Moving Picture World (Mar-Dec 1907)

THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD. 253 he can, gaining a little confidence as he gets more accustomed to his position. A lady is seen at a window, and the horseman, to make an impression upon her, causes his horse to curvette a little; much to his credit he manages to keep his seat, and raise his hat. His steed becoming restive, goes off at a gallop into the midst of a party of fair equestriennes, who laugh at the efforts of the amateur to keep on his horse by embracing him round the neck. A passing street car startles the horse, who, taking the bit between his teeth, goes off at a gallop, not stopping until he lands his rider in the midst of a Summer party at a wayside inn. They are incensed at his careless riding and commence to belabor him for spoiling their pleasure. His horse is returned to him, and he goes away leading him by the bridle. On his way he has to pass many friends of both sexes who are well mounted and enjoying their ride. After a time he again essays a ride home, but is thrown by the horse, who is thoroughly tired of such a poor rider and gallops off to his stable, leaving the poor fellow battered and torn to be led back by two sympathetic pedestrians. The riderless horse is caught by its groom, and some anxiety is shown as to the fate of the rider, who finally makes his appearance in very sorry plight and receives the commiseration of his friends. He evidently makes up his mind to take lessons before again ven ■ turing in public on horseback. SHE WONT PAY HER RENT. GAUMONT. A row of tenement houses at which a house agent appears ; knocking at the door of the first one, a woman appears in answer and hands him the weekly rent. At the next door, in answer to his summons, a man appears and prepares to pay him his due. Quite a different reception awaits him at the third house, for, on making known his wants, he is refused. On his persistence “he must have the rent,” the woman, without further ado, although not young in years, promptly knocks him down. He gets up and indignantly protects against such treatment, and is again knocked down by the virago. On arising from the second fall, he goes off for the police, and goes to the door with the policeman ; again he demands his dues. The virago simply knocks the man and the policeman into the gutter. As the policeman tries to arrest her he is rather heavily mauled. The policeman blows his whistle for further assistance and calls upon a gentleman, in the name of the law, to help him. The gentleman fearlessly lays his hand upon the woman, when, to his utter astonishment, he finds himself sprawling on the ground. Hastily picking himself up, shaking the dust from his frock coat tails, he again essays the task; with the assistance of the policeman and rent collector they make cautious advances. The virage receives them figuratively with open arms, standing as though saying, “Come one and all.” No sooner do they come within reach of her fists, than she lays the three in the dust, as though they were a set of ninepins put up for the pleasure of her knocking them down. Four pedestrians now appear arid go to the aid of the three fallen men. Several of the crowd assist the three men, and the overwhelming numbers compel the woman to seek safety in flight into the house, slamming the door in their faces. We see her in the room, on the first floor, throwing out pots, pans, chairs and stools, onto the heads of the crowd below. The men break in, enter the room, carry the virago and her daughter (who had been assisting her to throw out the kitchen utensils) down the stairs, where the ambulance truck awaits them. In spite of her kicking, scratching and biting, she is eventually placed and strapped down, and with a whole crowd of children at her heels, is run off to the police station, while the daughter, in custody of two stalwart policemen, brings up in the rear. THE NEAR-SIGHTED CYCLIST. URBAN. The cyclist is despatcher upon an important errand, and his humorous and alarming adventures by the way form the subject of this series. Misadventure follows misadventure with great frequency, but the cyclist comes up smiling every time, mounts his machine, and again resumes his journey. Accidents which would maim or kill an ordinary mortal serve only to spur him on to fresh exertions in a mad search for physical inconveniences and dangers, which always present themselves. It may indeed be predicted of the hero that he will either die peacefully in his bed or end his career through slipping on a piece of orange peel, or swallowing a pin. Only an ordinary and simple ending would be appropriate after such a strenuous life. Certainly he will never be hanged or drowned. He charges at full speed a horse-drawn tram car, and is upset. He attacks the double windows of a corner shop, to fall into a basket of eggs on the other side. He bodily upsets a donkey, cart and driver. He is precipitated into and disorganizes a party of men and women enjoying refreshment