After years of service, the Captain of the Setuckit Life Saving Station on Cape Cod retires, Calvin Homer, the second in command, Calvin Homer expects to be promoted; but the appointment goes instead to Bartlett, a religious fanatic who has been the recipient of a good deal of favorable newspaper publicity. Calvin hands in his resignation.
Lois WilsonNorma Bartlett
Wallace BeeryCapt. Bartlett
Warner BaxterCalvin Horner
Phyllis HaverMyra Fuller
Dot FarleyMrs. Fuller
J.P. LockneySupt. Lockney
James Pier MasonWally Oakes
Knute EricksonJarvis
Walter RodgersBloomer
Willard CooleySam BearseTo help secret serviceman Bill Parsons in pursuit of the thieving Benson gang wealthy criminologist Henry Avery sends his assistant Blinky to cover the waterfront while he attends a reception at the home of Mrs. Cornelius Westervelt. At the soiree he meets gang member Alice Carter while also discover the gang’s cache hidden there. Captured Parsons is saved by Blinky, and the pair foil the gang’s attempt to rob Mrs. Westervelt and her guests.
Ruby Blackwell, typical young girl of Arizona, lives with her brother Tom, and their widowed mother in a cabin in the mountains. One day Tom takes Ruby on a lion hunt. They track a puma, or mountain lion. Tom shoots the beast, which, wounded, bounds into the canyon. Tom instructs Ruby to proceed to the ridge and await him there, while he follows the puma up the mountainside. Ruby discovers the cubs belonging to the puma which Tom has shot, and she immediately becomes so engrossed in playing with the huge kittens that she forgets the rendezvous her brother had appointed. Tom finally locates her. The cubs are taken home. They grow up around Ruby like friendly dogs. Pete Lopez, a bad Mexican, who admires Ruby very much, tries to steal one of them at night, after Ruby has refused to sell the animal to him, and the baby puma defends itself vigorously until Tom and Ruby rush to its rescue...
Two married couples, Doris (Helen Chadwick) and John Manning (Gayne Whitman) and Clara (Dorothy Revier) and Herbert Bradley (Ray Ripley), each separate as a result of domestic arguments. After certain misunderstandings and false accusations, peace is returned on the home front.
Joe Grant is the renegade husband of Lengua, a beautiful South African native girl. John Lewis is a South American trader, living with his daughter Grace. Ned Singleton helps Lewis in his work. Grant steals from Lewis' trading post and orders the abused Lengua to aid him in secreting the loot, and she refuses. She tells Lewis of Grant's misdeeds.
Billie Benton, a cub reporter, goes to the home of Violet Reynolds, a society girl and settlement worker, and asks for an interview, which is refused. Billie returns to the reportorial room, expresses his failure and the city editor assigns Ned Pelton, another reporter, to get the story.
When Jimmie Collins, a pickpocket, is arrested and brought before Captain Callahan of the Tenth, he is surprised because he is lodged in a cell. Jimmie claims acquaintanceship with Bill McFarlin, a corrupt political boss, and he sneers at Captain Callahan when he is ordered to be placed behind the cell bars.
Archie Sheldon, determining to go to New York City, is given a letter by his mother to Thatcher Thole, Gotham's most unscrupulous financier. She tells her son that Thole is an old friend of the family, and will undoubtedly give him a start in life.
Blinded in a train accident James Driscoll (Holmes Herbert), whose wife, Miriam Driscoll (Belle Bennett), has been having an affair with his young male secretary Phillip Kingston )Carroll Nye), regains his eyesight. He keeps this from his wife, who continues her affair. Finally, he invites his young niece Nancy Driscoll (Josephine Borio) in the hopes she will fall for Philip and vice-versa. His ploy works, James reveals he can see again, and husband and wife are reconciled.
