Broncho Billy, half crazed with liquor, enters a saloon and demands a bottle of whiskey. This he absorbs about half, which places his physical and mental condition in a state of sub-consciousness. Completely intoxicated, Broncho Billy is placed on his horse and led away. Having ridden a few miles in this condition, he falls off his mount unconscious. Mabel Clark, a squatter's daughter, discovers him by the roadside, washes off his aching brow, and brings him to.
In this story the young wife concerned is called upon to solve a rather momentous question. After separating from her husband, whom she has discovered to be a brute and a criminal, she is about to give herself to another man, believing her husband dead, when he appears before her fleeing from justice. Shall she deliver him to the law or surrender to his claims? She yields in one instance, but not in the other. Then justice intervenes.
Maizie Mackey finished with her term at boarding school in Los Angeles, leaves her sweetheart, Bud Stone, and returns to her father's ranch near Ash Forks, Cal. A few weeks later, Bud, lonesome and downhearted, wires Maizie's father that he is coming on to ask a very important question.
In this rare, surviving one-reel Western from the pioneering Kalem company, Ruth Roland's fiancé, Dick, is falsely accused of robbing a bank, a dirty deed actually committed by one Black McCarty. Roland helps Dick escape and later supplies him with a weapon, but her irate father, the sheriff, must be put out of action -- by his own handcuffs as it turns out -- before the villain can be captured and peace restored.
Jim Hendricks receives a letter from his daughter in the east stating that she is on her way and will arrive with her little girl that day. The stagecoach carrying her from the railroad station, some miles from her father's home, meets with an accident. While repairing the vehicle of ancient times, Bessie Hendricks' young daughter, canters off into the woods in search of wild flowers. Bessie runs after her. Having captured the young rascal and returning to the road Bessie discovers the coach has gone on its journey.
Broncho Billy, haying disturbed the laws of the state, is thrown into jail. The warden hands the outlaw a cup of water and a piece of stale bread. The latter grabs the warden's hand, pulls it through the bars and threatens the former with a broken arm unless he unlocks the door. Broncho Billy, having gained his freedom, takes to the woods.
Ted, the foreman of "The Diamond S. Ranch" is in love with Dora, Dad's daughter. Tafe is the leader of a band of desperate characters that have been terrifying the neighborhood for some time. He sees Dora and immediately decides to try and make an impression upon her.
Broncho Billy is seen smoking a cigar in a general store in the far west. An Indian enters, who tries to force his attentions on a young girl. The Indian is rejected by Broncho. The Indian swears revenge.
Broncho Billy, baring received a letter from an old friend of his, Steve Brady, requesting him to take care of his child. Brady dies and the child, a young girl of eight, is sent to the far western country where her now departed father knew that she would grow up to be an honorable and true daughter of his native country.
A real life drama enacted in the Yukon region where the rigors of battle for existence reduced it's human characters to it's primitive. The girl's perilous trip to the frozen north to save a life will grip you tight....
During a wonderful exhibition of horsemanship and cowboy skill. "Dud," the foreman of the Diamond S ranch, is handed a telegram summoning him to Chicago to claim a fortune left him by an uncle. There he falls in love and marries the stenographer in the office of his attorneys, after a year he tires of the monotony of the life he leads and wires for the entire outfit to come to Chicago and wake the town up. They carry out instructions elaborately much to the embarrassment of Mrs. "Bud." After they leave, "Bud" embraces his wife and to her great relief, whispers, "Never again."
Broncho Billy runs into trouble in a bar when he gets into a confrontation with a bully. Since the bully has a gun and Billy doesn't, he's forced to endure the bully's humiliating tactics until he manages to get away. He determines to find himself a gun, learn how to use it and then go back and find the bully for a little payback.
The sheriff of Sioux County, Arizona, is notified to locate the bandits' rendezvous. Carl Waters, the sheriff, scouts the country and finally locates them. Returning to the town saloon and dance hall Waters, who is smitten with the fair Caroline Heston, proposes to her. She promises to give her answer the following day.
In The Struggle (Broncho, 1913) a prospector and his son Bob depart from home in the morning, while the wife, at home, offers food to a passing stranger. His shifting eyes reveal his nature; he assaults her, and although her husband and son return in time to save her, the father is killed in the ensuing fight. The stranger gets away, but five years later Bob, now a government scout, recognizes the stranger just as he is accused of cheating at cards.
Broncho Billy's brother, Dick, is madly in love with Nellie Parsons. Jack Dupont, a mining engineer from the east sees pretty Miss Parsons and becomes infatuated with her. Not waiting for an introduction, Dupont follows and introduces himself. A few days later, Dupont proposes and is accepted. Nellie returns the engagement ring to Dick.
This western, with its simple story set in a gold mining camp, recycles many of the elements found in David Belasco's influential play, THE GIRL OF THE GOLDEN WEST, produced a decade earlier.