Public Domain Movies
Running Time: 10 mins Black & White
Starring: Blanche Sweet, Harry Hyde, Edward Dillon
In a little village there lived two families who were almost lifetime neighbors and friends. In the one family there was a boy, in the other, a girl. These two had been sweethearts from childhood and each found happiness in the other's company. All was sunshine for Dave, the boy, until the day of the church lawn party, when the nephew of the minister arrived from college. His easy manners and good clothes make an impression on the unsophisticated girl, and it is with slight persuasion she consents to elope with him that evening. The result is the inevitable, for the man proves to be a scapegrace. Meanwhile, the girl, through pride, pretends in her letters home to be doing well. Dave, however, has his misgivings and decides to pay them a visit. The result of this visit is a startling revelation. Later the girl is made to realize faithful Dave's true worth.
Running Time: 13 mins Black & White
Starring: Arthur V. Johnson, Linda Arvidson, Adele DeGarde
The story told is a simple one, and grips from the very start. John Wharton, the husband of a true and trusting wife and father of an eight-year-old girl, through the association of rakish companions becomes addicted to the drink habit, and while the demon rum has not fastened its tentacles firmly, yet there is no question that given free rein the inevitable would culminate in time. Arriving home one afternoon in a wine besotted condition, he is indeed a terrifying spectacle to his little family. Later, after he has slept off the effects to some extent, while at supper, the little girl shows him two tickets for the theater, begging him to take her. After some persuasion he consents to go. The play is a dramatization of Emile Zola's "L'Assommoir," which shows how short a journey it is from peace and happiness to woe and despair by the road of rum. Here the picture shows both the action and the play and the psychological influence it has on the audience, Wharton especially. Here is shown a most clever piece of motion picture producing, portraying the downward path of the young man who was induced to take his first drink: how it finally became an unconquerable habit, causing poverty and suffering for his wife and child and death for himself, while.at the same time presenting a sermon to Wharton in front, sinking deeper and deeper into his heart, until at the final curtain he is a changed man, going homeward with a firm determination that he will drink no more, which he promises his wife upon his return. Two years later we find the little family seated, happy and peaceful, at their fireside and we know that the promise has been kept.
Running Time: 11 mins Black & White
Starring: Charles Avery, Kate Bruce, John R. Cumpson
Mary is coerced into helping with a burglary of a minister's apartment. Later she repents and goes to the minister's storefront mission to help.
Running Time: 16 mins Black & White
Starring: Henry B. Walthall, Marion Leonard, Gladys Egan
Arthur Rogers had been in the worst of luck for some time. Honest and industrious by nature, he was in the depths of despair at the sight of the misery his little family of a wife and two small children were subjected to. They were, in fact, on the verge of starvation. With crushed spirit, he seeks solace in drink, and in a drunken condition feels his wife would be better off without him, so he leaves. Immediately after his departure a lawyer calls to apprise Mrs. Rogers that her aunt's estate, long in litigation, has been settled, leaving her a moderate fortune. This indeed is pleasant news, but if it had only come before her husband's rash act. However, they remove to new quarters, and the children, at least, are happy. It is the night before Christmas, and they are ready for bed. They want to wait for Santa Claus, but mamma tells them if they don't go to sleep he will not come, for as there is no chimney he must come through the window. They tumble into bed and mamma goes to prepare to play Santa, how different would be the day if Arthur were home. Meanwhile, the children plan to catch Santa, and creeping from bed they place a tub in front of the window and tie a string to the window sash with the other end fastened to one of their feet, so that when the window is raised the string will awaken them and they will catch him for he will have fallen into the tub. The scheme works fine. The window is raised and a form is seen to enter the window, but the crash brings the mother, who sees there Arthur whom grim misfortune has forced to desperate deeds, and he has broken into the house not knowing its occupants. The wife realizes at once his sad plight, and with a hurried explanation, smuggles him into the side room, where he dons the Santa Claus suit she intended to wear, so when the children appear he pretends to be caught by their trap, and they are simply wild with delight.
Running Time: 17 mins Black & White
Starring: Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, Elmer Booth
Two girls and their brother live at the little homestead left them by their late father. The brother, having disposed of a portion of the small estate, comes home with the money to show it to his sisters, telling them that they may now enjoy a few of the luxuries of life. As it would be after banking hours before he could get to the village, he places the money in the safe and returns to his office, some distance away. He has hardly departed when the maid, a slattern individual, who has seen him put the money in the safe, attempts to get it. Failing to work the combination, she calls up an erstwhile friend requesting him to come and help her. While these two work, the sisters are locked in the sitting-room, terrorized in a most unique way. The brother, however, arrives after a series of tantalizing delays and apprehends the criminals just as their scheme seems to have succeeded.
Running Time: 16 mins Black & White
Starring: George Nichols, Gladys Egan, Mary Pickford
George Forrester has suffered the loss of his beloved wife, the mother of his little ten-year-old child. The child is forced to become his little housekeeper, while Forrester secures work at the pigeon farm. While thus employed, he meets a former sweetheart and renews his attentions, feeling that she might prove a second mother to his child; but no, on serious consideration he realizes that he could not meet the wants of a second wife, as he finds that her tastes are extravagant, and do his duty to his child, hence he determines to sacrifice his own happiness for the sake of his child, sending her off to school that she may rise above her present environment, while he toils to make ends meet. Several years later we find the girl returning from school, having grown to young womanhood. She is surprised and grieved to see such a change in her father. As she views his almost decrepit form, she exclaims: "Worn hands, gray hairs, and all for me. Father, I shall never leave you." Ah, but what a rash resolution. Little do we know what fate is designing. She, of course, meets "the" young man. They love each other honestly and devotedly, but the father is unreasonably jealous, and tries to keep them apart, but this is impossible, so in a fit of rage he bids the girl to choose between him and her lover. She chooses the lover, feeling that her dear father would relent. He does not, however, and refuses to either sanction her marriage or visit the couple afterwards, living his life alone in his little cottage. About two years later, the young wife is so wrapped up in her baby that she considers it a slight on the part of anyone who passes it by without enthusiastic notice. Or course, they all tell her her baby is very cute and pretty, but they rebel at being obliged to think of nothing else. She feels that nobody appreciates her baby, so she decides to brave her fears and pay a visit to her father, hoping that the baby may soften his iron will. Cautiously entering the garden, she finds her father the picture of despair, seated on a bench in the arbor. Approaching him noiselessly, she places her baby on its grandpop's knees. It was as the young wife hoped, and we leave the scene with the child and the grandchild folded in the old man's arms.
