D. W. Griffith

“ At the end of the Civil War he escapes to his father's home in France rather than submit to the Yankees.
The flag of the Confederacy.
"I shall never surrender! I shall go to a foreign land."
For a small price he purchases the run-down home of his forefathers, and lives in this foreign land—the sole citizen of the Confederate States of America.
With the passing of a generation he is again alone, save for his one grandchild, a young blossom from the old stock.
Her New York chum at the Paris school visits Mademoiselle Atoline while touring Europe with her family. ”

“ The pride of the Turnverein—half drunk and half German.
"If they start a war and America gets in——"
"Americans fight, eh! Put up your fists and show me!"
"Just a couple more words and he'd have had me started."
The day of Mademoiselle Atoline's return home.
"Remember my promise—if you ever need me, I will come."
NOTE:—So in an olden day young Americans may have promised Lafayette.
Now comes the day that shall live as long as history—August 3rd, 1914—and her betrothed goes with the legions of France.
Memories that will not die. ”

“ The same to-day as yesterday
The Loom of Fate weaves death for the Boy's father.
The exodus after a time of waiting. Forced to seek employment elsewhere, many victims of the Jenkins' aspirations go to the great city nearby—the Boy among them.
¶ A friendless one—alone—as the result of the strike.
¶ So too, the Dear One—and her father.
¶ Fate leads them all to the same district.
¶ The Boy unable to find work—at last—
¶ And again in Babylon. ”

“ WOODROW WILSON
¶ "The white men were roused by a mere instinct of self-preservation.....until at last there had sprung into existence a great Ku Klux Klan, a veritable empire of the South, to protect the Southern country."
WOODROW WILSON
¶ The uncrowned king.
¶ The Executive Mansion of the Nation has shifted from the White House to this strange house on the Capitol Hill,
¶ Stoneman's protege, Silas Lynch, mulatto leader of the blacks. ”

“ In the tenement district, a simpler repast—her last in Babylon.
At the table of Egibi, Babylonia's greatest noble.
NOTE—Following Babylonian custom, the feasting lasts many days.
¶ Spiced wine, made cool with snow from the mountains.
¶ Soldiers, barbarians and camp followers.
The Rhapsode, having completed his arrangements for the journey, turns to thoughts of love.
¶ Thinking only of Belshazzar, her hero, The Mountain Girl leads on the love-sick boy, until—
——as always since the beginning of time between man and maid, boasting, he tells everything he knows. ”

“ With them I will build a Black Empire and you as a Queen shall sit by my side."
¶ Summoning the Clans.
¶ Lynch, drunk with wine and power, orders his henchmen to hurry preparations for a forced marriage.
¶ "I want to marry a white woman."
¶ The Clans being assembled in full strength, ride off on their appointed mission.
¶ And meanwhile, other fates—
¶ "The lady I want to marry is your daughter."
¶ The town given over to crazed negroes brought in by Lynch and Stoneman to overawe the whites.
¶ White spies disguised.
¶ The Union veterans refuse to allow Dr. Cameron to give himself up. ”

“ ACT II.
¶ In this last act the events portrayed in Babylon are according to the recently excavated cylinders of Nabonidus and Cyrus, that relate Babylon's betrayal by the priests of Bel.
¶ These cylinders describe the greatest treason of all history, by which a civilization of countless ages was destroyed, and a universal written language (the cuneiform) was made to become an unknown cypher on the face of the earth.
¶ In our modern story, The Musketeer, inflamed by a new face wins the unsuspecting little mother's confidence with a promise to recover her baby. ”

“ Oily is a grafter—has to be bribed to leave.
While brother Ralph steals away to duty.
After several stops on the way—
"I am going to war."
"We're a fighting family—my brother's gone to war."
Cutie Beautiful meets an old friend.
Mademoiselle Atoline brings the glad news of America's part.
Now comes the draft.
"Father, look what's happened."
Father, interested in ship building, declares son essential.
Playing with fire.
Cutie loves jewels, but—
A heavyweight job—juggling time cards. ”

“ You are the equal of any man here."
¶ The great Radical delivers his edict that the blacks shall be raised to full equality with the whites.
¶ Senator Sumner calls.
¶ Forced to recognize the mulatto's position.
¶ The Senator urges a less dangerous policy in the extension of power to the freed race.
¶ "I shall make this man, Silas Lynch, as a symbol of his race, the peer of any white man living.
¶ Sowing the wind.
¶ Stoneman, ill at his daughter's apartments, sends Lynch South to aid the carpetbaggers in organizing and wielding the power of the negro vote. ”

“ John McCormack
64791
The upper part of her sad—but the feet still rag-time.
Americans begin the great advance.
Angered by her taunt, he orders her with the other refugees into Germany.
"Fight men—not women." ”

