The story
“Hilda, a smiling young woman, performs wonderful feats of strength on the vaudeville stage. One day she meets Charlie, a meek little clerk, who pours out to her his tale of woe. Charlie, it seems, is teased by his fellow employees and ignored by Marguerite, his sweetheart, who prefers a big, boastful suitor. Hilda, being a very kind-hearted woman, promises the clerk that the following night he shall work as her partner in the vaudeville act. Next evening Charlie’s sweetheart and the whole office staff visit the theatre to laugh at Charlie. They go away, however, considerably sobered. Heavy shackles are placed on the wrists of the diminutive clerk. Charlie rends them in twain with a single twist. He brandishes loaded clubs and supports on his shoulders Hilda, two big men and several heavy weights. The audience does not know that the vaudeville star and the two men are suspended from the ceiling, and that the “heavy weights’ are made of wood. Next day the meek clerk gets a very different reception at the office. Everybody has been doing some serious thinking—and especially Charlie’s boastful rival in love has been thinking what might have happened to him if Charlie had not had complete control of his temper. Marguerite succumbs to her small, strong man.”
Summary from Reel Life · 4 January 1916
