A Providential Tragedy - Production & Contact Info (original) (raw)

Jack Baxter is offered a job on a ranch and he leaves his little wife, Mary, promising to send for her as soon as he can get enough money together. A little son arrives and Mary is sick and the babe weak. She sends a letter to Jack, ...See moreJack Baxter is offered a job on a ranch and he leaves his little wife, Mary, promising to send for her as soon as he can get enough money together. A little son arrives and Mary is sick and the babe weak. She sends a letter to Jack, telling him to come to her. He receives it and aches to be with her. He goes to the boss to ask for an advance to take him home. He selects a bad time for the boss is naturally a bad-tempered man and he has just had a quarrel with Ben, a cowboy, and has beaten him badly. The boss refuses Jack. They have high words, which are heard by Grace, the boss's daughter, and some of the boys. As night draws on Jack determines to make a last appeal to the boss. He goes to his library and is talking with him when the door opens and Ben appears, crazed for revenge over the beating he received. He shoots the boss in the back, throws the revolver down by the body and escapes. Jack is horrified and kneels by the dead man. The shot has attracted the cowboys and one rushes into the room and accuses Jack of the crime. Jack sees a delay and his one thought is to get away to his wife. He overpowers the cowboy and being met at the outer door by other cowboys, he rushes up the stairs and barricades himself in a room. While his pursuers are breaking down the door, he knots some sheets together and lets himself down. He gets on a horse and makes for the desert. Half across the desert he comes upon a broken down prairie schooner, in which are a dying woman with a little baby. Jack promises to care for the babe, and in order to sink his identity he changes clothes with the woman's husband, who will never need them anymore. Jack eventually arrives home to find his wife dangerously ill. Owing to grief over the short life of her baby, he takes it to his heart and his interest in it saves his wife's life as well as the baby's. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis See less