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The Courage of the Common Place Synopsis

John McLean fails to obtain the coveted honor of selection to the Senior Society at Yale, but is cheered by a letter from his father who reminds him that the courage of the commonplace is the greatest of all. Nevertheless, the girl he loves leaves without bidding him goodbye and John, not knowing that her grief over his failure was the cause, assumes that she has lost faith in him. Three years later, John graduates from Boston Tech and is appointed superintendent of the Big Oriel Mine. Conditions are deplorable at his post and John sets out to win the confidence of the men, which he succeeds in doing, winning all but a few miners led by the foreman O'Hara. When a fire breaks out in the mine, the two adversaries are trapped in a shaft. O'Hara loses his mind and attacks his comrades but is knocked senseless by John. Relief arrives just in time and John finds himself a hero, not only to O'Hara and his former foes, but to the world outside. At the Yale commencement, he is praised in a speech by the president, feted by his classmates, and his happiness is made complete when the girl confesses her love for him.

The Royal Pauper Synopsis

The Princess is a fairy-tale-loving workhouse child, who pretends an aged pauper and a boy inmate of her home are individuals like those she reads of. Ill-treated by the female superintendent, the three run away, and are sheltered by the childless wife of a mill-owner, who takes a fancy to the girl and adopts her, against her tyrant husband's wishes. The girl wins the tyrant's heart, and lives in the hope of meeting the runaway workhouse boy, her Prince Charming. Later on he turns up as the inventor of plans for a loom which will revolutionize the mill industry. Carruthers, a refined rogue, comes courting the " Princess," and overhears the inventor offering his loom for a huge sum of money and complete control of the works to his tyrant employer, which the latter refuses. Carruthers steals and hides the plans, which are unearthed by the workhouse dog, and find their way back the tyrant. A strike is declared, and the tyrant defies his men. The "Princess " intervenes, saves her adopted father's life, meets her "Prince," and Carruthers is "shown up" in all his villainy. A workhouse banquet, attended by the inmates, the adopted parents and the sweethearts, all in "ermined robes," to keep up the fairy tale, leads to mutual admiration, and happiness and wealth to all.