Harry wants to marry Dolly, a showgirl, but only on the condition that she can win over his disapproving father. The father is so charmed when he meets Dolly that he wants to win her for himself.
Making the best of her genteel poverty, our heroine prepares to attend the dance to which she has been invited, and, after surveying the general effect of her plain and somewhat passé attire, goes on her way with a painful self-consciousness to the home of her friend.
Buddy Watson, the youngest of three brothers, and just getting accustomed to long pants, meets Elsie Forster at a church social and is smitten by the young lady's charms. He writes, addressing the letter simply, "Miss Forster," asking permission to call. Elsie gets the note and joyously answers "yes," but Grace, her sister, sees the letter and is quite sure he means her.
John and Edwin Martin, two brothers, occupy, each with his own family, a double house; they are all very much united. Each one of the brothers has a child. John has a little boy, named Frank, and Edwin, a little daughter named Tillie. The two children are playmates and the wives are the closest of friends. Everything is harmonious, when like a flash of lightning from a clear sky, a quarrel, through some trifling difference of opinion, arises between the two wives, which leads to the severance of the happy relations of the two families, excepting the two children, who fortunately cannot grasp the meaning of it all and consequently remain in blissful ignorance of its purpose and are happy only when in each other's company.
Two nice young people become acquainted at the beach; A romance develops.
An anonymous donor drops a gold coin in the shoe of a homeless girl as she sleeps. A gambler with a 'sure thing' borrows the coin and wins a fortune, but he can't find her again to repay her.
Jack, a little orphan, is anxious to become a sailor, and although Captain Rhines refuses to take him aboard his ship, manages to sneak in as a stowaway. When out to sea a few days, he is discovered, and is about to be disciplined, when the captain's daughter, May, intercedes. A terrific storm strikes them, and the ship is dashed to pieces. The captain, with the assistance of Jack, builds a little raft, and with little May, they set out for an island which they can hardly discern, as it is so many miles away. After drifting for many hours, they at last reach the island, which is inhabited by a savage tribe.
Tommy and Jimmy are very much in love with Dolly. Their appetites however, very much overbalance their affections. Joe, who is not over blessed with this world's wealth, but who is bountifully blessed with chivalry, is favored by Dolly. Tom and Jim decide to get her a valentine.
One glance at the poor and disordered home of the Tunisons shows us there is something still lacking. Mrs. Tunison is obliged to provide for her crippled daughter Ethel, her son, who does what he can to help her and her older daughter, who aids in every way possible. Daniel Briton, a young peddler, notices Ethel as he passes by, and gives her one of his wares, a geranium, for which she is very thankful. On successive days as the young peddler passes she waves her hand to him. One day he brings with him a doctor, who takes her to the hospital where she will get good care and attention. After a few weeks, Ethel is carried home in the arms of her generous friend, entirely restored to health. Everybody is made happy, and more so with Daniel, who marries one of Ethel's sisters.
"Thirty per cent dividend! Is your money supporting you? If not, call and see us. Rising Sun Copper Company." This is the bait that the vultures throw out to catch the "doves," widows and orphans.
Left alone by the death of her mother and the imprisonment of her father for theft, little Alice goes to live with her uncle and aunt. The latter does not take kindly to the child. The little one longing for a mother's love determines to give her aunt a birthday present.
Billie and Dollie are very much in love with each other, and they declare their love under the cherry trees. In later years Billie receives news of his appointment as a cadet at West Point: he promises to return to Dollie as soon as he graduates and claim her for his wife.
Bob Deering on his way to business meets his sweetheart, Molly Sherman. He arrives at Milliken and Co., stockbrokers, his place of employment, just in time to save Herman, Zalmon Pinsker's 14-year-old son, from a very rough engagement with the other messengers in the office. For this act Herman takes him to his father's shop and obtains a suit at wholesale, and it is here that Bob meets Ike Mandell, who is in love with Dora, the daughter of Pinsker.
Mr. Williams, a stern father and man of wealth, disinherits his son Hugh, for marrying Rose, a seamstress. Twenty years later, although Sose is practically supporting her sick husband, their little store is taken from them and they are obliged to move, with Martha, their daughter, to the tenement district.
The story of two small-town barbers, Eddie and Gene, who are tricked into fronting a speakeasy for bootleggers in New York City. Eddie reconnects with his sweetheart, Kitty, now a perfor
The Simpsons go for a picnic in the woods. After luncheon, while mother and father enjoy a nap, Betty, their beautiful daughter, strolls away, picking flowers. When near a hillside, Betty sees a snake and screams. She starts to run away, but bumps into Billy Gilwater. He kills the snake and Betty calls him a hero.
