Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
Search filters
Enter full date
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
to
to
Exclude
Only includes titles with the selected topics
to
In minutes
to
1-50 of 86
- An outcast named Lo Dorman encounters a young woman lost in the woods. He defends her from danger in the forest and from Sheriff Dunn.
- Phillips Christy, a strait-laced amateur sociologist from a wealthy family, subscribes to the theory that people are shaped by their environments. When he fall in love with Diane, a showgirl from the Follies, he sees a chance to prove that his theory is correct: he will marry her and mold her to be "cultured" and "sophisticated." However, fate intervenes to put a crimp in his plans.
- The story of the defense of the mission-turned-fortress by 185 Texans against an overwhelming Mexican army in 1836.
- Shy, timid banker Florian Amidon is assaulted, robbed, and knocked out while on vacation. When he wakes up he discovers that he's in the booming oil town of Bakerstown, has no memory of how he got there--and that there's a five-year gap in his life from the time he was robbed until that moment. He and his friend Judge Blodgett enlist the services of clairvoyant Madame Leclaire to help Florian find out what happened to him. What she discovers changes his life forever.
- Steve O'Dare, a rich young man who has lived on his Nevada ranch for some years, returns to New York for a visit. He goes to the University Club, of which he is a member, for a week of New York gaiety with his club companions, but fails to get thrills out of the pleasures of the Great White Way. While lunching at a country club, he tells the boys that there isn't a thrill in Manhattan. And then, through an open doorway he sees at a table in the garden outside a middle-aged couple of distinguished appearance--and a beautiful girl. Upon inquiring of his companions who the people are, he learns that they are the Count and Countess Marinoff and their ward. One of his pals offers to bet him $5,000 that if he will stay in New York a week he will get the thrill of his life. Steve takes the bet. Remembering that he has sold stock to Count Marinoff he wonders whether it might not be possible for him to meet the ward. The problem is solved when the Count calls Steve up and asks him to come to his home. Steve goes and meets the ward, who mystifies Steve by making mysterious signs to him. The Count informs Steve that the girl is crazy. The girl's maid passes Steve a note that says the girl is in great peril and wants him to help her. The Count being called away, the maid directs Steve to go up to the second floor. Ascending the stairs he drops through a trap door on the landing and is bound and gagged by the Count's butler, but the maid releases him, and he telephones to the boys at the club and asks some of them to come out to the Count's house. The boys come, and a battle follows between the Count and his servants on one side, Steve and the clubmen on the other. Steve battles up through the house to the roof with one of the Count's henchmen, who has carried the ward off in his arms early in the conflict. After finally knocking the villain cold Steve searches for the girl but cannot find her. All the men who have been fighting, both his friends and the Count have mysteriously disappeared. As he is at his wits end he sees the face of the butler peeping through a sliding panel in the wall. The panel quickly closes and Steve kicks his way through it and finds himself in a banquet hall where the whole company of his friends and supposed foes are dining together, the persecuted ward beaming at him from the end of the table. The friend with whom Steve made the bet now explains that he has been given the promised thrill, the members of the party, except the clubmen, being members of the theatrical profession, especially engaged for the doings. Just then there arrives four of Steve's cowboys, for whom he telephoned at the same time that he telephoned the club. With their aid Steve quickly turns the tables on the jokers. While cowboys cover the party with their guns Steve announces that he, like Lochinvar, came out of the West, grabs the girl, and rides away with her. She is a not-unwilling captive, and as hour later the weary party still held under the guns get a wireless from Steve that he is quite willing to pay his bet; he has had the thrill of his life, for he is married and sailing away on his wedding tour.
- Gerald, the somewhat frail son of a wealthy New York family, is bested at the beach by Bill, a strapping young cowboy from Arizona. His fiancée Mary, ashamed of his "yellow streak", leaves him and goes by train to visit some friends in Arizona, with Bill in tow. Gerald follows them, and he and Mary wind up captured by Yaqui Indians and Gerald must prove to Mary that he is not the "weakling" she thinks he is by coming up with a plan for them to escape their captors.
- In the midst of an emotional depression, a man hires a murderer to kill him. But the despair soon passes, and the man must now escape the killer he's hired to end his life.
- Pete Prindle wins the affections of Christine Cadwalader, but the father of the girl demands that Pete shall get a half interest in his father's food product company before he is allowed to marry her. Pete accepts the ultimatum. Proteus Prindle, father of Pete, is angry when he receives the request from his son. He shows how his two girls have broken into print with an illustrated article in Vegetarian Gazette. Pete offers to get his picture on the front pages of all the New York papers. Proteus gives Pete $100 and tells him not to come back till he makes good his boast. Pete wrecks an auto, wins a prize fight, swims to shore from a steamer and is locked up after a fight with the police. But none of these adventures net him more than a line or two in the papers. Then he foils a band of yeggs and rescues a train from being wrecked. Christopher and his daughter are on board and congratulate him. It ends with his getting his picture in all the metropolitan papers.
- An outlaw calling himself Passin' Through halts his "evil" ways long enough to help out some children in difficulty.
