Moving Picture Age (Jan-Dec 1922)

An instrument that brings both pleasure and enlightenment cannot fail of permanent significance among American institution? SCENTED with SPRUCE F. G. Wells Agricultural Director, Consolidated and Rural Schools, District No. 1, Koochiching County, Minnesota R\IN had fallen all night; the day was cloudy and very chilly, with every indication that more rain might be i expected. The roads were — well, it takes a lumberjack of long experience to do real justice to a description of many a clay road in the woods of northern Minnesota ! Road commissioners know this, and instinctively avoid them during bad weather. Several of these lumberjack pioneers might have been seen among the crowd that had gathered on this raw day in early May to be present at the dedication of their new consolidated school building. Such a structure, and in such a place ! Eighteen miles back from a small town on the railroad in the adjoining county, almost surrounded by timber, and with but one other clearing and house in sight ! Yet there it was, new and modern, steam heated and provided with its own water system ! Manual training, domestic science, and agriculture would be taught in addition to the common branches and there would be three teachers there all the time. The new stage would be used for the first time that afternoon, and the agricultural director of the school district had promised to come and bring motion pictures! The men were predicting that he wouldn't come ; he must have known that it had rained, and they wouldn't blame him any if he didn't. But the children, always optimistic, alternately running out to the road and kicking the excess mud from their feet, were sure he would get there. Hadn't he written and said he'd surely come, and didn't teacher say there were to be honest-togoodness "movin' pitchers"? Few people outside of northern Minnesota, even elsewhere in the state itself, have ever heard of Koochiching County, or know anything about its land or people. For the past two years I have been supervising the teaching of agriculture in the rural and consolidated schools of an unorganized district in this county. There are in this district some forty-two one-room rural schools and eight consolidated schools, scattered all over the county. Koochiching County lies at the extreme north end of the state, being separated from the province of Manitoba, Canada, by Rainy Lake and Rainy River. The scenery along this river is said, by those who have seen both, to rival that along the Hudson. The Nature of the District This county is nearly sixty miles square, and contains more land than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined. To the stranger and the occasional tourists who travel its few good roads the whole territory seems like one almost unbroken tract of spruce and tamarack woods and muskeg. Muskeg is a name applied to peat-covered areas on which a deep covering of moss is growing, and often wooded over with spruce and tamarack. The first settlers who came to the county followed the streams, and located along their banks. Consequently nearly all of the clearings are some distance back from the railroad and the main How They Do It In Koochiching County. Eiaht of the Eleven Children Attending Bescemar School Live in the Near-By House Shown Above, and Are Cared for by Mrs. Ritchie traveled highways. There are many people, especially women and children, living back from these roads, who seldom get out. I found one boy twelve years old who had never seen a train of cars outside of his geography. Last year part of my work as agricultural supervisor consisted in making the rounds of the schools of the district, to teach and find out what was being done in the way of grade agriculture. It occurred to me that if one could obtain some sort of portable projector and suitable film a great deal of good might be accomplished on many of these trips among the schools. It was then that I discovered Moving Picture Age, and with it the fact that the portable projector had become a practical reality. After securing accurate information as to costs and the possibility of obtaining suitable film, and getting well charged with a convincing quality of enthusiasm, I put the matter up to the county superintendent. I asked permission to interest anuraber of the schools that might receive benefit from such an outfit, in co-operating to raise sufficient funds to cover at least half of the cost of equipment. He felt that this might be possible, and the matter was taken before the board. I was told to go ahead, the board promising to supply the necessary funds, provided the schools would raise at least half of the money themselves. Some twenty-two schools were chosen whose location on a road would make it possible to reach them by car, and the proposition was explained to them. They were provided with return cards to fill out stating their opinion, and ending in a pledge to raise a stated sum by any stated time before the end of the school year that they might deem convenient. This money when paid was to be applied on the purchase price of the equipment. Twenty schools pledged $335 in this manner. On the strength of these promises the board ordered the outfit, and it was put to work at once. Matters of Equipment I selected a portable projector of the suitcase type, and a portable generator capable of being attached under the running board of any automobile. One rear wheel is jacked up, and a belt passed over the tire and all. Operating the engine at low speed gives me approximately 500 watts at 110 volts. I carry 100 feet of "Duracable," a specially covered twin cable, and two goodsized house lights. The line carrying these lights is plugged into the projector itself. I have rearranged the wiring of the projector in such a way that the house lights are' turned on by the same twist of the switch that cuts out the 400-watt projecting lamp, and vice versa. I use an ordinary sheet for a screen, or the white plastered wall of the room when possible, and have had rock-steady, brilliant pictures up to about 8 by 10 feet in size. The first use made of the machine was at the dedication of the new consolidated school building mentioned at the beginning of this article. I did experience considerable difficulty in keeping 11