Message from Across the Sea

• 1914
• Other, Drama

Two retired Norwegian sea captains, John Lund, and Peter Anderson, live in the little town of Bergen, way up in Norway. The one has a son, the other, a daughter. These two, .John and Freda, appeal to their parents for permission to wed. Old Lund objects to his son marrying a girl of the village, as his ambition has been that his son should marry a wealthy girl living in a great city. Anderson, on his part, claims that no fisher-lad of Bergen is good enough for his daughter. Thus the old cronies become estranged. The young lovers, however, impetuously refusing to be denied, are secretly married and sail to America. While youth is changing, old age continues bent and the enmity of the old captains appears to be intensified by their loneliness, which the flight of their children has brought about, and the lounging place by the great anchor down on the beach by the fish market, is shunned by them. John and Freda, in far-away Minnesota, prosper and eventually became the fond parents of a husky boy. An itinerant photographer visits their farm and makes a picture of the child. The ancient ones in Norway never respond to their letters, but the father and mother conclude to send a photo of the grandchild to the old men in Bergen, thinking that it may soften their hearts. These pictures are duly received and through some similar impulse, each grandpa with the picture goes down to the old trysting place and meet face to face, with the photos in their hands. The time, the place and the pictures quite overcome them, and they fall into each other's arms. At this point, a moving picture cameraman, who has been taking pictures of the fish market, by pure accident imprisons the scene of the old men, in his film. A year later, the moving picture, having girdled the earth, as a scene in Norway, is shown in the place where John and Freda live, and they and their child attend the entertainment to witness scenes of Norway; and when they recognize this reconciliation of their fathers, their joy starts a fair sized riot in the theater, and it results in their making a reconciling visit to the old home a year later with the heir to all their fortunes.