The Bioscope (May-June 1912)

_ Supplement to The Bioscope, May 23, 1912. _ Tom Thumb.—At his birth Tom Thumb was cradled in a walnut shell. At ten years of age he used his mother’s wooden shoes as a recrcation ground, and played about on the kitchen table. Mischief led him one day to fall into the batter his mother was making, and later his mother thought it bewitched, and threw it away. A. beggar picked it up, and Tom, in fear of his life, escaped, and took to his heels. He fell into the river, where he was swallowed by a big fish. ‘Ihe fish was caught, and sent to the King’s kitchen, where Tom was discovered inside. He was served up on a dish to be taken to the King, and amused the whole Court by his antics. Unfortunately, his promising carcer was cut short by an untimely fall into the mustarJ pot. (Ite-leased June 1st. Length 725 ft.) His Forgotten Keys.—A fussy old gentleman, who has left his keys at home, is unable to awaken anybody at a late hour, and accepts the help of an affable passerby. With the assistance of a couple of gendarmes, this entleman effects an entrance into the old gentleman's at, and robs it before tossing the keys out of the window. Before a hue and cry can be raised, he is well away over the roofs, but chance leads to his falling down the chimney of the police station, and to his arrest. The police convey a trunk to headquarters, under an impression that the thief has concealed himself in it, whereas he has merely used it as an effectual trap for Jake, the dog. (Released June Ist. Length 428 ft.) Coster Bill—A widowed Jack Tar leaves his little irl to the care of his lodgers on his rejoining his ship. ‘he lodgers ill-treat the child, and exploit her for mone t gain. The child makes friends with a coster, and ia hee distress she runs away from her brutal guardians to the refuge of the costers home. A month or two after her disappearance, the sailor returns home, and sets out in search of his child. Coincidence has it that he shall make acquaintance with the coster, by asking for a light. The sympathetic coster soon draws his story from him, and the child, after one more adventure, is aaa to her father. (Released June Ist. Length 710 ft. The Escape of Hugo Van Groot.—Hugo Van Groot, a celebrated diplomat, suffered disgrace, and was condemned to prison for life. His escape was effected through the devotion of his wife, Maria di Reigersbergein. She is represented as bringing him a vast number of books, in a huge box. On leaving the prison, she takes the box with her, but with her husband concealed inside. Within his cell, the books have been left roughly se bencath the coverlet on his bed to represent a human form. The fugitives reach a mill, where Van Groot is to lie hidden. His wife precedes him to Antwerp, and after two days her husband is able to join her and his children. (Released June Ist. Length 939 ft.) Hydroplanés xcrsus Motor-boats.—This ‘s a record of the competition at Monaco between Renaux, the French hydroplanist, and motor-boats. He is depicted flying akove his competitors, outdistancing them one by one, eating the ‘‘ Ursula,” owned by the Duke and eventually (Released June Ist. Length 478 ft.) of Westminster. Among the Echinoderms.—This film depicts the struggle for life in the deep, and gives interesting views of starfish and sea urchins, ending with a battle royal, and the victory of tho starfish. (Released June Ist. Length 460 ft.) Clarendon. A Tame cele e aernor siererc himself in his aunt’s favour by kissing the servant girl. He manages to reinstal himself, however. (Released June 9th. Length 560 ft.) Co gle Vv. Edison, Children who Labour. — A vmace mana foreigner applies for work at a &d mill, but is sent ee: ee ; Q Kon. away, with the intimation that, if he has a child, there will be work for it. We then travel in vision to the home of a mill-owner, to whom an appeal is being made to use his influence against child labour. He indicates that he can do nothing. His wife shows her interest in the project. We return to the mill again,-and find that the foreigner finally yields, and puts his little daughter to work. ‘Hanscomb, the rich mill-owner, has sent his wife and child on a journey, and the little one, getting off the train, is left behind in a ‘ small town, which happens to be the same one in which the foreigner and his family-live. The child is found by them, and his kindly wife takes her home and shares her poor cottage with her. Hanscomb and his wife are frantic, and put detectives te work, but without success. The foreigner puts the little stranger to work with his own child. Hanscomb buys the mill, and unconsciously becomes the employer of his own child. He enters the mill just as his own child has fainted, and is carried out by her little companion, and so he misses her. She is carried t her own mother at the gate, and Mrs. Hanscomb, not nowing, of course, who the strange child is, gets her address, and in the evening goes there with the footman with a basket of food. f course, there is a reunion. Hanscomb is sent for, and finds that his little daughter has learned a lesson that he has not as yet. She pleads that all the other little children be set free from their slavery. He is unable to refuse her request, and the story closes with the better conditions put into effect. (Released May 29th. Length 1,000 ft.) A Cowboy’s Stratagem.—Frank Fuller, a cowboy, is in love with Jessie, the daughter of John W. Scadds. To ask Mr. and Mrs. Scadds for her hand is a task which he very much dreads. He musters up couraye enough to ask her mother, whom he finds sympathetic, but her father sternly rejects Fuller’s suit, and later on refuses to recognise him at al]. This does not prevent the young people from planning how to bring about their union without resorting to elopement. At last they hit upon an idea. The scheme is to Jet an unknown cowboy sell one of Fuller’s horses to Scadds, and then Fuller’s cowboys are to scour the country for the supposed stolen horse, and, when they find Scadus in possession of it, accuse him of horse-stealing, and pro ceed to hang him to the nearest tree. At the psychological] moment Fuller is to arrive, and pretend to save Scadds from an awful fate. The plan works out most beautifully, and Scadds welccmcs his heroic rescuer into his hitherto La family circle. (Released May 29th. Length t. Niagara Falls.—Many views are shown of the churning rapids and whirling whirlpools, infuriated by jagged rocks and stony barriers, that agitate the maddening course of the river. The prodigious leap of the great falls, and its final plunge over the glassy crest, carries with it a water power equivalent to four million horse-power. A hundred and sixty feet below, the perpetual deluge lands in fragments of white and emcrald foam, from which a watery mist arises, enveloping the well-known Maid as she plics her way. (Released May 20th. Length 500 ft.) The Yarn of the ‘‘ Nancy Bell.’’—The story begins by the finding of an elderly naval man by a traveller, and the former's recital of the verse—‘‘ Oh, I am a cook and a captain bold, And the mate of the Nancy brig, and a bo’sun tight, and a midshipmite. and the crew of the captain’s gig.’’ His recital proceeds with the comic wreck of the good ship Nancy Bell. The next situation indicates that ‘For a month we’d neither wittles nor drink, Sti!] a-hungry we did feel, So we drawed a lot, and, accordin’ shot The captain for our meal.’’ A large paper cannon despatches the captain. And the succeeding scenes show the disappearance into the pot of the mate, the midship.