Moving Picture World (Jul-Sep 1915)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

392 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD July 10, 1915 ered wrinkled and loathsome of visage. It was not until they examined the rings that they . [zed who it was. HIS I. O. U. (July 16).— The little newsgirl had never heard of widowed mothers' pensions and if anyone told her that the state should contribute to the support of the little family she would have been very much surprised. Ever since her father was killed in an accident she and her mother worked hard to provide food and shelter for themselves and the girl's little babv brother. A small boy in an orphan asylum concluded to run away. No one in the big institution cared about him and he determined to seek his fortune in the big world. He found the world altogether too big and unfeeling, but he found one sympathizer and friend, tbe little newsgirl. She listened with great interest to his storv and then invested fifty cents of her wellearned money in newspapers for the waif. Under her guidance he started his career as a fullfledged seller of the daily news, but his vocation was short lived for an uncle, who had just learned of the death of the boy's parents appeared and took the youngster away to his handsome home. All the little girl had to remember her young friend by was an I. O. I . in boyish handwriting for the fifty cents she had advanced him. The boy had been so excited over his new prospects that he had forgotten to repav his debt. The girl grew to womanhood and secured permission from the city to conduct a newsstand ;it a busy corner. A political hanger-on. envying the girl's success, induced the mayor to give him the newsstand privilege at that street corner, and the girl was dispossessed. She had no friends to turn to and only a peculiar discovery enabled her to triumph over her opponent. In a newspaper she read an account of the rise to power of a young state senator and recognized in the statesman the boy she befriended, when she called at his office he did not remember her name and refused to see her, so she literally took her life in her hands in a daring attempt to get to his office. She succeeded and presented tbe tattered I. O. U. to her acquaintance of years ago. The young senator recalled the debt and, after he listened to her story, called up the mayor on the phone and angrily ordered him to restore the newsstand privilege to the girl. The young man was a power in politics and the mayor meekly obeyed. So the childhood friendship of man and girl was renewed and in time it ripened into love. The little newspaper stand passed into other hands while its former owner presided over the senator's house. The senator and his wife are often asked by their children the meaning of the I. O. U. signed with the senator's name, but only tender smiles have rewarded their earnest questions. she was unwelcome, Mercy grew up dodging blows and curses with equal dexterity and indifferent success. Once while dodging she fell and was badly hurt. When she arose from her sick bed she had the choice of walking forever with a crutch or not walking at all. She chose the crutch. In the primitive society of Rhyolite, the mining camp town, where Mercy lived, there was no niche for a cripple. All girls of her own age shunned her. A stranger rode into Rhyolite one day — a man whom no one knew and who gave short replies to the inquisitive. Only once did he pay attention to anyone in town and that was when a lounger seized Mercy's crutch and tantalizingly held it beyond her reach, but the tormentor quickly surrendered it when the stern-faced stranger demanded its return. The stranger rode away and was not seen in town again. "Wiley shall be caught today," the sheriff declared to his posse several days later. The men exchanged significant glances, as one of their number uncoiled his lariat from the saddle bow. Mercy overheard the remark and was worried, for she felt that she knew who they meant. She had seen the stranger in the mountains hiding, and fancied she saw him creep into a deserted cave. The ride that the little cripple made to save the fugitive is still talked of In the range country. She reached the cave in safety, and found there the stranger, wounded and alone Escape was impossible for the sheriff's posse soon arrived and surrounded the cave, hut Mercy, with leveled rifle, defied them to approach. Then the sheriff surprised them all. "Don't fire boys," he called to the posse, "This here is Ned Franey, the new marshal! over at Vista." Half in a daze Mercy heard the stranger explain that he had trailed Wiley, the outlaw to the cave, and after a desperate fight, had overpowered him. The posse disappeared into the cave and came back, dragging a handcuffed prisoner. •'Hut there's going to be no necktie social, boys," explained Franey. "He's my prisoner and he stands trial at the county seat." The posse reluctantly agreed and led the prisoner off. Frauey turned to the girl, who looked away in confusion. "What's yer name," he