Broncho Billy, an express rider, is married to Stasia Wynn, daughter of Grant Wynn. John Mackey, a gambler, comes to town and Wynn loses all his money to him. Broncho Billy buys his wife a scarf pin, which her father steals and loses to the gambler. Mackey is caught cheating and is driven from town.
Having declared himself in on a jolly college dinner, Mr. Dubley, member of the class of '88, counted on having a Hot Old Time. Now at a College Dinner the main idea is to get a flying start. It was to be a Dry dinner, so most of the sons of Bohunkus were doing what a Camel does just before crossing a Desert. At 8:15 the Crowd was herded into the banquet hall. Dr. Dubley found himself marooned between two pious elders. The Oysters had been warming up since 6:30. Fortunately, the soup was not warm enough to scald the thumb of a willing longshoreman who had been brought in as an extra waiter.
The Little Fellow finds the girl of his dreams and work on a family farm. He helps defend the farm against criminals, and all seems well, until he discovers the girl of his dreams already has someone in her life. Unwilling to be a problem in their lives, he takes to the road, though he is seen skipping and swinging his cane as if happy to be back on the road where he knows he belongs.
A gypsy seductress is sent to sway a goofy officer to allow a smuggling run.
Charlie and his boss have difficulties just getting to the house they are going to wallpaper. The householder is angry because he can't get breakfast and his wife is screaming at the maid as they arrive. The kitchen gas stove explodes, and Charlie offers to fix it. The wife's secret lover arrives and is passed off as the workers' supervisor, but the husband doesn't buy this and fires shots. The stove explodes violently, destroying the house.
Mr. Josh Banks a ranchman, receives word that his niece, a pretty Chicago girl of eighteen, is on her way to make them a visit. The news immediately electrifies things down in the cowpunchers' bunkhouse, and all the boys begin sprucing up to he presented to the fair one. She arrives, casts a withering glance at the big rawboned fellows waiting to meet her and sweeps off on her uncle's arm into the house, while the latter looks hack and winks his eye at the boys.
Charlie is released from prison and immediately swindled by a fake parson. A fellow ex-convict convinces Charlie to help burglarize a house.
While on the round-up, Broncho's rival one night steals his sweetheart's picture from his watch. He then returns to the girl with a note saying that Broncho has fallen in love with another girl and is returning her photograph. He signs Broncho's name. Believing Broncho's love dead, she marries the forger some time later.
When a couple of scammers hold young Alice Faulkner against her will to discover the whereabouts of letters whose dissemination could cause a scandal affecting the royal family, Sherlock Holmes decides to take over the case. (Considered lost, a copy was found in 2014, in the vaults of the Cinémathèque Française.)
William Skinner is very pleased with the news his wife Honey is expecting their first child. He eagerly prepares for the new arrival, as he is sure it will be the next William Skinner Jr. When the bundle of joy finally arrives, much to his surprise, it's a girl. However, Honey and William are just as happy as if she were a he.
It is windy at a bathing resort. After fighting with one of the two husbands, Charlie approaches Edna while the two husbands themselves fight over ice cream. Driven away by her husband, Charlie turns to the other's wife.
A shipowner intends to scuttle his ship on its last voyage to get the insurance money. Charlie, a tramp in love with the owner's daughter, is grabbed by the captain and promises to help him shanghai some seamen. The daughter stows away to follow Charlie. Charlie assists in the galley and attempts to serve food during a gale.
Broncho Billy, through a notice posted on a tree, learns he can go free if he will give himself up. He keeps the notice, and, as he rides away, comes upon a little girl, who wandered from her mother, when an accident happened to the stage coach in which the two were riding. The mother, frantic, starts in search of her child, and meanwhile the coach drives on.
Mr. Pest tries several theatre seats before winding up in front in a fight with the conductor. He is thrown out. In the lobby he pushes a fat lady into a fountain and returns to sit down by Edna. Mr. Rowdy, in the gallery, pours beer down on Mr. Pest and Edna. He attacks patrons, a harem dancer, the singers Dot and Dash, and a fire-eater.
Dan Warrington, an outlaw, is captured by the sheriff, after the former had held up a stagecoach, and is sent to jail. After the sheriff has placed his captive under guard he goes home and is welcomed by his little daughter, a child of five. Not long after the sheriff is notified of the escape of Warrington
Convict No. 999, lonely in his prison cell, is handed a letter one morning from his mother. The letter states that the enfeebled old lady is ill and without food or money. The convict's heart saddens as he recalls his life of crime and that he is responsible for the poor old mother's want. He prays for the opportunity to redeem himself.
A young woman is used as a pawn to entice Count Jean de Lugnan into a game of ruritanian political intrigue.
Mother, father and daughter go to the park. The women doze off on a bench while the father plays a hide-and-seek game with a girl, blindfolded. Charlie leads him into a lake. Both dozing ladies on the bench fall for Charlie and invite him for dinner. The father returns home with a friend. Charlie rushes upstairs and dresses like a woman, shaving his mustache. Both men fall for Charlie.
A tramp steals a girl's handbag, but when he tries to pick Charlie's pocket loses his cigarettes and matches. He rescues a hot dog man from a thug, but takes a few with his walking stick. When the thief tries to take some of Charlie's sausages, Charlie gets the handbag. The handbag makes its way from person to person to its owner, who is angry with her boyfriend who didn't protect her in the first place. The boyfriend decides to throw himself in the lake in despair, so Charlie helps him out.
Vera, a woman of questionable character places a wager that she will be able to destroy a happy marriage and inveigle the husband into becoming her lover. She succeeds to the extent of a midnight tryst in the family's home, witnessed by the couple's 12-year-old daughter. Her resolve weakened by the child's piteous pleas, Vera deliberately loses the wager, freeing the sadder-but-wider husband to return to his forgiving wife.