A man arrives home late and drunk as usual. His wife reminds him that he's supposed to take their daughter out to a play. While watching the play, he's faced with his own drinking evils and how his life would be without them.
Pippa awakes and faces the world outside with a song. Unbeknown to her, the music has a healing effect on all who hear her as she passes by.
"Fine feathers make fine birds", and handsome gowns make handsome women. Hence it is when Isabelle appears on the scene clad in a gown that is a masterpiece of the dressmaker's art she easily fascinates the male contingent, among whom is Enrico, the sweetheart of Veronica, a street singer. Enrico is so enraptured at the sight of Isabelle in her resplendent attire that he becomes her abject slave, casting aside the poor, peasant-clad little Italian street singer, who has loved him devotedly. Crushed almost beyond endurance the poor girl stands sobbing at the entrance of the park where the inconsistent lever left her. Her tears attract the attention of a wealthy young couple who happen to pass. In answer to their queries she tells them how contemptibly her sweetheart acted, and all because of the fascinating influence of a gown.
A doctor transplants the brain of a girl who is in love with him into a girl he is in love with.
While caring for his sick daughter, a doctor is called away to the sickbed of a neighbor. He finds the neighbor gravely ill, and ignores his wife's pleas to come home and care for his own daughter, who has taken a turn for the worse.
More interested in automobiling than in anything else, Mr. and Mrs. Arnold are inclined to be neglectful of their little daughter, Dora, and are almost entirely unmindful of her grandfather, James Arnold, a one-armed G. A. R. veteran living with them. Dora makes up as well as she can to her grandfather for his loneliness and the two spend the greater part of their time together. On Decoration Day, Dora's parents want her to go with them to see the parade, but as they do not wish to take her granddad with them, she refuses to go and stays at home with him. After a while she coaxes the old gentleman with her into a field of daisies, where .she wreathes a crown of flowers and places it on his head. Seated thus in state, he is found by a delegation of citizens, who, having learned that he is a war veteran, bring a message that the town desires to honor him.
Mack Sennett appears as one of character Mike McLaren's assistants in this film produced by the Biograph Company.
"A pathetic story of mother's grief. No more intense emotion can be imagined than a mother's grief for her dead child. and this Biograph subject beautifully portrays a story of maternal bereavement. It also shows the seemingly cruel workings of fate in taking from the earth the happy, well-cared for child while leaving the poor, ragged orphan to be starved and beaten by a couple of merciless wretches, into whose hands she has fallen." --Moving Picture World, Vol. 4, No. 1 (January 2nd, 1909).
A silent crime film in which the wealthy landowner Lorenzo, who has been taunting poor Miguel and his family for years, eventually gets his comeuppance.
A society couple, neglect their young daughter in favor of their social life. When the girl becomes seriously ill, the father realizes the errors of his ways and stays home with her, demanding his wife do likewise. She sneaks out to a dance and the child takes a turn for the worse. By the time she returns home the child is dead. After her husband leaves her, the mother realizes her selfishness and begs forgiveness at her daughter's grave.
A gang of thieves lure a man out of his home so that they can rob it and threaten his wife and children. The family barricade themselves in an interior room, but the criminals are well-equipped for breaking in. When the father finds out what is happening, he must race against time to get back home.
Little Mario, the child musician, lives with his old father in impoverished circumstances. The father is very feeble and able to do but little work. Mario is obliged to play his violin on the streets to earn what money he can. One day his father is confined to the home by sickness
Mary Collins dies leaving two children; Mildred ('Lucie') and Frank. On her deathbed, she gives Frank a silver watch that belonged to his father. The children are separated from each other and grow up with foster parents. Lucie and Frank meet again when he rescues her from a thief. They fall in love, unaware they are brother and sister. On their wedding day Frank is shot by the vengeful thief. The bullet however is stopped by the silver watch. On seeing the watch, Lucie realizes that they are brother and sister; the marriage is cancelled.
A poor, elderly couple with many children is tempted when the husband's brother offers to pay to adopt one of the children himself. However, when forced to choose, the parents realize they can't part with any of their children.
Three little girls fall into a sand pit and can't get out. One of them ties a note around her pet pigeon's neck and releases it. The pigeon flies home, alerting the parents to where the girls are trapped.
While she attends a party, Mrs. Ross leaves her young daughter to care for her bed-ridden mother. At the party, Mrs. Ross realizes she left the wrong medicine, and desperately tries to contact her daughter before it's too late.
