Motography (1912)

268 MOTOGRAPHY Vol. VII, No. 6. posing such a motley assemblage of creatures, and who also must struggle with the limitations and intricacies of such a process, and who succeeds in bringing forth and presenting to the world such a series of pictures as flash before our eves by the hour at the rate of 30 or 40 per second, and in such infinite variety of arranging and grouping and lighting, cannot fail to elicit the profound sympathy as well as the congratulations of every member of the profession. In the very near future the vastly simpler devices and apparatus used in Ortografy will do much to lighten the labors of these generals and soldiers in the army of progress, and at the same time increase their reward, for there is no delight to be compared with the joy of the photographer as he takes the first look at a successful negative, unless it be the more complete satisfaction of the Ortografer who looks at the screen and finds it all there — all of those delicate shades and tints as well as perfect gradation of light and shadow. All of the movements without any of those "centipede" effects in the foreground. No horses or soldiers with forty-nine pairs of red and green legs obliterating the field of view in rag-time installments. ENTER — THE ORTOPLAY. Just as soon as the new Ortografic processes have supplanted the present methods, the greatest educational advance in history is ensured. A million-fold has been added to the riches of mankind, and in one swift shift we have scattered enlightenment, the very keynote of education and progress, throughout the length and breadth of the earth. There still will be echoes of ancient and mediaeval mockeries, and jealousies and tragedies, whose artistic records, like the paintings of the old masters, will be preserved and worshipped by a remnant of the old school, but the great appeal of current problems, and progressive development of popular taste will create a wholly new type of drama. EXIT, THE ITINERANT ACTOR. '"All the world's a stao-e!" Repeat it once more, thou much-betraveled and otherwise overworked disciple of repetition ! Thou wellmeaning interpreter of the imaginary ravings of kings and princes, as woven into an erotic philosophy by an astute observer of antiquated ailments ; and then come with me to an Ortoplay, where, with body at rest and senses delighted, you may encompass the whole work-aday world-stage, with its wonderful wealth of tone, of form and of color, of acts human and inhuman, of events frivolous and momentous, of people enlightened and otherwise. First let us visit a Schoolhouse and enter one of the classrooms. THE PEDAGOGY IDEAL. Look and listen ! See that sunrise. Hear that symphony that seems to swell in sympathy with the dawning of the day. You cannot distinguish the sounds of the instruments any more than you can discern the "technique"' of the artist who has brought the sunrise to your expanding vision, and yet the music from a hundred instruments is blended, harmonized and sifted, so that naught but the very essence is permitted to reach your ears. You do not recognize it as an effort on the part of some player or players to please, for it seems of one piece with the gloriously gilded sky, and the scintillating sapphire sea. and the ships that sail on its surface. "To be or not to be" is no longer a question. We are content to be and to behold. HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. Look again, and see what tomorrow's sun has revealed ! 'Tis a scene from a long-lost yesterday. We are in the city of Herculanaeum on the Bay of Naples. There is Mount Vesuvius with its cloud-like banner, the symbol of uncertainty. There is the Circus Maximus where Nero is wont to give free rein to his infernal appetites, but all is peaceful and serene just now, for the orgies of last night have felled the revellers, and the sun has just risen. Let us not tarry, for you know what is going to happen. How the earth will quake and rumble, and Vesuvius will pour forth liquid and gaseous rebuke, and the ashes of damnation will fall upon the heads and the haunts and the hirelings of those ancient monsters. AROUND THE WORLD IN 30 MINUTES. But these little ones with eager eyes and ears are having their history lesson, so let us tiptoe out and cross the street. Just a moment first. Look in here. That is geography up-to-date. We are now hovering over Central Africa and just about to leave Lake Victoria Nyanza for the headwaters of the Nile. "This, children, is where the great naturalist Roosevelt once delighted to collect faunal specimens for his country's museums. This is Abyssinia, those are the Pyramids, and here we are above Alexandria and the Mediterranean." Come, drop out of the airship, and leave those kids to finish their trip around the world while we take in the Orto Opera across the way. Just a glimpse, my friend, and I must leave you. Let your senses absorb the inspired and inspiring melodies of sound, of motion, of form and of color, while the Muses make merry, and you learn what a real privilege it is just to live. A POWER EOR PEACE AND PROGRESS. When you have had your fill of inspiration and have left the opera, just scan the happy, intelligent faces that you meet everywhere. Note the confident bearing and the air of industry, and hear the whistling and the singing which mingle in the streets like echoes from the play. And now, lest you think that we are dreaming of some far-distant Utopia, let us inform you that all of these things will be with you almost before you know it. In a few short months you will be permitted to witness the inauguration of the new era, and in less than a decade the playhouse of the future will be a privilege of the present. Then may we say in truth, "The world is mine, and the fullness thereof," not alone with the Psalmist, nor yet with Monte Cristo, but with the little boy and girl who today sit and look at the "movies," in joyful appreciation of these crumbs of the world-feast, which they instinctively feel to be their birthright. Soon they will come into their own, and, free from the prejudices which we grown-ups have gathered from the decadent literature of moss-grown philosophies, they will meet Truth daily, face to face, and she will lead them to the feast whose host is Wisdom, and whose bounty is all that is good and wholesome in the wealth of the whole wide world. Then will the boys and girls, and children of a larger growth, be immeasurably richer than their forebears, for literally, and in a greater and grander sense than ever had been surmised, the world is theirs.