An old colonel is proud as a peacock: his son leads a group of volunteers in the American Civil War. Untill one day his son returns home as a deserter.

Dick Logan, a young writer, stops at a little border town and takes lodging at the Mexican Inn. Two tramps see the amount of money he has and plan to steal it. In the town he befriends a Mexican girl by stopping her uncle from beating her for having broken a water jar. Retiring to his room, he is awakened by the two tramps breaking into his room. He steals out and gets lodging at a nearby house, which happens to be the home of the Mexican girl and her uncle. The tramps follow him and try again. The girl, however, saves him from harm, and it looks as if Dick had found a real heroine for a real romance.

The question is, would the young tramp really have fallen in love with the groceryman's daughter if he had not caught her in the heart struggle? Be that as it may, she could not find it in her to drown the unwelcome visitor to the pantry, so she let it go and the silent little drama witnessed by the tramp greatly impressed him. Not so the strict aunt, she declared the whole thing to be in exact accordance with everything else in the family. Their hearts ran away with their heads. That was why they lost money on credit, could not pay off the mortgage and send the sick sister to a better climate. As for the tramp, they had no business to take him in. He could not pay for his keep. But the tramp surprised them all.

A man recognizes the thief who had previously robbed him as one of the men involved in an unrelated mob shootout.

Kenneth Marsden, a young artist in failing health is advised to go south to New Orleans, where he expects to find accommodation with an old-time friend of his mother. The old lady receives the son of her dear friend with open arms, but her two convent-bred nieces, Mary and Edith, are horrified at the thought of a man in the house. However, it isn't long after his arrival that he has made a decided impression upon the young ladies.

In the apartment hotel lived the aspiring maid, whose solicitude maintained order in the bachelor's apartment. He was her ideal, and the all-adoring bell-boy was firmly but gently given to understand that maids who read "Heliotrope Glendening's Advice to Young Ladies" look higher than ice-water toters. A compromising complication, however, with an unexpected visit from a beautiful lady, quite convinces the aspiring one that wealthy young bachelors may be the grandest men ever, but their aspirations, when it comes to the crucial test, are not for chambermaids. Science influences his actions so much that he gets into trouble with the police.

His dumb grief was mistaken for indifference at his mother's death-bed, but it was the non-committal lady who learned the truth. The favorite son came to woo and win her. She made fine biscuits. In the end, as is quite apt to be the case, the lady gave up herself and her accomplishments in a way quite unexpected.

The jealous husband saw a flirtation; the Raffles, a necklace. The husband's suspicions were further confirmed when the Raffles came out of his hiding. The Raffles permitted the deception, until his manhood came to the surface. He realized how his own happiness might have been so jeopardized, and the little wife concerned was restored to her own.

Hard as nails and as strong winded as a gale in March, Red Hicks may have been a bit "chesty," but he was in perfect trim. The town depended on the champion, O'Shea, the fighting Irishman, to make soft putty of the world famous pugilist, but on the day of the fight there was no O'Shea. The supposition was he did not have the price: and other domestic difficulties interfered. O'Shea's trainer, however, solved the problem and Bed Hicks found his Waterloo.

Young Theresa was thought to be much favored in the love of Guido, the leader of the Italian colony. Then Angelo came. Theresa, though aroused by her first real love, strove to keep her vows to Guido, but life's big law overcame her. Guido prepared a death feast for himself, then summoned Angelo. Why should he die for another's happiness? But Angelo lived.