Dolly, and is entitled to her in matrimony. The young lady, while appreciative of the constable's service and suit, is in love with Rob, and is to meet him at the justice's and have the contract sealed. Mrs. Gardner, who reads the papers closely, has been much impressed with the doings of the Black Hand Society. She has been impressed with the large, lazy hand of a stretching Negro, crediting it as the ominous sign of the vengeful Black Hand. She is hysterically certain of the peddler's guilt when she sees her daughter's scarf (that he picked up in the street), projecting from his pocket, and he is marched off to the justice's court. As they go in, the newlyweds come out. Dolly and her mother become reconciled and the poor peddler is released to follow the fruity trail of the city alleys.
- Stern Dr. May through an erroneous idea of what constitutes fraternal duty, endeavors to force his son into a profession for which he has absolutely no aptitude. This boy, who has rather a gay deposition, has some ideas of his own, and as his father threatens with disinheritance if he does not study medicine, he goes out into the world to make his own way. His father, set in his ideas, is so irritated that he throws all sorts of obstacles in his way, and as a result the boy is ousted from various jobs. He has married, but as he goes drifting into poverty, he grows desperate. As a last resource, he enlists in the army and is sent west, leaving his wife destitute. Unhappily, he is in the company of an officer who was at one time his rival in love, who now proceeds to persecute him, as an officer can a subordinate. While in the guardhouse on a trumped-up charge, he receives a letter from the landlady of the boarding house where he left his wife, informing him of her serious illness. He asks for a furlough, but in refused. He escapes from confinement, and comes home, but too late. He drifts rapidly downward, to bad ways and worse, and is shot in a saloon brawl. His father is called to treat him; there is recognition and reconciliation before he dies, but the father realizes his mistake in the direction of youth.
- Mrs. Sanders returns from a shopping tour and secretly shows a beautiful locket that she has purchased as a birthday gift for her daughter. Surprised by the presence of the young lady, she drops the locket into a vase, as a convenient and secret receptacle. Mother and daughter leave the room, and the new maid, Ruth, comes in to tidy up the apartment, and with a long-feathered dust-brush she unfortunately sweeps the vase from the mantel and it lands on the floor with its superstructure smashed. The poor girl is much alarmed over the accident, but carefully gathering the lower bowl and shattered upper pieces in her apron she rushes out of the room. She goes to her little attic room, draws from her scant savings, rushes down to the ceramic shop, and feels fortunate that she is able to replace the vase, although the loss of her savings weighs heavily upon her. On her way back home she throws the original in an ash-heap. When Mrs. Sanders later looks into the vase after the locket and cannot find it, she immediately accuses the second maid of having stolen it, and, despite the tears of denial, rushes her off to a station-house, preferring a criminal charge. A poor beggar passed the ash-heap soon after Ruth dropped her vase, and, picking it up, found the locket still in the bowl. Thereupon he went to the pawnbroker's and endeavored to secure money upon it. That crafty individual, thinking he has stolen it, summons a policeman, and he arrives in the station-house coincident with the unfortunate servant maid. Mrs. Sanders immediately identifies the locket, gives willing ear to the explanation of Ruth, and the latter is restored to her good graces, while the beggar is adequately rewarded.
- Ben Ames, through circumstantial evidence, is forced to serve a prison sentence. Upon his release he returns to his home and wife and child. The next day he is fortunate enough to secure a position in the wholesale house of Arnold and Co. He works hard and succeeds so well that he is promoted several times. One day when he is leaving the store he accidentally bumps into a former cellmate named Hogan. Hogan learns that Ames has been successful in keeping the knowledge of his prison term from his employer, and uses this bit of information to blackmail Ames. Ames gives him money time and time again. Finally, however, Hogan's demands grow too strong and, after Ames' refusal to contribute further, Hogan tells Arnold of Ames' record. Ames is discharged and is unable to secure other work. The day comes when he is forced to take up his former profession in an effort to secure medicine for his sick wife. His child's doll gets mixed up in his bag of burglar tools, and it is through this clue that Arnold traces Ames, who has attempted to rob his former employer's house, and learns of the true state of affairs that exist in Ames' home. Arnold gives him his old job back again, and the past is forgotten.
- The Village Smithy and the Village Cobbler had been the best of friends for many years. Smith had a daughter; Cobbler had a son, young, honest and manly, but, possessed of a roving, care-free nature that often led him o'er seas afar, and sometimes caused him to revel with the shifters of the village grog shop. The village parson had long loved Jennie, the Smith's daughter, in silence. So had Jack, the Cobbler's son. Jennie respected the parson, but her love was for Jack. One day Jack, who had been away before the mast for a long time, returned to the village in time to witness the parson in the act of proposing to Jennie. Nothing daunted. Jack made known his presence and proposed likewise. Jennie accepted Jack. That evening, Jack, having imbibed too freely at the tavern, was in his cups. The parson thereupon proved himself the man by keeping his erstwhile rival from the sight of his betrothed. For this kindness Jack promised never to drink again. The marriage took place with the parson officiating and the lucky young people knew naught of the heartache felt by him who had made them one.