Running Time: 11 mins Black & White
Starring: Marion Leonard, David Miles, Charles Inslee
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. All this, of course, filled Grigo with bitter hatred and he vows vengeance, which you may be sure he will work with extreme subtlety. All preparations are made for the wedding, and when the day arrives Grigo is ready for it. He has contrived an infernal machine with a pistol so arranged that its explosion means death to anyone standing in front of it. The little church is decorated in honor of the affair and Grigo, with subterfuge, gets the sexton out, leaving the place to himself. Sawing a hole in front of the altar step, he places his weapon in such a position that one step forward by the priest would mean death to the bride kneeling in front. Grigo rushes hack to his room, arriving just as the wedding party is leaving for the church. Here he becomes a victim of the frenzy of his mind, and appreciating the fact that the awful deed will he laid to him and his apprehension will be inevitable, he writes a gloating note and then takes poison. His fall is heard by the housemaid, who, discovering the note, gives it to a policeman, who rushes madly to the church. Fate, however, seems to conspire, and the officer falls, breaking his ankle, just outside the church. A newsboy, seeing his plight, runs up, and the policeman directs him hurriedly to the church, where he arrives just in time to save the couple, who start back at his yell, for the priest had just made the step which fires the gun, but with no harm done. The priest gives thanks to God for their deliverance and proceeds with the wedding.
Running Time: 9 mins Black & White
Starring: Florence Lawrence, Harry Solter, Linda Arvidson
Mrs. Wharton, a dashing widow, gives a party at her beautiful villa in honor of the presentation to her of a handsome diamond necklace by her fiancé. During the evening bridge participated in by a number of the guests, among whom is Myrtle Vane. Miss Vane is playing in wretched luck, and is advised several times by Mrs. Wharton to desist, but she still plays on in the vain hopes of the tide of fortune turning, until at last, in the extreme of desperation, she stakes her all and loses. Shame and disgrace stare her in the face. What can she do to recoup her depleted fortune? As one of the guests there is Professor Francois Paracelsus, the eminent palmister, who of course, was called upon to read the palms of those present. Sheets of paper were prepared and each imprinted their hand on a sheet to be read by the erudite soothsayer at his leisure, and so were left on the drawing room table. All have now retired to the apartments assigned them by Mrs. Wharton, but there seems to be a sleepless night before Myrtle, and she suffers mental agony, until the thought of the necklace flashes before her mind's eye. 0, if she only possessed those treasures all would be well. The more she thought of it the more unconquerable became her covetousness, until the inimitable determination to secure them seized her, but how? To enter her room by the door would not only arouse the hostess, but maybe the guests as well. There was but one way, by the window, and this undertaking was decidedly hazardous, for it meant that she must crawl along the narrow ledge between her window and that of Mrs. Wharton, a distance of twenty feet, and one slight misstep would result in her being dashed to death on the walk below. But when a woman will, so she makes the trip without mishap, entering the room she searches noiselessly for the top of the dresser, finds it, secures the necklace, and makes her way back to her apartment. Now to hide the jewels. An ingenious idea strikes her. She cuts in two a bar of soap, and hollowing it out, places the treasure inside and joins the parts together. Meanwhile Mrs. Wharton, aroused from her slumber, intuitively looks to her diamonds, but finds them gone. "What's this? A clue!" On the dresser there is a sheet of the palmister's paper on which there is a handprint of dust. Down to the drawing room for the corresponding imprint. There it is, and signed "Myrtle Vane." To Miss Vane's room goes the furious Mrs. Wharton, and during the scene that transpires the soap is brushed from the table and breaks open, exposing the necklace, at the same time convicting the poor girl. Upon the recovery of her jewels, Mrs. Wharton's anger subsides and she is inclined to be charitable towards the unfortunate girl kneeling at her feet, so she not only forgives her, but insists upon aiding her financially.
Running Time: 32 mins Black & White
Starring: Robert Harron, Mae Marsh, William J. Butler
A primitive tribe are attacked by apemen and menaced by various prehistoric monsters.
Running Time: 17 mins Black & White
Starring: Blanche Sweet, Henry B. Walthall, Walter Miller
The self-centered man, ever confident of his success, wins in love over the more sensitive friend. Assurance and success come naturally. Overwhelmed by the game of chance, it is significant that he takes his defeat with less philosophy than most men. To him it is utter failure, the end of all. His incompatible nature causes him to carry his rash act to the climax, nor can others prevent.
Running Time: 17 mins Black & White
Starring: Mary Pickford, Henry B. Walthall, Lionel Barrymore
The orphan Dora is courted by two different gold miners.
