The Bareback Rider

• Watchlist

With a smile of anticipation on his face Clown Toddie on coming from the circus hastens to his little home, where the two he loves best on earth are awaiting him, his beautiful wife, the well-known bareback rider, and his little daughter. But there is a peck of trouble in store for the clown, although he never suspects it, and the cloud bursts when he picks up a note left for him at his home, telling him to keep an eye on his wife and signed "A Friend" (this "friend" being the ringmaster, whose attentions Toddie's wife had refused to accept). This comes like a thunderbolt to poor Toddie, who thinks his wife an angel. They have always been like lovers together and their one thought is to save enough money to educate their little daughter and prepare her for a life very different from their own in the circus ring. For a moment Toddie wrestles with himself. He can't believe evil of his wife and he won't believe it. But still after a while he decides to watch her to prove to himself and the unknown "friend" that she is without fault. A view is given of the triumph of the bareback rider in the ring, where her feats meet with storms of applause, and we see her greeted with warm hand clasps by the circus people as she comes behind the scenes after her turn. The next view is where the veil is lifted from Toddie's eyes, for, determined to carry out his plan regarding his wife, he visits their little home at an hour when he knows she thinks he is at the circus and sad to relate finds her entertaining the man who has broken up their home. Stung to the quick, the clown orders the unfaithful woman from his house, and notwithstanding her pleading refuses to let her remain under his roof. Toddie is soon called to do his turn in the ring, and with his heart breaking he must needs leap into the sawdust and with his wonderful grimaces make everybody present laugh. One of his stunts is a trapeze act, but while on the rope at the tiptop of the building his fevered imagination calls up a picture of the wife he has lost, smiling and encouraging his rival. The audience sees that something is wrong with the clown, and in a twinkling he comes tumbling down in their midst, the thought of his troubles being more than he could bear. He is carried out with tender care by the circus people while another scene is introduced that there may be no hitch in the show. One year later we see a crippled old man accompanied by a pinched and unhappy looking little girl begging outside of a fashionable restaurant. A richly dressed woman and her escort having just driven up; their automobile stops a moment while the woman gives the beggars a coin. Both father and daughter recognize the woman, although she does not seem to know them, sickness and poverty having wrought such a change in them since this very woman broke up their happy little home. The little girl pleads with the clown to let her go to her mother and beg her to come back to them, but he stubbornly refuses. The little one steals out, however, and hurries back to the restaurant, where she manages to sneak in to where her mother is dining with a rollicking party. The woman notices the little one as she enters and before long recognizes her as her own child and clasping her to her breast begs her to take her to her father. The film closes with the happiest of scenes showing the happy father, the repentant mother and brave little daughter united forever and a day.