- Jimmy Conroy plans to marry Marna, stepdaughter of the wealthy Theodore Lewis, who disapproves of Jimmy as a son-in-law. His idea of a husband is Wally Henderson. Jimmy and Marna decide to elope. Jimmy cuts the tires on father's automobile and secures a rope ladder, while Marna packs up. Wally sees them eloping and informs father, who hustles him down to the train to prevent a ceremony until he can obtain injunctions and follow on the limited to serve it, Marna being under legal age. Jimmy has the marriage license, but has no time to get married before getting to the train. Wally takes the same train and lectures them on parental deference, but is shoved away. The train stops ten minutes at a way station. Jimmy rushes to the Rev. Tobias Tubbs, who is bathing. When he comes to the door, clad only in a bathrobe, Jimmy hustles him to the train just as it pulls out. Wally is on the platform and prevents them from boarding the cars. By the liberal use of money and I.O.U.'s Jimmy digs up a variegated costume for Tubbs and forces him along by hand car, mule back, afoot, and on the bumpers. After numerous adventures the limited, with father aboard, is flagged by Jimmy, who is thrown off, but pulls Tubbs up with him on the observation platform. He is about to be put off again when father pretends to be friendly. Instead he conspires with the conductor to have them arrested for stopping the limited. Meanwhile, Wally has convinced Marna that Jimmy has deserted her. She weepingly accompanies him to the hotel, there to await father's arrival. Jimmy and Tubbs are arrested when they disembark. Jimmy escapes and Tubbs is locked up. Father gives the injunction for service and has a scene with Marna. Jimmy has a hairbreadth escape from father and the officers as he attempts to get Marna from the hotel. Then he communicates by telephone and arranges for her to go to the city jail, where he will try to break in and Tubbs will marry him. Changing clothing with a sympathetic hotel maid, Marna eludes her guard and reaches the jail. Jimmy is sighted trying to break in, and a heart-breaking chase follows over rooftops, up and down the walls of buildings and over apparently unsurmountable obstacles. Mama, discouraged, is sent back to the hotel room. The search for Jimmy continues. He takes refuge on the telegraph wires overhead. Walking past several poles, he comes to one where a lineman is working. After explanations, the lineman agrees to help and makes a three-cornered telephone connection between Tubbs in jail, Marna in her room, and Jimmy on the pole. While the pursuers howl threats below, the unique wedding is under way. Father suddenly realizes it and dashes for the jail, arriving as the ceremony is completed. In conclusion, Jimmy is shown in his office settling I.O.U.'s. When alone again, he opens the vault, and out steps Marna into his arms.
- An orphan girl, believing herself cursed with the hoodoo until she gets married, is adopted by a childless couple after the orphanage burns down. Boy-next-door meets girl-next-door, and all looks great until she finds a loaded gun.
- Doug is an American mining engineer. Pres. Valdez of Paragonia (Aitken) wants him to reopen the country's mines. Doug is not interested ... until he sees the President's beautiful daughter, Juana (Rubens). Valdez returns to Paragonia, but is deposed by Generals Sanchez and Garcia and locked in San Mateo Prison. The Americano arrives. His company's local office has been ransacked, but he finds loyal caretaker Dan (Wilson) in hiding there. He is contacted by former Prime Minister Castille, now in disguise as a peddler... Valdez writes the mysterious date "23 Noviembre 1899" on scraps of paper which are then thrown from the prison window as garbage. Juana checks her father's diary. That date contains an account of a successful escape from San Mateo, using the secret tunnel! But Garcia demands that Juana marry him the next day or Valdez will die...
- Reginald Morton is a wealthy idler of athletic tendencies. He has become bored with the shallow social set in which he moves, although he is engaged to marry Dorothy Fleming, a member of it. Dorothy is engaged to Reggie mainly because of his money, and is flirting desperately with all comers. While out in his automobile one day Reggie chances upon a lost little girl sitting on the curb. He takes her back to her home in the slums and there he sees and falls in love with Agnes Shannon, a sweet young girl of good family now compelled to earn her living in a cheap cabaret. He then discovers that Dorothy is faithless to him and breaks his engagement, leaving him free to pay court to Agnes. His rival for the affections of Agnes is Tony Bernard, the leader of the gangsters of the neighborhood, and Bernard has instructed one of his henchmen to bring Agnes to him. Reggie frustrates the scheme, beats up the henchman, and the owner of the dive in which Agnes works hires him as his bouncer. But Bernard has not given up the idea of possessing the girl, and as Reggie is the only obstacle in the way of getting her, he orders him shot. They way-lay Reggie, but he beats them up one by one. Cornered at last, Reggie challenges Bernard to enter a room alone with him and have it out, the man who survives the battle to get the girl. Bernard agrees. A fight takes place. The light is smashed, but it continues until the two men, their shirts stripped from their back, are too exhausted to go on. By a supreme effort Reggie deals the final blow and staggers out, where he is attacked by the band. But the police have been tipped off. How Reggie finally wins Agnes is the culmination of a romance.
- A young man fights to overcome a piratical arms smuggler and to win the heart of a rich man's daughter.
- Trying to cope with the bleak reality of the slums by indulging a taste for fiction, Maggie becomes a compulsive liar. As a result, when she pleads innocent to a shoplifting charge after the real thieves accuse her of the crime, no one believes her, and she is thrown into jail. While Bobby, a reporter who has taken an interest in her, works for her release, Maggie keeps a journal. Then, when authorities give the journal to the judge who sentenced her, he recognizes Maggie as a gifted writer, after which Bobby presents him with evidence clearing her of all guilt. Bobby and the judge rush to the prison to release Maggie; sadly, they discover that she has taken her own life in her cell.
- When the son of a leader of a Paris underworld family known as The Apaches is arrested and tried in court, the boy's mother asks the judge for mercy, but he refuses. In retaliation, the family kidnaps the judge's young daughter and raises her to be one of their own, schooling her in the ways of crime. One day she steals a valuable pin from a young American artist; he catches her, but an attraction develops between them--and her "Apache" family is not happy about it.
- A young woman and her six little brothers and sisters are left orphans by the murder of their father over gold found on his ranch. Together the seven offspring fight against their greedy neighbors to keep what is rightfully theirs.
