The Educational screen (c1922-c1956])

120 School Department The Educational Screen to aid the spectator in keeping his bearings. Abyssinian slave traders try to smuggle slaves to Persia, but the French have stopped this practice. One of these blacks will fan you all day for three cents, and the selling price of the slaves was $5 apiece. The navy boys visit the home of the Mad Mullahs, and Mombassa, where Roosevelt started his great hunting expedition. Cigarette smoking is taught to the natives. Native dances appear as a possible origin of jazz dancing. Zanzibar and Madigascar are touched en route. Deck games, such as racing in sacks and ducking for money afiford much amusement. Reel two, except for a most excellent representation of an ostrich farm in southern Africa, and for a visit to the home of the Great Corsican, is not so* much worth while as reel one, just described. Cecil Rhodes' home and the memorial to him are of historic interest. The hammock beds of the boys are shown, the locomotive turret and its twin guns, and a view of the ship from above. The story has considerable general educational value and is especially entertaining, but it is not a film on which to base much study. Digging up the Past (1 reel) — ^Y. M. C. A — Climbing the clifiFs and descending the valleys of the Badlands of Red Deer Valley, Canada, for the purpose of locating and obtaining skeletons of prehistoric animals. A fossilized tree, 5,000 years old, is too young a relic to be very interesting to this body of scientists. A skeleton of a Duck-bill dinosaur is unearthed. The weakened portions are strengthened with shellac. The bones are then covered with rice paper and placed in sacking dipped in Plaster of Paris because of the skeleton being very brittle. The small bones are labeled and wrapped. The whole find is securely attached to a stone boat, which goes sledding over the ground and through the water on its way to the Royal Victoria Museum, in Ottawa, Canada. This is perhaps the finest museum in the world for palaeontological remains. The assembling of the bones by means of an iron frame-work is clearly indicated. Several views of well assembled and fastidious dinosaurs are shown in the museum, evidently glad to be "all there" again. For an introduction to the study of history, or any archaeological investigation, this film is especially well adapted. The Region of Romance (1 reel) — Y. M. C. A.— The Lake of Bays in the Highlands of Ontario is shown as a wonderfully attractive resort for one seeking the woodland wilds, yet wishing the comforts of a good hostelry. We ride on the shortest rail-road in the world, "The Limited," deserving its name to the extent of one mile. We reside at Canada's largest resort hotel, and engage in the sports of golf, tennis, and diving. In the Historic Mohawk Valley (1 reel)^Y. M. C. A. — An animated map introduces us to the locality of the Mohawk Valley. Sergeant William Johnson's influence over the Indians is made evident in drama. The history is very local, but fitting for the immediate region. Beautiful photographic effects are obtained of a scenic land, some pictures being in color. Beech-nut products are advertised in an outstanding manner, but the material is educational. The die shaping the strings of macaroni is seen, and the process of drying. We visit the candy room, see gum packing, jams and jellies being cooked, peanuts roasted, and peanut butter jars sealed. There are numerous pleasing scenes of the Mohawk River and of neighboring estates. The Place of Moving Pictures in Our Schools (Concluded from page 78) dren from indiscriminate indulgence in the "movie" shows back to the book, would nol that alone pay for the cost of the school exhibitions? Was this not one of the besi lessons in appreciation of literature? It certainly was for me at least. I wish we could find a way to do this more generally more systematically, more consciously. To sum up, moving pictures are a mosi valuable device, if rightly used, and the righl use of them is neither difficult nor costly.