- Young Henry Clay Madison, a clerk, falls in love with Flossy Wilson, a prostitute from New York's East Side. Although she reforms under his influence, Flossy believes that she is unworthy of Madison and rejects his marriage proposal. Seventeen years later, Madison's nephew Bert, a social worker, falls in love with wanton Fifty-Fifty Mamie, reforms her and elicits her help in his work. Bert falls ill, and when Mamie tries to visit him, Madison, who now is concerned only with money, convinces her to give up the idea of marrying Bert. Mamie goes to work in Madison's canning factory to investigate conditions. In addition to employing children, Madison's factory has no fire escape and only one staircase, which catches fire, many children die and Mamie is seriously injured. Madison visits Mamie, who cries Bert's name in delirium. When Madison brings Bert, now recovered, Madison notices a photograph of Flossy, Mamie's mother and realizes that Mamie is his daughter. She dies in Bert's arms, and Madison resolves to toil for the welfare of workers and the end of child slavery.—Pamela Short
- Henry Clay Madison, clerk and student, becomes acquainted with another roomer in his boarding-house, a wayward woman of the world. Under his influence, she leaves the old life, but rapt in a wonderful love for him, she refuses to marry him, feeling that her past life has made her unworthy. She steals out of his life forever, leaving him a message of her love and sacrifice. The years pass by and we find Madison, man of affairs, steeped in wealth. The old ideals of former days have vanished and in their stead is a lust for money. Child labor is the cheapest, and in his factory Madison makes children slave. Bert Madison, nephew and protege of the old man, spends his life in social uplift work. Oftimes he exhorts Madison to do away with child labor and improve conditions in his factory, but the old man waves him aside. In his travels through the slums, Bert falls in love with "Fifty-fifty Mamie," a notorious East Side character, an habitué of the Bucket of Blood and other "gun dansant" parlors of equal repute. Through his efforts Mamie is redeemed from the old life and proceeds to help Bert in his work. Bert is taken suddenly ill, and Mamie makes an attempt to see him. Madison, learning her identity, refuses her admission to Bert's room and upbraids her, insisting that she give up all idea of ever becoming Bert's wife. Their stations in life, he insists, are too far apart. Convinced by Madison's arguments and prompted by a self-denying love, she agrees to give up Bert. Mamie continues in her work and is assigned to Madison's factory. Here, unknown to Madison, she obtains employment and proceeds to investigate working conditions. Bert, meanwhile has recovered and is kept in ignorance of Mamie's meeting Madison. Her neglect to visit him makes him feel she has forgotten him and returned to the fold of "Bennie, the Gyp." Then, the great disaster. Carelessness and neglect have caused the Madison factory to burst into flames. In the holocaust, the lives of children are destroyed and Mamie is carried home dying. Madison visits Mamie to see if she cannot be saved from death. In delirium she cries for Bert, and unable to refuse her dying request, Madison calls him. While waiting for the doctor, Madison sees a picture on the bureau. "My mother," breathes Mamie. The years roll back in a flash and Madison sees his love of the boarding-house. Mamie, he realizes, is his own child. Bert arrives to bid her farewell; the doctors bow their heads in consultation, but to no avail. The soul of Mamie has passed away. Madison, broken in spirit and bowed down in sorrow, will devote his life hereafter to the welfare of his workmen and to the abolition of the slavery of children.—Moving Picture World synopsis
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