Rip Van Winkle

Rip Van Winkle, although a loving father to his little girl Meenie, and a hale-fellow-well-met with all his fellow townsmen, is being constantly scolded by his wife for leading an idle and profitless existence. Rip is also fond of the bottle, and spends the greater part of his time and money at the village tavern. Catching him entering the house late one night after a day's carouse, his wife Gretchen becomes thoroughly angry with him and drives him from the house. In the face of a terrible storm and with only his dog Schneider and his faithful rifle to protect him, Rip wanders toward the mountains. Here he comes across a band of Gnomes who are supposed to be the spirits of Heinrich Hudson and his merry men who disappeared near the Catskill Mountains, hundreds of years before, and had never been heard of since. The Gnomes give Rip some magic schnapps to drink, and under its influence he goes to sleep for twenty years. When he wakes, he is an old man and in ragged clothes, his dog is dead, and his rifle has rusted away. He makes his way as best he can back to the village, and his old home. But there no one knows him. He finds his wife married to another man, his daughter grown to womanhood, and most of his old friends dead and gone. Rip, however, finally manages to prove his identity, and also to lay claim to his property, which has greatly increased in value during his sleep, and which he is just in time to save from being unlawfully confiscated by his old time enemy. Happily reunited to his family, Rip looks forward to his declining years with a spirit born of peace and solace. —Moving Picture World synopsis