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- The forerunner of all serials, "What Happened to Mary" was a series of 12 monthly one-reel episodes, each a complete entity in itself, revolving its immediate dramatic and melodramatic problems within the framework of a single episode and designed more for story and suspense situations than action. Episode Titles (q.v.): #1: "The Escape from Bondage"; #2: "Alone in New York"; #3: "Mary in Stage Land"; #4: "The Affair at Raynor's"; #5: "A Letter to the Princess"; #6: "A Clue to Her Parentage"; #7: "False to Their Trust"; #8: "A Will and a Way"; #9: "A Way to the Underworld"; #10: "The High Tide of Misfortune"; #11: "A Race to New York"; #12: "Fortune Smiles."
- An engaged attorney and a divorcee fall for each other in 1870s Manhattan.
- A wealthy family is thrown into turmoil when the daughter falls for the family chauffeur and the son begins to keep company with a chorus girl.
- Charles, the favorite son of Count Moor is in love with Amelia, his father's niece and ward. Charles's brother Francis, a sly, jealous man, hates him. As a consequence of a drunken brawl, Charles is expelled from the University at Leipsic. He then writes an appealing letter, to his father and retires to Weingart in Bohemia to await the count's forgiveness. Francis intercepts his brother's letter and replaces it with another of his own composition to which he forges Charles's signature. The Count makes Francis his sole heir. To the penitent Charles in Bohemia, the news of his father's decision comes. Careless of consequences, he readily assents to the plan of his companions to form a band of robbers with himself as captain. Francis, with the aid of Herman, an enemy of his brother's, make the old Count believe that Charles has been killed in battle, and he falls apparently lifeless at the terrible news. But, as he is being interred, Francis discovers that his father is not dead. However, he does not falter. He forces his horrified father into the vault and furnishes him with barely enough food to keep him alive. Meanwhile, Charles visits his father's castle in disguise, and discovers the full extent of his brother's treachery. Summoning his band, he storms the castle, liberates his father, and shuts Francis up in the dungeon. Amelia, who has fought against the daily importunities of the wicked brother, now fully realizing Charles' true character, flies to him. He stretches out his arms to her, but the bandits interpose their swords between the lovers. Charles has consecrated his life to them and cannot have Amelia. The desperate girl prays them to kill her as life is no longer of any value. Charles gives himself up to the authorities, arranging in his last moments of freedom that the reward for his capture shall he paid to a worthy peasant.
- College friends Percy Darling and Richard Kettle take their new wives on board a boat going from New York City to Albany. Just before sailing, however, Mrs. Kettle and Percy realize that they have left some baggage on shore, and so rush out to get it. The boat leaves without them, and a distressed Mrs. Darling and Richard, left in each other's company, decide to pose as husband and wife to prevent a scandal. When the boat docks, they learn that the last train has left, and so they hesitantly check into a hotel as a couple and spend the night together. The next day, Mrs. Kettle and Percy track down the "newlyweds" and are shocked to see them in the hotel lobby, arm in arm. The ruse is quickly explained, and the correct couples are soon sorted out.
- Gilbert Reade was a small man. Possessed of fair abilities, he had established the splendid reputation of his company entirely with the brains of Guy Maxwell, his assistant. Instead of giving Maxwell his just dues, however, he kept him on a small salary. Even the fact that Maxwell had married his niece seemed no reason to Reade for allowing his gratitude to take any tangible form. At last, on the advice of his wife. Maxwell resigned his position with Reade, and started to work for himself. He succeeded from the first. Three years later, Maxwell, now a prosperous architect, with a well-established business, was devoting heart and soul to the plans for the new civic court house, the architect of which was to be chosen on the strength of the most favorable front elevation submitted. Reade was also anxious to win the contest, but his desires were hampered by the fact that his present assistant was distinctly lacking in Maxwell's former brilliance and originality. Five days before the contest ended, Reade learned that Maxwell had been seriously injured. Reade took a camera, and went over to Maxwell's house. On the pretext of waiting for his niece, who was with her husband at the hospital, he gained admittance to Maxwell's workroom and, aided by his little grandniece, took a photograph of Maxwell's drawing. Then he returned to his office, and copied the design, line for line, from a print of the photograph. Since her husband could not work, Marion, who had picked up considerable architectural knowledge, finished the drawing herself and sent it in. On the day the committee met, Reade's stolen drawing was among the first examined. It so impressed the committee, that they accepted it on the spot and returned the other plans unexamined. Marion read of Reade's success, and saw a photograph of the completed drawing in the paper. She instantly went to Reade's office, and with all a woman's cleverness, succeeded in getting the print of the photograph from Reade's assistant. The print showed Reade's guilt without question, for on it was shown the little girl holding up the drawing to the light, so that her granduncle might take its picture. Marion confronted Reade in the committee room with the photograph, and won the day. Maxwell's plan was accepted, and Reade driven out in disgrace.
- After being rescued in an unconscious condition by the lightkeeper of Martha's Vineyard, Mary's next concern is how to get off the island and back to New York. She knows now that Mr. Craig must have a powerful motive for trying to keep her out of the way. The next day brings the supply boat to the island, and after much intercession with the captain, Mary is allowed to go aboard and sail for the mainland. Meanwhile, John Craig and his son, still aboard the schooner from which Mary had previously escaped, are consumed by impatience. Suddenly a cry of "Fire!" rips through the ship and great volumes of smoke pour through the hatchway. The boat is a furnace. They lower the small boats and John Craig suddenly finds himself in an open boat on the bosom of the Atlantic. Several hours afterward they reach Martha's Vineyard greatly exhausted, only to discover that Mary had departed an hour before they arrived. Craig hires a launch and gives chase. Mary reaches the mainland first and is conducted to the railway station, where she boards a train for New York. Then Craig reaches the mainland, and, arriving at the station, learns that the train has just left. In desperation he hires an automobile and again a chase is on. At Easton Junction, where Mary must change cars, Craig manages to catch up with her, but Mary being in a crowd, he dares not molest her He boards the same train and takes up a position several seats behind her. Now there flashes across Mary s mind a daring scheme. It is her only chance: she will try it. The train pulls into the station. She suddenly jumps up, leaves the car and Craig tries to follow, but there are several passengers who have risen in the meantime, also to leave the car. While he is trying to push his way out to the platform, Mary manages to run the length of the car, board the other platform and disappear into the train she has just left. Craig, of course, thinks she is leaving the station with the other passengers and only discovers his mistake when the train is pulling out and he realizes that he has been outwitted by a slip of a girl called Mary.
- When Count Valdai died, he left his only daughter Rosalind, in the care of his friend Olga, Duke of Tula. When Rosalind had grown from a beautiful child to a more beautiful young woman, she left the Duke's great estate on the Russian steppes and went with him to Moscow, where her beauty and wealth attracted a great deal of attention from the young noblemen of the Court of Peter the Great. Most prominent among these was the young Count, Conrad Damonoff, for whom Rosalind cared not at all. Her affections were entirely centered on another man: Ruric Nevel, "The Gunmaker of Moscow." Duke Olga's debts were numerous and pressing. Of all possible ways of getting the money to meet them, one seemed to him particularly obvious and practical. He was the nearest relative of the rich young Count Damonoff. If Damonoff were only out of the way, Olga would be rich. So Olga decided that Damonoff must die. She knew that Ruric Nevel was the finest swordsman in Russia. By his machinations, he easily succeeded in forcing a duel between the two suitors. But Ruric only wounded Damonoff, and did not kill him as the Count had hoped, so the Duke sent Savotano, a sinister rascal, to finish Ruric's work with a slow poison. At the same time, he haled Ruric before the Emperor, and demanded his life for having attempted to kill a nobleman. But Peter the Great was curiously friendly to Ruric, and refused to listen to the Duke's demand. Ruric discovered that Savotano was poisoning the Count, and generously took his enemy into his own house to be cared for. The Duke infuriated at Savotano's failure, decided to put another of his schemes in effect. Rosalind was immensely wealthy in her own right, he would force her to marry him, Rosalind learning of the Duke's danger sent word to Ruric by Valdimir, a mysterious monk whom Ruric had once befriended. Ever since Ruric's kind action, the monk had taken a strange interest in his affairs. Now, when the young gunmaker seemed helpless against the power of the Duke, the monk proved an unexpected ally. A file of imperial soldiers, with Ruric and the monk at their head, invaded the Duke's palace and stopped the forced wedding just about to take place. Then the mysterious monk threw off his robe, and disclosed himself as Peter, Czar of all the Russias. He banished the astounded Duke and bestowed on the happy Ruric the title of Duke of Tula and the hand of Rosalind Valdai.
- Eccles, a profligate old drunkard, is the father of two beautiful girls, Esther and Polly. George D'Alroy, a young officer in the British Army who is infatuated with Esther, brings his friend, Captain Hawtree, to call. The captain is greatly taken with the lively Polly, who makes him carry the teakettle about and generally dance attendance on her to the emphatic disgust of Sam Garridge, an ardent suitor for Polly's hand. Meanwhile Esther shows George a letter from an impresario offering her an engagement on the stage. The offer seems a veritable godsend to the girl, but she changes her mind when George asks her to be his wife instead. A few months after they are married, George receives the unpleasant news that he must sail for India with his regiment. Owing to her ultra-aristocratic ideas, George has not dared to tell his mother, the Marchioness D'Alroy, that he has married a girl of common origin, and he is in a quandary as to what provision he should make for Esther. The farewell scene between husband and wife at D'Alroy's city residence is broken by the appearance of the aristocratic mother, come to bid her son Godspeed on his way. Her astonishment and disgust may be imagined when a lowly ballet girl is introduced as her son's wife. To cap the climax, old Eccles, in his customary state of saturation, enters and greets his newly discovered relative. The Marchioness departs in a huff, refusing to recognize her daughter-in-law, and George sails for India. Shortly after his arrival he is seriously wounded in an engagement and the news of his death is sent to England. Esther, with her young baby, leaves her husband's house and goes back to her family. Here she is soon in destitute circumstances. Old Eccles, sniffling with pity over his sad fate, soon spends all her money and then steals the necklace of his "poo lil grandson." The Marchioness calls and haughtily offers to take the child and give Esther an allowance. To Eccles' horrified disgust, Esther indignantly refuses to be separated from her child. Happily enough D'Alroy is not really dead. He returns home and effects a reconciliation between aristocracy and democracy, which gives the picture a highly satisfactory finish.
- Captain David Dodd, of the good ship "Agra," set sail for home, carrying with him fourteen thousand pounds in hard cash. After nearly losing the money in a fierce battle with pirates and again during a violent storm, the captain gave a sigh of relief when he at length reached home and deposited his fortune in Hardie's Bank, a conservative institution with an iron-clad reputation. Unhappily the captain's sense of security did not last long. Richard Hardie, the president of the bank, had been caught in the maelstrom of speculation. When Dodd deposited the fourteen thousand pounds, the bank was on the verge of bankruptcy. Learning of the danger to his hard-earned money, Dodd returned to the bank on the same afternoon and demanded its return. Hardie refused on the ground that it was after business hours, and Dodd fell to the ground in a fit of apoplexy. His mind was unhinged by the blow and he was removed to an insane asylum. Alfred Hardie, Richard's son, was deeply in love with Captain Dodd's daughter, Julia, entirely against the wishes of Richard, who wished him to many an heiress. Alfred overheard the scene between Dodd and Hardie and, outraged at his father's duplicity, demanded that the money should be returned. With the money safely in his hands, and Dodd a maniac, Hardie was too hard pressed to let anything stand in the way of his argent needs. Spurred on by an unconquerable ambition he entered into an agreement with a dishonest doctor, and had Alfred inveigled from home and incarcerated in the flame asylum with old Captain Dodd. But there was another source of danger with which Hardie had not reckoned. Skinner, the old confidential clerk in his office, had slyly taken the receipt from Dodd's hand as he lay in his apoplectic fit. Hardie, who had confidently believed the receipt was lost, was stunned when Skinner suavely informed him that it was in his possession, and coolly demanded blackmail. Meanwhile Alfred Hardie and Captain Dodd bad been suffering all the torments of the outrageous insane asylum system of the day. At last, they managed to escape together during a fire, and fled to the seacoast. The sight of salt water restored the sailor's memory and he thought of his fourteen thousand pounds. Skinner's opportune death and repentance put the receipt for the money in Alfred's hands. Together he and Dodd went to Hardie's office, where they found a man overcome with remorse and shame who was only too willing to make every restitution in his power.
- The story opens in Frederick's youth. His father, Frederick William, was a rough, burly man, fond of outdoor sport, a hearty eater and a heavy drinker. Because his son was frail and delicate and more interested in intellectual matters than in sport and hearty living, Frederick William hated him. He forced Frederick to drink and smoke, and on one occasion when the boy defied him on the subject of a favorite flute, attempted to strangle his son with a window-cord. From these joyless days we shift to the tragic death of the old king, hastened by the receipt of an insulting message from the Austrian emperor. With his dying breath, Frederick William besought his son to avenge him. Frederick heaped coals of fire on the head of his dead father by laying Austria waste in the terrible Seven Years' War. Amalie, Frederick's sister, fell in love with Baron Trenck at first sight, and their love that started in the palace garden at Sans Souci lasted all their lives. But if it started with roses and moonlight, it ended with ashes and rue, for years later Trenck was imprisoned by Frederick on a charge of high treason. Amalie pleaded for her lover, but in vain. The king was obdurate. "Even as you have taken from me the only thing I loved," cried the poor princess, "so may God deal with you, brother." Frederick did not have long to wait for the fulfillment of his sister's prayer. The discovery that Voltaire, the great French philosopher, whom the king had honored with his friendship, was playing traitor, nearly broke Frederick's heart. A tremendously dramatic scene shows the king reviewing his army for the last time, and raising his trembling hand to the salute as the flag passes. Last of all, the great king, lonely for all his greatness, is talking to two little peasant children in the grounds before his palace.
- A Confederate officer rescues his lady love from a drunken guerrilla.
- An amateur detective's automobile is stolen by a young woman who is determined to elope, leading to a complicated chase involving several vehicles.
- Henry is in love with Sue, but her father has strong prejudices and refuses to allow the engagement to continue. Being a young man of resources, Henry proposes a plan to Sue which she agrees to, and to all appearances they part company for good. In reality, Henry rents an old log cabin and proceeds to fit it up. When the cottage is ready, an elopement takes place and he and Sue are married. The old people are unforgiving but Sue wants to see her mother, so she and her husband start out one afternoon to call. When they reach the front door, Sue's father forcefully hauls her in and slams the door in Henry's face. He appears at the window with a gun and invites him to make himself scarce. There seems to be no chance for argument and so Henry returns to the lonely log cabin, where he conceives a brilliant idea: He writes to the old people that he thinks their daughter should obey them and invites her mother to come and get her things. When mama appears he manages to lock her in the little room or outhouse adjoining the log cabin from which there is no way of escape, then sends word to the father that as each of them holds the other's wife prisoner, he is willing to consider a trade. The old man appears, but finds the boy this time at the window with a gun and is obliged to go in search of the young wife or make the trade as suggested by Henry.
