A six-year-old accidentally saves two men from ruin—by wanting candy and playing horse.
John Harms, a corporation magnate, has two motherless sons, Bobby and Sam. Bobby is a cute little youngster of six, and Sam is of age and spends his father's money with recklessness. Richard Freely, an arch-enemy of Harms', is continually trying to dissolve the corporation, and not until Newton, a half-brother to Freely, has forged some checks on a good friend of Harms', does the financier secure a wedge with which to ruin Freely. Harms threatens to expose his enemy for defending Newton, and Freely is saved from bodily injury by Bobby, who has come to ask his father for candy. Meantime Sam has forged his father's name to a check and handed it to Newton in payment of gambling debts. Harms is about to sacrifice his son to down Freely, when the little "Buffer' again bursts in and drags Sam away to play horse.
Acting
Master Rockwell's chaotic child energy steals every scene.
Writing
Absurd plot where candy cravings solve corporate espionage.
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Nearly all 1914 silent films are considered lost; if this survives, it likely exists only in fragment form or archival holding.
The 'child buffer' trope—innocence interrupting adult moral failures—became a silent era staple, peaking with Jackie Coogan's stardom later that decade.
US
