Acting
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.
A bored Lady Helen goes slumming as a domestic in a boarding house. There she falls in love with a sensitive young musician. The other women in the house are jealous, and accuse her of trying to steal the musician's violin. Lady Helen retreats to her own home, and arranges a position for the musician which allows them to be together.
Hester Prynne has left Holland in advance of her husband, Roger, to join the colonists in Salem, Maxx. Roger follows her to the new world but upon landing in New England is captured by Indians and Hester waits for him in vain.
As Poe's lover is slowly dying, he struggles to make money to care for her.
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.
“The Biograph people tell an excellent story in this, and tell it so strongly that it grips very close. The scene where the husband gets into the room to find his wife bending over the dead body of a man is very strong, though perhaps not materially stronger than the one where the girl’s first husband deserts her. Technically the film is excellent. All the little details are worked out to precision and the characters act naturally, as real people might be expected to do in similar circumstances.” --Moving Picture World
A Duke's daughter is loved by a gallant knight, but her father wants her to marry another. With the help of his friends, the knight hatches an elaborate scheme to marry his sweetheart.
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.
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.
Sisters guarding their house from a burglar set upon stealing their daddy's money.
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.
Schneider is trying to write a speech but he can't concentrate with all the noise around him. During the night, Schneider catches burglars in his house, but when he sees they are stealing all the noisy distractions, he helps them get away.
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.
Henry and Marion have a lover's quarrel and part in anger. They do not reconcile, and ten years pass without contact. Marion becomes a society girl and spends her time at parties with her friends. Henry has become very ill and wishes to see Marion one more time. He writes asking her to visit. When she recieves the note, she laughs and tosses it on the floor, but, later, on a whim, decides to take all her drunken friends with her to visit him. When they arrive, Marion finds Henry dead, clutching her portrait in his hand. She sends her friends away and falls to her knees in remorse. Mary Pickford's debut!
The amateur dramatic society chooses the Joneses' residence as the location of its next meeting, and both Joneses catch 'the acting bug' in this split-reel subject.
A girl is being shipped off to Europe with her aunt to break up her romance. Her suitor dresses himself as the aunt and manages to fool everyone long enough for them to elope.
A shoe-factory worker puts a note in a shoe box offering to marry the lucky buyer. As a result, she is dismissed from her job, but her employer finds her so attractive that he suggests a new job for her, as his wife.
A young woman who disguises herself as a man to go gold prospecting after her father and brother forbid her from joining them.
Gertrude chooses Jim over Jack, which makes Jack very jealous. Later Jim dies, and Jack marries Gertrude. He finds himself once again very jealous of the late Lucky Jim.
To a reception there is invited a celebrated professor of hypnotism, and during the evening he obliges with an exhibition of his wonderful powers. Several of the guests are put under the influence and made to perform most ridiculous antics, to their embarrassment upon reviving. The daughter of the host is the last to be subjected to the professor's power, and she proves to be such a good subject that the professor at once resolves to make her his unconscious agent in a dastardly plot he at once evolves.
