Silent Films shot in Passaic County, New Jersey

When the Feudal Lord and his bride were visited by their cousin at a time when this Lord was presenting to his bride the family heirloom the Great Ruby of Irskaat, the cousin coveted it, and was determined to secure it. The Lord receives a call to arms, and in this the cousin sees a way to achieve his design. The Lord, however, appreciating the danger of leaving this valuable jewel unguarded, buries it in a secluded part of the grounds. His soldiers now assembled, he departs, leaving his wife to the care of his trusted servants. No sooner had he left than the cousin returns with the subterfuge that he will stay at the palace guarding the wife until the Lord's return. This the wife appreciates, believing his tender well meant. Surreptitiously he rids the palace of the servants, placing his own in their stead. The poor woman is now in the absolute power of this despicable villain. By entreaties and threats he tries to make her divulge the whereabouts of the ruby, but he finds her adamant. Not wishing to use violence, he will pursue another course, flattery and wine. While he gets the wine, the wife writes a note and dispatches her page, whom she discovers in the garden beneath her window, to her husband with it. Off the page goes on a mad dash only to become exhausted before the end of the journey. Meeting a band of gypsies they give the boy refreshments. The drink induces sleep and when the boy awakes he finds several hours have elapsed. Arriving at the Lord's tent, he delivers the missive and the Lord leaps into the saddle and dashes toward the palace. During the time of this wild ride, a horrible thing has happened at the palace. In her endeavor to keep the traitorous cousin at bay the wife has accidentally fallen headlong from one of the parapets of the palace to the walk below. Out rushes the cousin, only to find that the fall resulted fatally. He carries her inanimate form in, and now he fully realizes the enormity of his deed and falls cowering at the foot of the altar in the little chapel. At this moment the Lord dashes up. Entering, he finds his wife cold in death. Stunned for a moment, he rushes into the next room, where the cousin grovels, with one object in mind, vengeance.

A man gets revenge on his cheating wife by killing her and her lover. He thinks he has killed his daughter as well, but she survives and is adopted by the sheriff. A few years later the man, now an outlaw, ambushes the sheriff and plans to kidnap and murder the sheriff's daughter.

A widower and his two daughters live in the wilds of the north woods. They form the acquaintance of two trappers, Bob Cole and Jim Watson, who hunt in the neighborhood. As fate will have it, both trappers love the same girl, the elder sister, but she loves Bob, while the younger girl is attracted by Jim. The elder girl, however, through a woman's whim, pays marked attention to Jim simply to arouse jealousy in Bob. He, in temper, cannot reason her motive and leaves, so through pique she accepts and marries Jim. Later Bob revisits the place, feeling that the girl loves him best, and tries to induce her to go away with him. He finally succeeds and, as you may imagine, fate brings about justice.

The scenes of this aptly named silent drama are laid during the time of the Franco-Prussian War. Two soldiers of the German army fall in love with a peasant girl whose heart does not decide which is to be the favorite one until the call to arms is heard when, by the old mill stream, love's old sweet story is told once again. She consecrates her life to one, while the other does not learn the truth until the time comes to say farewell, when he discovers, to his chagrin, that his comrade has won her heart. Little time is left for explanations; the bugle sounds, the comrades march to the front. While escaping from the French her lover is shot and grievously wounded. Dictating a message to his sweetheart telling of his love and claiming her for his bride on his recovery, he entrusts its delivery to his comrade. The comrade, although torn with conflicting emotions, is loyal to his brother-in-arms up to the moment he approaches the cottage, but there he falters in his duty and, tearing up the letter before entering, he informs her that her lover is dead. "The Lie" strikes deeper than he thought. It unseats the girl's reason and she wanders out into the woods with the vision of her lost one, as she believes, ever before her beckoning her on. To the edge of the dreaded black pool she wanders, where, ninety feet below, she sees her soldier lover calling to her to come. A moment she stands upon the brink of that awful abyss and then leaps down the dizzy height into the black waters below. Meanwhile her brother, having found the torn letter, puts the pieces together and learning the truth starts in pursuit of his sister to acquaint her with the deception. He arrives just a moment too late, for he sees her leap from the high rocks of the black cliff into the water. Without a moment's hesitation he leaps after her to the rescue. The heroic rescue and the ultimate reunion of the lovers are something it were better to see than attempt to describe.

