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1-42 of 42
- Pauline, a young maiden, must protect herself from the treacherous "guardian" of her inheritance, who repeatedly plots to murder her and take the money for himself.
- A dying mother bequeaths money in trust for her teenage daughter to the pastor. When he buys the girl an expensive new hat, scandal breaks out, as local gossips assume something fishy is going on between the pastor and the pretty girl.
- Based on Shakespeare's play: Petruchio courts the bad-tempered Katharina, and tries to change her aggressive behavior.
- A son leaves to seek his fortune in the city. Many years later he returns and checks into his parents' inn. They don't recognize him, but noticing his fat wallet, plan to rob him.
- The orphan Dora is courted by two different gold miners.
- A poor girl is secretly in love with a wealthy young planter. During the Civil War she helps him escape capture by Union soldiers. After the war, with his fortune gone, she confesses that she loves him.
- Union soldiers march off to battle amid cheering crowds. After the battle turns against the Union Army, one soldier runs away, hiding in his girlfriend's house. Ashamed of his cowardice, he finds his courage and crosses enemy lines to bring help to his trapped comrades.
- A Confederate officer rescues his lady love from a drunken guerrilla.
- George Redfeather, the hero of this subject, returns from Carlisle, where he not only graduated with high honors, but was also the star of the college football team. At a reception given in his honor by Lieut. Penrose, an Indian agent, the civilized brave meets Gladys, the lieutenant's daughter, and falls desperately in love with her. You may be sure he is indignantly repulsed by Gladys and ordered from the house for his presumption by her father. With pique he leaves, and we next find him in his own room, crushed and disappointed, for he realizes the truth: "Good enough as a hero, but not as a husband." What was the use of his struggle? As he reasons, his long suppressed nature asserts itself and he hears the call of the wild: "Out there is your sphere, on the boundless plains, careless and free, among your kind and kin, where all is truth." Here he sits; this nostalgic fever growing more intense every second, until in a fury he tears off the conventional clothes he wears, donning in their stead his suit of leather, with blanket and feathered headgear. Thus garbed, and with a bottle of whiskey, he makes his way back to his former associates in the wilds. He plans vengeance and the opportunity presents itself, when he surprises Gladys out horseback riding. He captures her after a spirited chase and intended holding her captive, but she appeals to him, calling to his mind the presence of the All Powerful Master above, who knows and sees all things, and who is even now calling to him to do right. He listens to the call of this Higher Voice, and helping her to her saddle, sadly watches her ride off homeward.
- A Confederate soldier shames his mother and sister by going AWOL during battle. His sister takes his place, with tragic results, leaving him to live out his life in shame, hiding to protect his family name.
- A farmer takes in a young orphan after her mother's death and sends her off to school. After she's grown, he encourages her to consider his younger brother as a husband. When the younger brother proves to be a coward, she chooses the older brother instead.
- While their mother is away from home, Billy and his sister are set upon by marauding Indians, who trap them in their cabin. Billy rigs a keg of gunpowder and tricks the Indians into entering the cabin, while he and his sister escape.
- Charlie Lee, the poor chink, is the hero of this Biograph story. Having located at Golden Gulch as a laundryman, his old father is about to take his leave for his home in the Flowery Kingdom. Before going the old man warns his son to cherish his sacred queue, for should he lose that he would be an outcast and disbarred from returning to his country, which every Chinaman who leaves, looks forward to doing. His father gone, the chink feels very much alone and low spirited, for though a saffron-skinned Pagan, his soul is white and real red blood pulsates his heart. He takes up a basket of laundry work to deliver and on the road is made to feel the result of two thousand years of civilization, for while passing a gang of cowboys, they pull his pigtail, threaten to cut it off, and roughly handle him until rescued by Bud Miller and his sweetheart, Miss Dean. For this intervention the chink is deeply grateful, and when Gentleman Jack, the dandy, tries to cut Bud Miller out in Miss Mean's affection, Charlie, the chink, keeps his eyes open. Through this the Dandy and Bud come to blows, but are separated by the boys. However, the chink hears the dandy threaten to do Bud at first meeting. The chink resolves to save his friend at any cost. The excitement at the Gulch is the repeated hold-ups of the registered mail carrier, and the effectual evasion of capture of the robber. A reward of $5,000 for his capture is posted, and the attitude of the dandy towards the notice arouses the chink's suspicion, hence he follows him like a shadow. His efforts prove fruitful, for he is a witness to the dandy's operations, who, disguising himself, makes his way to a lonely spot in the road and holds up the mail carrier. At a distance he views the dandy change his disguise and lay out on the ground to rest and gloat over his success. Here stands the poor chink apparently helpless. He is unarmed and with nothing with which to secure his captive. There, lays the dandy with his hands clasped above his head. All that is needed is a hit of rope. A thought strikes the chink, but what a sacrifice it means. A sacrifice which will make him forever an outcast. There is no other way, so whipping out a knife, he with one slash cuts off the sacred queue and binds the dandy's hands so quickly that he is taken into the camp before he knows what has occurred. After the excitement of his deed is over, the poor Chinaman then realizes what his condition really is. The reward he receives is made use of in an unlooked-for way. When the sweethearts go to his shack they find a note which reads: "Missie Dean alsame Bud Miller too. Charlie Lee wishee much glad you two when alsame one. Hope take money for blidel plesent. Goodby. Charlie Lee went away." With the note is the bag containing the $5,000, but the chink could not be found.
