The Bridge of Shadows

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Francis Edmunds, a middle-aged banker, is perturbed over the newspaper headlines, "Flood Losses in Ohio. That Will Hopelessly involve Insurance Companies." He proposes to take into his confidence the new bookkeeper, Edward Warren, and begin a vigorous campaigning in tracing the risks that he feels have been greatly exaggerated by the press. Night falls as they are still busy with the task, and he orders his bookkeeper to get a bite and return quickly. The latter leaves the office, and Edmunds is seized with illness. He scrawls a note asking the bookkeeper to have the data of the flood risks ready for him later, and he encloses the key to his private office. He then leaves without locking the safe. The night watchman comes along, and, observing the office in disorder and the safe door ajar, becomes suspicions. By the time the bookkeeper returns the night watchman is more suspicious. Edmunds, on returning to his home, rapidly becomes worse, and upon receipt of a telegram from his company, telling him "the floods have wiped us out," receives such a shock that it precipitates his death. Warren, the new bookkeeper, unaware of the condition of affairs in his master's house, tears up the note, takes the key, and then drags down all the documentary evidence in sight concerning their "risks." As he swings open the safe door, the night watchman, who has summoned a patrolman, pounces upon him as a thief. Warren protests and calls up on the phone. This is futile, for death has dulled the ears of his employer, and he has destroyed his note of instruction. He is helpless, but as he has taken nothing, the judge dismisses his case. This dismissal, however, is merely a sign for unending persecution on the part of the police. With the death of Edmunds disasters descend upon his house; his well-beloved daughter, Blanche, steps from affluence down to poverty. She is not only broken-hearted over the loss of her father, but pinched by penury, so that she is forced to battle for bread. There is no work for the "unconvicted," so that Warren stumbles along, shadowed by the police, and is refused one position after another. In the interim. Blanche Edmunds has great difficulty in bringing herself to the changed conditions. She finds that in her unfortunate situation she is left quite alone. The fleeing months find Edward in the bread line, but thrown out by the police. He seeks the friendly shadows of a bridge, looks over into the dark, welcoming water. A woman, approaching, observes his action, and weak and wretched as she is, saves the desperate man from himself. Then the pitiful pair limp back toward the city. The night scene shows a lunch-wagon by the side of the street. Blanche comes in, supporting Edward, and spends her last dime that they may have food. They then trudge on their way and pass the opera house. She meets two of her erstwhile friends, and they snub her. The wretched pair seek a bench in the park. Eventually they fall in with gypsies, and these wanderers take them in. An officer has a fight with a band of roughs, when Warren, who has now grown strong, rescues him and wins the gratitude of the bluecoats. He at last is left in peace; in fact, he gets job through the efforts of the minion of the law whose life he saved. The gypsy queen finds a lost child and with Blanche starts to find its parents. The little girl proves to be the daughter of a distinguished jurist and through her humane act Blanche finds a home. Eventually, Warren, now a new man, finds her, and the judge recognizes him as the "unconvicted man" in a celebrated case that once came under his jurisdiction. Blanche is then identified as the daughter of the millionaire whose fortunes were supposed to have been swept away by the Dayton floods. The insurance company has won in its case and was not bound by "the act of Providence" in substituting "flood for fire," but the heiress of the Edmunds restored fortune cannot be found. Through the judge, Blanche has her identity established, comes into her fortune, and does not forget the friend that she found in her adversity.