- The theft of a sacred diamond band from a Hindu shrine starts the action. Count Kotschkoff, who has stolen the band, soon finds that the Mystic Seer and the Mystic Doer are hot on his trail. To thwart them, he asks the Widow Marrimore to keep the jewels for him. She wears the band as a garter, and at a dance it drops off and is picked up by Alonz Evergreen, a middle-aged actor who still aspires to be the juvenile. He does no work and lives on the daily touches he is able to obtain from his hardworking son. Evergreen, who believes that he's in love with the widow, reads an advertisement for the return of the jewels. He aims to increase his favor with the widow by sending back the band. He has wrapped it up in an affectionate note when his son's fiancée enters the office on her way home from a shopping tour. When she departs she takes all the bundles in sight. Alonzo discovers his loss and goes in mad pursuit. In her home the young woman has decided that her beloved is untrue, and has sent back the diamond band and her engagement ring. A distracted lover soon reaches the house to find his father engaged in a frantic attempt to verify his suspicion that the young woman is wearing a costly garter. The gems regained, Evergreen races to the hotel where the widow lives. The Mystic Seer and the Mystic Doer are on his track, but he eludes them and delivers the band. When the Seer and Doer break in and explain their errand the widow goes to the hiding place, but the jewels are gone. The Count has recovered them. The widow is taken to the shrine and tied, to a stake and threatened with death. The stake is near a cage in which a lion is confined. Slowly the gate is lifted and the lion is about to dart out when Alonzo arrives and releases his adored one. There is a thrilling chase and Leo, the lion, finally stalks the widow to a bath room. There Alonzo rescues her under the nose of the beast, the count is captured and the band recovered.
- A poor Russian girl's beauty leads her unscrupulous uncle to bring her to the United States. There he is going to sell her into a marriage with a rich old man she has never met. But her lover, an returning immigrant visiting Russia from the U.S., sails on the same ship. When they arrive he learns, to his surprise, that the American police, unlike those of his native country, are not oppressors of the poor, but friends that will aid in securing the release of his beloved Maria.
- Casey lives with his sister and works in Hicks' general store and post office. The greatest thing in his life is his love for his little niece. To the people of Mudville, Casey is a hero because of his ability to win ball games for their team. Casey is a slugger of worldwide renown, but off the ball field his uncouth ways deprive him of the friendship of any but a half-wit, who follows him around, and the little children to whom he is a hero. Casey develops a love for Angevine, daughter of Judge Blodgett, but she is in love with Bert Collins, who has just returned from college and has been engaged as a pitcher for Frogtown, Mudville's greatest rival for baseball honors. In the meantime Hicks takes to robbing the mails. Casey becomes suspicious of him and about the time he finds evidence of Hicks' guilt, a stranger comes to town. The second game of the big series between Mudville and Frogtown goes to the latter because Casey, who has burned his hands at a country dance where he carried out an oil lamp that exploded, cannot play. But the final game arrives and Casey is ready. Bert is up against it because Angevine's rather has told him he must be able to show $2,000 before he can hope to win his daughter. He gets his mother to mortgage their home and with the money she lends him, he bets with Hicks on the final game. Just before game time, Casey sends word he can't be there because his little niece has fallen from a tree and is dangerously hurt. Hicks is in despair and rushes to Casey's house, only to be kicked out. In the meantime Frogtown forges ahead and the crowd yells for Casey. Casey finally consents to go and leaves the half-wit to watch at the little girl's bedside. He reaches the grounds in the last half of the ninth inning. Mudville is two runs behind; there are two out and two on base. Casey goes to bat. Just at the moment when the pitcher is getting ready to throw the third strike, for Casey always allowed two strikes to be called, the half-wit enters the grounds. Casey sees him, thinks the little girl is dead and strikes out. But the little girl is better; her father, who has been away, returns. Angevine is happy with her lover; the town turns on Casey as a fallen hero and with nothing to hold him, he packs his effects in a little bundle and trudges down the railroad tracks away from the town that has been his home all the years of his life.
- Dorothy Raleigh is a high-spirited Southern beauty who has been brought up by her father, Col. Raleigh, an unreconstructed Kentuckian, to have nothing to do with the townspeople of the little village of Norwalk, just outside of Louisville. She has no other companions than the old negro servants, her animal pets and her books. One day there comes into her life by chance a young millionaire gambler named Forbes Stewart. He makes love to her and asks the Colonel for her hand. Indignant at his presumption, the Colonel orders him from the house. But the young people elope. When Dorothy meets her husband's friends she is grievously disappointed. He determines, rather than cause her unhappiness. to change his mode of living, and give up his old friends. But a detective who knows something of his past, tries to blackmail him. His defiance leads to his arrest, and he is sentenced to a year in the penitentiary. Dorothy is loyal to him at first but when another woman enters her home and seemingly proves that she is Stewart's wife by an earlier marriage, she goes back to her father. The stern old man, however, has disowned her, and she is compelled to seek shelter in a cabin with her old negro mammy. When Stewart is released from the penitentiary he hastens to his home to find his wife. Instead he finds this other woman, an old flame who has taken this method to win him back again. He repudiates her, however, and hurries to Norwalk to see the Colonel and demand Dorothy. The Colonel refuses to tell her whereabouts, but from an old servant Stewart learns the truth. Dorothy in the meantime has been led to believe her baby illegitimate, and the villagers, glad to see the proud name of the Raleighs dragged in the dust, make her life miserable. She is about to kill herself when Stewart arrives. The outcome reunite the lovers and brings a change in the heart of the father that is supremely satisfying.
- Senator John Coburn's son Steve, who associates more with gamblers, criminals and drug addicts than with his father's congressional cronies, impulsively murders his mistress' new lover. The senator tries to use his influence to have Steve acquitted, but all of the evidence firmly and correctly implicates him, and so the jury prepares to find Steve guilty without much deliberation. Before the verdict can be announced, however, Steve's mother rises in court to make an impassioned plea for her son. As a result, moved by the mother's grief, the jurors choose to ignore all of the evidence, and declare that Steve is not guilty.