Running Time: 6 mins Black & White
Starring: Billy Quirk, Mary Pickford, James Kirkwood
The most satisfying and pleasurable sensation experienced is "getting even," especially where one has been held up to ridicule before a jeering mob. Such was the reguerdon of Bud, the Kid of the Mining Camp, after suffering gross humiliation at the hands of the other cowboys and miners. Miss Lucy, the belle of the camp, is introduced to the Kid, and makes an impression; the Kid becomes quite seriously inclined towards her. The boys, more in the spirit of jest than chagrin, poke fun at him; call him the baby, and end with Jim Blake spanking him. Needless to say the Kid is mortified and swears to get square. A masque ball is to be held that night, so Bud plans his revenge. All tog out in grotesque costumes, a high old time is imminent, for it is fair to assume that the society folk of the camp will be well represented. Bud, however, feigns a toothache and will not go. Dressed up in carnival duds, the gang leaves the shack for the pavilion. All gone. Bud jumps from his bunk, and dresses up in swell female attire, the effect being marvelous. He presents such a striking appearance that he is the belle of the ball. Jim Blake becomes deeply smitten, and after leading him on Bud soon has Jim on his knees, pouring out his soul's devotion, regardless of the snickerings of the motley mob around them. There Jim kneels, declaring his undying love for the fair charmer, as only a lion-hearted cowboy can, when Bud removes his hat and wig. "Holy "Smoke!" Well it is safe to say that Mr. James Blake will not attend any more spanking bees where the Kid is a victim.
Running Time: 6 mins Black & White
Starring: D.W. Griffith, Robert Harron
A father arrives home, greets his wife and daughter, and then goes inside with his wife. Though they are only inside for a brief time, their daughter wanders off, attracted by the music from a pair of gypsies performing in the street. When the gypsies move on, they take the young girl with her. As soon as the parents realize that their daughter is gone, they begin a frantic search, assisted by the family's loyal dog.
Running Time: 10 mins Black & White
Starring: George Nichols, Owen Moore, Florence Barker
A young secretary is locked in an airtight vault by a robber. Only her boss knows the combination, and he is off on a journey. Can the boss's son locate his absent-minded father before it is too late for the girl?
Running Time: 17 mins Black & White
Starring: Charles West, Charles Arling, Owen Moore
The young father starts with his company of Union soldiers for the front, bidding his wife and two children a tearful adieu. A few days later a foraging party of Confederates are surprised and scattered by the Union forces. One of their number is driven in the direction of the home of the young father. Reaching the well, he finds the child of the Union soldier in the act of drawing a bucket of water. The Confederate begs her to shield him, and despite her prejudice she hides him in the well, stands guard and throws his pursuers off the trail when they arrive. The Confederate is truly grateful and would kiss the child, but this she will not allow, pointing to his uniform. She feels she has done her humane duty, and so orders him to go, and thus he is enabled to rejoin his comrades. At the Union headquarters the young father is given sealed orders and dispatched upon a perilous errand which necessitates his passing through the Confederate lines. He makes his way through the lines by disabling the sentinel, but he has not gotten far before the Confederates start after him. Making his way to a thick wood as the dusk comes on, he manages to elude them in the darkness of the night, although these man hunters scour the woods armed with torches. The next morning he manages to reach his own home, and falls exhausted on a couch from fatigue and the wound he received during the pursuit. There are only the two children, one of whom rushes of to the Union quarters for aid, leaving the youngest with the father. The little one has hardly barred the door when the pursuing Confederates arrive. The father, realizing the hopelessness of his position, tells the little one to bring a lighted candle with which he burns the papers entrusted to him. The Confederate whom we first was at the well, is in command of the party, and forces his way alone into the room where the wounded father lies. Discovering the papers which he coveted destroyed, he is furious and is on the point of finishing the helpless soldier, when the child halts his action. He then finds himself face to face with his little savior of a few days before, and when the other Confederates enter he pretends the father is dead and the papers destroyed, so they leave. Later the Union forces arrive with an army surgeon. Our little miss has proven herself the heroine of the day.
Running Time: 11 mins Black & White
Starring: Charles Inslee, George Gebhardt, Arthur V. Johnson
The central figure is an old miser, who in parsimonionsness is a Harpahon. And, like Fosene, boarded his money in a secret cellar, where he met his death. We first find him begging on the. street, a young girl passes and drops her purse, which the miser picks up. When she returns to regain it he knocks her insensible and makes off. Finding a generous roll of notes in the purse, he goes to the bank to have them exchanged for gold coin. A couple of thugs witness the transaction and are at once infected by the money fever. They follow the miser to his home, the cellar, and while he sleeps they break in and are securing the money when he awakes. They pounce upon him and he is made to pay the penalty of his greed with his life. The thugs go to their own squalid hovel, which is presided over by an old hag. She is sent from the room and they divide the spoils. While the division is equal, each is invidious of the other's share. They retire, both possessed of the same thought, one waiting for the other to fall asleep. One lies with a pistol in hand; the other with a dagger. At length one gets up to stab the other, but receives a bullet in his breast. With a mighty effort he plunges the dagger into the heart of his adversary and both fall over dead. The shot brings in the old hag, who, finding them both dead, seizes their loot and in a frenzy pours it out upon the table. In doing so she knocks the lighted candle to the floor, which ignites the litter of straw and rubbish and the place is soon in flames, incinerating the three. A holocaust upon the altar of Mammon.
Running Time: 15 mins Black & White
Starring: Charles West, Dorothy Bernard, Edwin August
Two young couples, upon their wedding, vow to follow the straight path. One is in ordinary circumstances, the other a little better off. Later on the poor young man is thrown out of work and he and his wife are in sore straits, but the other being a power in politics, is in a decidedly improved condition. We see him offered a bribe of $1,000 to vote for the passage of a franchise in favor of the Street Railway, with a promise of more if it passes. This he hides from his wife for although he considers it a business transaction, he is loath to let her know, for fear she will not understand. She makes the discovery, however when the poor man, driven to despair by poverty tries to steal this money. Her eyes are opened when she reads the letter accompanying the money and instead of allowing her husband to call the police, she makes him let the man go free and see his act as she sees it. The politician now realizes the straight path is the right path.
