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Rose of the Alley Synopsis
When Tom Drogan drunken, wild ways, cause his mother's death, his sister Nell swears to protect and reform him. On the pretext of paying back a gambling debt, Tom brings "Kid" Hogan to the house, but ends up shooting him in the forearm. Dan Hogan, Kid's brother who is a policeman, rushes to the scene and catches Tom running away. To avoid arrest, Tom tells Dan that he fired at Kid for molesting Nell, and in the face of scandal, Dan and Kid back down. As revenge, Kid enlists Mamie, his girlfriend, to force Nell into a compromising situation with a man on a street corner. Conveniently placed, Dan arrests Nell for solicitation, but Frank Roberts, her boyfriend, arrives and extricates her. When Tom hears of the plot, he confronts Kid in a dance hall and soon a raging gun battle breaks out in which Kid is killed. Badly wounded, Tom seeks refuge with Nell, who prepares to protect him with his gun. As the police break down her door, Tom dies.
The Upheaval Synopsis
On Jim Gordon falls the political mantle of his father, "Big Jim" Gordon. The father has been the leader of a corrupt ring, but the son determines to be true to the teaching of his dead mother, and use his position for good purposes. However, he is not given credit for altruism. It is taken for granted both by the general public and by the politicians whose leadership he has inherited that he is a grafter, as his father has been. He succeeds in getting the Utilities Bill passed. The New American, a newspaper under reform management, warns the public against what it calls his hypocrisy. When he gets the Water Rate Bill passed they still accuse him of having some nefarious scheme "up his sleeve" to defraud the public. Gordon's only mistake is in making Sidney Benson Director of Public Safety. Benson is a fraud, who is posing as a reformer to further his own ends. He is engaged to Joan Madison, who is interested in the passing of the Sanitary Bill to provide for better conditions among the tenement dwellers. She goes to Benson for aid in the matter, but he gives an evasive answer. She then goes to Benjamin Waters, the editor of the New American, and he asks her to write a series of articles exposing local conditions. She consents, but goes to a mountain resort for quiet in order to write. Through an accident she meets Gordon, who has also gone to the same county for a rest, and they fall in love. On her return to the city she decides to plead with Gordon himself to have the Sanitary Bill passed, and is surprised to meet her friend of the mountains. He tells her that her own father is the owner of the houses in the debated district and that the destruction of these buildings will mean penury for her. Principle triumphs over selfishness and she tells him to go ahead and have the bill passed. He does so, and her father is left without means. Gordon tells him that all his money difficulties will be solved if he will influence Joan to become his wife. Joan's instinctive fondness for Gordon is clouded by what she thinks is his contemptible bargaining, but she consents. They are married, but she still believes that her husband is a grafter. A new traction company comes into the field to fight the methods of the old one. The original company accuses Gordon of no longer looking after its interests. His answer, which is an offer to buy the concern, is gladly accepted. Joan learns of the transaction and tells Benson, thinking her husband intends to defraud the public. An accusation of Gordon is made on the front page of the New American on the morning the franchise bill is to come up before the city council. A great crowd congregates, determined to fight Jim Gordon and any measure he may advocate. He demands a hearing. Briefly outlining the benefits he has conferred on the city, he tells them he has bought the company in order to make a present of it to the city in honor of his dead mother and to atone for the wrongs his father has done the community. Gordon and Joan are left penniless, but they begin a new life together.
"The Upheaval" is currently leading in ratings, making it a stronger choice for newcomers to the genre.
Suggested Watch:
Rose of the Alley