“ Ben Cameron, who has been committed to your hospital.
Lovingly your bro.
Phil
¶ "Though we had never met, I have carried you about with me for a long, long time."
¶ Mother Cameron comes from Piedmont to visit her stricken eldest boy.
¶ "I am going into that room to my boy. You may shoot if you want to."
¶ The army surgeon tells of a secret influence that has condemned Col. Cameron to be hanged as a guerilla.
¶ "We will ask mercy from the Great Heart."
¶ The mother's appeal
¶ "Mr. Lincoln has given back your life to me." ”

“ The Boy's sentence.
"Please—Mister Judge—"
"To be hanged by the neck until dead, dead, dead!"
¶ The Kindly Officer on the beat learns of the sentence.
"The people everywhere are singing your praises."
¶ The irresistible impulse.
¶ In his distant camp, Cyrus awaits the priests.
¶ The Mountain Girl's bold pursuit. ”

“ FREEDMANS BUREAU.
¶ "Ef I doan' get 'nuf franchise to fill mah bucket, I doan' want it nohow."
¶ The love strain is still heard above the land's miserere.
¶ The love token.
¶ Bitter memories will not allow the poor bruised heart of the South to forget.
¶ Still a North and a South.
¶ Pride battles with love for the heart's conquest.
¶ "I'll watch you safely home."
¶ Love's rhapsodies and love's tears.
¶ Election day.
¶ All blacks are given the ballot, while the leading whites are disfranchised.
¶ Receiving the returns.
¶ The negroes and carpetbaggers sweep the state. ”

“ Huguenots—the Protestant party of this period.
¶ The great Protestant leader, the Admiral Coligny, head of the Huguenot party.
"What a wonderful man, the Admiral Coligny, if he only thought as we do."
"What a wonderful king, if he only thought as we do."
¶ The King's favor to Coligny increases the hatred of the opposite party.
¶ Celebrating the betrothal of Marguerite of Valois, sister of the King, to Henry of Navarre, royal Huguenot, to insure peace in the place of intolerance. ”

“ Intolerance
¶ Our first story—out of the cradle of the present.
¶ In a western city we find certain ambitious ladies banded together for the "uplift" of humanity.
Even reform movements must be financed.
"If we can only interest Miss Jenkins—with her money—"
A little affair is being given by Mary T. Jenkins, unmarried sister of the autocratic industrial overlord—
¶ Seeing youth drawn to youth, Miss Jenkins realizes the bitter fact that she is no longer a part of the younger world. ”

“ Cameron.
¶ Awaiting her father's expected arrival.
¶ The social lion of the new aristocracy.
¶ The little cabin occupied by two Union veterans becomes their refuge.
¶ The former enemies of North and South are united again in common defence of their Aryan birthright.
¶ Her father failing to return, and ignorant of Lynch's designs on her, Elsie goes to the mulatto leader for help.
¶ Lynch's proposal of marriage.
¶ Lynch's reply to her threat of a horsewhipping for his insolence.
¶ "See! My people fill the streets. ”

“ I did it, I did it!"
¶ The attempt to overtake the governor before he reaches the train.
¶ Her long wait rewarded, she goes to warn Belshazzar of the new advance on Babylon.
¶ The last Sacrament.
¶ No. 8, after the train, leaps with a new impulse.
Intolerance, burning and slaying.
In the doomed city.
"Our marriage will be announced tomorrow."
"This bud will blossom—tomorrow."
"Beloved, I will begin building your city—tomorrow."
¶ Cyrus sweeps on to Babylon's destruction.
"Medici, the old cat, is scratching out the lives of all your people." ”

“ Governor.
¶ Celebrating their victory at the polls.
¶ Encouraged by Stoneman's radical doctrines, Lynch's love looks high.
¶ "The little Colonel" relates a series of outrages that have occurred.
¶ "The case was tried before a negro magistrate and the verdict rendered against the whites by the negro jury."
¶ Even while he talks, their own faithful family servant is punished for not voting with the Union League and Carpetbaggers.
¶ The faithful soul enlists Dr. ”

“ INCLUDING HAT CHECK
"Ten o'clock! They should be in bed so they can work tomorrow."
¶ And now our fourth story of love's struggle against Intolerance, in that distant time when all the nations of the earth sat at the feet of Babylon.
¶ Outside of Imgur Bel, the great gate of Babylon, in the time of Belshazzar, 539 B. C.
¶ Merchants, farmers, East Indians, with trains of elephants, Egyptians, Numidians, and ambitious Persians spying upon the city.
The Mountain Girl down from the mountains of Suisana. ”

“ HOTEL
¶ The aftermath.
¶ At the sea's edge, the double honeymoon.
¶ Dare we dream of a golden day when the bestial War shall rule no more.
¶ But instead—the gentle Prince in the Hall of Brotherly Love in the City of Peace.
¶ "Liberty and union, one and inseparable, now and forever!"
THE BIRTH OF A NATION
¶ THE END
Copyright 1915David W. GriffithCorporation
↑ Inconsistent with the format of the rest of the film, this particular intertitle was centered and did not contain a pilcrow. ”