Running Time: 11 mins Black & White
Starring: Gertrude Robinson, George Nichols, Arthur V. Johnson
Pippa awakes and faces the world outside with a song. Unknown to her, the music has a healing effect on all who hear her as she passes by.
Running Time: 6 mins Black & White
Starring: Mack Sennett, Kathlyn Williams, Lee Dougherty
Boss Tim Crogan starts out to perforate the person of one cartoonist "Peters." who had grossly insulted him by drawing and publishing what he considered scurrilous cartoons of him during the campaign. These caricatures have been growing more and more odious to him until his suppressed rage bursts forth and he seizes a pistol and makes his way to the newspaper office to transform the aforesaid cartoonist into a human sieve, with the gentle hut decisive percolation of bullets, but, as Hamlet says, "enterprises of great pith and moment their currents turn awry, and lose the name of action." So it was with Crogan, who rushes, gun in hand, into the editorial sanctum of the "Daily Bugle." throwing the editor and reporters into a tumultuous panic, in his search for the offending "Peters." Reaching the art department, he espies a screen with a placard reading "Peters' Corner." With an invective he hurls the screen aside, and, well, there was simply nothing to it, for there sat "Peters" herself, calmly working on another "Crogan" for the morning edition. The lion is now the lamb and Crogan is stung by the love microbe. He is, of course, repulsed and leaves the place with a bleeding cardiacal organ. Lovelorn, he goes into the park, and, seated on a bench, the frigid atmosphere and ice-covered landscape having not the slightest effect on his burning passion, he is greatly annoyed by the persistent presence of the loving couples, it being Lovers' Promenade, until finally Miss Peters passes. He approaches her, but is gently, but firmly, repulsed. Following at a distance, fate favors him, for the lady is accosted by an insulting masher, and Crogan comes to her rescue and knocks the vile wretch down. That settles it. What woman can resist the charms of a hero? And we next see The Hon. Timothy Crogan and Mrs. Crogan née Peters enjoying a moonlight stroll along Lovers' Promenade.
Running Time: 12 mins Black & White
Starring: Arthur V. Johnson, Florence Lawrence, Marion Leonard
Free adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's powerful novel. The subject opens with the return home of Prince Dimitri, who meets the maid Katusha, a little peasant girl, and is instantly charmed with her beauty. Young, artless and innocent, as pretty as a rose, she unwittingly fascinates the prince. His noble bearing likewise impresses her, and his little attentions flatter her, until at length she is unable to resist his advances. The poor girl is meted the usual fate. An alliance is out of the question. The disparity of their ranks even forbids it, and soon the prince must cast her aside. Five years later we find that the girl, who is now a loathsome sight, has learned the bitter lesson of the eternal truth, "The wages of sin is death." It is death to the soul at all events. She has gone down to the lowest depths and is arrested in a low Russian tavern. As she is carried to the tribunal she passes Prince Dimitri, who now sees the terrible result of his sins. He grows repentant and attempts to plead her cause before the jury, but they are a callous lot and pay no attention to the arguments for nor against, and by force of habit vote to send her to Siberia. She is dragged out to the pen of detention and herded with a lot of poor unfortunates, who scarcely bear any resemblance to human beings. The repentant prince determines to give up his life to right the wrong he has done, and visits her here with a view of turning her now vicious nature, handing her a copy of the Bible. She does not recognize him at first, but when she does she flies into fury, beating his body and face with her fists and the book. He leaves her and she sits moodily on the bench with the book on her lap. Shortly she turns its pages and lo, the Resurrection! Her eyes fall on the passage (John xi, 25), "And Jesus said unto her: I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead yet shall he live." In an instant her whole being changes. There is hope for her salvation, and she reads on. The guards arrive and we next see her with the poor unfortunates trudging over the snow-clad steppes toward the goal from whence few return. She becomes the ministering angel, sharing her comforts with them. The prince, meanwhile, has secured her pardon and hastens after her. Giving her the welcome notice, he begs her to return with him as his wife: but no, she prefers to work out her salvation helping those poor souls to whom a kindness is an indescribable blessing, and bidding him farewell, she renounces the world for the path of duty, so we leave her kneeling on the snow at the foot of the Holy Cross.
Running Time: 10 mins Black & White
Starring: Florence Lawrence, George Gebhardt, Gladys Egan
This early D.W. Griffith short shows the director's interest in Jewish ghetto life, portrayed here with sympathy and sentimentality. The melodramatic plot involves the conflict between generations in an immigrant Jewish family.