- Sunny Wiggins is regarded as worthless by the other members of his family, who have risen to the social station where they are snubbed by the best people. The morning of the day the play begins his sister is preparing to entertain a party of butterflies, among whom is the mentally lacking beanpole she intends to marry. Sunny is in bed with as queer a lot of associates as could be collected. He has recruited his following from the bread line; two of them are in bed with him while the others are sleeping on the carpet, and one has even gone to rest in the bathtub. Not too willingly do all hands go to the shower, but it is a wash or no breakfast. Downstairs goes the motley array and into the dining room. Sunny thinks it fine that such a spread has been prepared for his guests and there is little left when sister enters with her guests. Of course, Sis at once tells father and Sunny is called to book. Dismissing his own guests, he finds that he has only one friend in the place, one of his sister's guests, and he doesn't know her name. She thinks Sunny is splendid and when his father has sent him out to try his sociological theories along the Bowery, she wishes him luck. There in a cheap lodging house Sunny teaches the derelicts to laugh, and with such success that an eminent specialist drafts him to cure a millionaire grouch of dyspepsia. In the rich home of the dyspeptic he finds that the girl is the millionaire's daughter. She enters heartily into his plans but an aged 'cellist, whose favorite music is Chopin's "Funeral March," exerts more influence in the household than he. But when father has discovered his daughter and the supposed physician in fond embrace there is a fight, which ends with father a prisoner in his room, to be cured by starvation. Meanwhile a broker, whose offer of marriage has been refused by the daughter, is plotting to ruin her father in Wall Street. How Sunny thwarts the attempt, cures the grouch, becomes his son-in-law and partner and thereby is reinstated in the good graces of his own family, is the story this comedy tells.
- Judy's family takes in seven orphans after the orphanage is foreclosed on by a hard-hearted businesswoman.
- His mind unbalanced by much reading about knight errantry and lack of sleep and food, Don Quixote decides to sally forth and right the wrongs of the world. The muddle-minded old idealist takes with him Sancho Panza, his stable man, who from then on vainly tries to dissuade his master from embarking upon all sorts of rash adventures. Notable among them is the episode of the windmills, which the Don thinks are devils, even after he has charged them and been carried around and around and dropped unconscious on the ground. When he recovers, Dorothea tells him of her affair with Don Fernando, which has forced her to leave home to avoid disgrace. He determines first of all to right the young woman's wrong and goes on to an inn, which he imagines is a castle. The maid-of-of-all-work he dubs the fairest lady in all Spain. One night at the inn is enough. The proprietor throws him and his man out the next morning. While riding along the road they meet several prisoners and their guards on the way to the galleys. Without hesitation the Don spurs his ancient steed, Rosinante, among them, and puts the guards to rout. It develops that one of the prisoners is Cardenio, who has been guilty of loving Lucinda against her father's will. Don Quixote offers to intercede in his behalf and together they start back. Cardenio goes ahead and arrives as his beloved is about to become the wife of Don Fernando. Thinking she has been faithless he seeks to end his life with the poison of an adder. The Don, arriving later, invades mansion and halts the wedding just in time. "How about Dorothea?" he asks, and Fernando cowers. Then the Don seeks Cardenio and brings him back to his lady. But Don Fernando is not so easily defeated. With his retainers he kidnaps Lucinda. A pursuit follows and there is much matching of steel when the two parties meet. Don Quixote, who has gone his way, incidentally rescuing Dorothea from a cruel master for whom she has been tending goats, arrives in the midst of the melee. He has become more insane on his favorite subject and every time he comes upon a prostrate form he rushes forward and claims the honor of slaying the villain. As the encounter becomes hotter a blunderbuss is brought into play and the Don is shot in the breast. While he is dragging himself to the inn of the fair Dulcinea, the scoundrel Don Fernando has been attacked by Cardenio. At length the latter is victorious and the body of Fernando crashes into a ravine. Dorothea, who has seen the struggle, goes to it as the others repair to the inn. There is a happy reunion between Lucinda and Cardenio and permission to wed is freely granted. Into this happy group staggers the Don. His faithful Sancho Panza and Dulcinea help him to the stable, discover the hole through his armor and try to staunch the wound. But all efforts fail. To the accompaniment of the merry making above the lovable old character expires in the straw and the devoted pair beside him grieves.
- A kind Dutch immigrant and her bumbling father are blackmailed by a gang of counterfeiters.
- Karl Heinrich is the heir to the throne of the small European principality of Rutania, but he's a lonely child, not allowed to play with other children and knowing little about life outside the castle. When he reaches college age he is sent to attend the University of Heidelberg, and really starts to enjoy himself for the first time, even falling in love with Kathie, his only friend during childhood and the niece of an innkeeper. However, political turmoil in Rutania forces him to return. He finds that the only way out of declaring war on a neighboring country would be to marry the daughter of its king--but that would require giving up Kathie, the only woman he's ever loved.
- To avoid unwanted attention at her next job, a young professional disguises herself, leading to some unintended consequences.
- A man and his wife both have criminal pasts, but have quit crime and are now respectable citizens. One day a member of their old gang shows up and threatens to expose them if they don't help him pull a heist.
- A young girl, Rose Eastmen ( Besie Love ) lives with her lazy Uncle, who works as a janitor in a publishing house. Lacking education, both Rose and her Uncle are susceptible to the socialist ideas of writer Rudolph Creig. One day Rose encounters Jack Steven's the wealthy son of the publishing house, working on his car. She believes he is a common laborer, and begins seeing him. Through her exposure to Jack, Rose begins to realize the rich are not such an abominable people. Rudolph has also reached this conclusion after learning Steven's has published his book. Now with a hefty royalty check and success, Rudolph is able to marry Rose.
- McFadden is a trainer in Clancy's sanitarium, to which Hiram Sloan, a multi-millionaire steel manufacturer, comes to recuperate. Sloan expects Government plans of a submarine destroyer, which is to be built at his plant. Billings, an emissary of a foreign power, comes to the sanitarium for the purpose of stealing these plans. Learning that the documents are on the way, Sloan returns to his home, taking McFadden with him to serve as his trainer. Billings asks to call at the house to continue exercise under McFadden. Subsequently, the lives of Sloan and his daughter are endangered by the spy's attempts to gain the Government secrets, but McFadden succeeds in frustrating these. The spies are arrested and thrown into prison.
