Through Fire to Fortune

Summary

Wall-Street gambler Plunger Barrett stakes his family’s future on a whirlwind of margin calls and disappears beneath a rain of liquor, glass, and concrete; the gavel of an auctioneer scatters yachts, silver, and summer memories like chaff. From the rubble, his widow Jane and grown son Tom inherit only breath and a surname now synonymous with ruin. A single newspaper column—inked by John Pearce, once a deck-chair confidant aboard the lost yacht—beckons Tom into the soot-choked galleries of a Pennsylvania coal empire. Down the shaft he descends, trading linen for lamp-black, learning the lingua franca of pick and tram, while Helen Pearce, coal heiress, trades her velvet admiration for the man who dares plunge bare-handed into a river to rescue a stranger’s child. Jealous Phil Blair, whose courage stops at the water’s edge, conspires with George Bowers—the disgraced partner who once toasted Barrett’s now-mythic fortune—to bar Tom from promotion. Jane, regal even in gingham, rallies the miners’ union; the strike she sparks ricochets through boardrooms until a Supreme Court telegram delivers Pearce clear title to the ghost hamlet of Mayflower. Tom marches westward, co-operative charter in fist, and resurrects a dead vein beneath a town of leaning shacks. Oil, not coal, answers the first drill; a subterranean geyser ignites, turning galleries into chimneys, timbers into torches, and Mayflower into a caldera that swallows itself whole. Blair whispers arson; the mob, nostrils full of sulfur, howls for a scapegoat. As hemp tightens, the earth splits anew—an oil well roaring like a Pentecostal tongue—promising fortunes to match the ashes. Blair skulks away, silhouette branded by the last tongues of flame, while Tom stands unbroken, his mother’s hand in his, surveying a horizon suddenly bright with black gold.

Synopsis

Jane Barrett and her son, Tom, are suddenly beggared by the speculations of her husband, known on Wall Street as Plunger Barrett. At an auction sale, the Barrett yacht, real estate and household effects are sold without reserve to satisfy some of the demands of the creditors. The bankrupt plunger goes to his room, plies himself with liquor, falls out of the window and is killed. It now depends upon Tom to bear the burden of his mother's support. In a newspaper he finds an advertisement offering a position, with promises of advancement, for a young man of education. This is signed by John Pearce, an old friend of the family, who, with his daughter, Helen, has often been a guest on the yacht and in their home. Helen has been attracted by Tom's manly bearing and finds herself gradually weaning her affections away from Phil Blair, an almost accepted lover, who is associated with her father in coal mining. The transfer of her affections comes one day when, out riding with Blair, a child falls from a bridge and he has not the courage to attempt to save her life. This is effected by Tom, and, as a reward, the girl insists upon her father giving the position to Tom. Wishing to begin at the bottom, Tom passes through the different stages of mining and handling coal, and is about to be appointed Assistant Superintendent. But his hopes, as well as those of his mother and lady love, are frustrated by the jealous Blair, assisted by George Bowers, ex-partner in the firm wrecked by Barrett. Thereupon Tom's mother, after making protest to the directors without avail, appeals to the men and a meeting of the Miners' Union is called. While this is in progress, Pearce, who is still Tom's ardent champion, receives a decision of the Supreme Court, giving him a clear title to a mine at the village of Mayflower. After the meeting, the miners having decided to walk out, through sympathy for Tom, he is offered the position of superintendent at Mayflower. He accepts it and takes most of his striking friends with him. The once deserted village now takes on new life, and the mine is opened by Tom on the co-operative principle. While the mining is progressing with fine promise, a flow of oil opened on the levels takes fire, setting the mine ablaze. Then follow the harrowing scenes which it is impossible to avert even after most heroic efforts on the part of the relief train and State Constabulary. After burning for more than three weeks, the fire bums away the supporting pillars of the mine, and the fated village caves into the abyss made by the sinking earth. The villainous Blair succeeds in convincing the excited people that Tom himself has fired the mine to conceal the fact of its utter worthlessness, and they set out to lynch him. For a time the brave mother and a few friends succeed in staying the advance of the mob, but they are the stronger, and are about to destroy him when a pillar of fire arises. This proved to be an oil well of great magnitude, and, amid the promises of the rehabilitated hero, that what they have lost will be more than regained, the defeated Blair is seen slinking away, silhouetted against the dying flames of the sunken village.