Acting
John Rand, having lived in a small town his entire life, dreams of possessing wealth and power in New York. Napoleon Bonaparte has long been his ideal, and one day he feels a message from the departed general urging him to take up the fight for world supremacy. He goes to the city ready to begin the battle, and there, aided by his Napoleonic visions, John amasses a great fortune, ruthlessly destroying everyone who presents an obstacle to his lust for power.
Two miners are fighting over a woman, and one is about to murder the other in his sleep. At the critical moment, the woman introduces her fiancé from the city.
A young soldier is shipped overseas after a hasty marriage; when he returns he doesn't recognize his wife who has changed from the tomboy he married to a sophisticated young woman.
Lady Florence hides her lover, a Prussian spy, from the French troops who are hunting for him. One of her other suitors, a French officer, discovers the hiding place and threatens to kill the spy.
A spurned suitor threatens to kill Margie's sweetheart if she does not give him up.
Two sisters, Nellie and Florence, support themselves and their mother by sewing. A man accompanying a wealthy client tempts first Nellie and then Florence to leave with him. Nellie rejects him, but Florence goes to his decadent apartment and becomes his mistress. Nellie marries a diligent carpenter and raises a growing family. Eventually the Tempter tosses Florence out, and she dies alone and impoverished.
Antonine, a worthless, good-for-nothing scoundrel, demands money of his cousin Galora, an energetic, provident husband and father. His demands are met with a positive rebuff, and when he becomes insistent be is forcibly ejected by Galora. As he leaves the tenement he vows to get even, and lies in wait until Galora has gone out on business. Climbing to the fifth floor, on which the Galoras live, he watches his chance, which comes when Mrs. Galora goes for an instant to visit a neighbor on the same floor. Darting into the apartment and raising the window he perceives the awful result of a drop to the ground, five stories below, and so evolves a plan that is dastardly in the extreme. Taking the infant child from the cradle, and placing it in a basket he lets it out with a short rope, the end of which he secures by letting the sash down on it, so that to raise the window would precipitate the baby to destruction.
Unable to bear the abuse of her drunken soldier husband, the wife left her home and went to the city, where she became a nurse in a hospital. Her husband, recovering from a spree, treated his wife's disappearance as a joke and soon went with his company to the Philippines. Meantime a doctor at the hospital had fallen in love with the young wife and when news came from the Philippines that her husband had been killed she married him. They were very happy and a child was born to them. To a friend in her old home she sent a photograph of herself and family. Then her soldier husband returned for he had not been killed. During a reception at her new home he appeared on the scene. A dancer was to be there, but being unable to keep the engagement, the wife had prepared to perform the dance herself. The appearance of her soldier husband greatly excited her for it made her second marriage illegal.
Mack Sennett appears in this film produced by the Biograph Company.
A husband uses a ruse to sneak back into the house after a night out.
Miner Kate Nelson strikes gold but is quickly robbed at a frontier hotel by a desperate Mexican woman, who shoots a hotel clerk during her escape. The thief hides with an Indian girl and her half-breed husband. She seduces the husband into helping her torture and hang his Indian wife over a river. After bravely escaping her bonds, the Red Girl guides Kate and a posse in a thrilling canoe chase. Following a dramatic underwater battle, the culprits are captured. The husband tries to reconcile with his wife, but she rejects him, finding solace and friendship in Kate's embrace.
The central figure is an old miser, a Harpagon of sorts, who, like Frosine, stashes his ill-gotten money in a secret cellar. While the miser is at the bank, exchanging stolen notes for gold coin, a couple of thugs witness the transaction and see their opportunity-- It seems avarice grips the hearts of all those who'd possess the bag.
Oh, the woe of simultaneous birthdays, as were Mr. and Mrs. Hardlucks', and both being of a generous nature, were seized with an insatiable desire to make on this anniversary of their nativity suitable gifts, each to the other, Hardluck has a watch, but no fob. Mrs. Hardluck has a wealth of hair, but no decorative comb for her hair. What is worse, finances are low, or rather exhausted. An idea strikes Hardluck. He will pawn his watch and buy a comb; thus surprising her. Mrs. Hardluck's mind is also illumined by a bright thought. She will sacrifice her hair, and with the money buy him a fob. This they do, of course, unknown to each other. Well, here's the situation: He had no fob for his watch, and she no comb for her hair; but now he has no watch for his fob, and she has no hair for her comb.
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.
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.
When a fireman rescues his long-lost sister-in-law he mistakes her for his wife when she dies, and contemplates suicide until he learns the truth.
A new bride tries to win the affection of her stepchild.
A new bride has made a batch of biscuits. Her husband pretends to like them, so she delivers the rest to his office. But one bite of these biscuits makes you violently ill, and soon all his visitors (he runs a theatrical booking agency), plus the workmen at home, are ill; when she shows up at the office, they all go after her.
At the Italian boarding house the male boarders were all smitten with the charms of Minnie, the landlady's pretty daughter, but she was of a poetic turn of mind and her soul soared above plebeianism and her aspirations were romantic. Most persistent among her suitors was Grigo, a coarse Sicilian, whose advances were odiously repulsive. The arrival at the boarding house from the old country of Giuseppe Cassella, the violinist, filled the void in her yearning heart. Romantic, poetic and a talented musician, Giuseppe was indeed a desirable husband for Minnie.
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.