- Railroad president John Houston, along with his daughter Marjorie and his fiancee, Elinor Craig, are aboard the express train when it is held up by a gang of outlaws. Outlaw Dan Tracy is attracted to Marjorie, who, filled with dreams of romance, returns his interest. They exchange rings and later meet secretly in the city. When Houston learns that his daughter's new suitor is an outlaw, he hires a detective to investigate. The investigation indicates that Tracy is Houston's son by a former marriage, and Houston, mortified, allows the outlaw to escape. Tracy then persuades Marjorie to elope with him and takes her to his shack in the hills where she is rudely awakened to the realities of outlaw life. Houston arrives to save his daughter, and after Tracy is killed by Rosanne, the woman he betrayed, it is revealed that Tracy was not his son but an offspring of his former wife and an outlaw.
- To the dismay of Allison Edwards, her adoring bookworm neighbor Mary Randolph falls in love and marries Jack Van Norman, a rich, handsome former football star. After a few months of marital contentment, Jack becomes infatuated with exotic dancer Rose. Despite Mary's attempts to win him back, Jack agrees to a divorce, moves in with Rose, and leaves Mary to bear their baby alone.The new couple lives happily at the seashore until Jack discovers that whenever he goes away on business, Rose entertains other men. Despondent over Rose's repeated infidelities, Jack commits suicide. At his coffin, Mary forgives him, then finds solace in the arms of the faithful Allison, now a successful author. After dedicating his latest book to her, Allison proposes marriage, and he and Mary happily wed.
- Evelyn Dare is a butterfly of fashion. David Westebrooke, her fiancé, is an altruist interested in sociology. He has made his home in the factory town of Oreville, where he works among his employees as factory manager. The two young people were affianced by their parents, and although they have not seen each other for a number of years they are strongly attracted to each other and have no desire to break the engagement. When David discovers that Evelyn plans an elaborate wedding and that he is scheduled to appear at a series of smart social functions, he rebels. Through his attorney, he arranges a marriage, and afterward tells his wife that she is to accompany him to their home and telegraph her friends that she has run away. Evelyn opposes chis, but David is firm. He takes her to their home in the factory town and there orders his housekeeper to take away her useless clothes and to supply those befitting the wife of a factory manager. For some time Evelyn is miserable. Finally she becomes interested in the life of the factory town and starts a woman's club for the benefit of the factory workers. David maintains a club for the men of the town, but they change it into a gambling den. Complications arise when the men become angry because their women folk also have a club. This is aggravated when Ted, the husband of Josie, a mill-hand, returns from a term in prison and proceeds to poison Evelyn's mind against her husband. The men's club is burned down and David saves both Ted and Josie from the burning building. In the meantime Evelyn returns to her home, taking Josie's baby with her. After a time Ted, becoming conscience-smitten, goes to Evelyn and tells her the truth. David becomes lonely for his wife and leaves the factory town. There follows a reconciliation between him and Evelyn, the latter promising to assist him in his work, not only for love of him, but also because she is now interested in the people of the factory.
- Powerfully built Greek Philip, falls in love with Toinette, a French girl whom he meets when she is injured in an auto accident. Later, as a result of the accident, she is hospitalized and operated upon and then recovers. A hospital attendant misinforms Philip that Toinette has died, however; and the Greek, keeping a pledge to his love, continues to sing beneath her hospital room window every night at midnight. Meanwhile, a gang has been terrorizing a park near the hospital, and one night during a confrontation with the police, the leader is knifed and taken to the same doctor who has arranged for Toinette to enter the hospital. While at the hospital, the leader recognizes Philip as the person who slipped him a pack of cigarettes when he was hospitalized earlier, during Toinette's stay. The gangster informs Philip that his love is alive and well. The Greek rushes to Toinette, who had been told that Philip had returned to Greece, and the lovers are reunited.
- Mountaineer Pap Clayton has promised his daughter Sairy Ann (Dorothy Gish) to his cousin Jed Martin, but Sairy Ann loves Dr. Richard Cavanagh (Sam DeGrasse), the son of Judge Lee Cavanagh. In the midst of a feud between the Claytons and the Jacksons, a jealous Jed sets out to kill Richard. Jed shoots a deputy who gets in his way and is taken before Judge Cavanagh, whom the Claytons have threatened to kill if Jed is convicted. The Claytons are true to their word when Cavanagh finds him guilty, and Richard immediately vows to kill Jed, who has escaped. Sairy Ann, however, reminds Richard that he has railed against family feuding and has said that only the law can take a life. A sobered Richard captures Jed and hands him over to authorities; then, after he has forgiven the Claytons, he and Sairy Ann become engaged.
- Robert Powers devotes himself to a life of dissipation until he meets Lillian Vale, the daughter of the curate of St. Anthony's church. Lillian marries Powers, determined to reform him. Years later, the happiness of their home threatened by the appearance of Hattie Lee, one of Powers' former lovers. While Lillian is at her father's deathbed, Powers is lured away by Hattie Lee one night. That evening, the house catches fire and when he returns, the place is in ashes. Frenzied with the belief that his son has perished in the flames, Powers goes to beg the forgiveness of his wife and discovers that she has saved the child's life. Her all-forgiving nature and the love of their son causes Powers to rise from his past life with a triumphant soul.
- Society girl Octavia rejects her fiancé, Teddy Westlake, and marries the elderly Colonel Beaupree, a wealthy rancher. When the colonel dies, Octavia discovers that he has left her only the ranch out West. When she goes to Texas to claim her inheritance, she discovers that Westlake has become manager of the ranch. Unknown to Octavia, even the ranch does not belong to her, but Westlake keeps this, and the fact that he still loves her, secret until Jose' Alvarez, the cruel overseer, tries to take advantage of her. In the end, Octavia realizes her love for Teddy and chases after him until he admits his feelings for her.
