Common Sense

Hoop-La, the beautiful star of Minor's Mammoth Circus, a one-ring affair which tours county fairs and small towns, delights crowds with her bare-back riding, trapeze acts, and clowning. Reared in the confines of the circus by Old Toodles the clown, in accordance with her father's dying request, Hoop-La naively accepts the attentions of good-looking Joe McGee, a cheap horseman, after winning a race for him as a jockey. Tony Barrows, the foppish scion of a wealthy family, falls in love with Hoop-La, but she resents his snobbery and makes faces at him. When Hoop-La learns that her father was wealthy, she secretly marries McGee to save herself from a dull society life, but when she discovers McGee's true character, she promises to keep him supplied with money if he leaves.

Jack returns from college and is told by his father that he is going to start him in business as his partner. Early the next morning Jack reports for work and finds that he is to learn the game from the ground up, and is accordingly made apprentice to the boss plumber. While on the first job he learns the art of loafing, and on returning to the shop is called up by his girl, who invites him to an afternoon reception.

Barr Messenger escapes to Mexico after a frame-up. He is in love with Betty Brownlee, who disappears after $10,000 is stolen from the firm she works for. It is thought she took the money. In Mexico, In Mexico, Barr finds Betty working in a saloon for "Red" McGee, the chief henchman of "Bull" Keeler's (the Kingfish) Kingfisher gang.

A girl nicknamed "The Weed" lives with her foster parents in their mountain cabin and frequently visits a nearby health resort to sell milk and eggs. On one of her excursions, she befriends a cantankerous old millionaire, George Bassett, who later bequeaths to her his entire estate. Ralph Long's car plunges down an embankment, and he is dragged from the wreckage and looked after by the Weed, who soon captivates him with her charm and ingenuousness. While he is in the hospital, however, the lecherous Kenneth Stewart snaps a photo of the girl swimming in the nude in a mountain pool and hangs an enlargement of it in his club.

While romancing the millinery store owner, Custer finds himself falsely accused of murdering his boss and is soon fleeing from a vicious lynch mob.

Alice Davis and Charles Turner are arrested for petting in an automobile and marry on impulse.

When brilliant lawyer Harry Sevier, an alcoholic, cannot cope with the prosecution's tactics, his innocent client Paddy the Brick goes to prison. After Harry's sweetheart Echo Allen, the daughter of Judge Beverly Allen, breaks their engagement, Harry leaves to combat his problem. Meanwhile, Cameron Craig, whose interest in a distilling corporation is threatened when a suit is brought before Judge Allen, steals incriminating love letters written by the Judge years earlier. Echo boards a train to offer to marry Craig for returning the letters. Harry, on the same train, and now beardless, follows Echo to Craig's home, where a burglary occurs. After Harry, not recognized by Echo, gives her the letters, Craig is shot, and Harry, along with Paddy--now a burglar--is sent to prison. Harry escapes and finds himself nominated to run for governor on the "dry" ticket. After Echo confirms that he was innocent of shooting Craig, Harry wins the election and her love.

A ship's captain keeps a tame gorilla as a pet. During a mutiny the captain is injured by a blow and the gorilla saves him by hiding him in a cave. As others try to get close things get heated.

Two ships are caught in the Arctic ice. (Silent Film)

To further his political ends and enrich himself, a political boss lets corruption run rampant in his city. A young couple sets out to expose him. This film is partially lost; only 34 minutes of 70 survive.

Cupid Angling is a 1918 silent film starring Ruth Roland and Albert Morrison, with walk-on appearances by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. It was the only feature film photographed using the Douglass Natural Color process.

When Judge Grant sentences Paul Rogers to jail on circumstantial evidence, Paul's sister Lena swears revenge.

As an infant, Ruth Drake was stolen from her father by her vengeful mother, and then abandoned. She was adopted and raised by a pawnbroker, and as a young woman joins the Salvation Army in order to help the kinds of people she has seen--and was--growing up. When war breaks out in Europe, she volunteers to go to France

Orphan Hilda Swanson's prayers are answered when a Swedish-American colonization company agrees to send her to America. Aboard the steamer, she meets Olaf, a young Swede, and Donna, an enemy courier who is posing as a passenger. Learning that the secret service is on her trail, Donna sews secret documents into the hem of Hilda's skirt. She then sends a wire to her comrade Felix Martinez, notifying him to intercept the Swedish girl.

Nancy Glenn is a pupil in Pop Hogland's school for crooks. When, attired as a boy named "Spider", Nancy fails at her lessons as a pickpocket, Pop decides to pair her with Pliny Drew, a graduate thief and swindler.