- John and Mary divorce their spouses to marry each other. Mary dies after giving birth and the baby is taken in by John's first wife, Martha. She refuses all contact with John until many years later when he becomes ill and she finally forgives him for deserting her.
- At the edge of the Indian village, where the renegade white man is occupied with trading, he meets the Indian maid, who later becomes his purchased bride. A son is born. Playing with his kind the child, who inherits his mother's Indian character, passes on to boyhood. Then the racial difference between the father and son is felt. At length the father, angered at the reluctance of the youth to leave his people and accompany him on a trading trip, compels the boy to do so by threats and violence, but later during the journey he becomes ashamed of his Indian wife and child. Broken guns and bad whiskey, sold to the Indians by the trader, inflame their desire for vengeance. In the coming attack the war-cry of his ancestors stirs the young Indian's blood. The father's crimes prove his own destruction, while the boy and his mother are claimed by their own.
- George was the son of old Col. Pickett, and the last of a haughty military family. The old Colonel was proud of the records of his ancestors, and he himself had bravely barred all smirch from the family 'scutcheon, for to him "life was but a word, a shadow, a melting dream compared to essential and eternal honor." The war declared, the little Southern village make their offering to the cause, a company of volunteers in command of young George. There wasn't a prouder man in all the South than Col. Pickett as he grasped his son's hand at his departure. His last behest was, "Go, my boy; emulate the brave deeds of those who have gone before you. Be fearless, brave, and fight, fight." Amid encouraging cheers, the fluttering flags and handkerchiefs of the fair maidens, and to the beat of the drums, the volunteers march to their post. The old Colonel is beside himself with joy, and as his faithful servants gather about him he exclaims: "Ah! my boy. He's the stuff. The name of Pickett is still alive." Meanwhile, on the field an attack is made and the conflict is furious. Young George is overcome with fear, and deserting his men runs to safety. Wildly he dashes through the woods, each volley from the guns striking terror to his soul. The old Colonel, at home, is viewing with field-glasses from his window the smoke of the battle. He sits down with a satisfied air and remarks, "My boy, he is leading them on to victory, and..." At this moment young George bursts into the room and crouches, nearly dead with fear. At his entrance the old Colonel is stunned, confused and amazed. He does not realize the cause of his appearance. At length the truth dawns on him, verified by the boy's confession that he ran, a coward. What a blow to the old father. His boy a coward. His boy will be hanged as a coward. What a blot on the honor of his family. As he denounces his boy a thought occurs to him. "He shall not hang." Approaching his son, he bids him arise. He does, only to fall back mortally wounded. Hiding his body until nightfall, he then carries it out to the scene of the skirmish, where he lays it, sword in hand, facing the enemy's lines, thereby making it appear that he died in the conflict. The officers call to extend their sympathy to the old Colonel for his son's disgrace. This he spurns. "My son a coward? Never. He is there either fighting or slain for the cause. Come, gentlemen, we shall see." Going to the field, they, of course, find the body, and appearances are favorable for the son. Returning home, the old man drops into a chair, crushed and disappointed, his heart breaking. The honor of his family remains unsullied; but, oh, at such a price.
- Jim and John, two woodsmen, are rivals for the hand of Ruth. John is an honest, unobtrusive fellow, and lets Jim lead in their suit, hence, Jim and Ruth are betrothed. Ruth truly loves Jim, having assumed that John's little attentions were merely expressions of friendship, so John retires. After the betrothal Jim and Ruth are more in each other's company and consequently she learns his true character. She is amazed to find that he is a slave to drink, and realizing her hopes of future happiness with him in vain, she dismisses him. She is crushed beyond measure, but is thankful that she escaped before too late. John learning of the broken engagement, renews his suit and is accepted by Ruth, for she now sees the difference in the two natures. They are married, and we find them five years later happy in their little cabin, a child having blessed their union. Off John goes for his work in the woods felling timber. Jim has meanwhile become in a measure a renegade. He whiles his time hunting, looting and in fact, anything that will bring him drink to his insatiable thirst. He does not know what became of Ruth, nor does he seem to care. It is lunch time in the lumber camp when Jim staggers along to come face to face with John. John good naturedly offers Jim a share of his lunch. This Jim refuses and, furthermore, picks a quarrel with John, for the meeting has revived the old enmity. Friends interpose, but a challenge to fight later is passed, the meeting to take place the same evening. Jim, appreciating his talent as a sure shot, doesn't worry, but goes along with his friend to see where he can raise money for drink. They come to a cabin and break in, not knowing nor caring who the occupant is. You may imagine his amazement at finding himself in the presence of Ruth, whom he learns for the first time is married to John. He leaves the cabin and at first is elated at the extent of the revenge he is about to wreak, but later he realizes what disaster it would work for poor Ruth and her little one. These thoughts arouse his better self, so long benumbed by drink, and he resolves to refuse to fight, for his love for her is stronger than his thirst for revenge. But no. That would not do. To refuse to fight would mean to be driven from the woods as a coward. He must make a sacrifice. Taking the shells from his gun he extracts the bullets, so he meets John on the field of honor with a weapon charged with blank cartridges.