- A henpecked husband sees his niece marry a man just like his shrewish wife.
- When a burglar dressed as Santa Claus steals a family's Christmas presents, amateur detective Octavius sets out to recover the loot.
- Mr. Waters, the owner of a large woolen mill, is careless about having the fire exits kept clear. The factory inspector listens to Mr. Waters' promise to right matters and does not report the case. Tom Watts, an employee in the mill, breaks the rule which prohibits smoking. Thus the three are to blame. Tom Watts and Hilda Fox. another employee of the mill, are lovers with the wedding only one day off Tom carelessly throws the lighted match, with which he had lit his cigarette, into a pile of rubbish in the basement of the mill. The fire started gains headway so rapidly that Tom is barely able to make his escape up the now blazing stairway. Meanwhile the smoke has penetrated to all parts of the mill; the hundreds of employees are panic stricken and rush wildly for the fire exits, only to find them locked or cluttered with heavy boxes and bales which make them impractical for use. Tom comes upon a crowd of them at one of these doors, and hastily grabbing a fire axe, cuts a way for them through a partition. Upon escaping to the street he finds that Hilda is still in the mill which is now blazing from every window. In a series of thrilling episodes Tom finds the unconscious Hilda and carries her to the street, where he acknowledges his blame in setting the mill afire. The employees nearly mob him and he is driven out of the town. His name is heralded among other mill owners and he is unable to secure work. This, added to the fact that Hilda was badly crippled in the fire, drives him to contemplating suicide from which he is prevented by the timely arrival of Hilda with a letter from Waters in which he acknowledges his own blame as well as Tom's and invites Tom to return to the new factory, both having learned a needed lesson.
- A drinking man arrives home, late and sozzled as usual. His wife reminds him that he promised to take their child to a play. The play proves to be a morality tale about the evils of drink; he sees the parallels in his own life and swears off the demon brew.
- A factory hires only children, forcing an immigrant family to put their daughter to work. When the girl brings home a foundling, the family gets sends her to work. Little do they know that the girl's father bought the factory.
- A royal woman rejects her arranged marriage. The cardinal hatches a plan: the suitor will shave and change clothes. He arranges with 4 clowns to stage an attack on the princess which he easily repels. It works; the princess falls for him, especially when the cardinal arranges his arrest.
- A beautiful romance of a girl from the Golden West. Confidence is the flower grown from the seed of true friendship, watered by the tears of adversity, and often assailed by the blight of calumny. For as Shakespeare says', "be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny." So it was with little Nellie Burton, the orphan girl of the rancho, who budding into womanhood, realizes her position and appreciates the low brutal character of the habitués of the Dive, even discerning the true nature of her fancied sweetheart, Jim Colt, who was to say the least an unconscionable villain. Tiring of her present environments she decides to leave the place seek a nobler and higher life. To this end she makes her way eastward and applies for a position as nurse at a New York hospital, and we next find her engaged in that work of mercy "ministering to the sick." Her mild manners and pure nature impress the head surgeon, a man of eminence in his profession, to such an extent that he finds himself deeply in love with this poor self-sacrificing girl. He proposes marriage, which she at first mildly declines, but he at length persuades her, and they are married. However, there must come a cloud, and this is in the shape of her girlhood sweetheart, Colt, who has migrated East, and living on his wits. He runs across Nellie in the company with her husband as she enters her own home. The low conniving nature at once asserts itself and he plans a scheme of blackmail, using as capital her pure innocent love letters. Waiting a favorable opportunity, Jim Colt "visits'' her and with a threat of showing these letters to her husband he extorts money from her. This gone he comes for more, and as she has no ready cash he takes her jewels. The money raised on these goes the same way, so he calls to make another demand. This the poor helpless girl finds unable to meet, and during their argument the surgeon enters. Colt then hands the missives over to the husband who, taking the packet throws them into the tire and has Colt forcibly ejected from the place, with the positive injunction never to return.
- At the Italian boarding house the male boarders were all smitten with the charms of Minnie, the landlady's pretty daughter, but she was of a poetic turn of mind and her soul soared above plebeianism and her aspirations were romantic. Most persistent among her suitors was Grigo, a coarse Sicilian, whose advances were odiously repulsive. The arrival at the boarding house from the old country of Giuseppe Cassella, the violinist, filled the void in her yearning heart. Romantic, poetic and a talented musician, Giuseppe was indeed a desirable husband for Minnie. All this, of course, filled Grigo with bitter hatred and he vows vengeance, which you may be sure he will work with extreme subtlety. All preparations are made for the wedding, and when the day arrives Grigo is ready for it. He has contrived an infernal machine with a pistol so arranged that its explosion means death to anyone standing in front of it. The little church is decorated in honor of the affair and Grigo, with subterfuge, gets the sexton out, leaving the place to himself. Sawing a hole in front of the altar step, he places his weapon in such a position that one step forward by the priest would mean death to the bride kneeling in front. Grigo rushes hack to his room, arriving just as the wedding party is leaving for the church. Here he becomes a victim of the frenzy of his mind, and appreciating the fact that the awful deed will he laid to him and his apprehension will be inevitable, he writes a gloating note and then takes poison. His fall is heard by the housemaid, who, discovering the note, gives it to a policeman, who rushes madly to the church. Fate, however, seems to conspire, and the officer falls, breaking his ankle, just outside the church. A newsboy, seeing his plight, runs up, and the policeman directs him hurriedly to the church, where he arrives just in time to save the couple, who start back at his yell, for the priest had just made the step which fires the gun, but with no harm done. The priest gives thanks to God for their deliverance and proceeds with the wedding.
- Although Pearl had been outwitted by Mary he had not so informed John Craig, so that when he gets a letter telling him to keep Mary out of the way if he wished to earn the reward, he made renewed efforts to find her. John Craig and his son are released on a writ of habeas corpus In their lawyer's charge. They hunt up Peart, who shows them that Mary is masquerading as a Salvation Army lass. They locate her on the docks selling "War Cries." They get her aboard a schooner on the pretext that a seaman is ill. After several days at sea the schooner anchors off Martha's Vineyard. When the opportunity arrives Mary springs on the old servant woman who brings her meals. The woman is bound and gagged and Mary creeps out of the cabin. In the distance she sees a lighthouse. There is a boat trailing at the stern. She climbs over the side, drops into the little boat and rows to the lighthouse. After hours of exposure she is seen by the light-keeper and rescued.
- John is seduced and abandoned by a cruel flirt. Later he learns that his friend Frank is engaged to the same woman. He relates his story to Frank and convinces him to jilt her at the altar.
- Octavius had so much money that he hadn't the least notion what to do with it. At length he desired to become a detective. Shortly after his decision, large headlines appeared in the papers announcing to a credulous public that the jewels of famous actress Julia Vane had been stolen. Miss Vane's jewels were actually safe in her jewelry box, but as her press agent wanted some advertising, and as news happened to be scarce, the headlines appeared. Fired with a chivalric impulse, Octavius proffered his services in the recovery of the missing jewelry. When Julia heard he was coming, she took the jewels out of her jewelry box and hid them. Since she was not exactly averse to publicity, she gladly accepted the aid of the amateur detective. Octavius put the servants through a rigorous cross examination, and left the apartment. On the way home a sudden thought struck him. He should have examined the jewelry box for finger prints. He stopped short and retraced his steps to Miss Vane's apartment. Miss Vane had gone to a rehearsal. Just before she left she returned the jewels to the box and left the apartment in the care of a maid, who shortly afterward departed on her own affairs. Octavius readily gained admittance to the apartment, took the box, and left a note of explanation for Miss Vane. Shortly after he left, two real burglars entered the apartment in quest of loot. They found Octavius' note, and decided that it was filled with promise. So they went to that young man's house and wrested the case from his unwilling hands. Miss Vane returned, missed her jewels, found the note, summoned the police, and hastened after Octavius. Miss Vane and the police entered just after the burglars had taken the box from Octavius, so there was nothing for that young man to do except to assume an air of intense wisdom, and denounce the burglars to the police. So everybody was happy except the burglars.
- An unscrupulous tourist plots to steal the famous diamond, "The Light of the World," tricking a young woman into helping him. She is caught and imprisoned, while he prepares to sell the diamond and make his getaway.
- One moment while on his customary walk in the park, Octavius was confronted by the tragic spectacle of a mother who had lost her child. Mrs. Brown, explained that her little darling had wandered off while her back was turned for a moment's gossip. His sympathies and detective instincts alike aroused, Octavius immediately set forth on the search. The only data with which the bereaved parent was able to furnish him was the fact that her precious pet was clothed in a white sweater and leggings. Oddly enough, there were many children in the park that morning who were clad in white sweaters and leggings. Each time Octavius encountered one he slyly appropriated it and carried it to Mrs. Brown, but without rousing that lady from her gloom. At last the prodigal lamb returned of his own accord. The grateful mother snatched him up with loud cries of delight and departed hastily. Octavius was left on the bench with an assorted variety of white-sweatered children. He was not left long. An outraged army of nursemaids and mothers descended upon him in wrath and claimed their own with many threats of vengeance. After all the furor was over, Octavius was leaving when he suddenly discovered that one baby remained on the bench beside him. Octavius was in a fix. It was getting late. He could not very well leave the child on the bench and his pride forbade him to inform the police. So he took the baby home. The next morning, after a strenuous afternoon and evening with the baby, the delighted Octavius discovered an advertisement in the newspaper offering a large reward for the return of the Van Allen baby. Octavius took the child to the address, gently called the Van Allens' attention to his marvelous detective ability, and refused the reward. Out of gratitude, Mrs. Van Allen's beautiful sister invited the detective to dinner the following night. Octavius thought he had made quite a hit, but his delight was nipped in the bud when, just before dinner, the girl introduced him to Mr. Douglas, her fiancé.
- Mary, the fascinating little heroine of many adventures, learns that kinship does not necessarily mean friendship. We find her in the house of her uncle, who, with his son, have misappropriated the funds of the bank of which they are president and cashier. They possess a knowledge that Mary does not, namely, that her grandfather has left a fortune to her when she marries. This will save her uncle and his scapegrace son and they decide to marry her to the boy. There is a young secretary in the bank who accidentally overbears a conversation which indicates their misuse of the bank's funds but like Mary, he knows nothing of their plans to recoup their fortune. But when Mary scorns the young cashier and they find her on rather friendly terms with the young secretary they manufacture a forged check, charge him with the crime and dismiss him from the bank. This is too much for Mary and she undertakes to get evidence of the falseness of the charge. In so doing she learns of the other crime. The evidence is obtained by making a phonograph record from a telephone conversation between the father and son, and the scenes in which Mary gets this record are very exciting and intensely dramatic. Of course, in the end the uncle and his son are taken away to prison and Mary finds herself again face to face with the great world without a home or friends to care for her. This is the seventh story of "What Happened to Mary."
- George Lawrence and his mother live in a nearby town in a modest sort of way, George earning money by writing. His chum, Philip Crane, comes down on week-ends to call and it is on one of these trips our story starts. Unknown to his mother, George has written a play, "The Apples of Sodom," and on this occasion when Crane comes to visit, he reads the play and Crane, more than pleased with it, promises to take it to the city and try to sell it to a manager. Poor George is ailing with a severe cough, which causes his mother many an unhappy moment of worry. On the day Crane returns to the city, George is overcome and dies, trying with his last breath to tell his mother of the play. Crane returns to the city, reads the play, sees its worth and just as he plans what to do, receives a message of George's death. Sending a wire of condolence, be returns to the play. Why not claim it and change the author's name? This he does. The play turns out to be a big hit, and royalties flow into Crane's pocket. We see Crane in the box at the opening made to say a few words, and in his home receiving the checks from his manager. Guilty at heart, he tries to ease his conscience by sending a check to Mrs. Lawrence, not speaking of the play. More than surprised at receiving a letter and the check from Crane, Mrs. Lawrence decides she must go at once and return it. She arrives in the city the night Crane is giving a dinner party. She goes to his home, but finding him out, makes up her mind to go and see him at the dinner. Just as the dinner is at its highest, Mrs. Lawrence's card is handed to Crane. He can hold out no longer. He must tell the truth. Meeting her in the hall, he begs her, as she is trying to speak of the check, to come to the dinner. For his sake she goes, and be confesses. The guests slowly go and Mrs. Lawrence forgives, as only mothers can.
- Zulika, the beautiful daughter of Osman Bey, swore that no other woman would claim Ahmet, the son of the sheik, when her eyes fell upon him, and Ahmet entertained the same thought of Zulika. But Osman had different plans laid for his daughter; she was to be married to a wealthy rug merchant. When the wealthy suitor came and saw Ahmet in the garden with his arms around the beautiful Zulika, he went at once to Osman, who ordered one of his slaves to throw the intruder into a sealed prison, so that he would suffocate. The slave complied forthwith. Sometime later Ahmet's father died and Osman, in fear, released the captive. Ahmet went at once in search of Zulika, whom he found with the merchant about to be made one. Ahmet cast gold and jewels at the feet of Osman, telling him that this should satisfy his greed. Osman, struck by the brilliancy of the jewels, dismissed the merchant and gave his daughter to Ahmet.
- Edward Burke and Jim Mercer were suitors for the hand of Edna Merrill. She liked Edward because he was breezy and full of life and the night he proposed she accepted him on the spot. Jim, on the other hand, was slow, old-fashioned and pokey. Just a station agent, the kind who would be at the same job all his life. Edward was an engineer on the same line, young and ambitious; the kind of a fellow who would appeal to Edna. This story really begins when Ed. Burke starts from the round-house on his daily run with local fifty-one. He reaches the station where Jim is agent and passes through. Then Jim heard the ticker calling frantically. It was from Orton Junction. The agent there frantically appealed to him for help. He had allowed a special freight to pass, having forgotten the orders to hold her up and give number fifty-one the right of way. Jim was terror-stricken. He flashed back to Orton Junction that number fifty-one had left his station, Fallonville, just four minutes before and that he could do nothing. Back flashes the Orton Junction agent: "Freight and No. 51 will meet at Smith's Crossing. For God's sake do something." Jim could do nothing. It wasn't his fault if Burke was killed. He hadn't made the mistake. It would give him a chance to win the girl. Then he realized all that the girl had meant to Edward. He saw in his mind's eye the trains coming together, the frightful crash, the mutilated bodies and the accusing finger of Edna. Yes, he could and would do something. Rushing like a madman to a grocery store in the village he telephoned to Edna telling her of the impending collision and to ride her horse. Rosy, like the wind to Smith's Crossing and stop the first train she saw coming in either direction. Now the great race for life is on. The trains are seen approaching. Edna is seen galloping nearer and nearer. Will she be in time? Now she reaches the track and places her horse across it, waves her hand frantically to the on-rushing train. It stops within four feet of her and she turns and riding on, stops the other. Burke's surprise when he runs forward and finds who has saved him is a thing to see in the picture. They all return to Fallonville and Jim, a real hero, is thanked by his rival. He takes Edna's hand and Edward's and tells them that he did it for her.
