This burlesque on old-fashioned melodramas starred 1910s screen lovers Francis X. Bushman and Beverly Bayne (they were also real-life lovers who had just gotten married a year before making this film). Sheriff Andrew Craig (Bushman) loves Ruth Heatherly (Bayne), but he has a rival in the village blacksmith, Rufus Sanborn (Samuel Framer). Ruth can't decide between the two men and her mother (Helen Dunbar) wants her to marry Percy Smallwood (Valentine Mott), who is heir to a fortune. But Smallwood is wanted by the law for taking advantage of a girl in a nearby town. Smallwood goes to Ruth for protection and she hides him from the authorities. Craig, however, discovers that she is hiding him and confronts her. Ruth promises to marry Craig if only he will leave Smallwood alone. Torn between love and duty, Craig chooses love and agrees to Ruth's suggestion. Smallwood is allowed to flee and it turns out that he wasn't the guilty party anyhow. Since he doesn't love Ruth, he is more than happy to hand her over to Craig, who has vanquished Sanborn in a fist fight.
by Janiss Garza
synopsis