- A rich young Kentuckian flees West after killing a man in a poker-related duel. Posing as a miner, he visits a saloon, where he carelessly reveals the wad of cash he is carrying. This attracts the envious attention of Native American low-lives, who follow him outside, knife him, and flee with his money. In the nick of time, a Native American woman arrives on the scene who nurses the gravely wounded man back to health. They marry, have a son, and live blissfully for a few years. Then the man learns that his father has died, leaving him an estate. Realizing that he cannot introduce his wife into polite society back East, he vows to renounce his inheritance. The wife solves his problem by putting a bullet in her head.
- Bill Preston, a heartless road about too despicable to associate with white men, had gathered about him a little band of low-down redskins whom he ruled by extreme despotism. At any rate, they all feared him, as he, with them, terrorized the whole country 'round by acts of pillage, arson, and worse. Despite his black nature, Bill was a handsome fellow who, under different conditions, might be called attractive. There is reason why Nellie Carson, a girl of the frontier, should fall violently in love with him and cast her lot with his. She soon finds out his true nature, but even then she seems to be held by an irresistible power. He tries to cast her off, leaving her lying wounded and insensible in the road after a stormy scene between them. She is discovered by a girl of the mountains who offers to help her to her mountain home. Though moved by the girl's kindness, she rejects her offer, choosing to go her own way on the road of life she has chosen. The mountain girl drives off and is waylaid by Bill, who seizes her and drags her to his camp. Nellie, coming along later, discovers evidence of what has taken place, and with a feeling of pity for the girl, and jealousy of Bill, resolves to save her. She arrives at camp at nightfall and manages to release the girl and get away, but unfortunately her revolver drops to the ground, and exploding, awakens the gang. The girl's plight looks bad, and would have been disastrous had not one of the Indians, who had always shown a weakness for Nellie, handicapped Bill. This enabled the girls, who mounted the one horse, to get a lead. However, Bill and his red devils are fast gaining on them, and several of his bullets have taken effect in poor Nellie's body, who has sacrificially placed herself between the mountain girl and Bill. The girl's apprehension seems inevitable, when the Indian rides up, and Bill, with a dagger wound in the breast, falls from his horse, thereby closing his contemptible career. This in a measure demoralizes the gang, and the girls reach the mountaineer's cabin, but Nellie is mortally wounded and expires as she is taken from the horse, the good Indian driving up just in time to claim her body that he might bury it. This subject is an exceptionally thrilling one, with photography of the highest order, and many of the scenes tinted.
- Joe Stevens came out west to court fortune prospecting in the mountains. He has met with more than fair success and writes his wife that she might join him as soon as she could. Wishing to surprise him, she and their child appear before him unannounced. On the day of her arrival a party of Indians from a reservation nearby visit the village to procure supplies. Among them is a little Indian girl, who, being an unfavored child, is very roughly treated by her mother. The poor tot has never known a kind word or attention. Approaching the cabin of Stevens, the little Indian beholds Joe's child playing with a very pretty doll. The doll fascinates the Indian girl and Mrs. Stevens persuades her daughter to give it to her. This act of kindness, the first the poor little child has ever experienced, so overwhelms her with gratitude that she is at a loss to know how to express it. However, her little heart pulsates with a new energy, and she leaves her new found friends all aglow with thanks. Meanwhile, the Indians have been making a round of the stores and one of them is assassinated by a drunken rowdy. The Indians, vowing vengeance, return to the reservation with the lifeless brave. A council of war is held, during which the little one appears with the doll in her arms. One of the Indians seizes this effigy of a while baby and hurls it over the bank, and when the girl climbs down and regains it she finds it hopelessly broken. Heart-crushed, the little one buries it in true Indian fashion, and as she is prostrate before the tiny pyre she hears the noise of the war dame. Hastening to the scene she realizes the grave danger of her first and only friends, and runs off to warn them. She isn't any too soon for the infuriated Indians are starting out. Joe dashes through the village arousing the inhabitants, and although the redskins have devastated and burned outlaying properly, they meet with powerful resistance at the village proper and are driven off. Everyone is loud in their praise for the little Indian child and are anxious to know her whereabouts. Alas, they will never know, for the little one, wounded during the conflict, has just strength enough to reach the little grave where she falls making it a double one, and her pure soul parts with the little body sacrificed upon the altar of gratitude.