- Now we meet Mary arriving in New York, going back to her old lawyer who promises to help her. He takes her to his home and leaves her there for the night in the care of his sister. In the back room of a little Bridgeport hotel, Richard and Henry Craig are deciding what action they should take, for on the following day, Mary will be of age and the money in trust will be turned over to her. They finally decide to hire an automobile and get to New York without attracting attention, and be at hand at the Occidental Trust at noon sharp. While all this action is going on, Mary is sleeping peacefully; on the other hand, Billy Peart receives a wire from Lawyer Foster to appear at his office and we see him sailing in his launch to the New York dock, to collect, as he hopes, the ten thousand dollars promised by Craig. So closer and closer all the people gather. It is morning and we see Mary enter the lawyer's office. Two plain clothes men are on hand as Peart comes on the scene. The two Craigs are hiding behind the stairs just outside the private office of the Occidental Trust, watching and waiting. If Mary does not appear, the money is theirs. Back in Foster's office the issue is at stake. Peart in handcuffs has confessed all. It is nearly noon. The two Craigs enter the Trust Company's office just as the telephone rings, Lawyer Foster is on the wire and he says he will be right down. The secretary then turning to the two Craigs, asks if he can be of service. They immediately get down to business, meanwhile watching the hands of the clock as they slowly turn around. They introduce themselves as being the rightful heirs. At the critical moment Mary enters and asserts her rights. She receives her fortune and bids her friends a fond farewell.
- This is the fourth story about "What Happened to Mary." When Mary walked into the office of Raynor and Jones she basically caused a magnetic disturbance: Raynor badly needed a stenographer, and his trusted clerk Wilson instinctively disliked Mary. Wilson had been losing steadily at the stock game until he was almost wiped out, and his last hope lay in somehow securing enough money to carry his margin. He knew that it was customary for the collector to allow himself a half-hour to get to the bank, so at first chance he stole over to the collector's coat and set back his watch 30 minutes. As a consequence, the collector arrives at the bank after hours and is compelled to return with the money. Mr. Raynor is forced to put the money into the safe, and, watched by Wilson, he now proceeds to put the safe combination memorandum in his pocket, which hangs on the rack. Later, Wilson, in helping Raynor on with his coat, drops it. Wilson apologizes, takes the coat to the outer office to brush it, and steals the memorandum and hurriedly stashes it behind the washstand. Later, after Mr. Raynor has gone and Mary is preparing to go home, she chances to see the stolen memorandum, and like a flash Wilson's intention dawns upon her. Quickly she makes another memorandum, and changing the figures, replaces it. Wilson unsuspectingly gets the changed slip and asks Mary if she is going home. She makes an excuse about working late, and Wilson leaves. Mary now prepares for her vigil by procuring a revolver and switching off the lights. Hour after hour drags by and Mary gets weary. Suddenly she hears a key in the door and sees Wilson's shadow; she starts up and darts behind the screen. Wilson stealthily enters and Mary, tensely grasping the revolver, breathlessly waits. Swiftly he gets to work; back and forth the combination knob turns and now he tries the handle. Locked. Again and again he tries, the while feverishly consulting the false memorandum. He is beginning to despair. Suddenly he gets up and rushes into Raynor's private office. He must get that combination. This is Mary's opportunity. Stealthily she reaches the telephone and calls up Raynor's club. Explaining hurriedly the situation, she gets back behind the screen just in time to avoid Wilson, who rushes in like an infuriated beast. Again he tries the safe and again he is unsuccessful, and ripping out an oath, clenches his fists. This so startles Mary that she inadvertently makes a noise, which Wilson hears. Quickly turning, he rushes to the screen, only to find a revolver poked in his face. Nonplused for the moment, now he begins arduously to plead, but the revolver never wavers. Becoming frantic, he beseeches and implores. Mary feels that she cannot hold out much longer. She throws the screen toward Wilson and the fight is on. Suddenly the door is thrown open and Mr. Raynor, his brother and an officer rush in. Mary collapses. Wilson is arrested and the next morning Mr. Raynor's brother, whose admiration for Mary is unbounded because of her pluck the night before, succeeds in getting Mr. Raynor's consent to her going to Europe on a private diplomatic mission for him.
- Dolly, a born coquette, is the daughter of Gabriel Varden, a prosperous locksmith. She scoffs at the devotion of Joe Willets, and flouts and rebuffs him in favor of other less worthy men. The day after he rescues Dolly from Hugh, a drunken hostler, Joe Willets takes courage and proposes to Dolly. For the benefit of Simon, her father's assistant, Dolly cruelly plays with Joe's feelings, finally refusing him flatly. Broken-hearted, Joe enlists in the royal army and goes to the wars. On his return, five years later, he has gained distinction on account of his heroic conduct and has lost his left arm in the service of his country. The Lord George Gordon riots are in full progress in London. Simon, a power among the rioters, delivers Gabriel Varden over to his companions. They drag the old man to Newgate Prison, to persuade him to make a key to open the gate. Finding him obdurate, their entreaties and promises give place to curses and threats, and finally to blows. Joe Willets, in the costume of a rioter, recognizes his old friend and by a harangue liberates him from the mob. Joe and Varden return to discover that Dolly has been abducted. Simon and Hugh, the hostler, have taken advantage of her father's absence to seize the girl and carry her off to a rendezvous of the rioters. Mrs. Varden discovers this rendezvous from a scrap of paper dropped on the floor by Hugh, and Joe Willets and Varden set off to the rescue. They arrive with the police just in time to save Dolly from Simon. Chastened by her terrible experience, Dolly comes into a full realization of what Joe's great love for her is really worth. And so, despite his fears that his lost arm will make his case more hopeless than ever, she accepts him, and everything ends happily.
- George Trent is the son of a widowed mother. He is engaged to marry Sylvia Bennett, and is a cock-sure egoist. An old clergyman, his mother's friend, gets him a chance with a prosperous architect in a large city, but his faults get him into a nest of trouble. He is careless with his work, unwilling to take advice and consequently his downfall is brought about. At the same time Sylvia gives him the mitten because he has displayed before her a bad trait. He has seen part of a letter from his employer to the Rev. Mr. Roberts in which the assertion is made that "he has a bad enemy." He goes to the clergyman and demands to know who his enemy is, for he has concluded that his downfall is due to this mysterious person, and in answer the clergyman leads him to a mirror. To his surprise and consternation he learns that his enemy is none other than himself. The result of realization is regeneration. His entire attitude changes and he is given another chance with his old employer. At the end of the picture we see that he has learned his lesson well.
- Annie, the janitor's 3-year-old brace-wearing daughter, is neglected by her quarrelsome parents. She finds the door ajar and crawls out and up the stairs. A young girl on the first floor is tempted to go out for a wild night; her mother has been unable to dissuade her. As she opens the door to go, Annie crawls in. In a few minutes the girl goes back to the mirror and takes off her finery. Annie, neglected again, crawls out and upstairs again. On the second floor an ex-convict is contemplating a burglary. He is making ready when Annie knocks at the door. When she comes in the man takes her up and kisses her. He puts away his burglar's kit and Annie crawls out and up again. On the third floor there is trouble between a pair of lovers. The girl does not want to marry, she wants a career, so the young man says goodbye, but as he opens the door, Annie crawls up. He picks her up, shows the lame leg to the girl. The girl hugs Annie and Annie hugs them both together. Naturally the young man puts her down and turns his whole attention to the young lady. Annie crawls out. On the fourth floor, a seamstress is sewing at the machine and her little girl, about Annie's age, is trying to attract her attention. The mother slaps the child, who cries; Annie crawls in and the two start to play together. The woman notices this, picks up her own child, hugs her and feels her little limbs which, unlike Annie's are sound and whole, and so neglected, Annie must go out and climb on. By now she is so tired that she can hardly crawl up the remaining stairs. On the top floor a young man, a stranger in the city, is contemplating suicide. He is alone, friendless, and in despair. Annie comes sleepily in. He picks her up and she falls asleep in his arms. Very gently he carries her downstairs again. The janitor and his wife are still quarreling, but when the young man appears with Annie fast asleep, they are silent, look at the sleeping child, and draw each other close.
- Barry Remsen is a fine specimen of the idle rich youth of today. His father realizes this, but sees no way of making the boy really of value. One day he happens to think of Bennett, the eccentric millionaire inventor, who works in his own laboratory with his men and who has no use for idleness in his house or his life. He sends Barry with a note to this man, asking him to break the boy in, Barry of course does not know the contents of the note, but he does know that Bennett has a remarkably pretty little daughter, whom he will be very glad to see again. Bennett tells him to come back for an answer to the note in three days. Barry comes, but more to see the girl than to get an answer, and again is put off. He manages to meet the girl at church, and finally, after a very brief courtship, proposes to her and is told to ask papa. Bennett, of course, has been waiting for this, and tells the boy that he has no use for idlers. He intimates, however, that if the boy really wants the girl he had better take off his coat and go to work. Much to his surprise, Barry takes up this offer, pulls off his coat and starts to work. Bennett and the other men put him through the hardest "stunts" that they can find to toughen him up, while the girl looks on, with her heart aching for him. He sleeps on a cot in the workshop, and when he is late for work goes without breakfast. But he does harden up and toughen up to the job and begins to be of some value, and then one day an explosion takes place in the laboratory, and as the men run for the fire department and for the boss Barry realizes that one of the number is in the inner room, in danger of suffocation by the gases, and he goes into the room to rescue the man. He is overcome himself and dragged out by the foreman when he returns, but as soon as he comes to he tells them why he was in there and, breaking from them, dashes into the smoke and flames again. This time he and the superintendent succeed in bringing out the man alive, and Barry drops in a heap on the floor, the girl on her knees beside him. After the firemen have gone Bennett starts to congratulate the boy, but the little girl will not allow him to speak to the lad because her father has allowed him to go into danger, and without reason. Then Bennett produces the letter, hands it to them and the two young people see that this has been the process of his breaking in and has made a man of him. Of course they forgive the old father.
- In his childish gambols, a little boy wanders away from his governess' unwatchful eyes and mysteriously disappears. Then follows the anguish of parental devotion, Time goes on, lonesome days and weary nights come and go, the mother's anxious outstretched arms day by day fall closer to her sides. Whispering hope into her husband's ear she expires. There is a row in a gypsy camp. A scrawny youth still in his twenties is defending a wretched hag from her husband's brutalities, and for this he is turned from the camp, the only home he has known since wandering onto it some years before. Fate's hand again marks his course and eventually he becomes the father of a happy home. But happiness and modest prosperity are momentary, for in time's wayward flight, reverses befall him and starvation's merciless fangs are already gnawing. In desperation, he enters the home of a wealthy gentleman who is seated by the fireside. Hearing a strange noise, he turns and, crouching on the floor in abject fear, is the despicable form of a thief. In a climatic situation, the apparition of his wife appears; the hand of Justice is replaced by that of clemency and the intruder is turned free. A strong resemblance in his face, however, causes him to follow. As he does the dawn of hope begins to brighten and in a strong heart scene, the story terminates with the return of the loved to the lost and the gratification of "His Mother's Hope."
- From his boyhood, John Hayes had always had the idea that he would one day marry Enid Wilson. When he reached an age of supposed discretion, he became engaged to her as a matter of course. Then, all of a sudden, he met Marian Orme. Marian was a great actress. From the very moment he met her, John Hayes began to love her, not because she was famous, or beautiful, but solely because he could see the finer qualities that lay behind her mask of genius. Enid, who had long adored Marian Orme from afar, one day wrote her a note begging for an interview. Marian readily consented to her admirer's request, and invited her to come to her dressing room. The wondering Enid came in delighted awe, and found John Hayes' picture. In the tempest of sobbing grief which followed, Marian learned that her little admirer was also her rival. John Hayes, knowing that he had found the only love which could ever count, broke off his engagement with Enid, and asked Marian to marry him. But the actress, pitying the girl's evident distress, refused him. When she found that John was not to be put off with a simple "no," Marian resolved to kill his love for her. Accordingly, on one occasion she pretended to be intoxicated, and on another, allowed John to overhear a desperate love scene between herself and another man, not advising him that the other man was an actor and that they were only rehearsing. At last, when she found that John's love was growing stronger despite her subterfuges, Marian, in desperation, wrote him a letter in which she told him plainly that she was not worthy of him. John, heartbroken, went west. A few months later. Marian was disfigured for life in an automobile accident. John, hearing the dreadful news, hurried east, and proved to the despairing woman the true worth of his love.
- Out-of-work, Tim steals a sandwich, then knocks out the policeman who chases him. He changes into the policeman's uniform, and is approached by a wife who needs help with her drunken husband.
- To a reception there is invited a celebrated professor of hypnotism, and during the evening he obliges with an exhibition of his wonderful powers. Several of the guests are put under the influence and made to perform most ridiculous antics, to their embarrassment upon reviving. The daughter of the host is the last to be subjected to the professor's power, and she proves to be such a good subject that the professor at once resolves to make her his unconscious agent in a dastardly plot he at once evolves. Opportunity serves him most graciously, for he meets the lady on the street and, hypnotizing her, suggests she return to her home and rob her father's desk of a large sum of money. The scheme seems to work, but it is an acknowledged fact that a person of good morals cannot be made to commit a crime, by hypnotism, and so, although the girl goes to the house, and even opens the drawer in which the money is placed, she returns without it. On her way back she is followed by her sweetheart, who assails the professor, but is worsted, gagged and bound. Back the professor sends the girl, he following, and at the home she somnambulistically leads him to the desk. He takes the money and leaves her under his hypnotic power. In this condition her father finds her, and failing to arouse her, calls the family physician, who at once suggests a celebrated mind specialist. He is hurriedly called, and using his powers of suggestion on her she is induced to retrace her steps, followed by her father and the doctors. Meanwhile the professor has arrived at his rooms and is hastily packing his effects preparatory to skipping; when the girl and her father, followed by the doctors and a couple of policemen, enter. The professor is overpowered, and made to resuscitate the girl, and taken into custody by the policemen.
- Mons. Flamant, a typical roué of the French nobility, is surrounded by all the pleasures and pastimes his fabulous wealth can procure, but still at times he suffers extreme weariness and disgust for the toadying sycophants about him, so in quest of diversion he visits the art rooms, just as a young girl enters with a magnificent piece of sculpture and places it on sale. The roué is so impressed with the work and the girl that he purchases it at once and follows her to the atelier, where he learns that she is the maid of the sculptress, whom he sees and at once falls passionately in love with her as only a man of his type can, but when he learns that she is totally blind, his feelings change to one of deepest pity, which is, we know, the kindling of pure love. He arranges with her to sit for a bust of himself and when it is finished he declares his love for her but she realizes her condition and rejects it, although she has by intuition come to love him deeply. As he leaves the studio crestfallen she sinks down and for the first time feels the enormity of her affliction, sobbing she cries: "Oh! God, how I love him, and yet it must not be." A little child model, who is employed by the sculptress, hears this and trips from the place and makes her way to the roué's palace, where she tells him the empyrean truth. Taking up the little one in his arms he rushes back to the studio to set aside the sculptress' compunction and claim her as his own.
