Across the Divide - Production & Contact Info

Across the Divide (1909)
Short | Short, Western

Across the Divide (1909)

Short | Short, Western

Not many years ago, in a little California town, there lived a miner, who, with the combined energy of hard labor and perseverance, had proved successful in his endeavor and eventually accumulated quite a bit of "gold dust." The time ...See moreNot many years ago, in a little California town, there lived a miner, who, with the combined energy of hard labor and perseverance, had proved successful in his endeavor and eventually accumulated quite a bit of "gold dust." The time arrives for him to repair to the settlement, many miles distant, in order to obtain provisions for the winter. Wherefore, he bids goodbye to his wife and sister and starts down the trail with his pack train of burrows, accompanied by an Indian guide who has been his companion and friend for years. After covering many weary miles of travel. John Barton, our miner friend, reaches his destination, and forthwith exchanges his gold dust for coin. Now, in this very settlement, a gambler named Bob Mason holds absolute sway at the "Red Light," its principal gambling resort. He employs "coppers" to seek out just such characters as Barton, who is accosted by one of them as an old acquaintance, and is induced to enter the gambling den. Now, the Indian, well aware of the miner's love for the game, and feeling assured that his friend's customary recklessness will result in the loss of his hard-earned money, attempts to dissuade him from playing. It is of no avail; the fever of the game is upon him, and his better judgment is crushed in his longing to chance his luck. He plays. The result is a complete loss for him. Frantic in the realization of all that this loss means for him, he attacks the faro dealer, charging him with unfair methods, and 'tis only by the intervention of the latter's numerous friends that the miner is dragged from him and thrust into the street. Alone, with the exception of his faithful guide, Barton faces the future. In despair he sees a severe winter before him, coupled with almost complete poverty. There is but one thing to do in order to procure the bare necessities of life for his wife and sister. He disposes of his pack train, all but one burro, and with the proceeds of this sale he purchases flour and bacon, loads same on his weary mule, and, footsore and faint at heart, begins his long march homeward. Arriving there, he confesses everything to his wife, who, true to her woman's instinct, forgives his recklessness, while he, with the promptings of her great love and hearty encouragement, takes up the burden of more hard labor for the regaining of what he has lost. Summer has come to an end, and fall has set in, when a deputy sheriff arrives at the miner's cabin and posts a notice of reward amounting to $2,000 for the capture of Bob Mason, the gambler, charged with having killed the sheriff of Inyo County. Now, as fate would have it. Mason, in effecting his escape, has been seriously wounded by a posse in pursuit, and eventually finds himself, weak with loss of blood and faint from hunger, at the very door of the man he had robbed. Barton is away prospecting, but his wife and sister take the almost unconscious man into the shelter of their cabin. They use every means in their power to alleviate his suffering and restore him to strength, but without avail, for his wounds are fatal. Meanwhile, the Indian, recognizing the gambler, hastens to Barton and acquaints him of what is transpiring at his home. Upon hearing the news, his smoldering desire for revenge leaps aflame, and determining to deliver his enemy to justice and claim the reward, he hurries homeward. On his way he encounters the posse, tells them of the whereabouts of their quarry, and all repair to the cabin just after Mason has expired. Now, let us return to a scene which occurs just prior to the gambler's death. The tortured soul, tortured not only with bodily pain but because of the realization of his many misdeeds, relents as the end draws near. He calls his two faithful nurses to him, and urged by a nature part good and bad, makes restitution to the man he had defrauded by delivering to the wife a large wallet well filled with currency. He then entreats the women to pray for him, and as they comply with his request, his soul passes on to the great unfathomable unknown, while they utter the words: "There is more joy in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance." Thereupon the miner and the posse enter and stand with uncovered heads in the presence of a law, not of man's making, but a law and a destiny enacted and controlled by the great Law Maker above. John Barton's rough heart is touched at his wife's recital of what has transpired, and he dismisses the posse, assuring them that he will take charge of the, burial. This is done, and as the months pass on, fortune once more favors him; he makes a rich strike and is soon beyond the clutches of poverty or want. But, in the contentment and happiness of his home life, he never forgets the lonely little grave on the hillside, which he covers with the simple wild flowers, perhaps emblematic of the wild, untamed, roving life of the man that lies beneath. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis See less

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