- Jim Bludso is engineer of the Mississippi River packet the "Prairie Belle." He has a home in Gilgal, Ill., and a wife and twelve-month-old baby at the time the story opens, in 1861. A call is received for volunteers and he joins the Northern army. His wife is a Southern girl, and she opposes his joining the Union forces. The quarrel results in a separation and Jim goes to war. Ben Merrill, an unscrupulous contractor, meets Jim's wife in Natchez, her home town, and induces her to go with him to New Orleans. She deserts her baby and goes. In New Orleans a levee contractor comes to Merrill with the proposition that they take the contract for a new levee to be built at Gilgal. Merrill accepts and leaves New Orleans without telling the woman where he is going, and she is left to take care of herself. After the war Jim returns to Natchez and finds that his wife has deserted their little boy, and no one knows where she is. He takes the boy, Little Breeches, and Banty Tim, a negro, who has saved his life during the war, and returns to Gilgal. He is welcomed by Kate Taggart, the daughter of the village storekeeper. Jim's wife yearns for her baby and returns. Jim forgives her for the child's sake. The high waters are coming on and Merrill is afraid that the levee will not hold. He plans to lay the blame on Jim and the negro. He arouses the suspicion of the townspeople against the negro and Jim is forced to fight for Banty Tim on several occasions. Merrill meets Jim's wife and induces her to loosen the sandbags and leave the water into the village. She escapes in a boat, the bottom of which has been cut by Merrill. In the middle of the stream the boat begins to sink and Banty Tim goes to her rescue. The negro is accused of breaking the levee and then escaping. Jim offers his life as a forfeit if the negro does not return by sunrise. The next day the village people are at Indian Mound, and the men are about to hang Jim because Banty Tim has not come back. Just then he comes on with Little Breeches, who tells of his rescue by the negro. A year later Jim is again engineer of the "Prairie Belle." In a race with another boat the engines become overheated. Merrill is aboard and Jim has him locked in the oil room. When the boat takes fire Jim goes and opens the door of the oil room and finds his son there with Merrill. While they are trying to escape the boilers explode. Jim is rescued from the debris by Banty Tim. Some time later Jim's wife having died, he and Little Breeches and Kate and Banty Tim are united in a happy family.
- While covering night court for a newspaper, a reporter falls in love with a woman arrested on a prostitution charge. Soon after they are married, however, he catches her with Dan O'Sullivan, the publisher of the newspaper. Although the reporter had always believed his wife innocent of the prostitution charge, he now refuses to accept that she was lured to Dan's room under false pretenses and fought desperately against the publisher's advances. As a result, the reporter leaves his wife, becomes an alcoholic, and loses his job. Then, he gets a lead on a graft story involving Dan, and ultimately discredits him. While working on the story, he also finds proof that his wife had told him the truth, and so he makes up with her, after which he gives up drinking and gets an even better newspaper job than the one he had before.
- "Waffles," the waitress at "Coffee Dan's" hash-house, is selected by Bert Gallagher and Clara Johnstone, a pair of crooks, to be represented as a missing heiress whose story they have read about in the papers. "Waffles" herself believes the story, as she was orphaned early and remembers little of her childhood, and by adroit coaching is able to convince the estate's none too bright lawyers of the validity of her claim. With this unlimited money, poor little "Waffles" nevertheless has only three desires: to buy the little restaurant for her old benefactor, Shorty Olson, to publish the music written by her lover, Carl Miller, a young, eccentric, absent-minded musical genius, and to adopt the baby that a Mrs. O'Shaughnessy is too poor to care for. But "Waffles" establishes Shorty Olson as chef in her mansion, and Miller is a frequent caller until Mrs. Johnstone in secret convinces him that it is his duty to give up the girl who is destined for high society. Without explaining to "Waffles," he discontinues his visits. Mrs. Johnstone is thus able to induce "Waffles" to promise to marry the crook, Gallagher, but just before the ceremony old Shorty Olson overhears a dispute between Gallagher and a gangster over loot, and thus discovers Gallagher's real character. Shorty Olson is caught eavesdropping, and the crooks shut him into the garage. Carl Miller has been mooning at the house of his lost love, and sees Shorty Olson put into the garage. He goes over and knocks out the gangster on guard and the liberated Shorty goes for the police and Carl goes for the marriage service, which has just begun. "Waffles" sees his face at the window and faints. She is revived and the service is begun again when Carl forces his way in and battles the bridegroom. The police arrive just in time, and the crooks go to jail. The lawyer comes with the real heiress, and "Waffles" goes back to the hash house. For the crooks' arrest the three are given a reward of $1,500, so Shorty Olson buys "Coffee Dan's." Carl publishes his music, and "Waffles" adopts Mrs. O'Shaughnessy's baby.