- The old father in this Biograph story was possessed of such unreasonable pride as to cause much misery and heartache. We cannot consistently call it pride, but rather, narrow prejudice. Mr. and Mrs. Sonthcomb dearly loved their only daughter Ann, but, being Quakers, had set ideas. Ann was a pretty girl of twenty, bright, vivacious and romantic, and loved her parents devotedly, but she chafed under what she deemed almost parental despotism. They decried any ebullition her youth might induce, and frowned into silence her joyous ringing laughter. This condition told on her and she longed for life's radiant sunshine, love. It comes at last. Allen Edwards, a concert singer, while driving his auto in the neighborhood of the old Quaker's farm, meets with a serious accident, and is carried to the Southcomb homestead. He is in such a condition that he cannot be removed to his home for some time, and hence is cared for by the Southcomb family, although the old man openly expresses his aversion for the young man on account of the profession. An attachment springs up between Ann and Allen which ripens into sincere love. The old man is beside himself with rage when they broach the subject of marriage. But Ann is decided and the old man, though he loves his daughter, haughtily drives her from the house, for when pride begins love ceases. He stubbornly refuses to have anything further to do with her. He becomes so bitter that he erases her name from the family Bible. To him she is as dead. Many a heartache does the young wife suffer, though Allen has tried time and time again to effect a reconciliation, until one day they receive word that the old Sonthcomb farm had been seized for debt and the couple were forced to go to the poorhouse. What a shock this is to the young couple! It is the old story of pride defeating its own end by bringing the man who seeks esteem into contempt. The young people make their way to the poorhouse, where the old father is seen scrubbing floors, while the mother bends over a washtub. They are brought to the office to interview their disowned daughter, but the old man is still adamant and while the mother is inclined to accept Ann's protection the father stubbornly refuses, going back with hauteur to his scrub pail. Ann now realizes that something more than bare persuasion must be resorted to, and as she views through the half open door her parents' sad plight, an idea strikes her. Seating herself at the organ, she plays and sings her father's favorite hymn. The sound of the music halts the old man in his work, and he crawls sobbing to the door to hear the better. Ann continues to play and sing until it at last he staggers up to be folded in her arms. He now realizes how unreasonable he has been, not only to her, but to her mother and himself.
- Abraham Lieberman is a coal and ice dealer on the lower East Side, his little business being conducted in a miserable basement, his living rooms being adjacent thereto. But Abraham is happy withal, for his daughter, Rebecca, has come to him from Russia. A month later Rebecca is working in a sweat shop to help keep their little home. There she meets David Cohen, foreman of the place, who falls in love with her. But she tells him he has no chance to win her heart, as it is held in keeping across the seas. A month later her sweetheart arrives from Russia, and David leaves New York. Meanwhile, Jake has become Americanized and desires to take up the study of medicine, but has not sufficient means to enter college. Rebecca comes to his aid, and her little savings enable him to take up his course. In due time he graduates and he hangs up his "shingle," but his patients are poor and so his living is precarious. At this juncture, along comes a Schatchen, a Jewish matchmaker, and offers to get him a rich wife. The girl in question is very homely, but her rich surroundings dazzle Jake and he succumbs. Thus is Rebecca thrown over for Mammon. A few months later the "happy" bridal pair and their friends start for the synagogue. On the way their machine runs down a poor girl who has just come from a drug store with medicine for her sick father. The girl is Rebecca. She is taken to the hospital, where, in deep repentance, her recalcitrant lover begs her forgiveness. In the synagogue, meanwhile, the homely bride awaits the coming of Jake, but her father rushes in and tells of his base desertion. Back at the hospital, Rebecca, regaining consciousness, repudiates Jake and tells him to go to his waiting bride. Paying the penalty of his transgression, he dejectedly goes forth, but deeper humiliation is to follow. Arriving at the synagogue, he is met by an infuriated woman, who spurns him and casts him off, leaving him to the mercy of her friends, who beat and maltreat him, as he well deserves. Months later, David, the foreman, returns, and learning of Rebecca's dilemma, seeks her out and again pleads for her love. Rebecca accepts him and happiness at last comes to the Jewish girl.