Running Time: 17 mins Black & White
Starring: Dorothy West, Clara T. Bracy, Henry B. Walthall
Reliable authority states that nine million human lives were sacrificed through the zeal of fanatical reformers during the Christian epoch. Religious fanaticism was in most cases the cause, still there were many victimized to satisfy a personal grudge, and this Biograph subject shows how easily such a crime can be perpetrated. Play upon the minds of a superstitions people and you may lead them blindly to any end. In 1692 the agitation was so great in Salem, Mass., that many people lost their self-possession, some even believing themselves to be witches. On the other hand, a number of the inhabitants moved away fear of being accused of being witches. There are many relics of those days still in existence at Salem, and while conditions are such as to prevent our using the actual spots, yet many of the scenes of the picture are closely contiguous to them, our company of players making the trip there for the purpose. The story tells of the old mother and her child living on the sea coast, care free. The mother ekes a living telling fortunes and nursing the sick among the village folk. The girl we might term a child of the sea, as she spends most of her time among the wave-lashed rocks of the coast, scampering from jut to jut more resembling a sprite than a human. Off in the hills we find a trapper at the camp of Mohawk Indians, on his way to the sea, of which he had heard but never seen. A Mohawk brave volunteers to guide him to the great waters of the Atlantic leaving him there overwhelmed with awe at the grandeur of the spectacle. Here he meets the p pretty maiden and an attachment develops which later ripens into love, a betrothal resulting. As the girl reaches her home she is accosted by a hypocritical Puritan deacon, whose insulting advances she indignantly repulses. He in revenge goes to the other churchmen and accuses the girl and her mother of being witches. Proof sufficient to convince these narrow-minded fanatics is easy to obtain, for the fact of the old lady's care and curing the sick is known to all, hence they purposely construe her kindness to be witchcraft. The poor souls are seized and thrown into prison and later condemned by a prejudiced jury to be burned at the stake. As they are carried to the jail they are met by the trapper sweetheart, who learning of her pending danger, rushes off to enlist the aid of his Mohawk friends to rescue her from this awful fate. The mother is first to be made a victim and while she is suffering the injustice inflicted upon her the deacon visits the girl's cell and shows her from the window her mother's fate, with the hope of weakening her determination. She still repulses him and so is led forth to be victimized as was her mother. Meanwhile, her sweetheart has gotten his Mohawk friends and is rushing to the rescue, arriving just as the torch is put to the brushwood piled up around the girl. With a mad dash the Indians rush upon the scene, knocking down and scattering the fanatics and carrying the girl off before the Puritans realize what has taken place. In fact, it was done so quickly that some of the more superstitious thought she went up in smoke.
Running Time: 17 mins Black & White
Starring: Walter Miller, Mary Pickford, Robert Harron
A very pretty girl, is always surrounded by many male admirers, much to the dismay of one very shy fellow, who never can get a chance to speak with her. One day the girl visits a friend in another town and by coincidence the shy fellow is staying at the same house. Next morning the girl's friend must leave her to run an errand. The girl hears a strange noise coming from one of the rooms. Not knowing the shy fellow is there, she locks the door of his room. Meanwhile, two burglars have broken in and seize the screaming girl. Hearing her scream and unable to break down the locked door, the young fellow climbs out of the window. He races into the room and scares the burglars, who make their escape. The girl, now being in such an hysterical state, does not recognize the shy fellow. She runs screaming from the house with the fellow after her. Finally his identity is revealed, and the very surprised grateful girl, shakes the hand of the now happy hero.
Running Time: 17 mins Black & White
Starring: Wilfred Lucas, Claire McDowell, Dorothy West
A poor girl is secretly in love with a wealthy young planter. During the Civil War she helps him escape capture by Union soldiers. After the war, with his fortune gone, she confesses that she loves him.
Running Time: 18 mins Black & White
Starring: Edna Foster, Donald Crisp, Joseph Graybill
Billy witnesses two tramps accidentally kill someone during a robbery. The tramps lock him up and decide that he must be killed, too.
Running Time: 10 mins Black & White
Starring: Edward Dillon, George Gebhardt, Mack Sennett
A thug accosts a girl as she leaves her workplace but a man rescues her. The thug vows revenge and, with the help of two friends, attacks the girl and her rescuer again as they're going for a walk. This time they succeed in kidnapping the rescuer. The girl runs home and gets help from several neighbors. They track the ruffians down to a cabin in the mountains where the gang has trapped their victim and set the cabin on fire.
Running Time: 11 mins Black & White
Starring: Frank Powell, Mary Pickford, Kate Bruce
George Peabody is a young man who has been giving free rein to his inclinations, the principal one being drink. One might have concluded he was lost, but there was the chance which the hand of Providence always bestows in the person of pretty little Ruth King, who had secretly loved George since their childhood days. She succeeds in persuading him from his reckless life, and he determines to cut off from his old loose companions by going out West and making a man of himself. Bidding Ruth and her mother good-bye, he realizes that he loves his little preserver and promises to return worthy of her love and confidence. They plight their troth with their first kiss and a heart shaped locket, which Ruth wears, she breaking it in two, giving George one side while she retains the other, which symbolized the reunion of their hearts with his return. George is fortunate to strike the West in the midst of a boom, and being an affable, bright chap, meets with success, and is soon a favorite with his employers. His life here up to this is without a blemish, but has he strength? We shall see, for as gold is tested by the fire, so a man is by temptation, and George's trial comes with the persuasion to take a drink. At first he holds out against it, but at last yields, and that drink was his undoing. Once more the craving for liquor is induced and his promise to his little sweetheart in the East is forgotten, he falls an easy victim of a Mexican girl, who pretends to love him, assuming him a rather good catch. Meanwhile, faithful little Ruth is counting the days as they drag on towards the time she imagines he will return. The Mexican girl, to secure him as her own, writes a letter to Ruth purporting to come from one of his male chums to the effect that he had been killed. The shock of this letter throws the poor girl into a delirium of fever, and for a time her life is despaired of. She recovers, however, but is hopelessly blind. What woe a man's weakness may work, but we find he is rewarded for his weakness, and some time later we see George a loathsome parasite, a dirty, ragged, drunken bum a pariah among his former associates. Back East he wanders, ignorant of the misery he has caused, and what a sight greets him. There is the ever faithful little girl, accompanied by her mother, standing at the gate, the beauties of the world forever shut out from her. How dark is everything to her, but then how much darker would this world have been, had she viewed the awful condition of George as he stood there. No, of this, at least, she is blissfully ignorant, and with a subterfuge. George slinks away; she imagining that he will soon return, but, alas, the locket is forever broken.
