Patsy at School

Patsy Bolivar is always in hard luck, and everything he attempts invariably goes wrong. When the careless housemaid substitutes salt for sugar in the sugar bowl, Patsy is thrashed for it by an over-severe parent. When she leaves something on the floor for the master of the house to stumble over he is beaten for that. He has an evil genius, or hoodoo, known as Sykesy, who, finding it an easy matter to commit all kinds of offenses and have the blame thrown on Patsy, works his nefarious power without stint. At the opening of this number "Jack Prince," a summer boarder with the Bolivar family, entrusts a letter to Patsy for delivery, which contains an offer of marriage to Mary Clare the schoolmistress. But Patsy, fancying that he himself is in love with Mary, jealously gives the letter to Sykesy to deliver, and gathers a large bunch of flowers for the object of his secret affections. On the way to school, Sykesy reads the letter from Jack to Mary, discovers that by the change of one word he can make it the reverse of what was intended, and in this form the letter is delivered. When Patsy places the bouquet on the schoolmistress' desk, Sykesy sprinkles pepper over it. When both these faults are discovered and Patsy is sent supperless to bed, he registers a solemn vow that for the rest of his life he is going to keep busy licking every man, woman or child who says there is no such thing as bad luck. In Jane Sykes, sister of Sykesy, Patsy has his one champion in the school aside from his little sister, Kitty. She does not attract him, however, for when he is not dreaming of Mary, he favors another schoolgirl, Tillie Grace, who has already selected Sykesy as her sweetheart. —Moving Picture World synopsis