The Great Drought
A dramatic story of ranch life in the west during the season of no rain
Written by LANIER BARTLETT. Produced by COLIN CAMPBELL
JIM HARKER Thoi:
Helen, His Daughter Bessie Eyton
Wheeler Oakman
Gillian Hayward
ANDY CMK .
HIS SISTER Lillian Clark
SENOR DOMINGUEZ Al. Ernest Garcia
DARIUS WHEELER George Hernandez
SQUIRE EGAN Pr — - -
DOCTOR O'SUIUTAH I
JIM HARKER is a landlord of the cruelist type. Harker evicts the Widow Cline with her son Andy from the
house which he owns. It is their only home, but they cannot pay the rent. The community is so aroused by
Harker's action that his own family is ostracized, and the innocent wife and daughter Helen, who are not in sympathy with Harker's policy, are made to suffer for his sins. Finally he is driven out of town entirely and moves
to the far West to try ranching.
In the meantime, kind neighbors provide a purse to send the Clines west. It chances that the Harkers and the
Clines take up land in neighboring valleys, without knowing the presence of the other. Harker goes in for ranching
on a large scale. His funds are low, but he pledges his crops in payment for the installments on the land, which is held
by a brutal fellow named Dominguez. An old squaw appeals to Harker for food. He uses his usual brutal measures
on her, and she utters against him a terrible curse. "The Drought be upon you." True, a terrible drought visits the
region that season. Dominguez sees how things are going and calls for a pledge for the coming season. Dominguez
has conceived a passion for Helen, but Helen loathes him. Dominguez proposes to Harker that he yield him his
daughter in marriage if by the seventh day from date no rain has fallen. The craven father agrees, and signs a document to this effect. The seventh day approaches without rain. Jim Harker is finally brought to his knees by his agony
of mind, and goes out into his parched fields, falls on his knees and prays with tragic eloquence for rain. As Jim Harker
prays, the clouds roll in, and rain falls on his upturned face. In the meantime the
Clines have struck water and prospered. On this day when the rain falls Helen Harker
mounts her pony and goes in desperation to bring help for her little brother, who lies
stricken with fever. She has heard of the neighboring ranch and rides that way. She
. comes face to face with Andy Cline. The Clines come to her assistance, and Harker,
1 now abjectedly asks the Widow Cline's forgiveness for the terrible wrong he had done
|her.
Dominguez, hurrying toward Harker's ranch on the last day of grace to claim
I Helen, is overtaken by the rain. With the philosophy of the gambler, he tears up the
I pledge signed by Harker and returns to town.
WILUAH M. «|F<3; FJ?°M ™EC COLLECTION OF
. ,Z7 CHARLES G. CLARKE
