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The Quitter Synopsis

The miners at Paradise Gulch are bored. In a session at the "Three Cheers" saloon, owned by Seth Moore, they decide that the trouble with their existence is the fact that there are no women in the place. The verdict is that one of them must marry, and they choose "Happy Jack" Lewis, because he is not present. They go to "Happy Jack" Lewis, make him write out an advertisement for a wife, and sent it to neighboring towns. They stipulate that she must be blonde and pretty. At Gold City, Glad Mason, who answers every requirement, is working in the office of Willet and Condon, mining promoters. Since her father's death she has been obliged to shift for herself. Willet's attentions have become so obnoxious that she is at her wits' end to know what to do, when Lewis' advertisement is pointed out to her. In desperation she answers it, enclosing a photograph. Lewis lines the boys up against the bar and holds them up. Since they have got him into the trouble of getting married, he makes them furnish his shack. He gives a whoop of joy when he sees Glad's photograph among all the ugly ones he receives in answer to his advertisement, but Ben, the bartender, discourages him by saying that probably some old hag sent the picture. "Happy Jack" leaves in haste, first making over his house and his mine to her in recompense for her disappointment. He goes to the junction as Glad is changing trains for Paradise Gulch, and sees for himself what a beauty she is. But one of the boys with whom he has been fighting sees her, too, and without a word the miner gives "Happy Jack" a knock-out blow, and then puts him on the train, bound in the opposite direction. Each of the boys tries to win Glad. They tell her that Lewis is a quitter. Jumping off at a small station, Lewis is arrested as a suspicious character and thrown into jail. His wire to the boys for identification results in the answer that he is a cardsharp and crook. He escapes, and meets Willet, who offers to buy his mine. He accepts, taking the money, forgetting that he has made over the property to Glad, but robbers soon relieve him of his cash and he reaches Paradise Gulch penniless. Willet goes to take charge of the property, which he is anxious to claim because "Sid," the assayer, has told him it is of immense value. He finds Glad in possession and has "Happy Jack" arrested for obtaining money under false pretenses. Glad turns over her claim to Willet and Condon on the condition that they will free Lewis, although he implores her not to do so. But "Sid," the assayer, has made a discovery. He whispers something to Glad, and the last cloud is dispelled. He has made a mistake. The sample ore he has thought Lewis' belonged to Glad's father, who had brought it in to be assayed the day before he died. Glad and "Happy Jack" have lost control of the worthless mine, but they begin life together as owners of the magnificent Mason property.

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.