inquired. Mercy, with, averted face, told him. Franey took her two hands in his and drew her to him. "Mercy Tanner." he repeated. "Ef that ain't the prettiest name!" And so happiness came to little Mercy, who had never known it before. TRACKED THROUGH THE SNOW (July 11.). — A little girl was suddenly orphaned by the death of her parents and she was sent to her grandfather, an old miner, in the West. The old man was not popular with the other miners, for he was bad tempered and a gossip. The coming of the little child changed all this,, for she was such a favorite that the rough miners could stand even the crusty old grandfather for her sake, while the crusty old man soon ceased to be grumpy and became a very agreeable old man. The old miner had very bad luck with his claim, but was too proud to ask the aid which tbe rough men around would gladly have given. Only his little granddaughter knew and she promised her grandfather never to tell. The young sheriff of the country was in pursuit of two dangerous outlaws for whose arrest $500 was to be awarded. He showed the notice to the old man, who reflected bitterly that if he could win the reward his financial troubles would be over. "The little girl stood gravely by listening to the conversation. Several days later the sheriff and his posse were on the trail of the outlaws, but lost them in the mountains. Long search failed to reveal any trace of them, and the posse returned to town. In the meantime the two fugitives, lost in the storm, found their way to the old miner's cabin. The old man and the child recognized the two outlaws from the circular the sheriff had given them, but were powerless to do anything. While the old miner, at the outlaw's command, provided them with food and drink, the child's alert brain was searching for some means to outwit tbe desperadoes and secure the reward. Finally inspiration came. A note in childish handwriting fastened under the dog's long hair and the child, watching her opportunity, opened the door and permitted the dog to escape. The bandits pulled the child back from the door, but did not worry about the loss of the dog, little dreaming of the note concealed on his body. The dog reached the sheriff's office in safety and the posse arrived in time to effect the capture of the outlaws. The reward was paid to the old miner and from that time on fortune smilerl upon him and he was able to provide liberally for his little grandchild. MERCY ON A CRUTCH (Two Parts— July 13). — Born in a prospector's camp, orphaned by a flood and taken care of by relatives to whom FALSTAFF. MME. BLANCHE, BEAUTY DOCTOR (July !M.— A young college boy had been left a comfortable fortune by his father, but he had been a generous spender, and at last he was summoned home by his guardian, a wealthy merchant, and told that there was little left of his property. "You are an idler, and you couldn't earn a cent, if you tried," the keen old business man brutally told him. "But I will give you a chance to make good. Whatever you earn during the following week will be the salary I will pay you for the next three years." The guardian was a very aggressive, unfeeling individual, and his clerks lived in daily terror of his wrath, but his clever little stenographer, who liked the boy, pointed out the merchant's vulnerable spot. "He is afraid of his wife,'* she said. "She distributes the coin. All be does is sign tbe checks." Then she told him that the wife took great pride in her personal appearance and suggested a plan by which he might best his guardian. When the merchant's wife saw everywhere advertisements telling of wonders accomplished by Madame Blanche, the famous beauty specialist, who made grandmothers look like debutantes, she determined to investigate. She did so, and walked into a carefullyprepared trap, for the college boy, in wig and gown, made a most impressive Madame Blanche, while the stenographer, carefully disguised in a gray wig and old-fashioned clothes, completely deceived her. She felt that a woman so old should realize that nothing could be done for her, but when the screen about the chair was thrown aside and she saw that the wrinkles in the patient's face had vanished, that she looked like a young girl, all her doubts vanished and she decided to engage Madame Blanche's services. "My terms are $500 in advance," replied "Madame," but the merchant's wife paid, and, bearing that in mind the wonderful transformation she had just seen she always considered that the treatment made her, also, a creature beautiful to behold. WThen the merchant was called upon to live up to his promise, the prospect of paying $500 a week to a college boy for three years almost staggered him, but he was a man of his word and kept it. However, tbe boy soon showed such keen business ability that the merchant never regretted his bargain, although close observance gave the young man's little wife credit for much of his success. The old merchant's wife has searched the city vainly for Madame Blanche's beauty parlor, which closed soon after her visit there. "Madame Blan?he" is wonderful, she said, to the junior partner's wife, "and my dear, one of her oldest customers resembles you greatly." But she did not notice the quiet smile on the younger woman's face. DOT ON THE DAY LINE BOAT (July 16).