Ramona, residing on her wealthy Spanish adoptive mother's rancho in California, falls in love with the Indian Alessandro. When Ramona is denied permission to marry Alessandro, the lovers elope, only to find a life of great hardship and unhappiness amidst the greed and injustice of the white landowners.
John Gage loves Ruth West, but she marries his friend, Charles Grey. The young couple are apparently happy; a child is born to them. Suddenly Ruth discovers that her husband has been systematically robbing his employer. Threatened with imprisonment unless he refunds the money he has stolen, Grey is at his wits' end.
During the reign of Oliver Cromwell, Catholic worship is forbidden on pain of death. Three soldiers are arrested as Catholics and condemned to die. Cromwell decides to spare two of them and to determine which should die by chance. The guards bring the first child they meet. Whichever soldier she gives the 'death disc' to shall die. Cromwell is charmed by the girl and gives her his signet ring. By chance the child is the daughter of one of the soldiers and gives the death disc to her father, because she thinks it's pretty. The child is returned home to her mother, who learns of her husband's pending execution and of the power of the ring. She rushes to the place of execution and saves her husband by producing the ring.
Calumny is one of the most despicable crimes against our neighbor, and while the wife in this story acted conventionally, she nevertheless maligned the other woman simply because of her profession, an actress. While out on a shopping tour, the wife and her husband enter a store, leaving their little child in the auto in the care of the chauffeur. This gentleman pays but scant attention to the child, so the little one wanders off and strolls into the stage door of a theater during the matinee. The parents upon their return to the auto discover the child's absence and trace him to the theater stage, where they find him in the arms of one of the show girls. The mother matches the child from the girl's arms, scornfully exclaiming, "How dare you contaminate my child with your touch?" For this remark, together with the derisive laughter it occasions, the girl vows to be avenged.
"He was a regular boy and his father a switchman. The boy determined to be like his dad and spent his play hours around the switch-tower. Thus at the crucial moment he was able to save his father's honor as a switchman, when the struggle between love and duty came and later to come to the aid of his parents in the hands of the desperate counterfeiters, eventually causing their capture." —Moving Picture World synopsis.
The children of a household attempt to capture Santa, but they catch something else entirely.
It was on the night of the Italian ball when Maria, to tease her sweetheart, Tony, indulged in a mild flirtation with Joe, his enemy. At first Tony's jealousy was aroused, but reasoning that it was no time nor place for anything but enjoyment, he smothered the feeling. However, Maria carried the flirtation too far and a tragedy was imminent. This tragedy, though, was averted through a small boy's daring, the girl fully realizing what might have been the result of her thoughtlessness.
His mind perverted by the many lies forced upon him, Lang becomes an outcast from the Labor Union. In order to reinstate himself he conceives a plot to do away with the owner of the iron works, an infernal machine stuffed in a turkey's breast. The story tells how the turkey found its way to a table where there was more love than plenty.
The judge's young daughter championed the cause of Ching Fow against "The Bull." Kindness begot kindness again in a manner unlooked for and unusual. Ching Fow proved himself an unconscious humorist, but his very practical joke saved a life, making as well an exceptionally thrilling story.
A feud began with a political argument. Then the justice declared if granddad did not pay up he would attach his household goods. Granddad was that mad all he left of the furniture was kindling. When he learned his act had made him liable to the law he fled with his family, but came back after a lost baby, now in the hands of the enemy.
After Gasper La Sage and his cohort, Blink Blunk, are released from prison, they make plans for another robbery. The scheme, which requires La Sage to pose as a gentleman, fails. Blunk is arrested, but La Sage goes free. Some time later, La Sage goes to England where he blackmails Lt. Hugh Butterworth, an officer who misappropriated money intended for the widow of a fellow officer, and who owes La Sage money for gambling debts. As payment, La Sage wants Hugh to arrange for him to marry Eleanor, Hugh's sister. Hugh tells his friend Lord Chumley about La Sage, however, and Chumley is able to learn about La Sage's past when he overhears Blunk, now out of jail, threaten his former friend. After La Sage intensifies his suit for Eleanor, Chumley is finally able to discredit him by tearing open his shirt and revealing the mark of the prison. With La Sage out of the way, Chumley and Eleanor announce their engagement as do Hugh and his faithful sweetheart, Jessie.
A careless nurse girl allowing the child to wander away, made the mother realize the poignancy of the little verse: "If we knew the baby's fingers / Pressed against the window pane / Would be cold and stiff tomorrow, / Never trouble us again, / Would the bright eyes of our darling / catch the frown upon our brow, / Would the prints of rosy fingers, / Vex us then as they do now?" But a higher destiny watched the child and saw it safely home.
An old colonel is proud as a peacock: his son leads a group of volunteers in the American Civil War. Untill one day his son returns home as a deserter.
After the Civil War, an ex-soldier and his family settle in the Dakota Territory. The son quarrels with the father and leaves home. Riding in the hills, he spots a band of Indians attacking a neighboring homestead, and he races back to warn his family as the Indians chase him.
A thin gent in formal wear, amid a club or party, reads a book about primitive man after he's ignored by a pretty lady. We see the book enacted: Weakhands loses his girlfriend to Bruteforce, but chances upon a design for a weapon to vanquish his rival and win her back. His tribe sees this and sets him up as their leader. With the club, he fends off various creatures (a winged lizard, a snake, a dinosaur) and a rival tribe led by Monkeywalk. The women even manage to repel an attack. But the rival tribe discovers the secret of the club themselves, and capture the women. Weakhands, sitting in despair, chances upon a new weapon: the bow and arrow.
The brother at cards failed to make up the shortage at the express office, but the gambler determined to save him. His intention, however, was misconstrued until the sheriff's investigation brought the truth. The gambler then awoke to the justice of the girl's plea against his previous life and the tragedy of a dead brother's weakness was lightened.
A Mack Sennett comedy short starring Dell Henderson & Mabel Normand.
Hard as nails and as strong winded as a gale in March, Red Hicks may have been a bit "chesty," but he was in perfect trim. The town depended on the champion, O'Shea, the fighting Irishman, to make soft putty of the world famous pugilist, but on the day of the fight there was no O'Shea. The supposition was he did not have the price: and other domestic difficulties interfered. O'Shea's trainer, however, solved the problem and Bed Hicks found his Waterloo.
Happy in her devotion to her unfortunate sister and the promise of honest love that had come into her life, the girl was perhaps blind to true values. She became indifferent to her life and its surroundings. Accordingly she accepted the stranger and his doubtful promises. Honest love and duty were forgotten, until, caught near life's uncertain edge, she was called back by her blind sister's peril. Thus was true love separated from blind infatuation and life's lesson learned.
After his daughter's return the jeweler attempted to break the partnership he had with the crook. His partner, however, won the girl's love, and threatened to expose the father if he attempted to break off the match. By a clever ruse the father set the gangsters against their leader. His plan did not prove altogether successful.
