Pete Prindle, son of Proteus, is a vegetarian health food manufacturer who wishes to marry Christine Cadwalader. She agrees. However, Proteus considers his son lazy, with no contributions to the company and therefore undeserving of his father's wealth. His daughters have their pictures in the newspapers, pictures of them promoting the company products. Cassius refuses to consent to his daughter's hand since he believes Pete to be lazy as well, with no real stake in his father's company. Pete tries hard to get in the newspaper: He fakes a car accident, which gets an insignificant mention in the paper. He wins a boxing match, which turns out to be an illegally run ring which ends up being raided by police.
After a misunderstanding, he washes up on the shore in his pajamas after falling off a cruise ship, and proceeds to beat two police officers, his name is withheld by the newspaper. Finally, he saves many people on a train from a group of thugs intent on murdering Cassius by preventing a collision with another rail car. He receives a front-page article in every major local newspaper and a large photo as well which pleases everyone.
This was the first Fairbanks film with a Loos scenario, and an early example of her intertitle style involving self-parady, sarcasm, slang, and puns.[4] For example, one title card near the end, referring to the character Pete, said "Ain't he the REEL hero?" The titles of the film were well received and Fairbanks signed a contract to have Loos do the intertitles for his next films.[4]
^Keil, Charlie; Singer, Ben, eds. (2009). American Cinema of the 1910s: Themes and Variations. Rutgers University Press. p. 250. ISBN978-0-813-54445-8.