- Cupid has often started something he hasn't finished and possibly he hugely enjoys the disappointment of the victims of his folly. Miss Pauline Smith is forelady of the factory, and the girls, jealous of her, plan a practical joke, by placing one of her cards in a pair of overalls which they are getting ready for shipment. The overalls are later on purchased by a rube who is recognized as the village Beau Brummel. He, finding the card, becomes "chesty," and immediately writes the following letter to the fair unknown: "Dear Miss, I found your name and address in a pair of overalls I just bought. Suppose we round up this romance by us two getting married. I know I could love you. Just say the word. Jay Downs." This letter is delivered by the mail carrier to the girl, who is highly indignant and answers: "Dear Sir, I don't want a silly noodle who gets mashed on a girl he never saw. I don't know how my card got in those overalls. I want a fellow who can afford something better than a 47c. pair of breeches. Yours respectfully, Pauline Smith." Result, conceit gets a jolt.
- In the wilds of the Kentucky hills two brothers, the elder an outlaw, view from a distance the approach of a party of settlers moving forward to a new home in the vast wildness. The younger brother is overwhelmed by the sight of the pioneers, and, unknown to his elder brother, joins their party. The settlers build a stockade home and the outlook is most rosy, until the outlaw brother meets a girl from the stockade at the spring, he, of course, not knowing his brother is among the party. He forces his attentions upon her, which she repulses, rushing back to the stockade for help. The outlaw's influence with the neighboring Indians arouses them in his plan for vengeance. They attack the stockade, and when the settlers' chance seems hopeless they dig a tunnel from the back of the stockade to the hillside. Most of them have effected an escape, but among the few captured is the younger brother, so the outlaw regrets his action and uses again his influence with the Indians, but with a different effect.
- In the little Italian home the wife feels she is neglected and apparently it seems that her husband's love is growing cold, for he has become decidedly indifferent. She, therefore, plans with her cousin to arouse his love through jealousy. At an Italian picnic, after repeated vain efforts to draw her husband's attentions toward her, she starts off with her cousin, passing in view of her husband. His fiery nature is violently aroused with jealousy, and rushing home in a towering rage, would have wreaked disaster to the entire family, for his terrible suspicion poisons his mind even against his two little children. He learns the truth, however, and realizes now to what extreme the result of his neglect would have driven him.
- When we left Muggsy in our last subject he had just redeemed himself with his sweetheart Mabel. Hence it is that when Mabel is requested by mamma to accompany her to the church meeting, she sends him a note asking him to meet her after service and he may walk home with her. Muggsy is there on time all right, hut fate conspires again. The sisters Frost, two spinsters, on their way to church, were accosted by a couple of burly tramps who frightened the poor old ladies so that they were afraid to make the return trip unaccompanied. So the pastor asks that some of the men escort them. Poor Muggsy is hooked, much to his chagrin, and when the trio reach the deserted part of the road the tramps again appear. Muggsy assures the ladies of his protection, so to fear not. This declaration the tramps regard as a joke. Well the affair is on, and although Muggsy next appears in a torn, disheveled condition his opponents have to be carried bodily to the cooler, both knocked out. Mabel is justly proud of her Muggsy.
- During the reign of Oliver Cromwell, Catholic worship is forbidden on pain of death. Three soldiers are arrested as Catholics and condemned to die. Cromwell decides to spare two of them and to determine which should die by chance. The guards bring the first child they meet. Whichever soldier she gives the 'death disc' to shall die. Cromwell is charmed by the girl and gives her his signet ring. By chance the child is the daughter of one of the soldiers and gives the death disc to her father, because she thinks it's pretty. The child is returned home to her mother, who learns of her husband's pending execution and of the power of the ring. She rushes to the place of execution and saves her husband by producing the ring.
- Alphonse and Gaston get into an argument over cocktails and agree to a duel.
