Acting
To avoid ruin, an impoverished count arranges a marriage between his daughter and a wealthy man she does not love. After an accident, she is taken in by a gifted artist who saves her from an unseemly fate.
In the early part of the Nineteenth Century, Beau Brummell was the most talked-of person in all the world, the extreme of fashion, the personification of elegance and the most pretentious individual imaginable.
John Burling, a detective, rounds up some members of the Night Hawk gang. Bill Hanks, the chief, swears to get even with him. Tim, a little street waif, entering the saloon where the gang are consulting with Maime, a female accomplice, overhears some of their threats. He is discovered and kicked out of the place by Hanks. The next day, Tim, half starving, picks up a purse in the street which he has seen a lady drop. He is tempted to steal it, but in the end gives it back to her. Burling sees this, is struck with the boy's honesty, and being in need of a page boy, hires him and dubs him "Buttons."' Maime visits Burling and leaves him an address to come to investigate a robbery which has occurred at her home. Tim recognizes her as she goes out, follows her and has his suspicions confirmed by seeing her with one of the gang on the street. He goes to warn his master, but Burling has already gone.
John is commanded to return home immediately after office hours to help his wife beat the rugs, but it is Saturday and his friend Smith won't take his refusal to go to the country club for a game of golf. John tries to make excuses, but Smith is reinforced with several friends, who pile John into their car and rush him off to the links. John is a novice at the game and loses more than his golf balls on the course, but the few times he hits the elusive pellet fill him so with pride that he soon forgets all about Wifey in the whirl of the play. He is sorely grieved, however, when he gets a black eye from a flying ball.
To start a little in advance of our story, Lord Rintoul, of the English nobility, finds a little Gypsy girl three years old, who had been deserted by her parents. Fifteen years later, Gavin Dishart, the Little Minister, receives an appointment, his first, at Thrums, Scotland. This was made possible through the self-sacrifices of his widowed mother, to educate him for the ministry. The community of Thrums is made up of weavers, who work hard, have little and accomplish much. They are ultra-religious and look upon their pastor with such reverence that he is a little lower than the angels. While naturally intelligent, they are grounded in dogma and intolerance. Just after the Little Minister takes charge of the "Auld Licht Kirk" and the Manse, the weavers resent a reduction, by the manufacturers, in their pay and a strike is declared.
A romance between Mr. Wall and the girl from the laundry, who encounter each other for the first time on a train station platform.
Just as the bead clerk and his assistants are closing up the jewelry store for the day, a package containing a very costly necklace arrives by special messenger. The large safe deposit vault has been closed for the night and the time clock set. The head clerk is fearful to leave the necklace in the store and so decides to take it home. His actions have been closely watched by one of the junior clerks, with sinister and stealthy glances.
Tired of being sought only for his money, a rich man goes on a fishing trip.
That the way to a man's heart is by means of his appetite, is strikingly shown. Mother-in-law comes to visit the newly wedded couple and finds the young man somewhat discontented. It is no wonder, for his wife is so engrossed in her "art," although only an amateur, that she forgets all about cooking dinner and such like trivialities.
Farce in which two neighbouring couples test each other's jealousy. The women decide to make the men jealous and vice versa. The men buy horse hair to make the women believe it is hair of another woman; the women pretend to have received love letters. Final match result: women seem more jealous than men.
