Short film

A Lord and his wife are visited by their cousin as he is presenting her with the famous Great Ruby of Irskaat, a family heirloom, stirring the cupidity of the new-comer. Later on the Lord receives a call to arms and goes off to war, but not before having buried the gemstone and left his castle and his wife to the care of his trusted servants. The cousin sees his departure as a godsend to get hold of the gemstone, and makes the lady believe that he is there to protect her.

A mountebank’s son leaves to study medicine, as dreamed up by his father who wants a more respectable life for him. The son returns as a graduate, but what his father does not know is that he married Marie, a dancer of his dad’s touring troupe, and became a father himself. Time goes by…

Captivated by circus shows, the farmer’s son decides to leave and become a horserider. The circus manager takes him under his wing, looks after him like his own son and helps him to become a great artist. When the circus comes into town, the father feels like the proudest man on Earth when he sees the work of his son, who is definitely the best horserider of the circus.

Max and Eugen Skladanowsky, inventors of the Bioscop (« Bioskop » in German) are known for having showed a film during one of the first public paying shows at the Berlin Wintergaten music hall on November 1, 1895.

The young Max left, like a chick, spends at the fair of the throne the few pieces pierced by his mother, when he stops, seized, in front of a barracks where a superb bearded woman parades. He opens such hypnotized eyes that the clown Pipalasse engages him in his troop. Wearing a bear skin, Max is trained as Martin. But soon, O disillusionment, our young first discovers that beard of his idol was false. Heartbroken, he fled, wearing his bear skin, sowing fear in his path. Pursued, distraught, he finally arrives at his parent's home.