- Naomi, a girl of the studios in New York's artist quarter, is possessed of a superabundance of vitality and a desire for continuous frolic and adventure. One night, at a gay party, Naomi's effervescent spirits deceive one of the men into thinking that she is far more unconventional than she herself has any idea of being. His companions tell him that she is not the sort of girl he thinks she is, but he insists that he can prove that she is; he even makes a wager to that effect. He tricks Naomi, who is really quite unsophisticated, accompanying him to a hotel of questionable repute, where the two, innocent of any wrongdoing, are captured in a police raid, and Naomi has an unpleasant experience in the night court. Friends come to her aid and she is released. Not long after this, Frederic Harmon, a broker, comes into her life. The two fall in love and are married; the birth of a baby completes Naomi's character and she cares only for her child, her husband, and her home. The husband, however, does not settle down to home life. He is still much inclined to the gaieties of the set in which he had become acquainted with Naomi, and when she refuses to take further part in the revels of the Bohemian crowd, he goes forth by himself and soon meets Helen Carew, a woman with a past and without a conscience, who fascinates him partly for her amusement and partly for mercenary reasons. Eventually Harmon's infatuation for the other woman becomes known to Naomi. She is heartbroken, particularly when Harmon asks her to divorce him so he can marry Helen. This she refuses to do. Helen, anxious to get the man entirely into her clutches, enters into a plot with a crooked detective whereby Naomi is to be caught in a compromising situation, thus giving her husband grounds for divorce from her. The detective picks up a convict just out of Sing Sing and by means of a decoy message Naomi is induced to go to a hotel room where the man from Sing Sing is waiting for her. Once the two are in the room together it is raided by newspaper reporters and a photographer, and a flashlight of Naomi in the arms of the convict is obtained. The husband brings suit for divorce, offering as evidence the stories of the witnesses at the raid and the flashlight photograph. He also asks custody of the child. Naomi startles the judge and spectators when she declares that she should be allowed to keep the child, because Harmon is not its father. The judge, however, suspects that Naomi is sacrificing her reputation in order to keep her baby, and calling her into his private office, he gets the truth from her. Meantime there has been an unexpected development in the affairs of Helen. The man from Sing Sing had been her lover before he went to prison, and she is unpleasantly surprised when the detective's use of him brings him again into her life. The ex-convict is in Helen's rooms, trying to renew their old association when Harmon comes to see her. Helen hastily hides the jailbird, but while she is talking to Harmon the convict comes out and tells Harmon of the woman's past and his connection with it. Horrified at the revelation of Helen's true character, Harmon goes out of her life at once and forever, but in the course of time succeeds in winning his way back into his home.
- Nina, a blind girl, lives with her grandmother, who has taught her to make artificial flowers, which she sells at a flower-stand. Nina, and Jimmie, a crippled newsboy who sells papers on the same corner, are sweethearts. Nina's grandmother dies, and she turns to Jimmie. One day Jimmie has a fight with another newsboy, whom he thinks is hanging about Nina's stand too much, and the other boy is soon begging for mercy. Miss Fifi Chandler, an artist, happens to be passing, and becoming interested, she accompanies Nina and Jimmie to their rooms, and is surprised to find that Jimmie is an artist, having made a beautiful plaster cast of Nina. Fifi brings Jimmie and his protégé to the notice of her fellow artist, Fred Townsend, who falls in love with Nina. Fred has a great specialist examine Nina's eyes, and assured that an operation would restore her sight, takes her to his mother's home. Townsend tells the boy that the operation will be a success, and is amazed when Jimmie bursts forth in a torrent of words against his fate. Nina will know he is a cripple and not the straight, handsome youth she has pictured. He hurries from the house, and during the ensuing days, when Nina must stay in a darkened room, Jimmie cannot be found. The day comes when the bandages are removed and the operation is a success! That night, in the general hospital, the physician's attention is called to a crippled boy, who had tried to end his life by jumping in the river, but had been rescued. He recognizes Jimmie, hears his story, and a few days later an operation is performed and it becomes evident that he will go forth as straight as Nina's fancy had pictured him. Meantime Nina wonders why Jimmie does not come to see her, as she had not been told about the operation. At last he is brought to her, and Fred Townsend has his reward in watching the happiness of the two youthful lovers.
- Karsten Bernick, last of the house of Bernick, whose shipyards are the mainstay of the town, is forced to return home from a Bohemian life to Paris to assume the management of the business which is nearly bankrupt. He breaks an engagement to Lona to marry Betty, her rich half-sister. With her fortune he saves the company and eventually comes to be known as a Pillar of Society. Then a certain Mme. Dorf, an actress, arrives in town and threatens o expose an episode in his history which occurred during his days in Paris. He persuades his brother-in-law, Johan, to take the blame for him. Johan agrees to do so for his sister's sake and then leaves for America with his sister Lona. Mme. Dorf dies and leaves her little daughter to Karsten's care. Karsten really fears to refuse the guardianship and wins new honors as an upright benevolent citizen. In the midst of his security in the community, Johan and Lona suddenly return, the former to clear his name, the latter, who still loves Karsten, to persuade him to establish his place as a Pillar of Society on a foundation of Truth instead of lies. Karsten defends himself vigorously on the grounds that a Pillar of Society must resort to subterfuge and deception in order to protect society which depends upon him. Johan falls in love with Karsten's little protégée, the daughter of Mme. Dorf, and renews his insistence that Karsten clear his name. Desperate, Karsten connives at their departure on an unseaworthy ship, but his plan reacts on himself, for his only child, Olaf, has run away and been discovered on the ship as a stowaway. The ship catches fire and there is a thrilling rescue of the little boy in a motorboat. Karsten is awakened to the truth of his position and at a reception given him by the townspeople as a tribute to their leading citizen, confesses the truth. Thus he learns that the Spirits of Truth and Freedom are the true Pillars of Society and not man, however powerful.
- After the death of her father, Betty Lockwood goes to Graystone Gables, the estate where he had been the caretaker, to spend some time alone there. She meets David Chandler, Graystone's owner, who is attracted to her and tells her to come back whenever she wants to. Betty's mother soon remarries, but her new stepfather is not the same kind of man that her father was; she finds herself the subject of some vicious gossip begun by her mother's new husband when he spots her at the estate with David. Complications ensue.
- As part of a divorce settlement, Theodore Ainsley gets custody of his older daughter Millicent, and his wife Elinor gets their younger daughter Jean. The two girls, normally inseparable, can't bear to be away from each other and run away together, but are soon caught by the authorities. Another custody hearing ensues, during which the girls' attorney Horace Craig makes an unusual, and somewhat shocking, proposal.