- Jack Morgan was a handsome fellow, but an outlaw, and although he worked in a most fearless, daring fashion, he successfully thwarted all attempts at this apprehension. Hence it was that the mere mention of his name sent terror to the hearts of the stage drivers of the mountains. Many were the wonderful tales told at the relay inns along the stage route that made the tourists shudder with fear as they resumed their course westward. Dick Stanley was one of the nerviest drivers on the stage line and had, as yet, escaped molestation from Jack, Dick was deeply in love with Mollie, the innkeeper's daughter, but, as our story opens, they quarrel and fall out. At this moment along rides Jack, who, of course, is unknown to Mollie. He asks for a drink from the well beside which the girl stands. The bright, cheerful countenance of Mollie makes a decided impression upon Jack, and it is needless to say that the handsome young bandit, well, it is a case of love at first sight. Jack drives off, and Dick, who has watched the proceedings from a distance, approaches to acquaint her of Jack's real being. She takes no heed of Dick, but is still gazing fondly at the fast fading vision of Jack so Dick mounts his stage box and is off. The stage arrives at a lonesome turn in the road when Jack jumps from the brush and, covering Dick with his gun, orders him to dismount, the passengers to get out and give up their valuables, placing them in a handkerchief, which he makes Dick spread on the ground. Having trimmed them, he orders them back into the coach and Dick to drive off. Then he gathers up and makes off with the booty. Dick drives around back to the inn, gives the alarm, and a posse of mounted cowboys start out after the outlaw. Jack, driven by the pursuing party to the top of a precipitous cliff, deserting his horse, climbs, or rather tumbles, down over the rocks, badly cutting and bruising himself as he goes. Reaching the bottom, he runs through the woods and comes upon Mollie who hides him in the well just in time to elude the pursuers who drive up. She sends them off in the wrong direction, and, when they have gone, assists Jack out of the well, binds up his wounded head with a strip of linen torn from her skirt and gives him her horse, on which he escapes. The cowboys soon find they are on the wrong scent and return just in time to see Jack galloping like mad down the open trail. Here follows a most exciting chase, showing some marvelous horsemanship. Jack has distanced them, but his horse runs lame, and he makes a heroic dash on foot towards a barn. Failing to open the lower doors, he climbs up on a rope to the second story, pulls up the rope and closes the door. The posse now arrives, and a fusillade of bullets is sent at the door, which Jack retaliates, laying out a couple of the party. They at length set fire to the barn, and Jack is forced out through the back, and, as he leaps, a well-directed bullet from Dick's gun sends him reeling to the ground, just as Mollie, who has followed the chase on horseback, dashes up, dismounts and takes Jack's head in her arms only to find him dead.
- The pretty daughter of a French-Canadian backwoodsman incites the romantic interest of a trapper who is so smitten with her beauty that he purchases her into marriage from her father, against her will.
- Perry Dudley, a young man of wealth and position, is the center of attraction with the matchmaking mothers, as he is considered the season's best catch. The daughters are by no means backward. In obtruding themselves to his notice. In fact, he is so annoyed and bored by this bevy of fawning females that his life becomes one of ennui. He longs for a change where people are less superficial. While fulfilling one of his social obligations his house is entered by a poor unfortunate tramp, a veritable soldier of misfortune. The poor fellow has a letter in his pocket from friends in his native village from whence he left when but a small boy. The missive asks that he return and he will be taken care of. He is inclined to go, but cannot make the trip on an empty stomach, so his visit to the Dudley mansion is in quest of food. He finds no one at home, and espying a decanter of wine on the table, in lieu of food, takes a drink. The wine has both an intoxicating and soporific effect, and when Perry returns he finds his nocturnal visitor on the floor in a profound bacchanalian slumber. As he lifts him to a chair Perry sees the letter, which he reads. What a chance. He decides at once to disguise himself and go to the country in the tramp's place, assuming that no one would recognize the deception. Placing a ten-dollar bill in the tramp's pocket instead of the letter, he instructs his valet and butler to take the sleeping tramp out and lay him on a bench in the park. Off Perry goes to present himself as the long-lost native, and has little trouble in convincing the old tanner that he is the personage to whom the letter is addressed. Of course, he is welcomed, but one thing he didn't bargain for was work on the farm; still he must endure it. Another thing he didn't bargain for, but is willing to endure, is the companionship of farmer's pretty daughter. It is a case of love on both sides. Meanwhile, the tramp awakening and finding the money, resolves to go back to his old home. His arrival is uneventful, as no one will believe him until he shows the farmer several marks or scars of identification as proof, hence the farmer chases Perry off and locks the daughter in her room. But, pshaw! As they appreciate the fact that love has ever given locksmiths the merry ha ha, they won't let a little thing like that break their romance, so they elope. When they arrive at Perry's mansion the girl is amazed, but is reassured by the presence of a minister, who makes them one just as the old father, who has followed with a neighbor, enters. He not only makes the best of the situation, but considers himself the most fortunate father in Christendom with his daughter making such a match.
- Hetty is engaged to George, but after her sister dies she breaks the engagement in order to raise her sister's orphaned daughter. After many years, Hetty's niece has grown up and has fallen in love with George's nephew, but they have split up after a quarrel. George, still heartbroken at losing Hetty, helps his nephew make up with Hetty's niece, and in doing so, reconciles with his own long-lost sweetheart.