- It all happened because Hiram had an adventurous disposition, and because he was in love with Susie Smithers, the daughter of the village storekeeper. When old man Smithers laughed at his suit, Hiram's soul was filled with a wild desire to prove the native mettle which he felt sure was in him. An attractive advertisement in a newspaper, wherein the Eagle Eye Detective Agency agreed to forward a complete detective outfit on receipt of the modest sum of four dollars, decided Hiram. One bit of advice in the textbook sent with the outfit seemed to Hiram peculiarly valuable. It was to the effect that the budding aspirant for detective glory should follow a great detective about and carefully watch the way he worked. A dark, mysterious stranger who had been lurking about the village store, admitted that he himself was a great detective and was at that time on the trail of a notorious ex-convict, "Gink the Eel," for whose apprehension a liberal reward was offered. Hiram, overjoyed, immediately began to dog the stranger's footsteps. One day, the stranger set off on a brisk walk across country, while Hiram, as usual, followed him at a distance. In a clearing of the woods, the stranger met a short, ugly man, and spoke to him hurriedly. Immediately afterward the two men turned their coats inside-out and tied their handkerchiefs about the lower halves of their faces. Hiram, in the shadow of the trees, instantly followed suit. The stranger and the other man lay quietly beside the road until old man Smithers appeared, driving over to the bank in his buggy to make his monthly deposit. The men jumped out and forced him to descend from the wagon. At this moment an original and interesting idea occurred to Hiram. Stepping gently from the bushes he tapped the two men lightly on the head with a blackjack. Then he drove back with old man Smithers to receive the plaudits of the multitude for his daring capture of "Gink the Eel." He got Susie, too.
- The story, while not biographical, is founded on incidents in his life, showing his devotion for his sick wife, Virginia. Desperate from his utter helplessness to ameliorate his dying wife's suffering, owing to extreme destitution, he is in a frenzy of grief, when a raven is seen to perch on a bust of Pallas above the door of their cold, cheerless apartment. An inspiration! He sets to work, and that masterpiece. "The Raven," is the fruit. During his work he has divested himself of his coat, putting it over his wife to protect her from the cold. The poem finished, he rushes coatless and hatless to the publisher, where he meets with scant attention. One editor, however, thinks the work possesses some merit and offers ten dollars for it. Ten dollars for the greatest jewel in the diadem of fame - think of it! Poe thinks of the comforts, meager though they needs must be, for his poor wife and accepts the offer. Hastening to the store, he procures food, a heavy comfortable for the cot, and medicine, and with much lighter heart returns home. Spreading the quilt tenderly over Virginia, he takes her hand and gazes fondly into her sightless eyes, but the cold, unresponsive hand tells him the awful truth. "My God, she is dead!" and he falls prostrate across the cot.
- Of all the agonies of life, that which is most harrowing is the conviction that we have been deceived where we placed all the trust of love, and this is most apparent to Harry Colton, a young artist in the action of his wife, Mabel. It has been an arduous struggle for fame with poor Harry and when poverty's wolf is howling at their threshold he resolves to go out and seek employment which may not be as congenial as art, but will prove decidedly more remunerative. But his wife will not allow it. She pleads with him to hope on, work at his painting while she goes to seek a position as teacher of piano at the Conservatory, His ambitious spirit is compelling and he allows her to go. Piano lessons, indeed. The brave girl gets a job in the laundry at the washtubs. However, she has grit and with her first day's pay, one dollar, she drags her sore body homeward, stopping on the way to buy a few provisions. Dauntless, she goes the next day to give "piano lessons" at the washboard, and while away an art collector calls on Colton and purchases his masterpiece tor a goodly sum, with a promise or more purchases to come. His joy is boundless and he cannot wait until evening to tell Mabel the good news, so he rushes to the Conservatory, and, of course, does not find her. She has never been there: they don't know her. He stands for a moment paralyzed. "My God! She has been deceiving me. I shall cast her off forever." And rushing home he is writing a farewell note, when the door opens and poor Mabel is carried in a sorry sight to behold. She had fallen into one of the tubs of boiling suds and her arms are scalded from hands to shoulders. Harry, when he realizes the awful sacrifice of the girl, and all for him, is about to gather her in his arms, but she cries with pain, and he can only kiss the tip of her finger. The subject is a beautiful story of a woman's self-sacrificing love.
- Miguel casts out his daughter when she marries a poor man, causing his wife to leave him, too. After he is unable to find a reliable cook, he reconciles with his daughter so he can get a good meal.
- Hidalgo offers his daughter's hand in marriage when he can't repay a loan to Manuella. But when Manuella overhears the daughter bidding farewell to her lover, he is so moved by their devotion that he cancels the debt.
- A young man wants to woo the daughter of a suffragette so he visits a magician who gives him the power to stop time. He tries it out in London, and holds the city hostage until the Prime Minister agrees to favor votes for women.
- While on their summer vacation, Joan and Susie found a hornet's nest that they brought back to the city with them. Shortly after their return. Susie's young man, Dick Moreton, came to call on her. Susie's family at the time was suffering hideous torture on account of the family overhead, who made objectionable noises at all hours of the day and night. Filled with a wild and helpless rage, Susie's father promised Dick his full consent to the marriage of the two young people on condition that Dick should instantly throw the objectionable neighbors out of the house. Dick rushed upstairs and ordered the noisy family to leave the building. The noisy family replied by throwing Dick down the stairs. Dick picked himself up and reported to his fiancée that the family upstairs seemed very unwilling to leave, and that he did not have the heart to throw them out bodily. During one of the warmer moments of Dick's dispute with the noisy family, a large section of plaster fell from the ceiling in the apartment below. As luck would have it the plaster fell directly on the box containing the hornet's nest. A few hundred hornets flew out. When Dick returned from his unsuccessful mission, he was met by a family who had little interest in anything but hornets. After he had been stung twice himself, Dick got an idea. Carefully placing the cover on the box containing the supposed bird's nest, he carried it upstairs, and dumped it out on the noisy family's floor. The noisy family left very quickly indeed, and Dick returned as a conquering hero.
- A corrupt politician, on seeing a satirical cartoon in a newspaper, rushes to the paper's offices to shoot the cartoonist. On discovering the cartoonist is a pretty woman, he falls instantly in love and wastes no time in wooing her.
- Gertrude chooses Jim over Jack, which makes Jack very jealous. Later Jim dies, and Jack marries Gertrude. He finds himself once again very jealous of the late Lucky Jim.
- An anonymous donor drops a gold coin in the shoe of a homeless girl as she sleeps. A gambler with a 'sure thing' borrows the coin and wins a fortune, but he can't find her again to repay her.
- A young man becomes infatuated with Mrs. Francis after she sings at a party. His father convinces her to discourage the young man's attentions. Out of despair, the young man considers suicide, until he meets a woman his own age.
- A disfigured violinist mistakes a token of appreciation for a love bouquet. When he realizes his mistake, he loses his mind.
- While she attends a party, Mrs. Ross leaves her young daughter to care for her bed-ridden mother. At the party, Mrs. Ross realizes she left the wrong medicine, and desperately tries to contact her daughter before it's too late.
- Alphonse and Gaston get into an argument over cocktails and agree to a duel.
- One of the members of a suicide club learns he has inherited some money, but only after he drew the fatal lot and is expected to kill himself.
- Sight unseen, a man buys a bag that turns out to contain burglar tools. He can't get rid of the bag, even when he's robbed. The thieves assume he's a colleague and return the bag and tools.
- Episode 1: "The Black Mask" John Perriton was unmistakably a good fellow. He was never one to spoil a party with a long face and an absence of joviality, nor was he at all likely to break up any sort of festivity by leaving early. A few people shook their heads gravely, and said that he was hitting the pace entirely too hard and that he would certainly kill himself if he didn't cut down on his liquor, but most of the world accepted him cordially on his own estimation as a man's man. Perriton loved Mary Wales almost as much as he loved himself, which is to say that he was not ready to settle down yet for her sake. Mary's brother Nelson, was a weak, helpless individual who was always in hot water. On the night of the masked ball, he came to Perriton, and asked him for help in one or two matters. He needed money very badly. To make matters worse, he had forged his sister's name to a check. The long and the short of the whole business was that Nelson must have $75,000 by the next morning. Perriton wrote an order on his bankers for $50,000, the entire extent of his depleted fortune, and drove Nelson to the station. But Nelson was not satisfied. He had to have the other $25,000. So he slipped off the train, came home by a short cut, put on his dancing mask and attempted to take his sister's jewels from her safe. He was surprised by the butler, and in the desperation of fear, killed the man. Immediately afterwards, Perriton arrived. Nelson, almost frenzied, begged him to put on the mask, and to pretend to be the criminal. No one would know who he was, and he would see that he got safely away. Perriton assented. His identity was discovered by Mary who, agonized at her discovery of the apparent character of the man she loved, forbade him even to think of her again, and allowed him to escape. Despite everything, Perriton kept silent, and allowing the woman he loved to think him the meanest type of criminal, went off into the night. Episode 2: "The Hunted Animal" In the first story of the series, John Perriton assumed the blame of a murder to save the brother of the girl he loved. We left him crossing Long Island Sound in a boat. He had but little headway. The police were on his trail. Before reaching the middle of the Sound, a detective put out from the opposite shore to intercept him. Perriton bent all efforts to escape. The detective fired and broke the wooden oarlock. Perriton pretended to be hit, fell overboard and swam beneath the surface, but McWade, the detective, was after him like a flash, and soon had him handcuffed. When they landed, McWade forced Perriton to walk in front up a steep slope. Perriton purposely slipped, fell on the detective, and both rolled to the bottom. Perriton escaped into the woods. After hours of wandering, he came to a railroad track. As Perriton watched, a man emerged from the bushes across the track, looked cautiously about, stuck a white flag in the ground, and disappeared. Shortly afterward a train passed. A young girl on the rear platform threw a bundle into the bushes near the flag. With desperate agility, Perriton seized the bundle and fled. Opening it, he discovered a suit of clothes and a note, which said the clothes were intended for an escaped convict. Full directions for the man's further guidance were clearly written out. Since the handcuffs prevented Perriton from putting on the clothes, he resolved on a desperate expedient. Hearing the approach of a train he laid the chain on the track, averted his face and waited. The train roared by and the links were crushed. Perriton put on the clothes, and for lack of a better plan, followed out the directions of the note. A bribed farmer cut off the handcuffs and carried him in a trunk to a tenement house, where a Chinaman received him. And here we leave Perriton until the next story. Episode 3: "The Double Cross" It will be remembered that John Perriton, after taking the blame of a murder to save the brother of the girl he loved, escaped to Long Island, and after a series of exciting adventures managed to evade the relentless pursuit on the part of the detective. By cleverly assuming the identity of another man, he managed to utilize preparations which had been made for the other's escape. The Chinese opium joint to which Perriton was finally brought proved to have disadvantages in addition to its obvious advantage as a haven of refuge. Before he had been there a week, Perriton was forced to join a band of criminals to avoid instant betrayal to the police. A foxy-eyed little lawyer named Lipmann, and a burly "strong-arm" man named "Biceps" were the chief agents in the present scheme of Perriton's new associates. The scheme was gorgeously simple. An advertisement was inserted in the newspapers to the effect that an heiress desired to meet a wealthy young farmer with matrimonial inclinations. The wealthy young farmer had already been found. It remained to arrange the details of taking his money away from him. According to the plan, Perriton was to act as the girl's brother. It was arranged that a letter should be sent to the man, directing him to come to the supposed home of his intended bride with a certified check as a proof of his wealth. The plan worked out beautifully. The young man called at the beautiful apartment which the gang had arranged, and was agreeably surprised by the appearance of the girl. Curiously enough, two things happened for which the gang had made no provision. For one thing, the girl fell in love with the man she was supposed to cheat. For another, Perriton had firmly resolved from the beginning that he would in some way upset the scheme. Owing largely to his endeavors, the girl confessed her duplicity to the young man, and was forgiven by him. To escape from "Biceps," who was waiting outside the door, the pair left the room by the fire escape. When "Biceps" rushed in and started shooting at the escaping couple, Perriton crept up behind him and knocked him unconscious. Then Perriton escaped by way of the dumb waiter. When the astounded police broke in they found nothing but the body of the "Biceps." Episode 4: "The Light on the Wall" When "John Pottle," fugitive from justice, helped Jennie and Harry Horn to escape from the band of criminals which was planning to get Harry's money by using Jennie as a lure, he did so in the fond hope that he would be able to severe his connection with the aforesaid criminals for good. But fate ruled otherwise. Jennie, discovering that Biceps, one of the leading spirits of the hand, had tracked her husband and herself to their refuge, implored John for help. John, trusting that Biceps had not yet found out who had been responsible for the knock-down blow which resulted in the escape of the pair, went directly to Lipmann, the lawyer who was the brains of the criminal organization, and told him that the reason for his absence from the meetings of the gang was on account of being obliged to hide from the vigilant police. Somewhat to John's surprise, Lipmann accepted his flimsy excuses without question. He told John that the gang had decided that Jennie must be punished for her double-dealing, and directed him to be present at a meeting to be held that night aboard a barge in the river. John, hoping to be of some service to Jennie, attended the meeting. His hopes were not realized to any large extent. He discovered that Lipmann had not been fooled at all by his excuses, and escaped from the barge only by besting Biceps in a terrible fight. The next day John found a notice in the personal column of a newspaper, signed with his name, directing Jennie to call at a certain address. Realizing that the notice was a trap for the girl, John hastened to the address mentioned. He arrived too late to save Jennie, and was captured himself in an attempt to rescue her. The two were securely bound and placed in a room on the top floor of the house. Here, they were suavely informed by Lipmann that they would be thrown into the river shortly after dark. By almost superhuman exertions, John succeeded in getting Jennie's handbag in his bound hands, and flashing sunlight into the eyes of a tailor across the street by means of the mirror on the bag. Rescued by the tailor, John and the girl hastened away to find some haven where they would be safe from their powerful enemies. Episode 5: "With His Hands" Through the help of Jennie, the girl he had saved from the hands of the gangsters, John Perriton was enabled to get a position as a riveter's helper in the construction company in which Jennie herself was employed. So Perriton, still under his alias of "John Pottle" entered upon new duties, which were as strenuous as they were unfamiliar. Shortly after Perriton's arrival at the works, a good deal of trouble was caused by the unwarrantable discharge of several of the employees. Recognizing John's intellectual superiority, the men chose him as a spokesman to express their grievances to their employers. Carter, the head of the works, was a hard unjust man with no regard whatever for the rights of the men working under him. When John courteously told him of the men's grievances, he cursed him roundly, and ordered him back to work. Realizing the power a man of John's type would gain among the men, Carter called a private detective, named Brownson, and ordered him to discover some pretext on which John might be discharged. He dared not discharge the man without any reason, because he knew that it would take very little in the existing state of discontent to precipitate a general strike. Brownson's scheme to ruin John Pottle was very simple. He took a piece of dynamite and put it in John's lunch basket. Then he complained to the police inspector that he suspected John of a plot to blow up part of the works. But Jennie, owing to her position in the company's office, had learned of the plot and managed to extract the stick of dynamite from the