Joseph W. Smiley

A Daughter of Two Worlds

A writer bets a publisher friend that he can write a 10,000-word novel in 24 hours. The publisher takes the bet, and gives him the "only key" to his Baldpate Inn, which has been closed for the winter, so he can write in complete seclusion. Things start heating up, though, when a succession of people who also have keys to the inn begin showing up.

A 1919 film directed by Edward José.

Marcia Saville, thought to be a hopeless flirt by her sweetheart, Martin Kent, shows him that she prefers Tom Smith, a man from the underworld, because Tom is more authoritative. Tom is induced to enter a scheme to rob Marcia's father in a crooked deal instigated by Simon Downs. Downs plans to have Tom marry Marcia and divide the spoils, as she is to receive a sum of money when she marries. Tom is too smart for them and refuses to get involved. Meantime, Kent proves his strength of character, and Marcia is won over. Downs is exposed to her father and discharged.

Pa Potter invests four thousand dollars in worthless oil stock. Or is it worthless?

The Woman God Changed

Bored by the slow pace of life in her little home town, Helen Drayton rebels when her friends and relatives assume that she will marry her friend and escort, Chet Vernon. Helen is so anxious to experience life in the big city that she falls in love with visiting New York architect John Galvin almost immediately after his arrival. Several weeks later, the two marry and move to New York, where, after a series of painful experiences, Helen finally realizes John's selfishness.

A spoiled rich girl is brought down to earth by the man who loves her.

A young South Seas native boy is sent to the U.S. for his education. He returns to his island after his father dies to try to stop a revolution.

While visiting New York, Ogden Fenn finds himself charmed with Diana Manners, wife of Frank Manners, an architect who is away on business in San Francisco, and they become involved. The husband returns unexpectedly and learns that his wife loves Fenn. When Diana and Fenn go to the latter's cabin near New York, Mrs. Hastings, who though married loves Frank, persuades him not to interfere because of the effects on his child. Mr. Hastings, learning of his wife's own infidelity, motors to the cabin, forces Fenn into his car, and drives the vehicle over a steep embankment.

Joan, an earnest little orphan who lives in an asylum near the World War I training camp at Plattsburg, reads the story of "Joan of Arc" and soon imagines that she is the reincarnation of the peasant-soldier. As she sits in the cellar reading, she hears voices plotting against the government. She thinks the voices are from another world but they actually belong to a group of German spies. The agents plan to acquire the important invention of a young man named Ingleton, who is staying at the camp under the guardianship of Captain Lane. Joan relates this information to the captain, with whom she is in love, but he at first refuses to believe her. Later, however, he learns that the plot is real, and with Joan's help, he captures the spies.

Youth meets Ambition and leaves Love, his mother, and his small-town roots for the big city. There, in his search for Experience, he meets Pleasure and hangs out at the Primrose Path with the likes of Temptation and Intoxication. Back home, Youth's mother dies, and Love tries unsuccessfully to reach him. When Youth's money runs out his newfound friends all leave him and he sinks into a life of drug addiction, aided by Habit.

An arrogant young man leaves his Ohio home to make it big on Broadway in New York City when he inherits the family business and $1-million. However, things don't go quite according to his plans. After he blows most of the money, he returns to Ohio to try to sell the family business to raise more money, but complications ensue.

In the Canadian Northwest, Jen Galbraith lives in a tavern with her brother Val and her father Peter, a bootlegger who sells whiskey to the Indians. Val's friend Pierre resolves to win Jen, even though she is in love with Sergeant Tom Gellatly of the Mounted Police. When Val tries to retrieve some liquor sold illegally by the elder Galbraith to an Indian named Grey Cloud, the Indian insults Jen and Val shoots him. Tom is assigned to track down the murderer, but after he arrives at the tavern, Galbraith and Pierre drug him. Jen delivers the papers he is carrying to police headquarters, but when she discovers that they contain orders to arrest her brother, she shoots Tom to prevent him from going after Val.

Professional thief Joe Grim is killing time in New York City's Central Park before he robs the Wall Street subtreasury. He spots pretty young Laura White on a runaway horse. He manages to rescue her. Falling for her, he tries to steal a photo of her but is discovered and held at gunpoint by Laura's friend Countess Briand--who, unbeknownst to Laura, is actually the head of a German spy ring, among whose members if Laura's fiance Karl Richter. The countess convinces Joe to steal plane for a new airplane by telling Joe that they're papers that are being used to blackmail Laura. But things don't go exactly as planned.

Tom Whitney, well connected but a social derelict because of his weakness for drink, is released from the draft because of an old football Injury, but a policeman persuades him that he can still do his bit in the shipyards. He takes a job in the yard owned by the man to whose daughter he was engaged in happier times. Three German propagandists seek to foment a strike to delay the work, and largely through Tom's efforts the plan goes amiss and the strike is called off. Rehabilitated by work, the launching of The Liberty is a forecast of his own rebirth.

Ivan Mussak, the head of the Russian secret police, is responsible for the murders of thousands of Jews and the forced exile of thousands more. Isaac Gruenstein and his infant daughter Miriam are the only members of his family to survive one of Mussak's massacres, and Isaac is exiled to Siberia. Miriam, however, becomes Mussak's ward and is raised by nuns in a convent. Eighteen years later Isaac dies in Siberia, but before he does he writes a note to his daughter and gives it to fellow prisoner Rachel Shapiro, who manages to escape and, by chance, finds Miriam. However, circumstances have changed in the past 18 years--and Miriam is now Mussak's mistress.