Visionary Picks In Alignment with the style of Floodgates: Cult Guide

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When the United States enters World War I, widow worries that she will lose her only son David, who has just turned 21. Although David patriotically urges the employees at his factory to enlist, he reluctantly gives in to his mother's pleas to remain at home with her. When David is drafted, his panic-stricken mother alters the date on his birth certificate, although the later birth date implies that he is illegitimate. Disgusted, David enlists under an assumed name, thus shaming Helen, who confesses her dishonesty to the townspeople. Her son, now in uniform, then forgives her.

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Edward Thursfield, chief engineer of the bridge building firm of Henry Killick and Company, is building the largest concrete bridge in the world. Employed in the New York office is a young man named Arnold Faringay. Arnold sees an opportunity of using money from the payroll for a big deal. He takes the money, but the market goes against him. He seeks to borrow the $20,000 from Walter Gresham, his sister Dorothy's fiancé. Dorothy learns from Arnold that Thursfield is the big power in the firm and decides to follow him to Atlantic City where he has gone to look over the site for a new pier. She meets Thursfield at Atlantic City, and playing upon his sympathy leads him to propose to her. The confidential clerk of Henry Killick, has become suspicious of Arnolds accounts, and when Thursfield arrives he finds the errors, and Arnold is forced to confess before Thursfield. Thursfield is stunned at the thought of his fiancée's brother being a thief and to save her the disgrace he pays over the $20,000. Arnold thanks him and is sent home by Thursfield. He meets Walter Gresham and tells him that his shortage has been made good by a friend. Gresham returns to his house and receives a note from Dorothy breaking their engagement because of his selfishness. He bursts into the parlor as Thursfield holds Dorothy in his arms and demands to know from Dorothy who Thursfield is. Dorothy introduces him as her fiancé, whereupon Walter, realizing who the friend was who paid the money, denounces her before Thursfield. Thursfield demands the truth, and she admits that she did have that purpose, but that she really loves him now. Thursfield refuses to believe and leaves her. Next morning, Arnold sees that copper has made a tremendous jump. He finds that his money has made enough to pay back his stealings. Thursfield, his love for the girl overpowering his resentment, forgives her and calls her back to him.

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Aerial dancer La Syrena, whose jealous husband kills her while she performs in midair. Her daughter, Jennie Raeburn, soon orphaned, grows up unaware of her mother's occupation, but nonetheless feels the urge to dance. She makes a successful stage debut and gets caught up in the social world of the theater. A cousin from the country, Zachary Trewehella, who has always loved Jennie, disapproves of her sudden obsession with wealth and status, but Jennie ignores his warnings. As a result, she has a disastrous affair with a society man, and realizes that her cousin was correct. In the end, bitter over her last affair, she reluctantly marries Zachary, but soon falls in love with him.

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Married to a spy who seeks to induce her to betray her country, the daughter of the American Ambassador to Belmark welcomes the news of her husband's death not knowing that he has merely staged a deception. She becomes the morganatic wife of Prince Leopold, of Belmark, but renounces the marriage that war may be avoided, only to learn that the new alliance means a still greater war. She persuades Leopold to renounce the compact, then saves his life by throwing herself between him and an exploding bomb, but the story does not end there.

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A Lithuanian immigrant falls into financial hardship in Chicago when he loses his job due to cutbacks.

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John Glayde is a stone-hearted man intent on wealth to elevate his family, losing his wife to another man in the process.

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Claire Martin, niece of the wealthy Mrs. Taylor, suffers from loss of memory. Under the effect of this, Claire acts as an entirely different person. She wanders through the woods seeking shelter and food, and finally reaches a cabin temporarily occupied by a New York sportsman, who is fishing and hunting in the woods. For a week, Claire accepts the shelter from this sportsman whose love grows with each day's stay. Finally a strange rider passing the cabin asks for a drink, and Claire in her innocence shows her admiration for the new man, making him finally accept the temptation of her eyes to kiss her. At this moment Houghton, the sportsman, returns and bursts into the cabin. He drives out the stranger and then takes a knife and marks the woman so that she will always remember that her love must be for him alone. Houghton returns to New York. While walking down Fifth Avenue he sees in a photographer's showcase a picture which closely resembles the girl he thinks he lived with in the woods. He finds out who she is and decides to visit Great Neck and see if it is the same girl. Returning to his boat, Houghton looks at some pictures which he had taken of the girl and decides it must be she. He returns to the grounds of Mrs. Taylor's home and meeting Claire declares she is the woman who was with him at the cabin. Pushing back the dress from her shoulders, he points to the scar. She begs him to tell her what he knows about the scar, and he thinking she is bluffing, tells her to come to the houseboat and he will tell her. There Houghton proves that she must have been with him at the cabin and when he demands that she love him now as she did then and attempts to take her, she picks up a knife from the table and kills him. Kent, who has been over to the Yacht Club to a committee meeting, sees this when returning to his launch. He rushes to the boat and carries the fainting body of Claire home, gets her to her room and calls the doctor to see if he can help her. The doctor declares that the girl is guiltless of the crime, having gone back to her old personality, and they decide to make the case appear as one of suicide. When Kent is returning to the boat the following morning he finds there some pictures of her and her scarf, but when he himself is charged with the murder by the man who heard the quarrel, he is made to believe that Claire is innocent by Kent and the doctor, who point out to him the terrible weakness of circumstantial evidence. After Charlie goes, the doctor tells Kent that Claire needs care and attention and must be protected, and Kent in his great love takes her to his heart.

