Plot

Pansy ran a restaurant, and because of her good cooking Pansy was much sought after, but she repulsed the local swains with scorn. She declared she would only wed a man who had traveled and knew the world, and that was why fortune smiled upon the fat and impecunious drummer. As a drummer he was not a financial success. He traveled for a musical supply house but found it almost impossible to sell cornets and violins to the farmers in his territory. He was nearly at the end of his resources when he struck the little town where Pansy lived, and a kindly fate led him to her restaurant. It was love at first sight. Something told her that the drummer was in a state of financial stringency, so she showered pies and doughnuts upon him. Another suitor saw all this and was jealous. He was the local policeman, who because he was the only member of the force, had the right to sport the title "Chief" on his helmet. But Pansy did not like him because he was not a big eater. That evening the drummer serenaded Pansy and the policeman arrested him on a charge of being a band without a license. The drummer was cast into jail but Pansy did not forget him. Day after day she appeared outside the cell window and recklessly hurled pies and doughnuts through the bars. The drummer thrived upon this diet and when Pansy urged him to escape he consented. She had concealed a file in one of her pies and with this he busily sawed away at the bars. This happened to be the police chief's hoodoo day. The sheriff, who was also president of the village board, told the chief to keep an eye on the jail while he, the sheriff, went into town on business. The chief stood under the drummer's window and the drummer carefully dropped a loaf of prison bread upon his head. Then the chief lost all interest in the proceedings. The other prisoners had got wind of the drummer's attempted escape, tore down the doors of their cell in frenzy, swarmed into the drummer's cell, and several of them plunged out to safety. The drummer tried to follow them but the doughnuts and pies had made him so plump that he could not pass through, but simply blocked up the opening. The sheriff returned just as the police chief regained his senses, staggered to his feet and remarked, "The jail is out." The sheriff looked up and from what he saw was convinced that the drummer was preventing the escape of the other men. He rushed inside, secured them in his capacity as sheriff, then as president of the town board he ousted the policeman and bestowed his helmet and shield upon the convict drummer. The little town where Pansy lives now boasts of the fattest police chief in the world, and they talk with reverence of his devoted wife who meets him while he is patrolling his beat and lavishes pies and doughnuts upon her jolly husband.—Moving Picture World synopsis