- David Burson, Sr., a wealthy businessman, makes strenuous attempts to induce his son, Dave, to follow in his own footsteps, Dave, however, cares nothing for business and stubbornly follows his natural bent, painting. In exasperation, his father finally disinherits him, and the young man is left to his own resources. A prize of $500 is offered by the Atala Art Club for the best picture submitted by a certain date, on the subject of tragedy. Young Burson decides to enter the contest. He rents a cheap studio with his last money and starts to work on his masterpiece. He finds himself at a loss for a subject and is almost despairing, when one day he chances to witness a pathetic automobile accident in which a beautiful young Italian girl's baby brother is killed. The expression on the girl's face at this time suggests to young Burson the subject for his painting of "Tragedy." He seeks out and engages the girl for his model. She, unknown to him, is also an artist. Three days before the contest is to close, and just as Dave's picture is nearing completion, he meets with an accident and is unable to reach his studio. On the day before the end of the contest, Marie, the model, alarmed at Dave's disappearance, and almost frantic for fear that he won't be represented in it, takes things into her own hands and completes the painting. Some days later, Dave, upon returning to the studio, finds that his painting has won the first prize. Explanations follow and Dave repays Marie by placing an engagement ring on her finger.
- Every hamlet can boast of one or more public hostelry and most of them find time to name one of them Commercial, such is true of Caseyville. The evening train had just arrived, the hotel was busy attending to the wants of the new arrivals, among which was a real out and out lady tonsorial artist who has made known her intention of opening a barber shop in the quiet and staid village. She is soon in the hands of the real estate man and a bargain struck for a location. The sign is placed in position, and the excitement begins. The novelty of the occasion creates more furor than a detachment of hobble skirts at a church fair. The village Beau Brummels, married and unmarried, are in line awaiting their turn. The regular shop presents a grave aspect, especially as regards the absence of customers. McGee drops in to tell the old reliable cause of the sudden slump in business. The news is not received by the ladies of the town with any degree of delight, as they notice their husbands are spending more time and money at the barber shop than usual, some getting shaved 2 or 3 times a day. The new barber is so overwhelmed with business that she sends to the city for more help and in another day the force is increased to four barbers and a lady bootblack. The last arrival was too much; the village belles fairly fumed with rage and vowed vengeance. They hold an indignation meeting and resolve upon a plan. In the meantime the regular shop decides to enter into skirted tonsorial competition and accordingly enlists the services of his wife and hangs his sign out to herald the news, but he has not weighed with the charms of the fair sex and while the customers came, like the girl at the church, "turned right around and walked right out again." The suffragette committee by this time had perfected their defense and ordered the old regular to get busy and send for some young men as hair dressers. This is done and proves a bomb in the camp of the invading barbers and all argument on the part of their men was of no avail. Their wives crowded to the old shop and the fair new arrivals are soon their way.
- Bumps and Willie, knights of the road, have recovered sufficiently to travel again since their meeting with beautiful Betty and her active guardian, an emotional bulldog. Count Bill still yearns for the hand of the girl, loudly, but Bumps, his side partner, silently nurses treachery in the form of a sudden and overpowering affection for the very same maiden. Betty has a new fad, automobiling, and Bumps discovers her trying to avoid running down the general public while wrangling with her new car. He proceeds to instruct her. As he does so, Willie comes upon the scene, and empties the vials of his wrath. Betty, wavering between the two evils, declares in favor of the one who will win the grand auto race. This pair of tramps are two speed maniacs, neither of whom can operate a car. At the track, Willie's machine begins to run away backwards, while Bumps soon leaves the track and begins to caper across country, digging ditches, knocking down fences, and imperiling the lives of spectators. Both get arrested, which leaves the dashing Betty free to follow her heart's desire.
- Reporter Jones, a hustler, discovers a gold-brick displayed in a jeweler's window and sees a fine "feature story" in trying to sell this real gold-brick to farmers at $2.00 per. The feature editor literally eats the idea, gives the reporter a requisition to buy the real brick and a duo of other reporters, heavily armed, to protect him on his way in some choice rural districts. After a number of unsuccessful attempts to sell their good gold brick, the reporter sends a letter back to the home office detailing their plans. The contents of this letter become known to an inquisitive person named Till, whose wife keeps a restaurant. He observes a good chance to make easy money, and gets a loan from his wife for that purpose. While the reporter and one of his assistants are dining, the other reporter of the party sells the real gold brick to a local jeweler and obtains an imitation brass brick, which he delivers to his comrades. He then leaves suddenly called by a faked telegram. Till gets away with the brass brick, his wife gets after him with the sheriff. Cold, the jeweler, comes to the front, claiming the real goods. The sheriff arrests the reporter and his guard. They wire their predicament to the home office. The office boy, who has a grudge against the reporter, wires back, "They are fakers; lock them up." The reporter gets the long-distance telephone in the jail office, so that matters are finally straightened out and the prisoners released, but the paper has paid for a big sensation which they are ashamed to print.