John Brown - the Son
A comedy short film.
A dramatic one-act film. The wife of the captain of a canal boat chooses the nicer boat and nicer uniform of another captain. She reconsiders her choice when she is rescued by her own husband after a fire.
Jack Jones
A comic sketch that features two players who think each one is deaf, causing them to shout. Part of the Edison Kinetophone Collection. The Kinetophone was a fairly complex mechanical means of creating talking pictures. Unlike previous systems, in which actors would be required to lip sync to preexisting recordings on camera, the Kinetophone was one of the earliest film technologies to record sound at the same time as the image.
Waiter
Cud McGiven applies for employment in a Bowery restaurant. The restaurant is conducted by a German, who engages Cud. Whenever Cud finds himself alone in the pantry he exercises his mania for juggling plates with disastrous results to the crockery. Every time the proprietor bears a crash he is Johnny-on-the-spot and takes out his little book to jot down the damage and charge it to Cud. At last the proprietor loses all patience and decides to discharge Cud. Accordingly he summons him to his private office and demands a settlement of the broken dishes and spoiled food. Cud is unable to see the situation this way at all. The disagreement waxes hot and furious and Cud in revenge breaks all the dishes in the pantry. The riot brings the frightened guests to their feet, where they stand spellbound at seeing a half of the waiters flee before the burly Cud, who is flinging plates after them with the accuracy of a baseball pitcher.
A broken-hearted husband thinks about the past as he sits by the fireplace.
A woman goes to the dentist for a toothache and is given gas. On her way home on the subway she can't stop laughing, and every other passenger catches the laughter from her.
While in a park, a young woman sees her fiancé being quite affectionate with another woman. When she calls him on the telephone to demand an explanation, he tells her that it was his sister. She is not satisfied, and insists on coming over to meet his 'sister'. As the young man broods over how to get out of trouble, an old college friend comes over, and he offers to pretend to be the sister. At first this works, but soon it has created even more complications.
Jack and the daughter of a horse trainer are in love with each other, but when the trainer discovers them together, he makes it clear that Jack is unwelcome. Later, at the stables, another suitor for the daughter's hand appears. An unusual agreement is reached, under which the result of a race will determine which of the two the daughter will marry. But Jack's rival proves to be unscrupulous, and he will stop at nothing to be successful.
The Clerk
A woman being fitted for shoes exposes her ankle to the shoe clerk, who is intrigued. He kisses her, but her chaperone hits him with her umbrella.