at an open-air cafe. He is thrown into a deep excavation in the road, and, colliding with the parapet of a bridge, is thrown over and falls forty feet into a swiftly flowing river, to be fished out and remount his machine. Finally, he appears in full view of the audience, a sorry spectacle of mud,' eggs, water and other accumulations, but wearing a grin of triumph which augurs well for his future. SHOEING THE MAIL CARRIER. GAUMONT. A mail carrier is about to go on his rounds and asks his wife to bring his shoes, of which he seems to wear out a large number, judging from the relics she displays for his selection. Finding none to his satisfaction, his wife goes to the shoe store and a boy returns with some on approval. Selecting a pair, he put them on, kisses his wife, and commences his journey. He is seen delivering letters en route, at the same time admiring the shoes. “Pride comes before a fall, and he, not noticing where he is going, stumbles and falls. On rising he finds, to his disgust, one of his new shoes broken, sole from upper, in which condition he has to complete his round and ultimately reaches his home, limping and footsore, falling exhausted into a chair. Utterly at a loss what to do to find money to keep him in shoe leather, his wife conceives an idea which she puts into immediate execution. Taking her husband to a horse shoer, she has hftn shod with iron. This proceeding causes a complete change in the man; from an affectionate husband he becomes a maniac and seems to take on the nature of a vicious horse. He kicks and buffets his wife, starts off on a rampage, knocking down two soldiers who try to stop him. They go for reinforcements, and on explaining to the officer in charge, he orders out a skirmishing party, who, fully armed and headed by the regimental drummer, start in pursuit of the devil, whom they imagine the mail carrier to be. Scattering everything before him, eluding his pursuers, the carrier goes off to river brink, causes excitement all around, knocking several into the water, into which he falls himself, and is rescued by a life-saving corps. Regaining terra firma, he leads the soldiers a merry chase, leaping over houses, up hill, down valley, bounding over every obstacles; coming to a church, he scatters a group of boys who are playing. A church dignitary in all solemnity appears at the church door, and pronounces a curse on the man, who flees; coming to a narrow passageway, the soldiers barricade it, but the man leaps over them all, going on his way exhausted but unable to stop ; he hails a coach on which is a boy driving, who takes him home, where with all dignity and blessings given by a priest of the church, assisted by the horse shoer, the offending shoe is removed and the mail carried takes on once more his normal nature. THE LEGLESS RUNNER. GAUMONT. A man without legs is seen in a low wagon, propelling himself along with specially prepared pieces of wood, with which he touches the ground, and the wagon is skilfully guided through the streets. He is seen proceeding to a saloon, where a bottle of wine is brought to his order; he escapes payment and is pursued by the waiter. In his haste he rushes down a steep pathway of steps, knocking over others who are coming up. Falling in a heap at the bottom, he gather himself together and flees. An officer tries to stop him, but is bowled over. Hastily rushing to the barracks, he orders out a sargeant and squad of infantry who in obeying orders get themselves mixed up in trying to capture the man, who leads them a merry dance up the side of a house and off the roof, up hill and down dale, eluding them at every point. He is seen making his way in the distance, and the soldiers deploy in the valley hoping to cut off his chance of escape as he comes down a rapid incline. The better to do this, they bring barrels, and get into them to hide. In his rapid descent he trundles the barrels and soldiers down the hillside into the river. into which he falls himself, and is rescued by the soldiers, who have difficulty in putting him into his wagon. They tic his hands and push him alone: over the difficult places through which they have to retrace their steps, until they reach the barracks, where they hand their prisoner over to the guard. COMEDY CARTOONS. URBAN. • The artist is presented, with his board; his only appearance. The hand rapidly outlines a human head, into the chalky jaws of which it inserts a cigarette. The chalk head smokes, and finally eats, the cigarette. The head of a woman is drawn, which gradually fills and becomes undoubtedly human. Eyes of feminine longing are turned in the direction of a chalk-outline teapot, which materializes into the real thing, from the spout of which the woman-head drinks with satisfaction. The woman’s head resumes its chalky outline, and disappears, feature by feature. The hand of the artist cuts out of paper the figure of a clown. This is placed inside a magic ring drawn on the blackboard. The paper clown changes into a real embodied