Jane is terribly stagestruck and, possessed of an ambition to play the heroines of Shakespeare, especially Ophelia, her ambition causes her to scorn Moore, an honest young fireman who has been appointed to duty in a vaudeville theater. ...See moreJane is terribly stagestruck and, possessed of an ambition to play the heroines of Shakespeare, especially Ophelia, her ambition causes her to scorn Moore, an honest young fireman who has been appointed to duty in a vaudeville theater. Thinking to give her a lesson, he secures her an opportunity on amateur night, and grimly watches her reception by the hooting, yelling gallery and scornful occupants of the orchestra and boxes. But when Jane's Ophelia causes the gallery to pelt her with vegetables and draws insulting remarks from the young rowdies below, Moore dashes to the stage, and by descending into the orchestra and beating one young rowdy, and threatening the rest of the house with a similar fate, and throwing the stage man with the "hook" into the alley, he gives Jane an opportunity to proceed with her tryout. Humiliated, Jane leaves the stage and hides in her dressing-room in tears. Later, during the regular performance, fire breaks out on the stage, and a panic is averted by the fireman, who gets the audience safely out of the theater before leaving the burning stage to seek his girl. He finds her the last to attempt to leave, all the actresses and stage crew have escaped. All means of escape by stairs, elevator or fire-escape is cut off by walls of flame. Wrapping the girl up in wet sheets he manages to reach the roof, and just in time is able to get her to another roof, where the firemen are playing on the flames and thus make their escape. Cured by a double lesson, Jane renounces the stage and its role for the better part of "just a wife." Written by
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