lunch basket. When John was seized and searched, no incriminating evidence of any sort was found upon him. Jennie told him of the plot, and John set out post-haste to interview Brownson. He found him on the top girder of the great building the company was constructing. Brownson attacked him with a hammer, and a fierce hand-to-hand conflict followed. Brownson was the stronger man, and gradually forced John over the edge. At last John lost his last finger-hold and fell. Brownson lost his balance and fell after him. Luckily enough, John was saved from Brownson' s fate by striking another girder. After he had been taken to the hospital, Jennie sent for Mary Wales, the girl for whose sake John had given up everything in life. But when Mary came to the hospital and saw Jennie bending tenderly above John, she did not understand, and went away without a word. Episode 6: "The Gap" While Perriton, alias "John Pottle'' was recovering from the injuries he had received in his life and death struggle with Brownson, the detective, Earle, the superintendent of the construction company, called to inquire after his injuries. While talking to Jennie, the girl Perriton had saved from the gang of criminals, Earle admitted that he could stand Carter, the president of the company, no longer. He went on to tell her that if he could find a partner with money, he would undertake the important contract on the Warrington Courthouse, himself. After Earle had left, Jennie discussed the situation with Henry Horn, her husband, and Perriton. Horn decided that he would be willing to advance the money for the courthouse proposition, so Jennie started out for the offices of the construction company to find Earle. In the company offices, she learned that President Carter had discharged Earle that morning. From a letter on Carter's desk, she gained absolute proof that the construction company was planning to get the courthouse contract by bribery. Incidentally, she learned that Earle was leaving for the west on the 12:45 train. After a rather unpleasant encounter with Carter, Jennie hurried back to Perriton and her husband. They decided that their only course was to stop Earle. Stopping Earle seemed, on the face of it, an utter impossibility, since they could not possibly reach the station by 12:45. But John Perriton was nothing, if not resourceful. He realized that the train would have to go over a near-by draw-bridge. If the draw-bridge were open, the train would, of course, be held up. So jumping into a taxicab, they rushed off to the drawbridge. It was closed. The train was almost due. The drawbridge tender suavely informed Perriton that the bridge could on no account be opened unless a boat wished to pass through. With his heart in his mouth, Perriton rushed to a tug which was moored close by, and offered the captain twenty-five dollars to take him to the other side of the bridge. The captain naturally thought John was crazy, but accepted his offer just the same. Putting out into the stream, he whistled for the crew. The bridge slowly opened, and the 12:45 train which had just reached it, was stopped. Jennie found Earle and explained everything to him. Then the four partners hurried back to the city to begin their battle with Carter. Episode 7: "Face to Face" In the weeks following Perriton's dashing and successful attempt to stop Earle's train, the four partners, Perriton, Jenny, Henry Horn and Earle, despite the determined opposition of President Carter, managed to land the court house contract which meant so much to them. A newspaper paragraph, seen by chance, changed their comfortable feeling of assurance to vivid alarm. The paragraph was to the effect that, owing to the determined efforts of President Carter, a bill was on the verge of passing the legislature, restricting all state contracts to residents of the state. Since none of the four was a resident of the state in which the court house was to be built, the bill. If passed, would be certain to ruin them. Knowing Carter's methods, Perriton decided that the best means of blocking the passage of the bill was to bring forward proof that Carter had been guilty of bribery. In order to keep a close watch over their enemy, an office was hired in the building next to the construction company, with windows directly opposite those of Carter's office. By means of a high-powered telescope, the partners obtained ample optical proof that Carter had bought the services of several members of the legislature. They discovered also that an actual transfer of money was to take place that very night in Carter's country house. Unknown to Perriton, Carter had a hold over Mary Wales, the girl Perriton loved. A document forged by Nelson, her scapegrace of a brother, had fallen into Carter's possession. Fearing to take the money to the corrupt legislators himself, he decided to use the girl and her brother as cats paws. So, using the forged mortgage as an incentive, he directed Mary and her brother to take the money and deliver it to the proper parties at his country house. So it happened that when Perriton burst into the house ahead of Earle and the detectives, he was confronted face to face by the girl for whose sake he had given up position and reputation. There was no time for love. Turning, he slammed the door in the faces of his friends, and then lowered Mary to the ground through the window. He had the proofs of bribery, and it was absolutely impossible that the detectives should find Mary in any such situation. Episode 8: "A Matter of Minutes" It will be remembered that Nelson Wales had put his sister into considerable danger and difficulty on account of the fact that the amiable young man had forged her name to a mortgage. John Perriton, the man who disappeared for Mary's sake, saved her from an unpleasant situation. The next day he came to the Wales' house to call Nelson to account. Confronted by his sister and the angry Perriton, Nelson, at first, attempted to bluster his way out of the situation. When that failed to produce the desired impression, he locked Perriton and Mary into a room, and telephoned to the police that he had captured John Perriton, the murderer. While they were locked in the room, John told Mary the truth about the murder, that Nelson had killed the butler, and that he, Perriton, had shouldered the responsibility for her sake. Mary, filled with horror, nonetheless believed Perriton's story. The police arrived at the front door, and John escaped through the window, directing Mary to meet him at a certain station on the railway line. John climbed to the roof by means of a rain spout, and after a desperate race with the detectives, succeeded in completely eluding them. At Nelson's suggestion, the detectives, foiled in their pursuit of Perriton, turned their attention to his sister. They followed her aboard the express train which she took to keep her appointment with Perriton. Mary, discovering that she was followed, sent a telegram to the train she knew Perriton had taken, telling him that she would elude the detectives, and would meet him at Vernontown, a junction point, where they could catch a north-bound express. Mary succeeded in eluding the detectives, by the clever ruse of leaving the train, and quickly slipping back aboard just as it was starting. Meanwhile Perriton's train had broken down. Realizing that everything depended on making the connection Mary had planned, he was at his wits' end. The accident to the train would certainly make him miss the connection. An aeroplane meet in the vicinity of the accident solved the difficulty. Perriton hired an aeroplane just as the express came into sight. Mounting into the air, the great birdlike machine raced for miles against the speeding train, and reached Vernontown in time. Episode 9: "The Living Dead" When John Perriton and Mary Wales fled to Albany to escape her brother, Nelson, and the detective, that amiable young man had set on their track, their first plan was to take the express for Montreal. The fact that Mary recognized her brother and the detective on the train made them realize the futility of attempting to escape across the border. After some thought, they decided that their wisest plan was to return to New York. Accordingly they took one of the steamboats running down the Hudson. Nelson Wales and the detective, after going through Albany with a fine-tooth comb, decided that there was no use in looking further. Accordingly, they came aboard the same boat Mary and John had taken. That night at dinner. Nelson looked across the tables, and saw Perriton and Mary. Filled with triumph, he ordered the detective to arrest the supposed murderer. Perriton, realizing the uselessness of resistance, quietly submitted to being locked up in his stateroom. Mary, whose stateroom was next, racked her brains to think of a way to rescue him. The detective, eager to make assurance doubly sure, stationed himself at John's door, and the situation seemed hopeless. At last, she examined the wall of the stateroom and discovering that the panels were fastened in place with screws. Inspired by a gleam of hope, she unscrewed one of the panels. John crawled through the gap. Affairs were improved, but still almost hopeless. But Mary's quick brain met the difficulty. Under her directions, John waited until she had left the stateroom, and then cautiously followed. Just as she came opposite to the detective and her brother, Mary pretended to faint. They naturally rushed to her assistance, and in the moment they did so, John shot past them, and rushing to the stern of the boat, jumped overboard. After a long, hard swim, he reached shore in an exhausted condition. Mary, on the boat, had been unable to see whether or not he reached the bank. She feared the worst, however, and her joy may be imagined, when John Perriton, safe and sound, came to her in New York. Episode 10: "By the Aid of a Film" John Perriton gave up his place in society and disappeared for the sake of Mary Wales. Her brother, Nelson, had been surprised by the butler in an attempt to steal Mary's jewels. In the fight which ensued, Nelson killed the butler. Perriton happened to enter at this moment, and with the chivalrous motive of saving the name of the girl he loved from disgrace, assumed the responsibility for Nelson's deed, and fled. After a series of thrilling adventures, Perriton was at last arrested as a result of the malevolence of Nelson Wales, the man he saved. Mary, now firmly convinced of her lover's innocence, and her brother's guilt, added her brains to Perriton's in the attempt to find some way of proving his innocence. The attempt seemed hopeless. Nelson was the only witness. Perriton had just as strong a motive for stealing the jewels, and Perriton was the one who had fled from justice. Perriton decided to steal a page from "Hamlet" and see if the play might not be the thing to catch the guilty conscience of Nelson Wales. Under his direction, Mary hired a motion picture company and took it to the Wales' estate. Here she caused three of the actors to make up exactly like the principals of the tragedy, and had the entire scene acted in accordance with Perriton's directions. When the film was completed, Nelson was put in a darkened room, and the picture was flashed on the screen before him. The exact reproduction of his crime was too much for his weakened nerves. Mad with fear, he attacked the phantom figures with a chair, and was promptly arrested by the concealed police. He made a full confession of his crime, and died of heart failure. John Perriton's vagabond life was finally at an end. He was enabled to take again the position he had forfeited. Three months after Nelson's death he married Mary. END
- Every great city has some particular section that stands out clear and distinct from all others because of the peculiar characteristics of its denizens in their daily walks of life. London has her West End, Paris her Latin Quarter and New York her East Side. It is from the latter that material for our silent drama was drawn, and no one is more competent to correctly picture the life and habits of the denizens of the crowded East Side tenement district than Edward W. Townsend, the famous author of "Chimmie Fadden;" for he has made an exhaustive study of the underworld where virtue and vice walk hand in hand with poverty and crime. In the opening scene of "Little Sister" Mr. Townsend introduces us to what is commonly called the "sky parlor" of the tenement district, the roof of a house. Here we see Jew and Gentile, foreigner and native, mingling in a common fellowship, all because of the crying need of that community, want of God's fresh air. We are shown the silent, pathetic figure of a youth who, though naturally good at heart, because of his association and environments is losing the great battle of life. Already he has slipped into the class called, "suspects" by the Central Office men. His faculties dwarfed by his constant contact with misery and crime, Dick has ceased to strive for an honest means of livelihood. Embittered by his lot, he regards society as his natural enemy and ekes out his precarious living without the effort of labor, though with the full knowledge that in doing so he is hourly gambling with the price of liberty. All this is unknown to "Little Sister," who dearly loves him and for whom he entertains an affection strikingly at variance with his evil habits. We see her in the small but neat room over which she presides as housekeeper, alternately fondling her doll and preparing a meal in fond anticipation of Dick's return; while at the same time we witness his theft of a pocketbook from an aged member of the group on the tenement roof. The theft traced to Dick through the suspicion that is ever attached to his presence, she refuses to believe his guilt but determines, with a precocity born of hard knocks, to thereafter follow and guard his footsteps lest he succumb to temptation. Along the crowded streets Dick prowls, with ever-shifting eye alert for opportunity to pick a pocket or steal a valuable, the pathetic figure of his little guardian angel, with rag doll clutched tightly in her arms, ever close by. His opportunity comes in front of a theater, but the attempt is clumsy and the watch on which his fingers close for an instant is jostled from his grasp and falls to the sidewalk, where it is recovered. Wandering along the residential portion of Fifth Avenue, an open window attracts his attention. A momentary glance up and down the street and he mounts the iron railing and climbs into the house of wealth, observed by none but "Little Sister," who is crouching in the shadow of a neighboring stoop. Once in the room, he hides behind a screen and waits for a propitious hour to carry out his plans. Chance does not favor him, for the master of the house, while in the act of closing the window, discovers his presence, overpowers him and sends for the police. While awaiting their arrival Mr. St. Clair is astonished to see the window raised and an elfish figure, doll in arms, climb through and gaze enquiringly about. Discovering their presence and realizing what arrest will mean to the brother she loves so dearly, "Little Sister" throws herself on her knees and pleads for his release. Struck by her resemblance to his own little girl whom death has taken from him, and moved by the sincerity of her pleading, his captor not only grants her request but gives the youth a fresh start in life, far from the temptations of the city. The story closes with scenes of "Little Sister" and her now reformed brother enjoying the simple and wholesome life of the country.
- Frank, the son of General Armour, leaves his home at Greyhope, Staffordshire, for America to attend to his Hudson Bay interests in Canada. Shortly after his departure his fiancée, Julia, Sherwood writes him canceling her engagement with him, and soon becomes the betrothed of Lord Haldwell. Frank is heartbroken and marries Lali, the daughter of a primitive trapper. Frank sends her to his palatial home in England. Consternation reigns when the uncouth girl arrives wrapped in a buckskin blanket and furs. The tedium of table etiquette and the wearing of beautiful clothes by the people, play upon the untutored soul of Lali and for many a day she runs and hides herself in the hedges, clad in her buckskin raiment. But as time goes on she becomes accustomed to these different things and when Frank returns after a year's absence he is surprised to find his wife completely regenerated, and looking beautiful in the dress of the woman of today.
- Joe was a convict. Because his mother was dying and because the long strike had robbed him of the little he had saved, Joe stole food. The food came too late to save his mother. She died and he went to prison. When he had served his term he came out of prison with a firm resolution that his life thenceforward should be above reproach. But unfortunately, the way is not easy for an ex-convict. Once he lost his chance to get work because a policeman recognized him and once again because he was accosted by one of his jail companions. At last, when there seemed to be nothing before him but death or a relapse into crime, Providence sent him to the gate of a minister in a country town. The minister was a kind man and gladly gave the sad- faced wanderer a helping hand without questioning him about his antecedents. By hard, faithful work Joe succeeded in raising himself from the place of a mere recipient of charity to a position as the minister's private secretary, and he gradually won his way into the heart of the minister's only daughter. One day a man called upon the minister, whom the horrified Joe recognized as his former cellmate. The man, Bill Haskell, had interested the minister in some worthless mining property and the simple-hearted minister was on the point of signing the papers. Haskell and his sister met Joe outside the town. The man warned him to keep silent if he did not wish his past life to be exposed. Joe pleaded with him, but Haskell, despite the intercession of his sister on Joe's behalf, remained obdurate. Unknown to any of them the minister's daughter had overheard the conversation between the two criminals and her lover. She was shocked at the disclosure of his past life and her heart bled for him in his present difficulty and temptation. On that same afternoon the minister's daughter stood in her father's study and watched Joe fighting his silent battle as Haskell prepared the papers for the minister's signature. Joe won his fight, denounced the swindler, told the story of his past life and turned sadly away; bat the minister's daughter ran after him, and when he turned and saw the light in her face he knew that all the clouds and doubt lay behind him forever.
