The Social Code

Short silent film.

Dorothy Desmond, a naive young woman from Kentucky who becomes virtually penniless after her father (an editor) is shot by a political rival and her mother dies of shock. Believing she has a talent for writing, Dorothy travels to New York to find work at a newspaper. She secures a position and is assigned to the Chinatown section of the city to cover a story, which presumably involves the titular jade necklace and the "perils" hinted at by the serial's title.

Unable to tolerate city life, Sadie Barker leaves her husband Max and with her baby, returns to her birth village; afraid to tell her father that she plans to raise a baby without a father, she pretends that she is still childless and asks Lucy White to look after the infant for a few months. Lucy quickly agrees; hoping to preserve Sadie's secret, she claims that the child is really her own, and even conceals the truth from her sweetheart, Dave Allen. Risking the condemnation of the community, which has already ostracized Lucy for having a baby out of wedlock, Dave decides to stand by his sweetheart. He marries her after Max and Sadie are reunited and take back their child.

Wealthy playboy Jack Edmunds spends some time in a small mountain town, where he makes the acquaintance of local girl Caprtice Talbert and invites her to his apartment. When Caprice's father finds out about it--although nothing happened--he forces the two to marry, and the newlyweds move to Jack's home in the city. Tensions arise between the two as Jack is still resentful over the "shotgun wedding" and Caprice finds that she can't bear living in the big city and wants to return home.

Actress Nina Seabury is primarily interested in her lovers' wealth. Nina begins a relationship with Emory Townsend, whom she mistakenly believes is a wealthy bank president. He is merely a bank cashier. Desperate to fund Nina’s expensive tastes and maintain the illusion of wealth, Emory steals $12,000 from his bank. Despite his sacrifice, Nina ultimately breaks up with him. Following the split, Emory finds true love with Mary Winslow.

Farmer's son David Wingate marries city girl Vianna Courtleigh over his parents' objections. Her father gives him a job with the company; a baby is born to the young couple; but their happiness is marred by David's desire for a quiet domestic life in opposition to Vianna's love of excitement. David's mother comes to live with them when her husband dies. She observes their unhappiness and, after deciding that Vianna is at fault, determines to teach her a lesson. Eventually Vianna sees the folly of her ways and seeks forgiveness from David.

Yale graduate, Yale Durant, facing financial ruin and contemplating suicide, discovers his fiancée's father is also facing ruin; he tries to save them but ends up in a perilous situation, getting caught up in a family feud and a rival's plot.

Independently produced social drama directed by John Gorman.

Sordid story of an abusive husband who beats his pregnant wife so badly that the boy, Sonny is born with a disfiguring birthmark and abandoned. Growing up on the streets he is taken under the wing of safecracker James Carleton, who arranges for the kid to have a decent home and a good education. In time Sonny becomes a football hero at college, meeting and falling in love with Mary Kayne. When a nasty detective reveals to the girl that her sweetheart is the "foster son" of a notorious crook, Mary declares that she doesn't care and intends to love the hero to the end of her days. But there's still one obstacle to overcome when it turns out that Grey's own father may well be the no-good slug who gave the boy his permanent birthmark.

A loose adaptation of August Strindberg's Miss Julie. The daughter of a count witnesses her mother's increasing mental instability after being spurned by a lover.

The film depicts the failed 1809 uprising of Prussian soldiers led by Ferdinand von Schill against the occupying French during the Napoleonic War.

A woman's faith in her husband is put to the test when she discovers a photograph of another woman.

Indian Prince Rhandah is sent to be educated in England. After an English woman flirts with him to steal his betrothal amulet, he returns home embittered. When she and her fiancé are later captured in India, the prince ultimately relents to a plea for mercy.

Melissa Stark, a young girl in the Tennessee mountains tries to unite feuding families (Allisons & Watts) and help her preacher father, Jethro, while navigating romance with lawyer Tom Williams and a mistaken identity crisis that leads to her father's tragic death, after which the families reconcile. The story involves a newspaper ad for a dress, a mistaken identification of Jethro as a murder fugitive by a deputy sheriff, and a violent confrontation that ends with Jethro's innocence proven but his life lost.

Steel millionaire John Blake buys the auctioned estate of the formerly wealthy Fairchilds to avenge his father, once the Fairchild's gardener, who died after being dismissed because John thrashed Andrew Whipple, a guest who tormented him. When John learns that Fairchild secretly paid for his education, he tries to repay him, but the proud Fairchild refuses. John marries Fairchild's daughter Eleanor, with whom he is infatuated, so that Fairchild can benefit, although Eleanor marries only for the half-million dollars involved. After Whipple returns and pursues Eleanor, John offers her a divorce if she will sign the money over to her father. When Whipple makes her suspect that John loves a young widow, Eleanor writes a note of farewell and leaves, but she is stopped by Whipple, who wanting to elope, embraces her. When John sees this and fights Whipple, Eleanor shields John from a bullet and is wounded. She recovers, and, learning that John loves her, declares her love.

Violet Waldron is the daughter of dissolute parents with no hope of redemption. Yet, strange as it may be, she is a loyal and loving soul, supporting her father and mother in their degradation, no matter how badly they mistreat her. Seeking help for Bill Waldron, who has overdosed on cocaine, she tries in vain to convince his mother, whom she finds in a wine room, to come home with her.

Hugo Reid loves and is engaged to the fair Irene. Warned by his father that insanity runs in their family he chooses to break with her without sharing the reason why. Driven by his loneliness and despair, Hugo goes back to his former flame, Hazel Hamilton, a lady of loose character. Irene sees them together and hurt flees with Hugo in pursuit. At first anxious to win her back, Hugo eventually tells all to Irene’s mother, leaving the house for good. Shortly thereafter he falls into madness.

Upon his death Jerry Livingstone, a wealthy convict, leaves his son Henry the sole heir of a considerable fortune with the provision of a larger additional sum if he marries Jerry's ward, Winifred Gale. Upon hearing this, Winifred writes to the young Livingstone that she will not participate in a marriage of convenience.

In this apparently lost film, a beautiful dancer's sexual allure is used by an evil cripple to entice men to their deaths. Falling in love with one of the potential victims, she is told by the cripple that he will set her free if her lover, actually a murderer himself, survives and escapes a bizarre labyrinthe which runs beneath the cripple's house.

After his beloved daughter leaves for the city to pay off his debt, an old farmer goes mad when her letters become less frequent and it is suspected she may be using her body to get the money.