Mons. Flamant, a typical roué of the French nobility, is surrounded by all the pleasures and pastimes his fabulous wealth can procure. In a quest of diversion he visits the art rooms, just as a young girl enters with a magnificent piece of sculpture and places it on sale. The roué is so impressed with the work and the girl that he purchases it at once and follows her to the atelier, where he learns that she is the maid of the sculptress, whom he sees and at once falls passionately in love with her, but when he learns that she is totally blind, his feelings change to one of deepest pity.
Papa is proud of his new birthday present, a shotgun. Mary's boyfriend arrives for a visit and she is anxious to introduce him to Papa. When Harry sees Papa walk in with a shotgun he misunderstands and departs in terror. Harry continues to encounter Papa everywhere and runs away, baffling the old man. At last Papa hauls Harry back home for an explanation and a reunion with Mary.
A man leaves his wife and two daughters for work in a carpentry shop. At work, he initially refuses a beer with lunch, then gives in. After work, two friends take a little while to convince him to go for a refreshing malt beverage, then to have another and another....
Seven years after the death of their first child, a couple has grown apart and decides to divorce. Their second child asks a question about who will keep the first child's most cherished toy after they separate. This leads the couple to reconsider their actions.
An escaped convict takes refuge in the home of a police officer out on duty. He seizes the officer's daughter and pulls her into a window recess, with a pistol to her head. The officer returns and discovers the convict's hat. He suspect his wife is concealing an affair and she must avoid revealing the convict's presence for the sake of their daughter.
The evils of drink cause a man to separate from his family. In time he becomes sober and prosperous. Then he meets and falls in love with a young woman, and they become engaged. Unbeknownst to him this young woman is his own daughter.
Continuing where His Trust (1911) leaves off, George takes care of his deceased master's daughter after her mother's death. He sacrifices his own meager savings to give the girl a good life, until the money runs out and he tries to steal money from the girl's rich cousin.
A mother punishes her son for eating a plate of cream puffs, unaware that the daughter really did it. As the daughter watches the punishment, she feels guilty, and confesses her misdeed.
The reformation of a convict thanks to the prison warden's daughter.
Henry is being blackmailed. When the blackmailer breaks into his house, Henry apprehends him at gunpoint and takes the opportunity to rid himself of the blackmailer's threat.
Wealthy young broker Tom Raine is set upon in a lonely wood by a tramp, knocked out, and stripped of his clothes. Dressed in the tramp's rags, he reaches a hut in time to save veritable wood-nymph June from a beating at the hands of her cruel foster parents. They drive him from the place, but June saves him from being torn to pieces by their huge watchdog, and Tom falls deeply in love with June. They're seen talking by her foster parents, and the father goes after Tom with a club. A fearful fight results, but the timely arrival of Tom's family, who saw the affair from their auto, stops a tragedy. Tom explains matters, his family taking a liking to June, she returns home with them, and Tom and June marry.
A touching story of a pampered dog and an abused orphan forced to go out into the world alone.
A wealthy but weary Charles Morris visits a friend in the country where he meets two young women: the mercenary Hilda and the sweet Dorothy. Betty subtly steers Charles towards Dorothy. When Hilda attempts to capture Charles's affection, Betty orchestrates a situation where Charles sees Hilda with her other suitor, Mr. Bennett, effectively eliminating Hilda's chances. Charles and Dorothy eventually fall in love and become engaged.
Alice takes her little siblings Billy and Kitty to a matinee. They immediately become imbued with the wonderful idea that they are actors. They set up a miniature stage of their own in the summer house on the grounds. They spy upon their sister and her sweetheart Bob, and reproduce their affairs. A quarrel furnishes material for an interesting production, which is a revelation and a lesson to Bob. He goes and makes amends, acting upon the suggestions of the performance.
We all remember the boy who cried wolf so often that when the wolf really did come the people did not believe it. Little Billy must never have heard this, or had forgotten it. His sisters Martha and Jane are very fearful of burglars entering their room, and their little brother decides to play a joke on them.
A music teacher is in love with Helen, one of his students, but she rejects him. In his hurt he joins an anarchist group who plan to blow up a rich capitalist's house. When he realizes it's Helen's house, he tries to stop the plan.
A girl from the New York slums falls in with crooks. After her love is arrested following a barfight turned deadly, her life seems directionless-- that is, until she's saved from the streets by a band of Salvationists. She enrolls, and soon afterward encounters her former love in the same bar. Her faith is real, and strong, and her former love doesn't like this.
Stanley Deane, raised by a British governor, defends mill workers and falls for Alice, daughter of mill owner Amos Buckingham.
A long-retired director of early silent films recalls his exciting career as a filmmaker.