- When Octavius reads in the morning paper that Coney Island is having many complaints about pickpockets, he decides to investigate and see if his massive intellect can suggest a remedy, so he goes down to Coney Island disguised as a farmer. He arrives as The Flim Flam Motion Picture Company is engaged in taking a few scenes for its masterly production of "No Mother to Chide Her." Octavius doesn't see the camera; he just sees the motherless, "unchidden" heroine in the act of stealing a lady's pocketbook. He promptly gives chase, to the considerable detriment of the Flim Flam Company's scene. The alarmed leading lady, thinking Octavius mad, makes every attempt to escape from them, but he soon catches her and orders her to follow him to the police station; he is himself arrested at the indignant director's command. But because he's a young man of independent means, Octavius manages to fix things with the director--after an unpleasant 10 minutes. Somewhat discouraged as a result of his initial attempt, Octavius decided to have lunch. His sympathies were aroused by a peculiarly-innocent-looking lady, and with his usual chivalry he warned her of the dangers of the place and begged her to accept his protection. While they were at lunch, two detectives, to whom Octavius had disclosed his business at Coney Island, approached and congratulated him on his capture of the lady of innocent appearance, who, it seems, was none other than Chicago Nell. Octavius was not over-slow in taking full credit for his achievement, and managed to suppress any slight surprise he felt, when he discovered at the station house that Chicago Nell had made the best of their short acquaintance by relieving him of his watch and money.
- Mary Tudor was an extremely attractive and lively young lady. Henry VIII, her brother, was engaged in the delicate task of restoring England to the place from which she had fallen during the terrible Wars of the Roses. To give the newborn House of Tudor prestige among the kings of Europe, matches with the important houses must be made. Henry wanted Mary to marry a certain Charles of Austria, who in addition to being head of the Holy Roman Empire, owned most of Europe as well. But Mary did not want to marry Charles. She wanted to marry Charles Brandon, the young duke of Suffolk. Henry raged and fumed, and was on the point of forcing his rebellious sister to obey, when a sudden shifting in international affairs brought a hasty offer from King Louis XII for the hand of the Princess Mary. Louis XII was old and bad, and when Mary learned that her royal brother's mind was set on this new and important match, she decided to forget she was a princess. So she ran away with the man she loved. But they did not get very far. Henry sent guards after them and brought them back. He was in one of his most dangerous moods, and when Mary openly defied him, commanded that Brandon should be instantly beheaded. To save her lover's life, Mary at last consented to marry the old king of France. So they sent her over to France, and there the beautiful girl was married to a man almost old enough to be her grandfather. Charles Brandon followed her to France, and gaining admission to her salon, begged the young queen to fly with him. While he was in the midst of his fervid entreaty, King Louis entered. Brandon was seized and cast into a dungeon to await his execution. But before the sentence could be carried out, King Louis died, and the throne passed to his nephew, Francis of Angouleme. Partly because he hated Henry VIII and partly because of Mary's persuasive ways, Francis agreed to liberate Brandon from captivity. Mary returned to her brother's court, where she was shortly afterward joined by Brandon. The princess bided her time, and waited until Henry was in a good humor. Then she asked him if he wouldn't let her marry Brandon, and the mollified king at last consented.
- Nellie Gray, a sweet little maiden of sixteen, is discovered surrounded with all the loving care of a dear old-fashioned home and a mother and father who worship her. Unused to the ways of the world, she steals away from choir practice one evening to take an auto ride to the big city with a salesman who has come to town. Eager-eyed and wonder-marveling, she is induced to take supper at one of the gilded cafés of a great city, where the bright lights glitter and fascinate the unaccustomed stranger. Here in this heated atmosphere her companion endeavors to persuade her to take her first glass of champagne. In her weakness she tries to resist his persistent pleadings, but at last she yields to his demand. Opposite her at a table sits a woman of the world into whose soul, at the sight of this young girl, has crept the memory of all that she has lost and ere the tempting glass reaches her lips, this frailer sister has knocked it from her hand. Lightly turning the accident into a joke she succeeds in getting her companion away for a moment, and with all the compassion of a woman of the world to her purer sister, she gets little Nellie Gray home and safe into her mother's arms. Here one good turn produces another, and the woman finds the little girl's prayer book and hymnal which she has left behind. On the fly-leaf are inserted the words, "Your mother's prayers are always with you, my child." Something has been awakened in the woman's soul; she falls upon the table sobbing, crying for the better, purer things in life. Along the streets in the darkness she comes, hopeless, alone. Across her path steals a stream of light from the open doors of the city church and its kindly light leads her into a better and purer life.
- A pair of lovers, an overzealous friend and two young madcaps of girls, who get everybody into trouble, except themselves, are concerned in the fun. Jack Fuller expects to entertain his fiancée, Ethel Adams, at luncheon at the Brookdale Country Club. A telegram from his brothers, calling him to town immediately, makes him glad to accept his friend Bob Hall's offer to become his proxy and entertain the young lady in his place. The young mischiefs, Peggy and Dolly, overhear this conversation. As Bob Hall has never met the real Ethel they determine that there shall be three Ethels entertained at luncheon. They purchase orchids (which the real Ethel is to wear) dress up in their big sister's clothes and one at a time present themselves for Bob Hall's entertainment. Having been instructed to spare no expense. Bob provides an elaborate lunch for the first scapegrace, and when on the appearance of the second she confesses that she has played a joke on him, duplicates the luncheon for Dolly. In the midst of this second luncheon the real Ethel appears and Bob is in considerable trouble. Only the timely return of Jack from the city and the sight of the two girls laughing outside the café window from the club porch saves the situation and Bob from eternal disgrace.
- Billie was a very nice young man indeed; Helen thought so. The chaperon started all the trouble. When Billie and the boys came to see Helen and the other girls aboard the houseboat, the chaperon showed the boys very plainly that she liked Herbert Westlake much better than any of them. The chaperon's preference for a millionaire was naturally the cause of some irritation to the boys in their camp nearby. Under the able generalship of Billie they laid plans which eventually resulted in the worthy lady's defeat. On the night following their inhospitable reception the houseboat's dinghy mysteriously disappeared. Next morning when the cook desired to go ashore for provisions no small boat could be found. By swimming ashore, Helen managed to intercept the grocer who visited the boys' camp. Just as she had given him a large order, Billie appeared. Whether it was on account of something he said, or just because of natural buoyancy, it is quite certain that the girls were not nearly as much concerned as the chaperon when the grocer's boat was accidentally upset by one of the boys the next afternoon. With a lingering death apparently staring her in the face, the hungry chaperon was obliged to haul down her colors, or rather to hoist a signal of distress. When Billie came aboard with a heavy lunch basket, she was so glad to see him that she kissed him.
- Being the Ninth Story of "What Happened to Mary." Mary, aided by John Willis, testifies in court against her uncle, Richard Craig, and his son, Henry. They are being tried for embezzling bank funds. They are found guilty and sentenced to twelve years' imprisonment; whereupon Richard turns to Mary and vows vengeance upon her. Shortly afterwards in his cell he communicates with his son, a few cells away, by means of a thread. Mary will be twenty-one in two weeks and if he does not appear then to claim her fortune the money goes to Henry. Hence the prisoners must find some way to get her out of the way. With this end in view Richard writes to Billy Peart. He at once comes to the prison and while the guard grows lax in his watchfulness he is instructed what to do. Peart goes at once to Mary's stenographic office but finds she has sold out the business. He learns her home address, however, and calls upon her. She is stunned to see him but is very affable. Without warning he feigns illness and has Mary help him down to the street but when he reaches the sidewalk he declares he cannot take another step. An automobile stands at the curb and the intriguing chauffeur tells Mary be will take them to a doctor. She enters the car with the ostensibly sick man but instead of being taken to a physician, is driven to Peart's home. There she learns it was all scheme and finds herself a prisoner in a room far above the sidewalk. The door is locked and, driven almost frantic, she makes a rope of the bedclothes and lowers herself to the ground. On the street she sees that Peart is following her and breaks into a run only stopping when she comes to a Salvation Army meeting room. She rushes in and suddenly decides to become a "lassie" and by this means find a way to the underworld and learn the secret of her parentage. When the heroine makes her escape from Peart's home she actually slides down two hundred feet on the side of an apartment building. It is almost unnecessary to say it is very thrilling.
- The story of this film begins with the ominous day on which Lord Bellomont gave William Kidd a commission to rid the seas of pirates. Instead of complying with Lord Bellomont's desires, Kidd immediately commenced a series of piratical attacks at first on French and Spanish vessels and later on ships of all nationalities indiscriminately. Coming to America in the "Quedah Merchant" to dispose of his enormous treasure, Kidd goes ashore at Corlear's Hook accompanied by a young pirate named Clarke. Clarke is deeply in love with Hannah, a young girl of the village. Kidd, secretly captivated by Hannah's beauty, consents to her accompanying the "Quedah Merchant" when it sails. Once away from land, Kidd attempts to force his attentions on Hannah. She repulses him scornfully, and in a rage he vows to revenge himself. The ship is anchored off a deserted beach and the treasure loaded in boats and taken ashore. Kidd selects the hiding place by a series of careful measurements and the gold is burled in the sand. When the last shovelful is turned, Kidd draws his cutlass and steps toward Hannah. He announces his intention of slaying her immediately that the treasure may have a ghost to guard it. From this terrible position Hannah is saved by the bravery of her lover who successfully defies the great pirate, and the two lovers stand watching as the man of many crimes goes on his way.
- Pretty country girl Sally is adored by young Joe from the next farm. An artist tramping through the country comes to Sally's house and asks for lodging while he paints. As he is a splendid-looking fellow, Joe is not happy over the arrangement. Then the artist sees Sally in a pretty light by the window and decides to paint a picture with her as the model; this adds to Joe's unease. Sally's nature is touched by the young artist's personality though he's only aware that he has a good model for his picture. When he's finished, Sally refuses money for the posing, and when she admires a heavy antique ring he wears, he presents it to her. He returns to New York and Sally awaits a letter from him. The picture eventually wins a prize and the artist writes to Sally telling her of its success and saying that were he in the position to do so, he would offer her a permanent engagement. Sally interprets this as a marriage proposal, takes her money from her little bank, packs a few things, and starts for the city to find him. Joe, who has lost heart but not determination, follows her to the city. When Sally arrives at the studio, she looks through the half-open door and what she sees makes her drop to her knees in a girlish passion of tears: a reception is taking place inside and the artist and his bride-to-be are being congratulated by the assembled guests. Joe comes up the stairs and finds the little figure in a heap outside the artist's door, lifts her up, and takes her away with him. On the way home Sally stops, leans on the rail of a little bridge, slowly draws off the artist's ring, and drops it into the stream below. Then she lays her head on Joe's shoulder and they start for home, wiser and happier.
- Lombardi was the foreman in charge of the construction work on the seventh floor of the massive office building. John Rourke, an iron worker in Lombardi's section, had on several occasions come into contact with the foreman's petty tyrannies. Rourke paid little attention to Lombardi. But one day, Lombardi stopped at the ironworker's house, and attempted to flirt with John Rourke's wife. John came to the assistance of the frightened woman, and sternly ordered the foreman off. The next day, Lombardi informed Rourke that his services were no longer required. Before Rourke had left the building a long delayed "thunderbolt" fell on Lombardi. He had been warned several times that the company would not countenance any further infractions of their rules on his part. Therefore, when the contractors visited the building unexpectedly and found Lombardi placidly enjoying a forbidden pipe, they discharged him summarily. To Lombardi's vengeful temperament, the mere fact that he had been discharged was as nothing in comparison to the fact that Rourke was appointed foreman in his place. All his hatred toward the men who had discharged him was transferred to the account of the erstwhile inferior who had supplanted him. The next day while the new foreman ate his lunch, a heavy sledge hammer flashed past him, missing him by a mere breath, and buried itself in the ground. The fall of the hammer was followed by a terrible shriek from above. Lombardi, in his desire for revenge, had become careless. The act of dropping the hammer had upset his balance. He had fallen, and was now hanging by his finger ends from a swinging steel beam. in one of the most sensationally realistic scenes which have ever been attempted in pictures, we watch Rourke climb a rope to the assistance of his fast-weakening enemy. Just before he reaches him, Lombardi's last finger-hold slips. He falls, but Rourke, bracing himself on the rope catches him in midair and safely brings him to the ground. The picture closes when the grateful Italian kisses the hand of his rescuer.
- A young man, unskilled and out of work, deserts his family and upon being arrested for his desertion, assaults an officer and for this last offense, is sent to state prison, while his wife tries to support herself and her child by shirt making. The enforced idleness of confinement is so terrible to the convicts that the warden, out of common humanity, asks the governor to sanction some employment for them. They are accordingly taught shirt making and thus the husband in prison becomes the competitor of his wife outside its walls. Prison labor is cheap and of course it puts her out of business and she is forced to take refuge in the state poorhouse. Meanwhile the governor receives a protest from the girl shirt makers who have been thrown out of employment by his new plan for the convicts and he is in a quandary as to what to do. Upon visiting the poorhouse, however, he is informed by a little child, who happens to be the child of our particular friend, the convict, that she needs new shoes and he finds that the state appropriation is not sufficient to afford these things for its own institutions. A solution of his great problem thus suggests itself to him and the change is accordingly made at the state prison, the men being taught the trade of shoemaking and the product of their labor being used entirely by the state and not in the open market in competition with free labor. Of course, by this change our hero becomes a skilled laborer instead of merely "a man of muscle," and when he makes his exit from the penitentiary he is able to apply at the same shoe factory from which we first saw him turned away, and get employment. The picture closes with a reunion of the little family.
- On Bank Holiday in London, the concert halls are filled to their utmost capacity. One particular hall is filled with costermongers, and Jack and Lily Tweedles and their baby are seated at a table. Searching for a waiter, Jack enters the adjoining room, forgets his wife and baby, and joins a party of dancers. While Lily patiently awaits his return, sightseer Mr. Moreton seats himself at her table and starts a conversation. At this point Jack returns, flies into a jealous rage and drags his wife from the place. At the railroad station, the little family becomes separated in the crowd rushing through the gates. While vainly searching for her costermonger husband, Lily again meets Mr. Moreton, who happens to be bound in the same direction and kindly escorts her to the railroad carriage. Upon reaching her destination he again assists her by holding the baby while she steps out of the carriage. The other occupants in their mad rush to exit, block his way; the door slams in his face and he is left with the baby in his arms while the train lurches on. He gets out at the next station and wends his way to a public house where he leaves the baby while he goes in search of the costermonger's abode. Meanwhile Lily finds her husband and amid tears and sobs acknowledges the loss of their baby. Jack angrily commands her to find it, and then he goes to the public house to drown his sorrow. There, to his surprise, he finds the baby in the landlady's arms. He attempts to seize the baby and is about to be forcibly ejected when Mr. Moreton enters with Lily. Harsh words almost develop into a row and when Jack is once more in possession of his wife and baby he leaves.