Before the revolution in France the nobility exercised a most despotic rule over the peasants, subjecting them to abject slavery. Not only did they suffer pecuniary oppression, but their humble households were invaded and defiled by the noble profligates. Henri Provost, a perfumer, receives a call from his landlord in quest of some perfume. During his visit this nobleman is attracted by Henri's pretty young wife. Her beauty so enthralls him that he, during her husband's absence, exercises his presumed rights, and invites, or rather commands her to attend his house fete. Here he dresses her in finery and promises to make a great lady of her, so that when her husband, who finding whither she had gone, bursts into the palace, she denies him. The heartbroken perfumer at first would return to the palace and in vengeance murder both his wife and the nobleman, but the old priest stays him, by showing him the crucifix, the emblem of Christian charity and making him swear he would never kill them. Indicating that vengeance belonged to God. Henri takes this oath and lives up to it. Some time later the peasants chafing under aristocratic tyranny revolt, with the perfumer a leader. The revolutionists invade the home of the nobleman, the occupants of which flee in panic. The nobleman himself, with the perfumer's wife, who is still with him, make their way to her former home, which she imagines is deserted. The perfumer enters, and upon meeting the guilty pair, sees his chance to wreak vengeance. He is about to run them through when the old priest again appears and shows him the crucifix, reminding him of his oath. He then waves back the mob, who haven't seen the nobleman, with the exclamation, "This is my wife." The mob dismissed, he takes the couple to an inner room where they exchange their finery for peasant's attire. Thus they leave to take their chances of evading intemperate revolutionists who are parading outside, devastating everything and destroying everybody aristocratic. What a bitter lesson she has been taught. Her covetousness has brought her only shame, terror, poverty and isolation.

John Holland, a small planter, is devotedly attached to his wife and infant. The wife wearies of the monotonous grind of farm life and is easy prey of a contemptible villain: Tom Roland, the ubiquitous "other man." The wife's sister is an innocent, good-natured tomboy who never for a moment dreamed that her sister's low spirits were due to anything else than ill-health; no more did John. He tries his best to cheer his wife, and as he bids her and the baby a fond adieu in the morning on his departure for the fields, he begs her to be hopeful; better conditions are in store. Scarcely has he crossed the threshold when Roland appears at the window. This decides her; so taking her wedding ring from her finger and leaving a note of farewell, she elopes with the serpent. At that moment the sister enters, sees the note and determines to save her at any cost. Donning her riding bloomers, armed with a revolver, she leaps on a horse and dashes wildly after them, they having escaped in a phaeton. On, on they go at breakneck speed, both holding the distance between them, until the harness breaks on the horse of the elopers and they resort to a rowboat to get across the river. Down comes the sister, and leaping from her horse, dashes to the landing, and with the aid of her gun enlists the services of the old boatman to row in pursuit. Masking her face, that her identity will be unknown, she fires at the fleeing couple, causing them to heave to. Coming abreast, and flourishing the gun, she compels Roland to leap overboard and swim off. Then she commands the wife to board her boat, and at the landing, to return home. Here she makes herself known, and in a struggle the wife gets possession of the gun, when in rushes Roland and seizing the sister is choking her, when kin asserts itself in the wife and she sends a bullet crashing through Roland's arm, who at the point of the gun is driven from the place. The wife, realizing her folly, as John enters throws herself in his arms, he being in total ignorance of her experience and narrow escape. Once more, and for all time, peace reigns in the little home, thanks to Tomboy Nellie.

Tom and Ethel separately decide to go bathing in a river. Pranksters switch their clothes and they each have to dress up as the opposite sex.

