John Ralston and his nephew, John Ralston, Jr., familiarly known as "Jack" live in a New York suburb, but have their business in the city. One day Jack finds a pretty fan on the seat of a street car. Upon looking, he discovers the owner's name, "Cyrilla Drew, Glenridge, N.Y.," written upon the stick. Imagining Cyrilla to be a pretty young girl, he writes her a note suggesting that he return the fan in person.

Arthur Baxter comes to spend the week end with John Masterson, a wealthy merchant. With him are his nephew, Jack Warrington, and his niece. Margaret Warrington. Arthur is in love with Margaret; she repels his advances, but he persists. Her uncle, however, rather favors the match, as he thinks Baxter is wealthy.

Elton Gates, having served seven years for submitting to temptation with a bank's funds, is released. His uncle John sends him $500.00, with which to start life anew. He has hardly rested in a cheap lodging house when Detective Doolittle spies him and commences to make him an object of special scrutiny.

The story of a young man and woman in an apparent arranged marriage that is complicated by a supposed inheritance. D'Orsey, the "bogus duke," tries to secure the fortune for himself.

Bill Williams, a poor inventor with a large family, suddenly comes into great wealth through the sale of an invention. Sudden affluence turns his head, and he changes at once from the plodding mechanic of the dingy shop into an ultra-fashionable man of the town.

Aurora Floyd elopes from boarding school with John Conyers, but hardly a week has elapsed before she discovers that she has married a worthless libertine. She appeals to her father for aid and advice and he finally pays Conyers to leave the country for a year, so that she can secure a divorce on the ground of desertion.

Andy Brannigan was a good-natured policeman, large of frame, but limited in nerve. He has, however, been very successful in posing as a hero, and deceives all but his wife, who laughs at him when he tells her that he has been awarded a medal for bravery.

A minstrel troupe is embarking for a tour of the South. Henry Clay appears on the scene wearing the frayed coat of a Confederate General. He borrows a guitar from one of the minstrel men and begins singing "Way down South in Dixie," and the story unfolds.

The story concerns the difficulties of a clerk in the war department, betrothed to the daughter of an ambassador, who loses his position by the change of administration.

Dick Carew, the son of a soap-maker, and Dorothy Wilton, the daughter of a lawyer, meet in Paris, where they have gone from America to imbibe an atmosphere sicklied with artistic buncomb by the Cubists. The young man, visiting a cabaret, the meeting place of frowsy post-impressionists, is impressed with their windy theories, mainly denunciations of everything that common sense and decency understand. Dick is just ignorant enough about art to be impressed with this buncomb, and takes Dorothy to the Cubist.