- It is tough to get the name and yet no part of the game. Poor Hiram didn't anticipate the trouble laid out for him when he and his wife went for a stroll in the park, she attired in a loud check waist. There has been a complaint sent to the police headquarters about an impudent fellow who has been annoying the lady visitors to the park with his attentions. Hiram, while seated with his wife, espies a very charming young lady paying him some notice. He thinks he has made a conquest and reciprocates. The Madam catches him and a quarrel ensues, the climax of which sends Hiram to a different part of the park. Alter he has cooled down a bit, he realizes his fault and starts back to make peace. From a distance he sees the check waist, and making a dash for it gathers the wearer up in his arms only to find her to be an old spinster, who has just been reading of the real masher, thinks Hiram he, and makes after him with a hat pin, calling for aid as she goes. By the time she reaches Hiram, he is on his knees pleading forgiveness from his wife who scornfully leaves him for another part of the grounds. His pursuers witness the end of this scene, and think it another case of annoyance, so he is arrested. Later, the wife, not knowing her hubby's fate, returns to bring about peace. Here is where the real masher appears and forces his attentions upon the wife, who calls for the police. The policeman tells her that if the masher is apprehended he will notify her, so when she arrives home she is met by the officer and escorted to the station-house to appear against the miscreant. You may imagine her surprise when she is confronted with poor Hiram. She, of course, will not believe a word he says. Appearances arc too conclusive and so the poor innocent victim must suffer for the guilty.
- Everything on this old mundane sphere has its use. Even the burglar's visit, strange as it may seem, may prove a blessing, as this Biograph comedy will verify. Jones has an insatiable longing to go to the club for a little game, so as a subterfuge tells his wife he is called away on business. Mrs. J. by this time has become cruelly incredulous and declares she will wait up for him. At the club Jonesy breaks the bank, things come his way, but when he leaves for home he anticipates that on his return things may continue to come, but not so felicitously. However, luck is still with him, for he finds a burglar trying to gain entrance into his home. Aha! an idea. The burglar is a coward, and he forces him to break in and so plays the hero, thereby softening his wife's anger by apparently apprehending him.
- William Standish, a young inventor, like many of his ilk, has spent time, money and energy in perfecting a machine which the engineers to whom he had submitted it are slow in deciding upon, during which time he and his little family of a wife and infant child are in poverty's clutches. Starvation stares them in the face. The baby gives them the most concern, and after a desperate mental struggle, they decide to leave it clandestinely in the minister's care. To this end they go to the minister's house at night, and being the dead of winter, they have not the heart to leave it on the stoop, so Standish climbs through the window and leaves it in the sitting-room on an arm-chair. In the neighborhood there lives a professional burglar, whose wife we see bending over an empty cradle mourning the loss of her child. The burglar, despite his calling, is moved by his wife's sorrow, and leaves the house dejectedly on an expedition. The open window in the minister's home looks rather inviting; Standish in his hurried exit neglected to close it, so he enters and begins to explore the place. The cooing of the baby startles him, and after reading the note Standish had left, an idea strikes him. Why not take the baby? Truly, it is a new kind of loot, but it may mean happiness for his wife. This thought decides him, so he rushes to his home with the child. The bereft wife is raised to the very zenith of joy at its appearance, and the burglar himself becomes regenerated, declaring he is through with his past life and will now life worthy of the blessing God has bestowed. To this end he goes to seek honest employment. Meanwhile, there has been a change in the conditions of the parents of the baby. On their return home they find a letter accepting the invention upon a $5,000 yearly royalty, enclosing a check in payment of the first quarter. Thus has fortune smiled and they hurry back to reclaim the child. Of course, the minister doesn't know anything about it. The whole affair is plunged info absolute mystery, and the poor mother, when taken to the comfortable home their new fortune provides, is seriously ill from her mind wrecking grief. Now it happens that the burglar has become the coachman of the doctor who is attending her, and so learns the identity of the foundling. His heart touched by the suffering of the poor woman, he hastens home, dons his burglar attire, steals into the woman's room, and lays the baby beside her while she sleeps. This not only restores the suffering woman, but it has softened his hitherto hard and indifferent heart, making for all time a real man of him.
- An unscrupulous son convinces his elderly father to disinherit his brother and hand over his wealth. Then the son marries and soon poor old dad is just in the way.
- Parker is wooed by young Oliver Sylvester, who is loved by her in return. Her all-absorbing dream is of the day when she will become the happy bride of Oliver. Fortune, however, is unkind to her family and dire straits force her to harken to the proposal of Old Squire Calvin Cartwright, an honest tender-natured farmer of considerable means. Marriage with the Squire would assure Elizabeth of her widowed mother's comfort, hence she consents and is married. Oliver does not seem to realize the truth of the conditions and persistently seeks the poor girl, with a view of alluring her from her aged husband. What a terrible position for the girl, who really loves the fellow and so has not the power to repulse him firmly, her romantic dreams rising, almost taunting, in her mind. While Oliver is pleading earnestly, the Squire enters and fully appreciating her plight, makes the sacrifice, bidding her go with her heart's desire, as he feels he is too old to make her happy and forget. Elizabeth is astounded, and under the influence of her young lover, whom she deludedly believes the soul of honor, accepts the proposed surrender, and leaves with Oliver. They have not gone far when he seizes the weak, trembling girl in his arms and passionately kisses her. That kiss is the awakening. She is aroused from her lethargy and is now fully alive to her sense of duty. Casting her lover aside, she dashes madly to her mother's home, not daring to re-enter that of her husband. The Squire, however, although he seemed impassive at the time, sank into despondency when she was gone, and would have died from grief, had not Elizabeth been persuaded to return to him she had now learned to love.