- Tim has been having a bad time of it. His father is disappointed in him, for the boy has been idling away his time with the "gang" in the railroad yards. One night Tim comes in late, crawls through his father's room and curls up in a corner of his own and falls asleep. He is awakened before dawn by his mother. His father is sick. Tim is sullen, and goes in and confronts the "old man." Tim's father will never be able to work again. Tim gets a job. He doesn't like it the first day, for he is well knocked about. He goes to work again the next day, and now he begins to like it. He comes home, but the kitchen is empty, so he calls upstairs for his mother, ordering her to hurry down and fix his supper for him. He pulls out his father's pipe and lights it. His mother comes slowly down the stairs with a candle. He looks up and starts to order, but she tells him his father is dead. He says he doesn't care; she leans over and tells him again. The pipe drops from his mouth; he starts up the stairs, pushes her aside and goes into his father's room. This changes his whole life. He becomes the man of the house; his father had his turn, now it's Tim's turn. He becomes a steady worker, supports his mother and becomes a man, indeed.
- John Perriton gave up his place in society and disappeared for the sake of Mary Wales. Her brother, Nelson, had been surprised by the butler in an attempt to steal Mary's jewels. In the fight which ensued, Nelson killed the butler. Perriton happened to enter at this moment, and with the chivalrous motive of saving the name of the girl he loved from disgrace, assumed the responsibility for Nelson's deed, and fled. After a series of thrilling adventures, Perriton was at last arrested as a result of the malevolence of Nelson Wales, the man he saved. Mary, now firmly convinced of her lover's innocence, and her brother's guilt, added her brains to Perriton's in the attempt to find some way of proving his innocence. The attempt seemed hopeless. Nelson was the only witness. Perriton had just as strong a motive for stealing the jewels, and Perriton was the one who had fled from justice. Perriton decided to steal a page from "Hamlet" and see if the play might not be the thing to catch the guilty conscience of Nelson Wales. Under his direction, Mary hired a motion picture company and took it to the Wales' estate. Here she caused three of the actors to make up exactly like the principals of the tragedy, and had the entire scene acted in accordance with Perriton's directions. When the film was completed, Nelson was put in a darkened room, and the picture was flashed on the screen before him. The exact reproduction of his crime was too much for his weakened nerves. Mad with fear, he attacked the phantom figures with a chair, and was promptly arrested by the concealed police. He made a full confession of his crime, and died of heart failure. John Perriton's vagabond life was finally at an end. He was enabled to take again the position he had forfeited. Three months after Nelson's death he married Mary.
- When Mrs. Briggs ordered a very beautiful gown for herself, she did so in the firm belief that her husband would pay for it promptly, and without demur. However, Mr. Briggs was in a rather unpleasant mood, as a result of which he positively refused to pay a cent for the gown. Mrs. Briggs flatly told her husband that she would go home to her mother if he didn't pay for it. Mr. Briggs, unwilling to back down from his position, told her to go ahead. So Mrs. Briggs went. At least, she went as far as the station. When she got there she changed her mind, decided that her husband was a poor, abused angel, and started home again. Meanwhile, Mr. Briggs had come to the conclusion that he was a brute, and that there was no reason why his poor little wife shouldn't have the gown it she wanted it. So he rushed to the station to head her off. He got there just in time to see his wife's train pulling out. So he sadly retraced his steps. Mrs. Briggs was already home. When she heard him coming, she hid herself. Mr. Briggs discovered her suitcase, and realized she had returned. At once an idea suggested itself to him. He wrote a note to the affect that his wife s extravagance had driven him to the awful deed he was contemplating, and shut himself up in his room with a revolver. Shortly afterward, he fired off the revolver. Mrs. Briggs pushed in vain at the locked door. Finally it occurred to her to look over the transom. When, instead of a ghastly corpse, she saw her husband sitting up and laughing. A little while later, Mr. Briggs, considering that he had taught his erring wife enough of a lesson, came out. His wife was not there but there was a note on the hall table which read, "Dear Hubby: I have gone to buy that dress to wear at your funeral."
- Sue Grant was in love with Jim, and she didn't care who knew it. When Clarence Bell tried to hold her hand at the village store, she got very angry with him and was glad when .Jim pushed him away from her. This disdainful treatment of her son did not please Mrs. Bell in the least. Sue's Uncle Joe invited her to spend a fortnight in the city with his family. Sue, glad of a chance to see the sights, gaily trotted off and had a splendid time. As she waited at the junction for the train which was to carry her back to her home, her attention was suddenly attracted by a small child calmly sitting in the middle of the track. The whistle sounded and the train burst into view around the bend. She sprang on the track, seized the child and rolled safely out of the way as the heavy locomotive thundered past. Mrs. Searle, the child's mother, who had been engaged in a conversation with the station agent, was almost embarrassingly grateful. She took the girl home with her and insisted on giving her a beautiful new dress to replace the old one, which had been sadly soiled and torn in the adventure. Later, she sent Sue all the way home in her automobile. Sue's arrival created an enormous sensation. Everybody knew that her Uncle Joe was poor. Where, then, did she get the clothes. And who furnished the automobile? Mrs. Bell, as may be imagined, was by no means behindhand in circulating spicy rumors. The girl's explanation was received either with suppressed smiles or open scorn. Joe, although he, of course, believed her story, did not like the new clothes and said so. Angered by his attitude and infuriated by the village gossip, Sue accepted an invitation from a scamp named Harry Pearsall, to go out riding in his new car. Harry, who had drawn his own conclusions from the gossip, took her out to a wayside inn, bought wine for her and attempted to kiss her. Fortunately for Sue's reputation, help was near at hand. The grateful Mrs. Searle, who had come to thank Sue again, recognized her on the road and brought Sue's mother and Jim to the inn. Everything was explained and everybody was happy, except Harry.
- When Harry Wallace, coming home late at night, discovered a burglar in the act of rifling his father's safe, he disregarded the advice of the two young men who accompanied him, and instead of handing the man over to the police, he decided to give him another chance and offered the surprised burglar the position of butler in the house. When the other young men protested against his foolish trust in the man, Harry proposed a novel test of their own characters. He proposed that each of them put $200 in a certain safe in order to see how long they could resist the temptation of taking it. When Harry made this proposal, he knew that his father's savings bank, in which his companions' money was deposited, would be obliged to suspend payment for a few days. He suspected that McClure and Bennett might fall in need of money, and he was curious to see how much resistance they would offer to temptation. A few days later, the bank closed. At about the same time, Harry's mother was taken very ill, and the doctor advised the family that a change of climate was the only thing that could save her life. Bert McClure, one of the young men who had made the wager, was nipped badly in a drop of the stock market, and put in desperate need of funds for more margin. Ralph Bennett, the other young man, lost a $500 payroll of which he was in charge. On the evening following the closing of the bank, several shadowy figures entered the drawing room of the Wallace home. When the lights were turned on, Harry Wallace, his father, his sister, Bert McClure, Ralph Bennett, his sweetheart Helen Wright, and Saunders,the butler, were discovered. The safe was open and the money gone. An intensely dramatic scene followed. A policeman was called and each of the people in the room confessed, for various reasons that he or she was the guilty party. Finally, Hetty Wallace produced the money, and confessed that she had taken it to save her brother from temptation. A telegram to Mr. Wallace, containing news that led to an announcement on his part that the bank would open in the morning, cleared matters up, and Harry Wallace decided to leave well enough alone from then on.
- John Winter is just inaugurating a campaign in the stock market by which he hopes to gain a firm hold on a company known as the Star Milling Company. John's wife, Edith, is devoted to him. She is rich in her own right and would like to be helpful to John, but he will never tell her anything about business matters. She learns that he is forced to sacrifice his holdings in Star in order to get money. Edith would give John all the money he needs but she knows his pride would not allow him to accept it. She decides to secretly buy this Star Preferred that he has to sell and give it back to him as a surprise. She goes to a broker's office and begins to buy secretly, just as John, through his lieutenants, begins to sell. Her ignorance of the market leads her to buy the stock with a freedom that experienced traders would fear to use. Her brokers, recognizing her from the signature on her check and knowing her husband's relation to the market, figure that some subtle coup is on and they and their customers follow her unconscious lead, the combination naturally forcing Star Preferred up to an unprecedented figure. The scenes shift from the offices of Edith's brokers to the stock exchange and to John's office back and forth in increasing excitement. John is wiped out. Edith gets control of the stock and her broker's statement shows she has made a fortune while she was "helping" John. She arrives at his office just as he wonders how he can ever get his head above water again. Explanations are made and all ends happily when, in the following scene John is patiently explaining to Edith, at home, the details of his business.
- At the court of Waldenburg appears Feurgeres, an actor in "The Master Mummer," who gives a performance of Hamlet. He meets the Princess Isobel, a young widow with a small daughter, and falls deeply in love with her. His love is returned and they marry, the Princess abrogating her rights to the throne. Their married happiness is short-lived, as after a few months the Princess dies, leaving Feurgeres desolate with the young child. It develops that, by the ancient law of Waldenburg, this child still retains her rights of succession to the throne, and as the Duchess of Britslau has a daughter of her own, who would otherwise succeed, she plots to have the young Isobel removed to a convent and lost to the world. This she does under the plea to Feurgeres that the child must be taken to court for her education. When the child has grown to young womanhood, however, the Archduchess is fearful of discovery and engages the services of a notorious character, Major Delahaye, to take Isobel away from the convent and place her in domestic service, or otherwise dispose of her. Feurgeres, however, has kept track of her through the years, and frustrates the plot by disguising himself and shooting Delahaye in a London restaurant, using a silencer so that his deed is not discovered. He does not dare to take Isobel himself and manages so that she is thrown on the kindness of three young men occupying a studio together in Trilby fashion. They, with their big-hearted housekeeper, give the girl every comfort. Each in turn falls in love with her, but knowing her helpless position refrains from declaring himself. Attempts, ranging from trickery to violence, are made by the scheming Duchess to get her away, but each fails until finally she is tricked by a false note and spirited away. Pursuit follows immediately, Feurgeres being in the party. Isobel is rescued, but Feurgeres is mortally wounded in the fight. On his deathbed, he writes the old King of Waldenburg, apprising him of the fact that his granddaughter is living and of the schemes against her. The conspirators are punished and Isobel restored to her proper place in court, but not for long. The leader of the studio trio, Greatson, an author, has captured her affections, so she gives up the throne, as her mother did, and returns to him in London.
- A well-to-do lawyer, Mr. Parmester, is more interested in poetry than in his profession. He lives in an apartment across the court from which can be seen at times the figure of n young woman, and though he has never seen her face, her personality serves as a sort of lay figure about which he builds a verse entitled, "Her Face." After laying the paper down on his desk after it is finished, he leaves the room and the paper blows out of the window and lands on the windowsill of the young lady opposite. When Parmester discovers the situation he climbs out of his window and up on the opposite side, just as the wind blows the paper into the young woman's room. As she is not there be climbs in to get it, but before he can reach it he hears her coming and hides behind the curtain. The young woman finds the poem and realizes that it is meant as a description of herself. When she starts to take down her hair and loosen her dross. Parmester makes his presence known and the young woman demands an explanation. He confesses that he came for the verses. In the midst of their conversation the maid opens the door and announces a young man who has been paying attention to her. Parmester comes to the rescue and puts a ring into the lady's hand which she slips on her finger. The other young man, highly incensed, leaves them.
- When Octavius learned that one of the large department stores was having trouble with counterfeit money, he set out post-haste to investigate. His first step in this case was to walk about the store, "shadowing" various people. While engaged in this absorbing pastime, he happened to enter the glass department. Just as he did so, a very pretty woman accidentally knocked a vase from its stand. She apologized profusely for her carelessness and paid the salesman for the damage. A few moments later, the cashier sent back word that the bill given in payment for the damage was counterfeit. Octavius, overhearing the complaint, immediately set out in pursuit of the pretty woman. Just as he was leaving, it was discovered that a bill with which Octavius himself had paid for a trivial purchase was also counterfeit. So the store detective who had been watching Octavius suspiciously all morning, followed him. Octavius followed the woman to the house of a Dr. Kelly and advised her to confess everything. While the woman and Dr. Kelly were indignantly denying any knowledge of the charge, the store detective entered with a policeman and naturally supposing Octavius and the woman to be confederates, arrested them. By an undeserved streak of luck, Octavius discovered in the manager's office that the cashier was the guilty person. He assumed full credit for the discovery and deeply smitten with the charms of the beautiful lady, asked her if he might call. She gave him a card, and told him she would be delighted to see him. The card read "Miss Anne Rafferty." When Octavius called at Dr. Kelly's and asked for her, he received a distinct shock. Anne was the cook. Then the beautiful lady appeared and explained that she must have given him the card by mistake. Octavius was delighted until the lady introduced him to her husband, Dr. Kelly.
- Dick Eaton is in love with Lillian Girton. One cold evening while on his way to the Girton house he comes across a half-starved kitten, which he picks up and places in his overcoat pocket. Upon arriving at the Girton house he declines the services of the butler and hangs his coat in a secluded corner of the hall. In the library he joins the assemblage. When wine is served he politely declines to drink and calls for a glass of milk instead. At the first opportunity he slips out into the hall with his glass of milk and feeds the famished kitten. The kitten, left alone, emerges from the coat pocket and after a sprawling leap finds its way to the glass of milk on the floor. After satisfying her ravenous appetite, she proceeds to attract the attention of some departing guests. Dick Eaton is now obliged to tell how he rescued the kitten. The story is met with more or less ridicule, but Miss Girton sees much to admire in a young man possessed of such a kind heart and when alone with her he is agreeably surprised to learn that his deep love for her is reciprocated.
- Two college boys, from a very respectful distance, worship the great hero of the football field, Jarvis by name. At the beginning of the picture we see them negotiating for and achieving an introduction to him. After college days are over they become assistant shipping clerks in a big establishment. On one of the pillars of their workroom is pinned a big newspaper picture of their hero in full football regalia. Whenever they pass it they stand in salute before it. One day a great event happens: at a cheap table d'hote dinner their hero makes his appearance and with much trepidation they finally decide to go over and claim acquaintanceship with him. Instead of a haughty repulse which they might have expected, he invites them to sit down at his little table and have their dinner together. It is a great honor and a great event for the boys. And then we become cognizant of the fact that, as a young lawyer, the football hero is not a success. Things go from bad to worse with him until he is entirely out of money and is very glad when a chance meeting throws him again in the ways of the boys and they invite him to their room to help partake of a box of good things from home. Of course, the boys see him only as their ideal hero and know nothing of the struggle against poverty which he is making. But one day, when he is down to the last notch, he answers an ad for a porter and the next thing he knows is face to face with his worshipers in the very place where they are working. The situation is both comic and dramatic, but, like the true blue that he is, he goes to work under his two small admirers. Of course, he soon rises to a better position and is able to marry the girl who has waited for him all this time. But through it all the two young adorers are true to their ideal and rejoice at his success.
