The Private Banker

• 1916
• Other, Drama

Pietro, a young Italian workman, loves Lucia, a beautiful young Italian girl. Pietro has for his rival in love, Tony, an Italian idler and crook. Tomaso, foreman of the roadwork, favors the courting of Pietro, for the young Italian is a hard worker and saves his money. Tony and Amato, an elderly Italian crook, plan to start a private bank. Amato purchases bank furniture on the installment plan, and sends Tony forth through the Italian colony to induce his friends to place their savings in Amato's bank at a tempting rate of interest. A large amount of money is thus obtained, and Amato plans to flee with the ill-gotten gains, leaving the Italian workers penniless. The night Amato plans his escape, Tony enters the bank, discovers Amato's plot and kills him. Pietro has followed Tony, who has been acting suspiciously and discovers the crime. He takes the money from Tony and hides it, with a determination to return the funds to the rightful owners later. Tony, through revenge, charges that Pietro killed Amato and stole the money. When Pietro arrives at the scene of work the next morning he is surrounded by a mob of infuriated workmen. Before he can explain, he is overpowered and placed unconscious in the scoop of a large steam shovel. In the meantime, Lucia, who has been ministering to Tony, who was injured, discovers that Tony is the guilty party. She rushes to the locality where her father and the Italian workmen are employed, springs to the steam shovel and stops it just in time to save her lover's life. Pietro then produces the satchel of money, which he had hidden, and explains the entire circumstance to his Italian friends.