Georges Méliès

Three friends are playing cards in a beer garden. One of them orders drinks. The waitress comes back with a bottle of wine and three glasses on a tray. The man serves his friends. They clink glasses and drink. Then the man asks for a newspaper. He reads a funny story in it and the three friends burst out laughing while the waitress merely smiles.

It is a beautiful morning in Indian Summer, and White Doe is out in her birch bark canoe, engaged in a fishing expedition for food. She paddles home under the overhanging trees and vines, lights the small fire in front of her tepee and cooks her primitive breakfast. The air is bracing, the birds are singing, life is free and good. Also White Doe is happy for she had caught a gleam of admiration in the eyes of a stalwart cowboy, when she visited a ranch a few days before with her offering of plaited baskets and the famous blankets of her Navajo tribe. She begins her work of basket weaving, dreaming the love dreams of her people and her heart singing with coquetry and the happiness of conquest, for she is also loved by a brave of her tribe, a wealthy son of a chief with a hundred horses.

Cynthia Moore, daughter of Colonel Moore, who is the commander of a cavalry post near the Mexican frontier, is much beloved by two junior officers in her father's command. They are Lieutenant Robert Bright and Lieutenant Arthur Hartley, both graduates of West Point, where they had been rivals during their Academy Days. This rivalry, which had been friendly at West Point, became very bitter when they were both assigned to Col. Moore's post and met his attractive daughter, and the true nature of the two men began to assert itself.

A short silent comedy produced by Gaston Mèliès in San Antonio.

Three swells stopping at the same hotel, one a bicyclist, the other a horseman and the third a motorist, are ardently in love with the same widow, living in a villa some distance in the country. Each one, eager to woo her, makes an equally strong plea with apparently the same impression, although she seems slightly to favor the horseman. After listening to their declarations of love, she dismisses them with an evasive answer. With no decided preference she is in a quandary. She does not want to lose an opportunity, but how to make a choice is a difficult problem. She has an idea. She writes them a letter and sends it to the hotel: "The first one reaching my home and me can claim me as his bride."

Padre Dominguis, the village priest of a quiet little spot in old Mexico, has been on a visit to the daughter of his dead sister and is about to return to his charges. He is much surprised and more than a little pleased to find that his niece is in love with John Brown, a progressive American, who has settled among them, for the Padre is a broad-minded man and knows that Mexico needs the influx of American energy to make her a great country.

In happy mood, a rollicking, good-natured party of "Jack Tars" on shore leave are out for a good time, and get themselves well under way in song and general good cheer by visiting the only place of merchandise and refreshment which the little seacoast town affords. Under full sail they are steering their way through the streets of the village, running foul of trees and posts, bowing in humble apology for their seeming rudeness and disturbance. They have apparently lost their "sea legs" and are a little bit unsteady in the joints, but merrily they roll along until they come to a swinging bridge crossing the river. Here is where they strike rough weather.

Cyclone Pete, the Terror of the Plains, is feared alike by red men, yellow men and white man, but in an evil moment he advertises for a wife, and gets one with an amiable exterior but an iron will. The Terror of the Plains tries to tame his bride, but the glaring eye which strikes terror into every male heart simply amuses the new wife, and the things she does to that poor, innocent, helpless 'terror of the plains' are really a shame. Eventually they part company, and Pete becomes a highwayman and holds up a stage coach. He strips all the male passengers of their valuables. The last passenger is a woman. She will not give up a cent, and when the 'terror' insists, the heroine suddenly knocks 'him where he lives,' tears off his mask, and husband and wife are face to face. Then she leads Pete home by the ear, and finally turns him into a decent citizen.

A short silent film produced by Gaston Mèliès in San Antonio.

"A senorita. With whom two young matadors, Jose and Pepe, are in love, tries in keep both on the string. She lends each to believe that he is the chosen one, creating a strong jealousy between them. Pepe calls to see the girl and she receives him with a show of great affection and preferment. While they are courting, a caballero, friendly to the other lover, Jose, tells him of the girl's duplicity. In a rage he goes to his inamorata and, demanding an explanation, accuses her of harboring his rival in the house. She cajoles him, and playfully stealing his dagger from him without his knowing it, endeavors to hold his attention by caresses as Pepe tries to make his escape. Unfortunately he is seen and pursued by the enraged Jose, who, coming up with him as he seeks the protection of a priest busy pruning trees in the grounds of the monastery, engages in a terrible struggle in which the priest Is powerless to interfere." - Moving Picture World synopsis excerpt

In the farewell beams of evening the pioneer with his wife and child stop the prairie-schooner and strike stakes for the night. Sounds of the Indian war cry disturb the quiet calm, and seen approaching in the distance is a band of savage red men. Terror-stricken, the settler seizes his gun and stands ready to defend his family. At the first volley from the Indians' rifles he falls dead. The brave wife makes a desperate resistance to protect her child. The poor woman is quickly slain by the hostile savages, leaving the helpless babe to their mercy.

A short silent western produced by Gaston Mèliès in San Antonio.

Tony Valero, a lusty young vaquero, is enamored of Clarita Montes, whose father is fairly well off, as the middle class Mexicans figure. Clarita prefers Tony to her numerous admirers, but the father has selected, for his future son-in-law, a young dandy called Jose Rodreguis, who has a certain amount of money which allows him more ease than his neighbors. Jose trades upon this fact and presses his attentions upon Clarita. He bitterly resents her preference for Tony and does all in his power to belittle his rival.

"Swift Arrow, a lithe and willowy Indian, leaving the encampment of his fellow braves, is well on his journey when he is thrown from his horse and receives a broken leg and injuries from which he is disabled and lies helpless and alone." -Moving Picture World Synopsis excerpt

Braggs, the young western settler, comes into view leading his broncho while he leads his little child on the horse's back. Placing the child on the ground and watering the pony, he takes his knife from his pocket to make an extra hole in the saddle strap. The knife slips and penetrates his wrist, severing an artery. His wife comes to his assistance, makes a tourniquet with strips of her apron, jumps on the broncho's back, bids her husband to care for the child and keep up courage while she rides to town for the doctor.

Two cooks fight, one pushing the other into a barrel and pouring a saucepan of liquid over his head. 10 second fragment available in flipbook format, otherwise lost.

This is a sentimental little story of Mr. J. Booth Walker, a stranded thespian of the "legitimate drama." who has been touring the west with a company presenting "Othello." The company has yielded to the stress of bad business and has closed, while Mr. Walker, finding no easier way to return to Chicago, is counting the ties along the railroad. He comes to a small station, where several half intoxicated cowboys are assembled, and the idea comes to one of them that Mr. Walker be made to do a "stunt." They fire at his feet until he dances, but he is so adept at the graceful art of Terpsichore, that they soon watch him in admiration, and reward him with liberal applause.