Running Time: 11 mins Black & White
Starring: Frank Powell, Florence Lawrence, Linda Arvidson
Princess Angela's father, the King, had been so indiscreet as to select for her a husband in the person of a Prince of the neighboring domain, which alliance the King ardently wished, as it meant relief in his present impecuniosity. Well, it was the old story, the arrangement was, of course, repugnant, inasmuch as she desires to make her own choice, hence she will not even deign to look at the Prince, and no amount of persuasion or threats will induce her to change her mien. The condition is most discouraging to the King, whose affairs would have been immeasurably improved by the match. The Cardinal, however, understanding the whims and foibles of womankind, hits upon a scheme to bring about a successful issue in spite of the Princess' stubbornness. He induces the Prince, with the aid of his barber, to change his facial appearance, although it was hardly necessary, as the Princess had not even glanced at his face. He is then disguised as a guard, and enlists the services of three cut-throats that he may play the hero in this wise: while the Princess is strolling in the gardens, the thugs seize her with the ostensible intention of carrying her off, but the disguised Prince rushes to her rescue, and pretends to slay them all, thereby making himself a gallant hero in her eyes. She is at once smitten with the brave guard, and allows him to escort her to the palace, where he is at once seized and thrown into prison for presuming to accompany her Royal Highness. And so it goes, the more they forbid her associating with her hero lover, the more she is determined, until at length she dons the garb of a maid to elope with her simple swain. This move is thwarted by the Cardinal, who is carefully watching the working out of his plot. The recalcitrant Princess with her lover is brought before the King, where she defiantly avows she will marry her hero, when the identity of the guard is announced. He is a Prince, yet she had her way. The subject is, as you perceive, along high class comedy lines, beautifully acted, with setting seldom, if ever, equaled.
Running Time: 9 mins Black & White
Starring: Charles Inslee, Marion Leonard, George Gebhardt
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. Not content with this he follows Galora and would have killed him were it not for the timely arrival of a policeman, who arrests him. Here he boasts of what he did at the home, and Galora makes a mad race to save his child, who is still dangling five stories from the ground; several times Mrs. Galora has approached the window to hang out clothes, etc., but was always called away by some fortuitous happening, until Galora bursts in followed by two policemen, who have given chase, thinking him crazy. They are now in a quandary as to how to rescue the child, for to raise the window meant certain death. At last Galora suggests they let down the top sash and he is held by the feet as head down he lifts the baby from its perilous position into the room. While the subject is intensely thrilling, it is totally devoid of gruesomeness.
Running Time: 10 mins Black & White
Starring: Owen Moore, Violet Mersereau, Linda Arvidson
After three years at sea, Edward returns home to find his sweetheart forced into an engagement with a much older man.
Running Time: 13 mins Black & White
Starring: Mack Sennett, Harry Solter, Florence Lawrence
An upper class drawing room. A gentleman breaks the curtain pole and goes in search of a replacement, but he stops into a pub first. He buys a very long pole, and causes havoc everywhere he passes, accumulating an ever-growing entourage chasing him, until he escapes them through a bit of movie magic, only to discover that the pole has already been replaced.
Running Time: 5 mins Black & White
Starring: Anita Hendrie, Adele DeGarde, Owen Moore
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 he
Running Time: 17 mins Black & White
Starring: Lionel Barrymore, Claire McDowell, Charles Hill Mailes
A noted judge is one of the most violent patients in the sanatorium until it is discovered that music has the power to quiet him. One day he escapes and going to the house of a former nurse, now the wife of a physician, he finds her alone. In his capacity as judge, he sentences her to die in five minutes. It is then by mere accident that the terror-stricken woman learns the power of music.
Running Time: 18 mins Black & White
Starring: Blanche Sweet, Charles West, Robert Harron
A wagon train heading west across the great desert runs out of water, and is attacked by Indians. One man -- their last hope -- is sent out to find water.
Running Time: 17 mins Black & White
Starring: Blanche Sweet, Edwin August, Mae Marsh
A young woman's peaceful existence is shattered when she is abducted by the crew of a boat of smugglers, who then also turn against their captain.
Running Time: 17 mins Black & White
Starring: Blanche Sweet, Francis J. Grandon, Wilfred Lucas
The station at Lonedale is in charge of an old operator and his daughter. The young engineer who makes the run between Lonedale and civilization is the sweetheart of the operator's daughter, and upon receiving his call on this particular day he escorts her to the station, where, finding her father suffering from a nervous headache, she takes his place at the key after bidding adieu to her engineer sweetheart as he mounts into the cabin of his engine and rolls away. As her father leaves he discovers that his revolver is out of order and takes it with him to fix it. The old operator has forgotten, however, that this is the first of the month, on which a large sum of money is expressed to the station from the city office of the Lonedale Mining Company for the payroll. The train pulls in and she receives the express bag of money. Two tramps who are riding the rods see this delivery and assuming that the girl is in charge, get off to take their chances of securing the money. The windows all being heavily barred they make for the back door, which the girl, hearing an unusual noise, hastens to lock. They find it an easy matter to break through this. After locking the doors she rushes to the telegraph key and sends a call for help to the next station, some miles up the road, where she knows the train will stop. The locomotive driven by the girl's sweetheart is dispatched. Meanwhile the tramps are slowly but surely making their way through the barriers to the room where the money is guarded by the girl. She keeps her wits and when the thieves finally break into the room they find it in darkness, as the girl has turned out the light and by the gleam of the moonlight that penetrates the window they see the girl's outstretched arm and hand holding a streak of dangerous-looking steel directed full in their faces which forces them in the corner. On, on, rushes the engine until Lonedale is reached and a dash into the station is made by the engineer and fireman, who find the two would-be burglars held at bay by a weak woman armed with a nickel-plated monkey wrench which the tramps in the dark mistook for a pistol.