Kate Nelson, a girl miner who has been working a claim in the mountains, runs into the office of the frontier hotel with the tidings that she has at last struck paydirt, showing a bag of valuable nuggets to admiring friends. Having just returned from the appraiser's office, and it being late, she puts up at the hotel for the night. In the office at Kate's arrival there is a Mexican woman who has just lost her money at Faro. At sight of Kate's gold she becomes desperate and at once plans to secure it. Kate is shown to a room, and is soon asleep with the bag of yellow nuggets reposing under her pillow. Suddenly the face of the Mexican woman is seen at the window, and she has little trouble in forcing it open. Her intrusion awakens Kate, but she overpowers her and gains the gold in the struggle. Kate manages to fire her revolver, with a view to bring aid, but all too late, for the thief makes good her escape, leaving behind on the door an incriminating mantilla, which discovers the identity of the culprit. A chase is made after the fugitive, the hotel clerk, friend of Kate's, leading the way. This poor fellow, however, is dropped in his tracks by a bullet from the woman's gun in ambush. Distancing her pursuers, the Mexican woman comes upon an Indian girl, who, with her half-breed husband, are camped alongside the river. The Red Girl bides the Mexican woman and throws the searching posse on the wrong trail. In return for the kindly act on the part of the Red Girl, the Mexican woman plies her wiles on the half-breed husband, not only taking him away, but inducing him to kill his wife. To this end they plan a torture. Binding her hands and feet, they take her to a large trunk of a dead tree, which overhangs the river, and here they hang her, like Tantalus, suspended between water and sky. With her teeth she manages to free one of her hands and with an ornament on her necklace contrives to saw the rope and drop into the water. Swimming to the shore she again meets Kate and her friends, and volunteers to become their guide in running down the miscreants, who have embarked in a canoe and are rapidly paddling down the river. Into another canoe the pursuers leap and are soon shortening the distance between themselves and the scoundrels, until at length they come up with them, and a hand-to-hand conflict ensues, during which both canoes are capsized, and a terrific struggle in the water ends with the overpowering of the pair and arrest of the Mexican Jezebel. The dip in the river has evidently chilled the half-breed's ardor for the Mexican woman, for he tries to return to the Red Girl, but she repulses him, and we leave her and Kate standing on the cliff, enfolded in each other's arms, bathed in the golden rays of a setting sun. Indeed a most beautiful scene.

Alongside of a beautiful mountain stream in the foothills of Colorado there camped a Sioux Indian, who besides being a magnificent type of the aboriginal American, is a most noble creature, as kind-hearted as a woman and as brave as a lion. He eked his existence by fishing, hunting and mining, having a small claim which he clandestinely worked, hiding his gains in the trunk of an old tree. It is needless to say that he was beloved by those few who knew him, among whom was a little boy, who was his almost constant companion. One day he took the little fellow to his deposit vault, the tree trunk, and showed him the yellow nuggets he had dug from the earth, presenting him with a couple of them. In the camp there were a couple of low-down human coyotes, who would rather steal than work. They had long been anxious to find the hiding place of the Indian's wealth, so capture the boy, and by beating and torture compel him to disclose its whereabouts. In the meantime there has come to the place a couple of surveyors who enlist the services of the Indian to guide them to the hilltop. Here they arrive, set up their telescope and start calculations. An idea strikes them to allow the Indian to look through the 'scope. He is amazed at the view, so close does it bring the surrounding country to him. While his eye is at the glass one of the surveyors slowly turns it on the revolving head until the Indian starts back with an expression of horror, then looks again, and with a cry of anguish dashes madly away down the mountain side, for the view was enough to freeze the blood in his veins. Arriving at the old tree trunk, his view through the telescope is verified, for there is the result he improvised bank rifled, and the old grandfather of the little boy, who had followed the miscreants murdered. Picking the old man up he carries his lifeless form back to the camp, reaching there just after the murderers, with the boy, had decamped in a canoe. Laying the body on the sands and covering it tenderly with his shawl he stands over it and solemnly vows to be avenged. What a magnificent picture he strikes as he stands there, his tawny skin silhouetted against the sky, with muscles turgid and jaws set in grim determination. It is but for a moment he stands thus, yet the pose speaks volumes. Turning quickly, he leaps into a canoe at the bank and paddles swiftly after the fugitives. On, on goes the chase, the Indian gaining steadily on them, until at last abandoning hope, they leave their canoe and try to wade to shore as the Indian comes up. Leaping from his boat he makes for the pair, seizing one as the other swims to the opposite shore. Clutching him by the throat the Indian forces his head beneath the surface of the water and holds it there until life is extinct, after which he dashes in pursuit of the other. This proves to be a most exciting swimming race for a life. They reach the other shore almost simultaneously, and a ferocious conflict takes place on the sands terminating in the Indian forcing his adversary to slay himself with his own dagger. Having now fulfilled his vow he leaps into the water and swims back to the canoe in which sits the terrified boy, and as night falls he paddles slowly back to camp.

