User Reviews

There are two very interesting character portrayals in this dramatic story of a western farming country. It is an unusual picture with a mystical thread in it, for those who want to find it. Its principal character, Jim Harker (Thomas Santschi) is a hardhearted, scornful man. The object of the picture is to show the breaking down of this man's pride and the bringing of him to his knees. The means it uses, and for this we most commend it, are not mere hard luck nor, as it seems natural forces, but all that is most evil in the man unites with all that is good in a dramatic struggle which grows tenser and tenser, until just at the close of a famine-making drought, he prays. This struggle is the center of the picture and every other character in it is used solely to bring out its human qualities. Our first view of Harker shows him a hard landlord, but one who will face a mob. Next we see him a hard father to his daughter, who loves a poor man. Next he is shown as scornfully rebuking his wife for teaching his little son to pray. There is now introduced an old hag, very worthily presented, who acts as the caller down of vengeance. The author, Lanier Bartlett, deserves high praise, as also does the producer, Colin Camphell. Mrs. Harkner is Anna Dodge; the daughter, Bessie Eyton; her poor lover W. Oakman; his mother, Lillian Hayward; his sister, Lillian Clark; Domingucz, A.E. Garcia. Others who appear are Geo. Hernandez, Frank Richardson and Rob. Chandler. We wish we could tell who played the old hag. She is a very praiseworthy figure. - The Moving Picture World, October 19, 1912