The secret formula for the world's most powerful explosive has been stolen from the U.S. government. William Brown, a clerk who aspires to be a detective, has just received his badge from some anonymous Midwestern agency, and manages to get himself embroiled in the intrigue.
Prudence's ( Olive Thomas ) parents send her from their Pennsylvania Quaker colony to a fashionable girls seminary, hoping she can learn about the devil's tricks, instead she engages in girlish pranks, but uses her pure appearance to escape blame. Later, Prudence visits her New York aunt, a society matron, and soon attracts an array of male admirers. She falls in love with wealthy Grayson Mills, but John Melbourne, who lives off of his wife's wealth, plots to seduce her. After Melbourne loans Prudence $200 to pay a gambling debt, he forces her to go to a roadhouse by threatening to show her stern father her canceled check. At dinner, Prudence produces a love letter which Melbourne had earlier written to an actress, and says that if she is not back by midnight, her hotel clerk will show Melbourne's wife his nineteen other love letters. After Melbourne hurries her back, he discovers that she only had the one letter. Prudence now becomes engaged to Grayson.
Aristocrat Lord Dawlish is told by his girlfriend's father that he must find a job if he wishes to continue seeing her. He finds employment as a dancing partner at a dance club and prospers in his new role, despite facing a jealous rival.
Taxi driver Jim befriends Ruritanian child King Ludwig while the latter is on a visit to London. A plot is afoot by sinister forces to kidnap Ludwig, and Jim becomes caught up in the drama. After the child is abducted Jim uses all his ingenuity, including cross-dressing as a Countess and becoming involved in a car chase, to rescue him from his captors.
Philandering husband George Montfort purchases railroad tickets for a weekend tryst in the mountains with his latest paramour. When his wife Yvonne finds the tickets, George hastily explains that they were bought as an anniversary present for her. Yvonne doesn't believe George, but she decides to use her ticket anyway, while George remains behind in Paris on "business."
Framed for stealing some pearls while staying at the country home of her aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Dennison, Delsie O'Dell is banished from their house. Delsie along with her bulldog, Violet, follows Oscar, the actual thief, to an old haunted house, which is the hideout for a gang of thieves. A series of humorous escapades follows as she first hides from the thieves, then pretends to be a ghost, terrorizing them. Eventually she retrieves the pearls, clears her name, and is safe once again in the arms of Bill, Dennison's secretary.
American newspaper reporter Jim Crocker's madcap escapades in London earn him notoriety and the nickname "Piccadilly Jim." When he overhears his American cousin by marriage, Ann Chester, giving her candid opinion of him, he decides to return to America to try to reform. He meets Ann on the boat, using another name. Unable to find work in New York, he goes to his step aunt Mrs. Peter Pett's home to be near Ann. Jim then helps Ann kidnap pampered cousin Ogden Pett whose overindulgence has created disruption in the household.
A very rare lost film by Pathe Exchange that was found by Ben Model on eBay and preserved in time. Not much information known to exist.
Slim appears as a police court judge and Bobby as one of the jurors who is later given a job as bailiff. The reel deals with three or four different cases that come up, one a female bootlegger, the other a diminutive man charged with beating his big wife; another raises the question of whether a mule is gentle, and Bobby is called on to ride him. The last charge is against a wild man who escapes, taking Bobby along as he is chained to him. A train runs over the chain and the two drop from the trestle into the police auto.
Tex Benton (cowboy star Tom Mix) wants to marry Janet McWhorter (Kathleen O'Connor), but her father (Charles K. French) will give his blessings only if Tex works on his sheep ranch. Tex, a cattleman through and through, refuses and gets his aggressions out by stirring things up at the local saloon.
David Clary runs a sleepy little dry-goods store in a sleepy little town. A vamp from the big city shows up, intent on taking Clary for everything he's worth by a combination of seduction and blackmail. But the day is saved by the ingenuity of David's corset model.
Dimples uses her social tact and cleverness to navigate a diplomatic or high-society situation.
Chivalrous Kernel Nutt comes to the aid of beauty in distress, when he sees a pretty damsel trying unsuccessfully to tie her shoelace. When he has tied it for her, a baseball, hot off the bat of a young Ty Cobb, hits the lady in the foot and she, thinking Nutt did it, hits him over the head with her handbag, then forgets to remove the bag, and Nutt discovers that it contains a nice big roll of bills. He takes a manicurist out to lunch, then accompanies her back to her place of business, a beauty parlor, where he is just in time to assume the duties of the boss, who is leaving for a vacation. After many amusing incidents, the lady who had treated him so ungratefully, enters the parlor and makes things hot for Nutt, who is finally forced to return the bag full of coin.
Hero Handsome Harry must rescue his love interest, Lizzie, from a villainous character named Creampuff. Harry is repeatedly "beaned" by a beanshooter in the hands of a villainous boy and then Creampuff, but he overcomes the obstacles, defeats Creampuff, and ultimately is arrested for carrying a concealed weapon before being freed by the triumph of justice.
The Youngloves have a cozy little apartment and a jewel of a cook, Bridget, and are happy until the landlord raises the rent. A slick agent convinces them to take a lease on "the modern Paradise” in Arcadia. A long, frightful journey takes them to "Eros Villa” a tumbledown old shack with a scrubby hedge running around it. After a veritable nightmare of a night trying to sleep on hastily-made-up hard beds and being scared nearly to death by huge rats scampering through the rooms the Youngloves rush to the agent's office, where he agrees to tear up the lease for two months' rent! The Youngloves, return to their old flat, sadder and wiser, but happy.
In Jedda, Persia, American consul George Gage, known as a woman hater, is shocked when his newly arrived assistant, "Billie Baxter," whom he assumes will be a man, turns out to be an attractive woman. Despite his formerly anti-female leanings, George finds himself falling in love with Billie and is jealous when his womanizing friend, Brad Wilson, arrives in Jedda and makes a play for her. At the same time, when the ruling Pasha, Abdul Mustapha, meets Billie, he also becomes smitten and tries to have her brought to his harem. Despite their rivalry, George and Brad join forces and save Billie from the Pasha, after which she decides that George is the man she loves and wants to marry. Considered a lost film.
Joe and Eve are engaged, but Joe cannot help contrasting the drabness of her attire with the dressy clothes of their friends. Eve overhears him talking of this and breaks with him. Then, with the help of her friend, Mazie, she metamorphoses into a ravishing beauty. Joe is remorseful, but the situation is made more complex when he suspects Eve of questionable relations with her boss.
Hafed, a Turkish prince, imprisons an American girl and her father. The girl sends for Jim, who attempts a rescue. Jim is captured, but Hafed's jealous wife helps them escape. When the initial escape fails, Jim returns in disguise as a dancing girl. He dances for Hafed, luring him into a private encounter where Jim's identity is revealed. A fight leads Jim to take refuge in a tree. Surrounded by guards, Jim summons a warship. A shell from the warship blows up the tree, landing Jim safely on the battleship's deck and securing his escape.
Short comedy set against the backstage lives of a group of performers.
Slapstick comedy short about a quarreling couple and a nosy mother-in-law.