A husband suspects his wife of an affair. The wife's cousin borrows a shawl to meet her lover in the garden. The husband spies the couple embracing, and, thinking it's his wife, he strikes the lover. The thought that he has killed a man temporarily unhinges the husband's mind until he can be convinced that the lover is still alive.

Mr. Si Green was a prosperous young farmer who felt the need of a wife to share his joys and sorrows and to minister over his lonesome household. Being of a romantic turn of mine, knowing his Laura Jean Libby thoroughly, he was not content to woo and win one of the country lasses of his neighborhood, but adopted the fanciful method of advertising for a wife, by writing on an egg among those he was carrying to market. This egg was purchased by one of a party of college girls who discover the inscription while preparing a little chafing dish feast in their dormitory. You no doubt may anticipate the outcome. One of them answers it and arranges a meeting, which Si joyously attends, attired in his best go-to-meeting duds. The fair maid proposes a stroll along the shady country lane. They are followed by the other girls and when seated on a stump the girls rush up, bind the poor fellow with a rope and fasten him to the barn. Here they indulge in a little target practice, using eggs as ammunition and him as the target. Oh, what a sorry sight he is when their supply is exhausted. He looks like a Spanish omelette.

The story itself deals with the primitive instinct of mankind; to desire was to take at strength of arms, and thus one of the chiefs chose for his own a maiden fair who was loved in turn by a young brave, and whose admiration she returned. But like unto the dark ages, whenever a man desired a maid he took her with or without her leave. Thus far did the chief go, but her lover decides to match his strength of arms for so fair a bride, and they fight upon the cliff's edge. But here the maid takes up the bow of fate and sends an arrow into the heart of her captor. Thus the two forest lovers are united, but a life for a life is the law of their race and the lover is brought to the council chamber and tried before his kinsmen. To shield the woman he loves he remains silent. He is tortured at the council fire, but still he will not speak until his groans of agony and despair reach the ears of the maiden, who, braving all the members of her race, confesses and is condemned to take the awful plunge over the falls into the black pool at dawn. The man and maid are permitted to watch the coming of the day together. Then they are parted and she goes forth to meet her death alone. Placed in a canoe, and covered with pine boughs, she is lashed in and slowly left to drift onward to her fate. An awe-inspiring moment, and the frail bark plunges downward into the dark depths below.

Two lovers elope and expect to be pursued by her father. But the clever father has tricked them into running off, and celebrates their wedding when they return home.

A modern swain of the dapper variety invites a pink and white miss of sweet sixteen to an afternoon carriage drive. Love beams from every glance of their eyes as they drive along in the shade of the trees that overspread a pretty country lane. Lost in fond contemplation of each other, they are soon oblivious to their surroundings and allow the horse to become complete master of his own inclinations, the buggy zig-zagging along the road as his fancy is caught by a particularly tempting tuft of grass on either side. A mischievous country lad who as yet had to feel the thrill that lurks in a maiden's eyes, seeing the opportunity to interrupt the spooning and extract some fun from the situation, cuts the traces just as the horse stops on the brow of the hill that surrounds the road. Backward goes the buggy down the road, slowly at first, but gaining momentum with every turn of the wheels, the love-sick couple locked in each other's arms still absorbed in their own affairs. Here follow a number of screamingly funny mishaps. The buggy, horseless but not loverless, dashes over hill and down dale, clean through a peddler's wagon and its stock of tin pans, striking a clothes line which it carries with it in its flight. Faster and still faster it goes, clearing everything from its course, until it reaches the edge of a lake, where it rudely awakens a lone fisherman by utilizing his boat as a ferry and dumping him into the water. Out into the lake it glides, Cupid still holding undisputed sway; and it is altogether probable that love's young dream would not yet be o'er did not a treacherous rock interrupt the course of the odd-looking craft and prove the efficacy of cold water as a first aid to the unconscious.

The pretty daughter of a French-Canadian backwoodsman incites the romantic interest of a trapper who is so smitten with her beauty that he purchases her into marriage from her father, against her will.