Running Time: 20 mins Black & White
Starring: Wilfred Lucas, Blanche Sweet, Charles West
The story of the massacre of an Indian village, and the ensuing retaliation.
Running Time: 18 mins Black & White
Starring: Linda Arvidson, Lionel Barrymore, William J. Butler
Thieves decide to steal the money an old miser has hidden away. He refuses to open the safe for them, so they threaten to kill a girl who lives in his building.
Running Time: 29 mins Black & White
Starring: Walter Miller, Lillian Gish, Kate Bruce
A young couple struggle to get ahead, the wife always assuaging the troubles of her melancholy husband. As he climbs the ladder of success, he abandons the homely values and takes up with another woman. His wife leaves him, returning to her mother's home where she bears a child. When the husband is abandoned by his concubine, remorse drives him to find his wife...
Running Time: 17 mins Black & White
Starring: Elmer Booth, Lillian Gish, Clara T. Bracy
A young wife and her musician husband live in poverty in a New York City tenement. The husband's job requires him to go away for for a number of days. On his return, he is robbed by the neighborhood gangster. Sometime later, an unrelated mob shoot-out ensues. The husband happens upon the melee, recognizing the crook who robbed him. Can the husband retrieve his money?
Running Time: 16 mins Black & White
Starring: Mary Pickford, Charles Hill Mailes, Kate Bruce
The young village minister was not quite as discreet as he might have been in fulfilling the strange trust left by the dying mother, but it certainly worked for the common good. By the bequest the mother desired that her daughter possess some of the finery previously denied her. As a result the minister and Mary were linked in a scandal, with the church board in judgment. Gossip received the laugh, however, as it generally does, while the minister assumed a trust quite unexpected.
Running Time: 12 mins Black & White
Starring: Blanche Sweet, Madge Kirby, Charles Hill Mailes
The elder daughter has always been her father's favorite because of her strict adherence to his rigid precepts. The younger daughter is rather gay and frivolous, though innocently so, and horrifies her elder sister when the latter catches her in the act of powdering and painting her face. To the mild reprimand of the elder daughter the younger exclaims, "Well, you have to do it if you want to be attractive." The strength of the assertion is proven at the church lawn festival, the younger sister being surrounded by a host of friends while the elder passes the time in almost absolute ostracism. However, a stranger appears at the festival who pretends to be attracted by the elder daughter, she, in turn, being surprised and flattered. This is for a sinister purpose, however, for the stranger is a crook. Under the pretense of affection for the girl he gains her confidence regarding her father's business affairs, and with the knowledge he has acquired, he attempts to rob the house. This attempt works disaster for himself and the girl.
Running Time: 17 mins Black & White
Starring: Wilfred Lucas, Claire McDowell, Grace Henderson
A young woman who is engaged to a millionaire she doesn't love meets and falls in love with a rough sailor.
Running Time: 14 mins Black & White
Starring: Kate Bruce, Charles Craig, Frank Evans
Tranquil is the existence of the Kiowa tribe which our story involves until the approach of the conquerors, the white men, who claim the land that had long been possessed by this tribe of Shoshone family. On this eventful day. Silver Eagle and Minnewanna plight their troth by the side of the mountain brook. They have hardly returned to the wigwam of the chief, Silver Eagle's father, when an Indian rushes up with the news that the paleface is coming. The little settlement is thrown into a panic of fearful anticipation, for they have endured many bitter experiences. Their fears are realized, for the white men appear and order the poor Indians to move. This they do with stoicism, and packing up their effects they start on the long trek. Minnewanna, however, is detained by the men to act as a slavey. Silver Eagle is at first inclined to remain by her side, but his sense of duty toward his father, the chief, who is very old and feeble, forces him to go with him. From place to place they migrate, only to be urged still further on by the relentless persecutions, until from the brow of a lofty mountain they exclaim, "Oh! morning sun light us on to a better land; a land where we may rest our heads.'' In the meantime little Minnewanna has tried to escape, but she has not gotten far when apprehended and brought back. The long journey proves too much for the old chief and he succumbs to the ordeal. As he dies the tribe chant the song of death. He is then interred according to the custom of the tribe. A bier is erected on stakes and covered with moss and leaves. On this the body is placed with his bead to the east, a fire to light his way and food that he may not hunger. The son, Silver Eagle, now that his duty is fulfilled, dashes back after his little Indian sweetheart. His endeavors to steal her away are discovered and several of the men are about to dispatch him, when another, more altruistic than the rest, interposes and bids the young brave take his squaw and go in peace, and we last see them with bowed heads at the bier of the chief. This subject portrays rather a new treatment of the Indian story, its poetic beauty being no small feature.
Running Time: 17 mins Black & White
Starring: Mae Marsh, Robert Harron, Charles Hill Mailes
A young girl who lives by the sea with her parents, is the object of one fellows affection. One day she meets a wily artist painting on the beach, he seduces the young girl and gives her a ring, with the promise of marriage. When the young admiring fellow comes to propose, she proudly announces her engagement to the artist. Shocked he leaves and her parents demand meeting her husband to be. She goes to bring him home, and finds he already has a sophisticated fiancée. Distraught she hurries home, and when her father realizes what she has done, he orders her out of the house. As she wanders despondent along the sea, the young fellow who has found out about her betrayal,immediately goes to see her. Finding she has been disowned by her father, he goes looking for her and sees her body floating in the sea. He now carries her lifeless body back onto the shore, to her heartbroken parents.
