The Lightbearer (1916)
With death at hand the Rev. John Stiles, missionary in the slums, phones the fashionable church of the city to have a minister at his bedside. Young Richard Lennox, new to the clergy, responds and hears from the dying brother how the work in the mission must go on. As the mission is part of Christ church, Rev. Lennox resigns his rich pastorate and goes to the slums. He finds the territory over which he is to work is dominated by "Bull" Grogan, a vicious saloon keeper and agent for the wealthy owners of the tenements. Grogan rules by his fists, and when he sets out to get Rose Cahill, a slum girl who by miracle has escaped pollution in her environment, he starts in a characteristic way, violence. Rose, with ambitions and ideals above her surroundings, soon finds herself in love with the young rector. They meet and Lennox is interested. Peter Sewell, capitalist and head vestryman of the big church, is irritated by the minister's activity in cleaning up the district. Sewell owns several of the tenements. He has the vestryman discharge Lennox. Richard declares he will carry on the work unattached. He phones the papers and they expand with the story of the young minister who lost his place for being over-zealous. In the meantime, Kid Donovan, a good natured little prize fighter, down and out, is found and cared for by Lennox. Donovan wins back his health and teaches boxing to the aristocratic young rector. "The only way to clean up this neighborhood is with your fists," advises the fighter, and Richard agrees. He whips Grogan, who once vanquished him ingloriously before Rose. Grogan is compelled to close his rough saloon and leave the district. When Richard, the drawing room pastor, forgets his poise and wades in to reform the neighborhood with his fists, he succeeds and with Rose a complete metamorphosis is affected.
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