- Jim is the leader of the "Slouchy Seven," a gang of small town boys. He takes the gang for a swim in the reservoir, and is reported to his father, who, as a punishment, locks him in his room. Jim, however, escapes and goes to the assistance of Clarence, a "nice" boy, who is vainly trying to secure an apple for his sweetheart, Mary. Mary is won by the prowess of Jim, but he is indifferent to girls. Clarence and Mary go for a walk and Tom, the blacksmith's boy, pushes Clarence aside and takes his place beside Mary. Jim goes to find the gang at the railroad station he meets a girl, who asks him the direction to Mr. Morton's, who, she says, is her uncle. Jim offers to take her bags and show her the house. The boys see him and have fun at his expense. He leaves the girl, whose name is Ruth, at the gate and goes to meet the gang. They have lost a member who moved away, and initiate Clarence, who proves to be a good sport. Unaware of the interest he has aroused in Mary's heart, Jim fights Tom, when he again interferes with Clarence and Mary, and is accused by Ruth of being "stuck" on Mary. This he stoutly denies. He calls on Ruth and her uncle tells her to dismiss him, that he is a bad boy. Jim then joins the gang in a prank on the schoolmaster, and as a punishment his father orders him to chop a pile of wood. Jim is rebellious and, taking his dog, leaves the house. He meets Mary and tells her he is going to the city. His dog deserts him and he falls in with a band of tramps. His mother places an ad in a local paper asking him to come home and Mary takes care of his dog. Later he comes back and is induced by the tramps to assist in robbing the bank, of which his father is vice-president. He dresses up and goes to secure the combination. Mary is impressed by his prosperous appearance, and when he hears his mother talking he almost gives up the idea of aiding the tramps, but his father's gruff remarks determine him to keep on. On going back to the tramps he sees his mother's ad in an old newspaper and refuses to help the hobos, but they take the paper with the combination away from him and bind him in a freight car. He escapes and hurries back to the town and tells the gang. They go to the bank, but are not in time to prevent the robbery, and the tramps escape with the loot. The loss ruins the bank, and although Jim is hailed as a hero his conscience troubles him. Finally he tells his father and is forgiven. The money is discovered in a woodpile, and the next day Jim carries Mary's books to school.
- Jess Vance and her father are homesteaders in the Northwest. For some time land-frauds "engineered" by a "ring" controlled by Senator Hoyle have been going on. Francis Ames, a lawyer, is sent by the government to investigate. The homesteaders endeavor to see Ames, but by the manipulation of Senator Hoyle are prevented from doing so, and they feel that Ames has double-crossed them. Jess boasts bravely of what she would do if she found one of the "dummies" on her claim. Ames learns that one of Hoyle's henchmen has arranged to send dummies to the timberland to "establish a residence" and cinch the ring's claim to the township where Jess lives. Ames stating that he is going east, follows the dummies. Jess meets Ames on her claim and orders him off. He refuses to leave and at the expiration of three days Jess again orders him off, and when he still refuses she shoots him, inflicting only a slight wound. Meantime his secretary, Stanley, meets Cora Abbott, a former friend of Ames. She obtains information that Ames is laid up in his cabin and reports to Hoyle. He tells her to "get something" on Ames. She goes to the woods, and to Ames' dismay insists that she has come to nurse him back to health. In the meantime Jess, feeling sorry for him, has bandaged his wound. He learns of the contempt in which he is held by the settlers. Cora, to get rid of Jess, tells her that she and Ames are engaged. Ames asks Cora to leave, which she does, after a stormy scene, but she bribes two forest scouts to burn Ames' cabin on the night the settlers have decided to burn the cabin of the jumpers. Ames, hearing of the proposed attempt to drive out the jumpers, leaves his cabin in charge of a half-breed. When Jess is told of the burning of Ames' cabin, and the finding of a charred body, she is broken-hearted, and to forget her own heartache offers to go to Portland to see if anything can be done toward the settlement of the homesteaders' wrongs. She is granted an interview with Ames, and there are two very surprised people when Ames sees his forest girl and Jess discovers that her jumper and the despised Ames are one and the same. Later she gladly gives up her homestead rights to become Ames' bride.
- Carmen Wagner is an orphan, the daughter of a musician whose career was ruined by the nagging of her stepmother. Her grandfather, a violinist also, hates all women because of his son's ruined career. He tries to save his granddaughter, whom he adores, from the stepmother. He also makes his granddaughter a woman hater and brings her up disguised as a boy. While in this garb she meets Edward Holmes, a law clerk, and the two become friends. The stepmother, catching the grandfather giving Carmen music lessons, drives him from the house. Carmen runs away, joins him, and they become vagabond musicians. They take passage on a ship, and Edward Holmes, the law clerk of the firm, consulted by the stepmother, is delegated to find them. He takes passage on the same ship, identifies an innocent Italian musician and his daughter, whom he arrests. For this false arrest Edward is discharged. And in this plight he meets Carmen and her grandfather, who live in a derelict vessel and who make a living by the violin playing in the streets. While protecting Carmen from a drunken sailor Edward is badly hurt and is taken in and cared for in the old hulk. Carmen throws aside her boy's clothes and puts on feminine apparel and imitates the dock watchman's daughter and coquettes with Edward, who at last identifies her as the girl whom he was originally employed to seek. They are in love, but keep it secret from the woman hating grandfather. Other detectives, employed by the stepmother this time, have located Carmen, and Edward in defending her is knocked out, while the stepmother and Carmen take a steamer home. Edward with a friend in a fast motorboat follows, and Carmen jumps from the steamer and is rescued by Edward. The stepmother pursues in a pilot boat, but they finally make their escape to marriage and happiness.
- Betsy Harlow is a hard-working maid in a boarding house. Her dream. however, is to be a detective, a dream she shares with her boyfriend Oscar, a delivery boy for a local grocer. One day a mysterious character named Harry Brent takes a room at the boarding house. Harry, seeing that Betsy is falling for his rather shady charms, persuades her to help him get a box of jewels owned by the Jaspers, an elderly couple who lives across the hall. It turns out that Harry is not quite who he seems; neither, however, are the Jaspers.