- "Be sure you are right, then go ahead," is a pretty good rule to follow, and had the heroine of this subject cognized this fact she would have prevented a lot of anxiety, worry and trouble. Hank Hopkins and Cynthia Stebbins were ardent lovers, matrimonially inclined, and while Hank was a proper sort of a chap, old Dad Stebbins looked with disfavor upon his suit for the hand of Cynth. Their clandestine meetings were nearly always interrupted by ubiquitous Dad, until, in desperation, they resolve to elope. The momentous evening arrives and Hank signals to fair Cynthia, who is waiting In her room, dressed and ready to fly with her hero Hank. Although of a romantic turn, they have not selected Spring as the season to enact the episode, the weather being decidedly hibernal, and so Hank arrives clothed in a heavy hat and long ulster. Hungry Henry, the hobo, butts in on the scene at this moment, and from a distance casts covetous glances at the aforesaid ulster, and when Hank goes to procure a ladder he follows and with one fell swoop knocks out Hank, taking his ulster and hat, leaving him bound and gagged. Back he goes to complete the romance, which had begun so beautifully that it would be a shame not to consummate. Wrapped up in the ulster, with hat pulled over his face, the hobo might easily be taken for Hank by one less nervous than Cynthia, so she descends the ladder and makes off. They haven't gone far when she discovers her error, but the tramp drags her along by force. Meanwhile, poor Hank, reviving from the effects of the blow, rolls over and over until he reaches Stebbins' porch steps. Disarranging the gag he calls and brings to his aid Dad Stebbins and the rest of the household, who, after a hurried explanation from Hank, start after the human gorilla in whose clutches they realize poor Cynthia must be. After a spirited chase, serious in agonizing earnestness, and comical in ruralistic details, they come up with the miscreant, and the poor trembling Cynthia is handed over to her dad, who in turn hands her to the brave hero Hank, at which there is general rejoicing.
- The story deals with the betrothal of a Russian noblewoman and a prince of the blood. The girl's father dies and the prince comes to claim the bride, only to find that the young woman, now her own mistress, has a mind and will of her own, also a sweetheart. The latter is a young Jew, a student at a military college. The discarded prince vows bitter revenge against his rival and sets about obtaining it by inciting the peasants to an anti-semitic uprising. In the meantime the Jew, realizing the obloquy which his marriage will entail on his noble sweetheart, determines to change the externals of his religion, this too will enable him to obtain his degrees at college which otherwise would be denied under the beneficent laws of Russia. The Feast of the Passover is being celebrated and his parents are expecting his presence at the feast when word comes to them that their son has been seen in a Christian procession. The heartbroken parents hurry to the church just as the ceremony of baptism has been completed. They meet their boy on the steps of the church and make an appeal to him not to forsake the faith of his fathers, but the Greek priests stand there as grim sentinels over his body and soul, and knowing what his recantation will mean for him and his beloved one he turns a deaf ear to the pleadings of his aged parents. In the meantime the Prince has aroused the peasants to action and the fury of religious persecution is in full swing. Jewish men, women and children are clubbed to death, and on all sides are to be seen the horrible evidence of brutal bigoted Russian barbarity. The young man has by this time married the woman for whom he has made such a noble sacrifice, and she appreciative of what he has done, pours out her treasures to him that his people may find succor and safety. But alas! Nothing can stem that fearful tide of human wantonness and slaughter. The young (Christian) Jew now decides to throw his lot in with the Nihilists. He goes through the preliminaries of initiation and is congratulating himself on his admission when suddenly he is arrested in a raid of the Nihilists' den. He is tried and condemned to die, but, just as he is about to be executed on the scaffold, he is handed a conditional pardon, betray his Nihilist brothers and he will go free, but he spurns the offer and flings the paper in the face of the judge. A loud laugh greets his act. It was only a Nihilist test. Later on these same Nihilists affect his rescue from jail when the meshes of the net thrown by the prince has landed him. The flight of the young Jew and his bride is covered and made effective by the brave Nihilist brothers who check the pursuit of the prince and his hirelings in a royal battle. Finally we behold the young couple on board ship sailing into New York harbor where they behold with joy the Statue of Liberty.
- Harry, preparing to leave on a business trip, tells Bessie that her photograph will always be with him. To test his sincerity she removes the photo from his bill case, and when he writes her that he is looking at her picture, she writes back that she knows otherwise. Realizing that he has been found out, Harry obtains his mother's photograph of Bessie, and upon his return home convinces her that he had it all along.