- Things had been going slowly for Octavius when the morning mail brought an invitation from Mrs. Burton to join them at Pinehurst. Welcoming a few days in the country, Octavius wired his acceptance and started for the train. The Burtons were a lively couple, and perfect harmony reigned throughout their home as long as the subject of dancing was not broached. Mrs. Burton was intensely fond of the pastime; her husband's attitude was the exact opposite. It so happened that they had a violent quarrel on this subject the night before Octavius arrived in Pinehurst, and the following morning Mrs. Burton had disappeared, leaving a note to the effect that she did not expect to return. Burton rushed out of the house to find her, and the entire household was in an uproar when Octavius appeared on the scene. Mrs. Burton's mother gave him the harrowing details and, spurred on by his detective instincts, he first put the servants through a grilling examination, then examined the grounds and found suspicious footprints which led to the boat house. His search in the bay culminated in his finding an empty boat, but when he tried to examine it closely he fell overboard and just barely managed to get ashore, holding on to his own boat, while the other floated away. His landing place was a barren island, and it was there that Mrs. Burton had taken refuge. As she sat calmly reading, she was surprised at seeing Octavius approaching, drenched from head to foot. He soon convinced her that it would be best to return home, but when they started for his boat they found, to their horror, that his boat had also drifted away, and they were marooned in earnest. They spent a rather miserable hour or two before Mr. Burton arrived in a motorboat and took his wife home with him. Meanwhile, Octavius had caught his boat but the oars were lost, so he was forced to paddle slowly home with a piece of plank, a sadder but wiser man.
- The story begins by the finding of an elderly naval man by a traveler, and the former's recital of the verse, "Oh, I am a cook and a captain bold, And the mate of the Nancy brig, And a bo'sun tight, and a midshipmite. And the crew of the captain's gig." Upon the inquiry as to how he can be all three different people, his recital proceeds with the comic wreck of the good ship "Nancy Bell," after which the survivors jump overboard into the painted waves and make for the shore. The next situation indicates that, "For a month we'd neither wittles nor drink, Still a-hungry we did feel. So we drawed a lot, and, accordin' shot The captain for our meal." A large paper cannon dispatches the captain. And the succeeding scenes show the disappearance into the pot of the mate, the midshipmite, the bo'sun tight and the crew of the captain's gig. The effect of these scenes is ludicrous in the extreme and we are all prepared to laugh at the consternation shown in the face of the lone mariner when, after having made way with all his fellow seamen, a small ship appears on the horizon, fires a gun and supposedly rescues him from having to eat himself. As he finishes his tale of war we fade back to the original scene where the apparitions of his former shipmates appear and we can well believe with him that, "I never larf, and I never smile, And 1 never lark nor play. But sit and croak, with a single joke."
- In an attic studio lives an invalid artist with his wife and children, in dire distress. A friend (Harry Furniss) visits them and, learning of the artist's misfortune, advises him to apply to a benevolent institution for aid, giving the artist's wife a letter of introduction to Sir Tufto Dauber, a presiding officer of the institution. In presenting this letter she meets with bitter disappointment and is rudely ordered out of his house. Returning to her friend (Harry Furniss), she describes her ill-treatment at the hands of Sir Dauber, whereupon the former vows vengeance. Disguising himself as Professor Cyclops, the great American brain specialist, he presents himself at Sir Dauber's studio, having arranged by 'phone to pose for his portrait. Sir Dauber, highly flattered with an order from such a celebrity, begins work at once. A lady having a previous sitting returns for her umbrella. The moment Sir Dauber's back is turned Cyclops changes the handsome; lady's portrait to a most laughable caricature, quickly returning to his seat, assuming a most unconcerned attitude. When the lady makes the horrible discovery of her distorted portrait, she flies into a violent rage, destroys the portrait and departs in a huff. Sir Dauber unable to account for the transformed portrait imagines he is going insane. Recovering himself he begins to outline the portrait of Professor Cyclops; at an opportune moment Cyclops again tampers with the canvas on the easel, which adds new horror to Sir Dauber's perturbed mind and he implores the brain specialist to diagnose his case. Cyclops pronounces him insane and orders immediate rest in a sanatorium. He conveys him to the attic of the poor artist and there he, Cyclops, reveals his true identity. Sir Dauber discovers he is the victim of a practical joke brought about by his uncharitable attitude and promises to be more benevolent in the future, and proves his assertion by immediately contributing to the support of the distressed family, bringing about a happy conclusion.
- We have all seen the quaint, blue plates of Nankin ware, with their queer, formal decoration, known as "The Willow Pattern." Not so many of us are familiar with the beautiful old legend which explains the various figures in the pattern. Here it is: Li Chi of the almond eyes, Lived in China long ago. Daughter was she of the wise, Mandarin, Ching Ho. Spake the mandarin one day, "Chung Wang shall your husband be." Answered Li Chi, bravely, "Nay, None but Chang shall marry me." In her room above the stream, Ching Ho locked the poor Li Chi, Left her there to sit and dream, Till her love for Chang should die. But Li Chi refused to sit still and dream. She wrote a note, put it in a coconut shell and opened her window, "O kind river flowing there, Neath my casement," Li Chi sang, "Of thy mercy, deign to bear, This to mine own lover, Chang." The river granted Li Chi's prayer and carried the coconut to Chang's feet. He opened it and read the letter. "Heart's beloved, hear my call; Watch the graceful cherry tree; When its leaves begin to fall. Come, and I will fly with thee." Chang was a man of action. He shook the cherry tree and made its leaves fall. Then he hurried to Li Chi and saved her from her prison by means of a ladder. The lovers fled to the gardener's house. The angry Ching Ho pursued them, hut the kindly gardener saved them from him and sheltered them until they could sail to an island far out in the sea. On this island, Li Chi and Chang were very happy. But Ching Ho soon followed after to their island in the sea. Mirthless rose his cackling laughter. "Certain gifts I bring with me." "Certain gifts for this whose loving, Runs against Ching Ho's desire. I will cure them of their roving, With the soothing touch of fire." Then the cruel father set fire to their house. The lovers must have perished in the flames had not the gods loved them. But because the gods are always kind to lovers, they saved them from the fire and transformed them into a pair of snowy doves.
- This subject tells the simple story of a boy with a longing for knowledge and the better things of life which education brings. His father, a plain man, is content with an ordinary school education for him and puts him at work despite the school principal's protests. The principal even offers the father an opening by which his son could work during the day and attend school at night throughout a season. Consequently the boy's natural bent towards mechanics is frustrated and he is forced into drudgery which disheartens him, but as he grows older he doesn't lose sight of the man he might have been and the things he might have done. But he travels the wrong road and goes from hopelessness to recklessness, reaping the reward of the latter in an unhappy marriage instead of winning the sweet girl he had loved as a boy.
- When Pat Dolan, gardener on the Penningtons' Long Island estate, came into a legacy of $4,000, he felt as if the sky had dropped on his head. With the sack of gold pieces he carried home from the bank, Pat brought a couple of bottles of fine old Irish whiskey. His first impulse was to celebrate, and celebrate he did, in a befitting and proper manner. It happened that Octavius was spending his vacation at the Penningtons' place. When Pat Dolan's two beautiful daughters rushed madly up to the house, and with tears and lamentations complained that their father's recently-acquired wealth had been stolen. Octavius instantly offered his services for regaining the missing money. Arrived at the scene of the crime, Octavius discovered that Pat Dolan had only the vaguest of notions as to what had happened to his money. He dimly remembered counting it, but had no idea what occurred after that. With a magnifying glass, Octavius conducted a careful search of Pat's house and the land around it. He discovered a multiplicity of clues, but all of them seemed to lack a certain amount of pertinence in furthering the eventual solution of the mystery. For instance, the alarming hand-prints he found on the kitchen wall were proved to have been made by Pat while fixing the stove, and of the three footprints Octavius discovered on the lawn, one was found to have been made by Pat, one by Nancy, and the third by Octavius himself. After a few more illuminating discoveries of this order, Pat grew tired of following Octavius about, and returned to his sadly depleted whiskey bottles. When Octavius saw him about half an hour later, Pat was wandering about, singing happily. Considering him a suspicious person, Octavius followed him. Pat got all tangled up with the clothesline, and Octavius, endeavoring to extricate him, discovered that the end of the clothesline led down the well. He pulled it up and discovered the bag of money exactly where the intoxicated Pat had hidden it. Octavius would have stood about all day telling Pat's beautiful daughters how he solved the mystery, if Mrs. Pennington had not pulled him away by his ear.
- Phyllis Boggs is courted by two suitors: the stuttering Mr. Carter; and Mr. Johnson, who has a very disturbing mannerism. Colonel Boggs, her father, is of the opinion that worthy men's affections are being trifled with and orders her to choose between them, emphatically forbidding her to entertain both. Between the stuttering of one and the funny mannerism of the other, Phyllis is not inclined to choose either. While Colonel Boggs is puzzling out some means of bringing matters to an issue, Phyllis, unbeknownst to her father, becomes acquainted with a masterful fellow, Mr. Graham. They are attracted to each other immediately and a love affair results. The colonel, under the impression that Phyllis is still in love with stuttering Carter or mannerism Johnson, summons them to his library and lays his plan before them in the hope that Phyllis will show her preference for one or the other. In order to win his daughter they must each in turn make their declaration of love to her without uttering a single word. In the drawing room adjoining the library Phyllis by chance overhears her father's plan and immediately telephones Mr. Graham, the hero of her dreams, that his proposal of marriage will now be accepted, providing he present himself at once and feign dumbness. Returning to the drawing room she finds Carter, who falls on his knees before her, frantically gesticulating in an attempt to convey his love. She drags him behind the screen to wait for his answer. Seemingly the coast is clear for Johnson, who enters boldly and makes a most laughable pantomimic proposal for her hand, but he too is hustled behind the screen. The masterful Mr. Graham now arrives, takes Phyllis into his arms, and without a word plants a resounding kiss upon her lips as a token of his sincere desire for her heart and hand. The loud kiss brings her father upon the scene; after receiving due explanations in sign language, he approves of his daughter's choice, much to the discomfort and consternation of Carter and Johnson, who make a hasty and extremely laughable exit.
- A young clerk falls in love with a girl who works at a flower shop, but his attentions are diverted by a beautiful but gold-digging stenographer.
- Worn out with "sleuthing," Octavius decided to take a trip to Europe. Returning aboard the steamer, he became acquainted with Miss Blair, whose companionship greatly added to the pleasure of the trip. He learned of a gang of diamond smugglers and that all the liners were being watched. Octavius cast around for a clue. His suspicions fell upon Herr Wallenstein, a fellow passenger, as being the most likely person to be connected with the alleged smuggling plot, and he proceeded to keep a careful watch on him. While descending the stairs from the upper deck Miss Blair slipped and sprained her ankle and asked Octavius to allow her to use his cane. The steamer arrived at New York. Octavius still watched Herr Wallenstein, feeling sure that he was upon a vital clue. He went so far as to arrest the foreigner, only to find himself in difficulties with the officials, who subjected him to a careful search. Arriving at his hotel, Octavius was treated to a great surprise. Noticing something peculiar about his cane, he unscrewed the tip and finds several diamonds. He notifies the customs officials, and almost at the same moment Miss Blair arrives at the hotel to keep a dinner engagement made with Octavius. Feigning faintness, she asks him for some water, and in his absence she hurriedly examines the cane, and is horrified at finding the diamonds gone. As Octavius returns with the drink she draws a revolver and demands the stones, and, taken by surprise, he is about to hand them over when the customs inspectors arrive and capture the charming smuggler.
- John Blackstone, the successful financier, recognizes no will but his own. The committees of the various companies he controls are directors in name only, as Blackstone's voice is a dominant force. His household consists only of himself, his son, whom he treats as a child, and a host of frightened servants and a stenographer, who is mortally afraid of his testy temper and violent imperiousness. In one of his tantrums one day a serious mistake costs her her position, and although his son, touched by the elderly woman's tears, pleads for her, her dismissal is abrupt and certain. Blackstone telephones to the agency for another stenographer, and the lady in charge, knowing the difficulties that would confront the new applicant, decides that there is but one girl on her list who could cope with the situation, Portia Wood. When Portia first meets Blackstone, he looks upon her as another victim of his domination. He hurls the most rapid dictation at her in the first test of speed, and is surprised and annoyed to find that she takes it easily and instantaneously. In the days that follow comes a struggle of wills. Gradually Blackstone recognizes Portia's abilities. In the meantime, Blackstone Jr. has fallen in love with her and one day proposes marriage. On being refused be becomes angry and insinuates that she has designs upon his father. This is the cause of a violent quarrel. During it Blackstone Sr. enters. His son leaves in a rage, leaving Blackstone Sr. and Portia to speak their minds. Suddenly they discover they love each other and end their opposition in an embrace.
- Alice Elgin acts as stenographer to an old deaf banker. To facilitate her work, she has taught her employer lip-reading, and has naturally become an adept at it herself. Ned, her employer's son, falls in love with her, to his father's entire satisfaction. But since the old gentleman has a keen sense of humor, he at first pretends to be greatly enraged. The butler overhears a part of the apparent quarrel between them. That evening burglars break into the house and kill the old man with a heavy cane Ned has left in the study. On the circumstantial strength of the butler's testimony, Ned is arrested for murder. At the trial, things are going very badly for young Felton until Alice happens to see a man in the audience whispering to his neighbor. With unerring precision, she reads the words, "If they knew 1 killed him." The story ends in an ably sustained dramatic climax wherein the utterly bewildered burglar, jerked rudely from his supposed safety, is confronted with the fatal cane and confesses his guilt.
- The first scene shows us a little family brought to the verge of despair by the drunkenness of the father. When he has gone the wife resolves that their child shall not suffer from his habit, and wrapping the baby up, takes it out. One of its little worsted socks drops unnoticed to the floor. Passing along a street she picks out a house that looks attractive and lays the baby upon the steps. An automobile turns the corner and she runs away. The youth in the automobile sees her, picks up the baby and takes it to his home, where it is received by his mother as a new member of their little family. Years pass and the child's father has become a prosperous businessman. One day his automobile breaks down near a pretty suburban residence and the young man of the previous scene, passing in his pony cart, invites the man and his wife to drive up to the house while the automobile is being repaired. A children's party is in progress and "Hunt the Slipper" is the game. And the baby, now grown, brings her own little worsted sock for use in the game. At this instant the parents enter. They do not know the child, but the little worsted sock is unmistakable. Explanations follow and the reunited family closes the little drama.
- This story is laid in Colorado and deals with the district attorney of a small western town, his daughter and his son, a young man whose weakness is due mostly to his boyish forgetfulness of the duties of life and society rather than to criminal instinct. Seeing an advertisement in the paper of one of the get-rich-quick concerns, and becoming possessed with the desire to make good before his father and sister, he robs his father of three hundred dollars, fully believing that he can return the money in a few days, and also add a great deal more to his income. But ere the money has left his hands, he discovers that the enterprise is a fraud and that his father is now investigating its false methods and is authorized to secure all mail addressed to the company. The boy realizes that his father will discover his theft through this means and so he applies to his sister's sweetheart, Jack Morton, who is a cowboy, for aid. Jack realizes what it would mean to his sweetheart and her father, and to save the family from disgrace, he robs the mail, holds up the stagecoach, and secures the damaging letter. The boy returns the money to his father's safe and all would have been well but for a missing cuff button which eventually places the guilt of the stagecoach hold-up on Jack. He is willing to stand the guilt for his sweetheart's safe, but her brother confesses his crime and Jack is again reinstated.