IN THE SWITCH TOWER stars Walter Edwards (who also directed) as Bill Wharton, a middle-aged alcoholic who was once a leading engineer with a railroad. Wharton is estranged from his son Joel (Frank Borzage), who now works as an executive with the railroad, but Frank does send him money through Bill's longtime friend, Louis Hall (Robert Hall).
Tom Chatterton is called a coward because he will not enlist in the Home Guard during the Civil War -- his mother is dying and he does not wish to leave while she is still alive. When she dies and the Yankees attack, he seizes command of the Home Guard and leads them to victory, proving himself a hero and dying in the process.
An Easterner wins his battles in the West by using his fists.
When the Civil War begins, young Billy runs away from home to enlist in the Northern Army as a drummer; he's wounded in battle and taken prisoner. He manages to escape and deliver an important message to his commanding officer, but loses his life in the process. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2007.
Tom Carson, a southerner, with his daughter, Grace, is the keeper of the Grey Sentinel Lighthouse. John Adams, the sweetheart of Grace, returns from West Point and joins the southern cause; he, however, spying for the Union Army. A fierce battle takes place between the Confederate and Union forces in which the former are victorious. Hal Peters, a southern officer and an admirer of Grace, is surprised to find among his captives. John Adams.
A white slaver impersonates the heir to an English estate, but the rightful heir reappears and exposes the imposter.
Annie Crum, a country girl, dissatisfied with country life and anxious to go to the city, runs away from her uncle guardian and country lover and goes to the city. She loves John Harding, her country lover, but has told him that she could never be contented with the drudgery of the farm.
The setting is an early American village, where a young Quaker woman, Priscilla, is in love with the schoolmaster, John Hart. The local minister, Rev. Cole, who calls on her at her cabin with flowers, is an unwelcome suitor. In revenge, he has "blue laws" passed, among them is one requiring attendance at church on Sunday. Priscilla refuses to comply with the law and is arrested. After being plunged in and out of water and pilloried, she is banished from the colony. John goes with her. They are attacked by Indians and John is badly wounded. Priscilla manages to get back to the village in time to warn the Puritans of an impending attack. They defeat the Indians after a desperate battle. The Rev. Cole, who has been mortally wounded, begs Priscilla's forgiveness and the Puritans make amends for their harsh treatment of her.
In The Struggle (Broncho, 1913) a prospector and his son Bob depart from home in the morning, while the wife, at home, offers food to a passing stranger. His shifting eyes reveal his nature; he assaults her, and although her husband and son return in time to save her, the father is killed in the ensuing fight. The stranger gets away, but five years later Bob, now a government scout, recognizes the stranger just as he is accused of cheating at cards.
John Zeldon, the newly elected State senator and pledged to fight for the Miners' Bill, requiring the installation of new safety devices in the coal mines, in his speech to the miners the night before his departure, assures them that they can count on him to the last ditch.On his arrival in the capital he is taken up by Mr. Whalen, the brains of the lobby and secretly its chief, who flatters John and invites him out with a brilliant set of men and women who make a lion of him in order to gain his vote against the proposed bill. John's head is turned by their flattery and when Hazel Flemming, his fiancée and star reporter on his home paper, comes to the capitol for an interview with John, she is amazed to find him wavering and realizes the fight is lost unless she can make him realize the mistake he is making. To do this she has a phantom extra printed telling in thrilling headlines of a horrible accident in the coal mines, wherein 200 miners have lost their lives
Johnny Firth is a young prize fighter who, because of wine, woman and song, is knocked out. He leaves for the west with his manager, who is broke, because of Johnny's defeat. They arrive in Arizona and Johnny beats up a big bully there named Mason, because he has stolen from an old character called Nutty Ike, his bag of nuggets. Nutty Ike introduces the two men to his daughter and makes them his partners in a gold mine he has discovered in the desert. Mason trails them and there is a big fight at the mine, also in the interior.
Jim Black, learning that his rival, David Durard, son of Colonel Durard, wealthy Southern wholesale grocers, has won the heart of Marion, plans to separate the lovers before war breaks out.
Bill Evers, a gambling house keeper, is in reality the "Desert Scourge," an outlaw.
"Bat" Peters, reformed gunfighter turned prospector, travels to Chicago to collect on a business deal with a mine promoter who turns out to be crooked.
Mr. Barr is a young husband who is inclined to neglect his wife for the other woman. He refuses to accompany her shopping one afternoon and leaves, meeting another girl, whom he takes to the theater. Mrs. Barr is all broken up. She is visited by a friend who suggests that they go to a matinee. They do so and Mrs. Barr discovers Mr. Barr in a box with the other woman. She leaves very much broken up. She attempts suicide on a railroad track, but is frightened by the rumbling of the train. She next visits a drug store where her nervous manner gives away her intention to the druggist. Instead of giving her cyanide of potassium as she requests he gives her a bottle of plain water, marking it cyanide of potassium.
A story of Puritan village life. The son of a minister wins a girl away from her devoted fisherman. Orphaned, she is adopted by the minister, and when her child is born refuses to reveal the father's name. She is cast out by the minister and scorned by the people. When her child is dying the fisherman comes back to her with unfaltering love, and the minister's son meets a tragic death at the hands of the Indians.
Rev. Horace Brightray, pastor of a New England village church, is ordered by his physician to seek another climate. He goes to Agua Caliente, where he attempts to hold services in the hotel dining room, but nobody attends excepting the hotel clerk and maid, and a dance hall girl, Bubbles. The proprietor of the Legal Tender saloon is very bitter toward Horace and commands them not to attend services. Horace is soon out of funds and is ejected from the hotel. Sick and hopeless, he goes to the Legal Tender and slaps Frosty across the face with his hat, feeling sure it will mean death to him.
Mildred is staying with her grandfather, Civil War veteran Jabez Burr, when she receives a letter from her father. Her father has re-married, and will be bringing his new wife home soon. But when Mildred's stepmother finds out that Jabez drinks, she takes a dislike to him, and begins to resent his closeness with Mildred...
The Reaping is a 1913 silent film.
Juan Capella, the son of a poor Spanish tavern keeper, and his wife, learning of the discovery of gold on the American River near Sacramento, runs away from his parents and sweetheart to make his fortune. The tavern keeper is in debt and places a mortgage on the tavern in order to prevent it being seized to pay another debt.