In a banana republic, way south of the Texas border, a dumb-Dora American girl, Norma (Olive Borden), lets her ruby-red lips promise more than she is willing to deliver, and she finds herself a prisoner in a notorious dance-hall/brothel. But her American aviator boyfriend, Barry Blake (John Boles), is flying to her rescue. He does just that but, alas, they are quickly captured by a gang of outlaws. Possibly the many expensive pieces of jewelry she has gathered from the many male friends she has made along the way, including El Presidente, captured the outlaws' attention.
A socially ambitious woman who convinces her father to borrow money from a snobbish man.
What is more miserable than love-blighted life? For the heart that truly loves can never forget. Such is the sad fate of the hero of this Biograph story.
Driven by her ambition to become an operatic star, Elsa successfully auditions for a small role with the company performing at Carl's theater. As she becomes a celebrated performer she also falls in love with Carl while also being wooed by the wealthy but disreputable Brown. She is torn until a fire breaks out during a performance and Carl steps in to save her.
Goodnatured J. P. Fippany loses his home and takes to the road on a chicken-wagon with his wife and daughter. The wagon is wrecked in an automobile collision involving Jimmy Pickett, who falls in love with daughter Aida, and through a misunderstanding involving Marseillaise, Fippany's racehorse, his wife Josephine and Aida go to live with relatives. The disconsolate Fippany sells Marseillaise to Jimmy's father, sends the money to his wife, then disappears. Meanwhile, Jimmy finds Aida and convinces her of his love. Marseillaise, badly driven in a race, loses a heat, but Fippany emerges and rides her to victory, following which there is a reconciliation between husband and wife.
The house next door to Mr. Cobb is rented by Mrs. Rose, a widow who moves in with her little girl Helen. Mr. Cobb is a widower with a little boy, Phil.
Henry Egbert Xerxes' big chance as a cub reporter comes when he is assigned to track down a gang of counterfeiters which gathers regularly at the Red Dog Inn. As he leaves the office, Henry witnesses a girl being dragged into a cab -- the same girl he had seen that morning passing counterfeit money. Henry follows, but on overtaking the cab, he finds it empty. At the Red Dog Inn, he discovers that the girl is being held captive. After a series of rough and tumble adventures with the resident thugs, he and the girl escape, after which he rushes home to write up the story. When it fails to appear in print, Henry storms into the city room only to discover that the entire business was a hoax, intended to test his reporter's instincts.
Male and female sales agents, Phil and Ruth, for rival hosiery concerns try to land an order. For a while Phil succeeds and puts on an exhibition but Ruby makes the mannequins use her own brand of hose, flirts with the buyer and wins order away from her rival.
When her father goes broke in the stock market, Jane Lee is forced to leave her prestigious boarding school. Glad-handing John Brock, an old friend of Jane's father, arranges for the girl to be hired as his stenographer. But Brock's lecherous ulterior motives become obvious when he locks Jane in the office and tries to rape her. When she manages to escape his advances, Brock vengefully frames the girl on a robbery charge.
Engine No. 19 is the pride of Tom's heart, but as he is unable to lot drink alone he is discharged. Feeling that he no longer can obtain employment, he leaves home, and soon starts on the downward path. He is about to enter a bar-room when the face of his mother haunts him. He puts aside the temptation and decides to return home. A bandit tries to overpower the engineer on the Limited, but is captured by Tom who creeps over the top of the car. He refuses a reward, but states that if he had his position back he would prove himself a man. He returns to his mother and sweetheart who have read of his heroism and are pleased to see him.
Eccentric scientist, Professor Jeremy, creates a truth serum. After experimenting on his cook, revealing her secret whiskey and cigar smuggling, the serum accidentally splashes on Thorpe Willis, a reporter, who confesses his deepest feelings. The professor, annoyed by the widespread attention and requests for the serum, destroys the formula and secures it in a safe. However, a crook, "Smoothy" Smithers, steals the liquid, drops it, and publicly confesses to a burglary. Ultimately, the reporter, Thorpe, crafts a hoax about the serum, and the professor accepts him as his son-in-law.