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Louise Lloyd comes to New York to obtain a position and applies to the Hollister Employment Agency, which caters to high class trade, but which is run by a crook and forger named Wilson, with a Mr. Hollister as figurehead, who meets the people and sends applicants. Wilson falls in love with Louise, but she does not reciprocate. Wilson passes a forged check and decides to leave the city till the excitement blows over. Hollister gets him a position with a Mr. White, Toledo millionaire, as private secretary. When the New York job blows over, Wilson returns. While at the White home, he has noticed that Mr. White's New York representative resembles him and plans to cash a check on White's account, disguising himself as Mr. Hart, the New York representative. This he does by forging a check for $35,000 instead of $35.00, his salary. He divides the profits with his co-conspirator, Hollister. The bank calls to its assistance a celebrated lawyer, Edward Knowlton, who, desiring to engage a companion for his elderly sister, stops with his son, Frank, at the Hollister Agency. There the Knowltons meet Louise and offer her the position, but Wilson wants to keep her out of the situation so that, in her poverty and distress, she will accept Wilson's proposal of marriage. Unable to get Louise, Knowlton leaves orders to send someone. When Wilson learns that Knowlton has taken up the case, he says he must get in Knowlton's house as a servant of some kind to watch what clues Knowlton finds. He tells Hollister to send Louise, where she is installed in the house as companion. By her wonderful charm and sweetness, she captivates the entire family, including the son, Frank. Wilson soon finds a way to install himself as valet to Knowlton, just at the time when Knowlton's clues lead him to certain suspicions. As these suspicions point to him, he decides to put Knowlton out of the way. Knowlton and his son, Frank, after dinner, have a parley on the division of the Knowlton property. The will, as made, gives Frank the greater share of the property and Frank's sister the smaller part, whereas Frank believes his sister's share should be increased to equal his own. When the family has gone to bed, Wilson finds Knowlton alone in the library. Wilson strikes, there is a struggle, and he leaves Knowlton for dead, after having stolen and changed the will so that it goes back to the original unequal division of the estate. The body is found and the police called. Wilson, who is supposed to have left for Brooklyn, enters. Questioned by the police, he says the only suspicious circumstances that he noticed was the quarrel over the will between the son and father. The police get the will, notice the change in the son's favor, and accuse the son of the murder. Louise, who has had her suspicions of Wilson, takes the will and says, "Whoever changed this will left a finger mark and blot on the paper." Wilson slyly looks at his hands and. as he does so, Louise calls the police's attention to his queer acting. She orders him arrested, and Wilson, frightened, says, "But I have no blot on my hand," and she holds out the will and says, "Nor is there such a blot on the paper." Wilson, realizing that he is tricked, attempts to escape, but is caught and led away by the police. Louise is taken into Frank's arms as the doctor comes from the father's room saying that Mr. Knowlton will live.

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Loyal slave of the aristocratic Dabney family, Dan is overjoyed when Raoul becomes engaged to Northerner Elsie Hammond and his sister Grace becomes engaged to Elsie's brother John. When the Civil War breaks out, the heartbroken Hammonds return North and John joins the Union army. Raoul joins the Confederacy, but his vindictive overseer, Jonas Watts, becomes a Union officer. Watts takes Grace prisoner, but before he can act on his desires, John rescues her. He then encounters Raoul and is obliged to arrest him, but Dan comes to his aid by throwing red peppers into his captors' eyes. When John is arrested by Confederates, Raoul frees him for Grace's sake, but when his superiors discover his treason, he is sentenced to death. Stonewall Jackson, a family friend, tries to obtain a stay of execution for Raoul, but in the meantime, Dan visits him and convinces his master to blacken his face and take the slave's place. He does, and Dan is executed. After the war, Raoul and Elsie, and John and Grace marry and settle on the Dabney estate.

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Ne'er-do-well Joe Louden scandalizes his small town and especially the proper Judge Pike. But through the love of young Ariel Taber, Joe shows the town who the real scoundrel is.