Their Sinful Influence

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Among the Rev. Dr. Carr's wealthy congregation are Mrs. King and Mrs. Croll, two rival social leaders. Despite the objections of Dr. and Mrs. Carr, and Herb Bright, Rose's boyhood sweetheart, Rose Carr decides to accept an invitation to a fashionable dog dinner given by Mrs. King. Earl Bayley, a wealthy society man, a ne'er-do-well, eager to meet Rose, the minister's daughter, is also a guest. At the dinner, Rose tastes wine for the first time, smokes her first cigarette and learns the ways of the ultra-fashionable woman of the world. Bayley and Rose become acquainted, and Rose resents Herb's objections. Mrs. King gives a second function, a Grecian Fete, where Rose and Bayley again meet, and where Herb witnesses a love scene between them. The Rev. Dr. Carr objects to Rose attending Mrs. King's third function, a Babylonian Marriage Mart, but Rose coaxes her mother to permit her to attend. Herb denounces her and breaks their engagement. A few days later Mrs. Croll decides to give a function that will eclipse any of those of her rival, and Rose is invited to an indoor surf bathing tea. At this society event, Bayley again demonstrates his affection for Rose. At the minister's home, the Rev. Dr. Carr and his wife discuss the great change that has come over their daughter. Mrs. Carr is filled with remorse to think of the part she has played in aiding her daughter to adopt the ways of the women of the world, and she confesses to her husband that Rose is now at Mrs. Croll's surf bathing tea. Bayley, taking advantage of Mrs. Croll's absence from the room, endeavors to attack Rose, but her cries for assistance are heard. Dr. Carr, in the meantime, has gone to Mrs. Croll's home for his daughter. Together with Mrs. Croll, he enters the room and saves his daughter from the sinful influence under which she has been living. The following Sunday the Rev. Dr. Carr in a bitter sermon denounces the women for their part in having attempted to pollute the mind of his daughter, and as he repeats the story of the part each society woman has played in these affairs, the congregation is astounded, and the society women leave the church for good.