Running Time: 11 mins Black & White
Starring: Florence Auer, Edward Dillon, D.W. Griffith
At a political club, the members debate whose bust will replace that of Theodore Roosevelt. Unable to agree, each goes to a sculptor's studio and bribes him to sculpt a bust of the individual favorite. Instead, the sculptor spends their fees on a dinner with his model during which he becomes so inebriated that he is taken to jail. There he has a nightmare, wherein three busts are created and animated from clay (through stop-motion photography) in the likenesses of Democrat William Jennings Bryan and Republicans Charles W. Fairbanks and William Howard Taft. Finally an animated bust of Roosevelt appears.
Running Time: 11 mins Black & White
Starring: Arthur V. Johnson, Marion Leonard, Henry B. Walthall
A king exacts vengeance upon his faithless mistress and her lover.
Running Time: 11 mins Black & White
Starring: Linda Arvidson, George Gebhardt, Robert Harron
Struggling with poverty and the declining health of a relative, a young woman struggles to find employment.
Running Time: 11 mins Black & White
Starring: Charles West, Herbert Prior, Anita Hendrie
A son leaves to seek his fortune in the city. Many years later he returns and checks into his parents' inn. They don't recognize him, but noticing his fat wallet, plan to rob him.
Running Time: 17 mins Black & White
Starring: Ynez Seabury, Kate Bruce, Claire McDowell
The little one is playing with her doll while her mother lies sick. The poor woman dies, and the child, thinking her asleep, goes downstairs in search of a playmate. First she visits an austere old maid, and by her artlessness soon melts her coldness. Nest she goes across the hallway to a crabbed old bachelor and affects him the same way. The old maid misses one of her hair puffs and goes after the child, thinking she took it. While she is in the bachelor's room talking to the child, several tenement-house youngsters steal a "scarlet-fever" notice and stick it on the bachelor's door. This quarantines the three until the health officer appears and releases them. They then take the child to find its mamma and are horrified at finding her dead. As each wants to take the child they end the argument most logically. A wedding results.
Running Time: 17 mins Black & White
Starring: Wilfred Lucas, Blanche Sweet, Edna Foster
Mike breaks into an apartment to steal an old man's money, not realizing it's his girlfriend's father. When he discovers whose apartment it is, he begs her for forgiveness.
Running Time: 17 mins Black & White
Starring: George Nichols, Grace Henderson, Mack Sennett
A wealthy, callous moneylender finds a terrifying way to learn about money's limitations.
Running Time: 33 mins Black & White
Starring: Robert Harron, Kate Bruce, Walter Miller
The prospector had taught the Indian boy the doctrine of peace. When his tribe resisted the attack of another tribe the boy did not take part. The din of the battle, as the horsemen circled them again and again, the moans of men caught under falling horses struck terror in the boy's heart The incensed warriors cast him from the tribe with the brand of a coward. It was then that his opportunity came to follow the white man's wonderful doctrine. "Big love man lay down life for friend,"
Running Time: 2 mins Black & White
Starring: Linda Arvidson, John R. Cumpson, Flora Finch
Set in an early cinema house, this comic short illustrates the problems with the gals' hats obscuring the movie patron's line of vision.
Running Time: 12 mins Black & White
Starring: David Miles, Florence Lawrence, Gladys Egan
Alfred Lucas, an industrious wood carver, is a dutiful husband and loving father. The happy little family of father, mother and two girl children, one six and the other eight, are seen enjoying their morning meal prior to his departure for work. A fond adieu, and Lucas is on his way. Assiduously working at his bench he strongly contrasts the drones, whose faces are noticeably seared with the lines of dissipation. At noontime luncheon is served, and kettles of beer are brought in by some. Lucas becomes a butt of ridicule on account of his refusal to imbibe, and after a deal of persuasion is prevailed upon to take just one drink. This was his undoing, for he likes the taste, and when work is over it takes but mild encouraging to make him yield to the invitation to go to the saloon. Several drinks make him forgetful of the family, anxiously waiting for him at home, into whose presence he finally reels in an awful state of intoxication. Oh, what an awful sight the scene presents. The amazed and almost heartbroken wife, with her frightened children. Well, the seed is planted, and the noxious weed, nurtured by drink, thrives. The blight of rum changes the stamp of nature, turning the heretofore good-tempered man into a veritable demon. Night after night he comes home more the beast than human, until one evening he is later than usual and the older of the two girls goes in search of him. From tavern to tavern she goes until at last she finds him, but her pleading is in vain, and she is driven out by the drunken father. However, she returns and makes her last plea, for the father crazed by drink hurls her aside, and the poor little child falls against the bar. This arouses the sympathy of the waiter, who reproaches the father for his brutal assault. The father resents his interference with a blow, and the waiter retaliates with a pistol, Bring it just as the little one arises and runs to her father, receiving the bullet in the head and dropping lifeless to the floor. For an instant the father doesn't seem to realize the horrible enormity of the affair, but soon the awful truth is clear to him and he becomes a raving maniac. What a lesson is here depicted. Shortly after we find him back at his work, a changed man. He is cured of the awful disease, but the scar is still perceptible. He has resolved to live his life for the welfare and peace of his faithful wife and remaining child.
Running Time: 17 mins Black & White
Starring: Wilfred Lucas, Linda Arvidson, Francis J. Grandon
Dir. D.W. Griffith. Humble fisherman Enoch marries sweet Annie Lee. He becomes a sailor to earn more for his growing family. After a stormy shipwreck, Enoch swims to the shore of a deserted island. Annie awaits in vain for his return.