The story
“In the small city in which he always has lived, Ferdy Fink is as much an institution as the tablet to the memory of the heroes of the Revolution. He has danced attendance on several generations of young ladies, and still, at an advanced age, is a gay beau. At last, however, determining to marry and settle down, he is considerably surprised to find that none of the sprightly maidens to whom he pops the question will have him. One Monday, passing an apartment house, he sees, many stories up, a woman leaning out of a window and waving to him. Ferdy dashes into the house and up to the apartment. A brutal giant of a man bursts open the door and throws him down stairs. Ferdy is convinced that here at last his romance awaits him. But he doesn’t see the damsel in distress again till the following Monday. Then she appears as before at the window, waving her handkerchief. Ferdy’s chivalrous spirit burns to rescue her. He is none too anxious, however, to face the man of the house. So, gaining entrance to the building across the way, he ascends to the window on a level with the casement of the fair one opposite. Then Ferdy nearly faints. For ‘the damsel in distress’ proves to be a darkey maid, and the ‘handkerchief signal’ the white cloth with which she is cleaning windows. As for the irate gentleman, her employer, he was only venting upon Ferdy his rage at having received a comic valentine.”
Summary from Reel Life · 1 May 1915
