Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1914)

Before marriage Mr. and Mrs. Wiggs were employed as coachman and housekeeper to Col. Vanderhurst. The Colonel has disinherited his son, Jack, for marrying a girl connected with circus people. A few years later Jack is killed by an accident and the widow appeals to the Colonel, but he refuses to assist her. After many years of hard struggle the widow dies, leaving Lovey Mary, a girl of fourteen, to the care of a sister, her only relative, who is married to a circus proprietor, a man of brutal temper. She gives to her sister her marriage certificate and Lovey Mary's birth certificate, and to Lovey Mary a locket containing the portraits of herself and husband. Mr. and Mrs. Wiggs have married and have five children. Owing to a strike at the works where Wiggs is employed they are suffering great hardships. The works are controlled by a millionaire politician, Murphy. His stepson, Bob, manager of the works, is in sympathy with the strikers, being especially interested in the Wiggs family, whom he helps. Murphy's nephew, Stephen, is extremely jealous of Bob and spies upon him. Stephen tells Murphy that Bob is helping the strikers and is the cause of his being discharged. Through the kindness of an old friend Bob eventually becomes a successful attorney. Mr. Wiggs determines to go to another town in search of work. He there meets Lovey Mary's uncle, the circus proprietor, and is engaged by him as ringmaster. Mrs. Wiggs, deserted by her husband, has a terrible struggle with poverty. Lovey Mary has been taken home to the circus by her aunt, where she leads a life of a drudge. Several years elapse; times are harder than ever with Mrs. Wiggs and Jim, her eldest son, dies through overwork and exposure. Colonel Vanderhurst, Lovey Mary's grandfather, now old and lonely, repents of his hardness to his son's widow and makes a will in her and Lovey Mary's favor. They cannot be found so an advertisement is inserted in the papers by the lawyers. The advertisement is seen by Lovey Mary's uncle, who plots to substitute his own daughter for Lovey Mary. Wiggs has fallen in love with one of the circus performers, Cordelia, by whom he has a child named Tommy. Mary has become passionately fond of little Tommy, and when her uncle, with a view of getting her out of the way, tells her he has secured a situation for her she runs away, taking with her little Tommy rather than be parted from him. Before leaving she takes her uncle's key from his pocket while he sleeps, opens his cash box and secures the locket that her mother had given her and which he has taken from her, and also the marriage and birth certificates. Her uncle pursues her and catches her in a barn. He is about to rob her when Bob, hearing her cries, rescues her and takes her to his house. The next morning, after Bob has gone to the city, her uncle tries to get into the house and Mary, seeing him through the window is terrified, picks up little Tommy, rushes to the railroad tracks and scrambles into a freight car just on the move. Her uncle sees her escaping, too late to catch her. By fate the freight car in which Lovey Mary has traveled stops close to the cabbage patch and Billy Wiggs, noticing the forlorn little figure, takes her to his mother's house. They arrive just as Mrs. Wiggs and her three girls with the geographical names, Europenia, Asia and Australia, assisted by Chris Hazy, are in the midst of preparations for Miss Hazy and Mr. Stubbin's wedding. During the wedding festivities Lovey Mary leaves the parlor and goes into the kitchen to put little Tommy to sleep, giving him her locket to play with. As Tommy falls to sleep there is a knock at the door and Mary, going to see who it is, is kidnapped by her uncle, who, the next day, having secured the marriage and birth certificates, presents himself and daughter to claim the fortune. The firm of lawyers representing the Colonel's estate is the one in which Bob is junior partner and he suspects that the circus proprietor is crooked and determines to watch him. He therefore journeys to where the circus is showing, which happens to be the town in which the cabbage patch is situated. While there he calls on Mrs. Wiggs. When Mary disappeared Mrs. Wiggs discovered the locket and recognized the portraits of her old master's son and his wife. She tells Bob of this and it confirms his suspicions. Stephen, still cashier at the works, has been leading a double life. Murphy discovers that his books are wrong, tells Stephen that he will examine them that night and put them in the safe. Stephen is terrified, as there are a lot of defalcations. That night he steals into the works, hides himself in Murphy's office, and when Murphy comes to examine the books stuns him, rifles the safe and sets fire to the place. Stephen, having seen Bob in town, plans to turn suspicion on him and goes to his hotel, steals into his room and hides some of the papers taken from the safe among his belongings. After Miss Hazy's wedding, Stebbins being drunk, the neighbors carry him to a freight car, thinking that he will be taken away, but before the car starts a porter discovers him and orders him off. He wanders back to town still half intoxicated, and passing the gates of the work he falls through into the yard. As he is picking himself up Stephen steals out. Stubbing speaks to him about seeing smoke coming from the building, but Stephen assures him that everything is all right and takes him to a saloon. Later when the fire occurs Stubbins accuses Stephen, who again quiets him with drink and money. Bob in disguise follows the proprietor to the gambling den, where he has hidden Mary, and after desperate dangers rescues Mary just as they are about to murder her and takes her back to Mrs. Wiggs. On the day of the fire Bob and Murphy have a quarrel publicly, and this gives rise to a rumor that the fire and Murphy's death were caused by Bob and he is therefore arrested. The police search his room and find the papers taken from the safe. He is committed for trial. The night before the trial, Stubbins, who has been drunk for a considerable period and has not heard of Bob's arrest, meets Mary and she tells him about it. He thereupon denounces Stephen and promises to appear as a witness against him the next day. Through his evidence Bob is eventually set free and Stephen takes his place. Bob and Lovey Mary are on their way to Mrs. Wiggs to tell her that they are about to get married, when they meet Wiggs and persuade him to go back to his wife, Lovey Mary, saying that she will adopt little Tommy and Mrs. Wiggs need know nothing about Cordelia. Wiggs goes with them and is forgiven by his wife. Stubbins, having received an army pension, turns over a new leaf and goes back to Miss Hazy and the tale closes with Bob and Mary. Miss Hazy and Mr. Stubbins, Mr. and Mrs. Wiggs all happy and receiving the congratulations of the various inhabitants of the cabbage patch.