- Hank owns horses, stables horses and races horses. He favorite horse always wins and he is prosperous and will known. His son (Bob), however dreams only of the future of the horseless carriage and not of the horse. This causes problems between Hank and Bob. As the people in the town convert from horses to autos, Hank detests those who switch - so he looses his friends, his son Bob and finally his livery business. Bob leaves his flame Rose and goes to Detroit, gets involved with the auto industry and does very well. He does not forget Hank and promises to see him again, but Hank's hatred of the auto may cause the death of Bob.—Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com>
- It's 1895 in Maple City, where champion horse harness racer and livery stable owner, Hank Armstrong (Russell Simpson), is well-known. Hank's prize mare, Sloe Eyes, wins all her races and Hank is popular and prosperous as a result.
Sloe Eyes racing days come to an end when she becomes pregnant and gives birth to a foal, named "Bright Eyes." Unfortunately, Sloe Eyes is unable to survive the strain of giving birth and she dies, leaving Hank heartbroken, but dedicated to raising and caring for Bright Eyes.
When the inventor of the new "horseless carriage," Elmer Hays (E. H. Calvert), comes to Maple City and makes a presentation about his invention, Hank is outwardly skeptical. Inwardly, he resents the attention that the new machine is attracting, and he's secretly worried that the machine might possibly replace his beloved horses.
Banker & Squire Rufus Stebbins, the richest man in town, also becomes the first to buy one of the new cars (Douglas Gerrard). With several passengers riding along, he fires up the vehicle and with a flash of flame and cloud of smoke, he takes off down Main Street, with hundreds of excited citizens chasing along and cheering wildly. Stebbins didn't do any practice driving beforehand, so he has trouble controlling the car and crashes through several fences and scares numerous horses along the way. Eventually, he drives right off a high bluff, crashing the car into the river below. It doesn't appear as though anyone was seriously hurt.
One of the local men working on his new car is belittled by Hank, who also challenges the man to a race. Hank asserts that his horse, Bright Eyes, could easily defeat the man's car in a one lap race around the local track. Bright Eyes and Hank do win the race, but only because the man's car experienced some mechanical issues during the race. All the spectators rushed in afterwards to look at the car, and not to congratulate Bright Eyes.
Hank's son, Bob (Charles Emmett Mack), was never particularly interested in his father's horses, but he is highly enthusiastic about the new horseless carriage. When his son takes an interest in automobile racing, Hank disowns him, and he's so angry, he's about to horsewhip Bob, stopping only when Bob's girlfriend Rose Robbins (Patsy Ruth Miller), intervenes. Rose had been mildly amused at Bob's passion for the new automobile, but she also came to admire him as a result, and she falls in love with him.
Hank's world, as he's known it, falls apart. Bob has moved to Detroit to work in the new automobile industry, his beloved mare Sloe Eyes is dead, and he's more or less an afterthought in Maple City. His business suffers and he goes bankrupt, having to sell off all his possessions to satisfy his creditors.
As the years go by, inventors continue to make improvements to automobile engines, developing some capable of achieving speeds of more than 30 mph. While in Detroit, Bob is present when famed driver Barney Oldfield breaks the speed record, driving a mile in a minute (60 mph).
When a young man who was attracted to Rose and is jealous of Bob, suggests to Hank that the addition of a little bit of sulfur to the gas tank of one of the new race cars participating in an upcoming race in Maple City could cause an explosion, and perhaps sour the local populace on the new vehicles for years to come, Hank decides to use some of the sulfur he has on hand at his blacksmith shop and sabotage one of the cars.
The day of the race, Rose comes to see Hank, encouraging him to go with her to see the race. Unknown to Hank is the fact that his son, Bob, is going to be one of the drivers in the race. Bob wanted it to be a surprise to his father, hoping to impress him and get back in his good graces. When Hank learns that the gas tank of the car he had poured sulfur into was the car Bob would be driving, he and Rose rush out to his buggy and Bright Eyes runs as fast as he can to take them to the race track.
The race begins and after a couple of laps, the engine of Bob's car catches fire, eventually exploding, causing Bob to lose control and crash. Bob appears to be seriously hurt and he's rushed to the hospital. Hank witnesses the crash and the taking away of Bob to the hospital. He returns home, thinking Bob had been killed. He is so depressed, that he tosses a lantern onto the hay inside his livery business, starting a fire which destroys the building. As the building burns, Rose arrives as a passenger in an new automobile and tells Hank that Bob was hurt bad, but will survive, and she encourages him to get in the car for the ride back to the hospital. Hank at first refuses to get in the car, then reconsiders and jumps in.
More time passes, and Hank is cured of his hatred of automobiles. He gives up his hopeless resistance and joins his son in his car manufacturing company.
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