— In Wall street the financier's name was spoken in whispers ; in his own office his employees cringed before him, and it was tradition along newspaper row that no writer had ever obtained an interview with him. On one occasion it was particularly important to learn what the Great Man meant to do in a certain financial emergency. One reporter reached his august presence pretending that he came with a secret message from a brother financier. He saw the great man, confessed that he had gained admission by a trick, begged for a few crumbs of news, but the great man simply glared at him. pressed a button, which summoned a large, very strong man, indicated the reporter and the bouncer did the rest. In the outer office were gathered a number of other reporters, and they trembled when the door of the private office opened and the large man emerged smiling and dragging the unhappy reporter after him. One of the reporters who did not wait to be thrown out was a pretty young girl, who wrote interestingly under the name of "Dorothy Dimples." She was engaged to the young man who had been evicted and she swore vengeance. She made it her business to keep an eye on the movements of the financier and when he took a boat trip to Albany, she was close on his trail. The financier, despite his gruffness in business, was a loving husband and a kind father. On the boat his attention was attracted to a pretty girl, who was weeping bitterly and he tried to comfort her. She told him how she was going back to boarding school. He talked soothingly to her and was delighted when he found that she dried her tears and told him confidingly that he was "a nice man just like Uncle Alfred." Then he told her his name and was pleased when he discovered that the little school girl heard of him. It was a thoroughly enjoyable trip to Albany. The girl was such an interested listener, and he took delight in discussing financial affairs with her. Tben a young man with a kodak came along the deck, and the girl insisted that they have their picture taken together, telling him that when she grew up it would give her such pleasure to show the picture to her little girls and tell them how she had met the Great Man, and how he had made her forget her lonesomeness. The Great Man was very happy, that is until the next day when he got the New York papers and saw the interview that "Dorothy Dimples" had landed with him. The "innocent school girl" did not know anything about financial affairs— Oh; no! her story created a sensation. in Wall street. It was a blow to the financier and now he hates reporters more than ever. "Dorothy Dimples," however does not care; she landed "a scoop" which always brings joy to a good newspaper man or woman, and incidentally she avenged the man she loved. THE SILENT CO-ED (July 2).— The girls of Jones College had for years been accustomed to see their basketball team defeated by the strenuous young women who wore the Blue and Gold of Harford College, but when they received a challenge from the girls of a city settlement house, they anticipated an easy victory. The settlement girls knew absolutely nothing about Greek and Algebra, and four of them knew mighty little about basketball, but the fifth, the little, gum chewing captain, outplayed the entire college team and scored an easy victory for the settlement. The college girls knew a basketball player when they saw one, and after much persuasion induced the settlement girl to enter college and play on their team, the wealthy girls to pay all expenses. The new star of the five became known as the "Silent Co-ed" by the boys of Jones College, for she had been cautioned to be quiet in the presence of strangers, as her line of talk was some queer. The janitor of the settlement house, an earnest, hard-working young man, had long been an ardent suitor of the settlement girl, and when he received a letter from her. telling about a "Percy Boy" who brought her violets he determined that the time has come to end her college education. The day arrived when the game with Harford College was to take place, and the Jones girls felt sure that with their new star they would score an easy victory, but just before the game started the janitor turned up at the college and demanded to see his sweetheart. He was a rough young man and refused to listen to the pleadings of the captain of the team, who saw all hope of victory fading away. Suddenly a bevy of pretty girls surrounded him and hurried him protesting into a nearby motor car. Before he could recover from his bewilderment the car was speeding off into the country. In spite of his protests his fair captors refused to stop the car, while in the college gymnasium the "Silent Co-Ed" performed prodigies of skill and brought victory to Jones College. Well, she didn't marry her "Percy Boy," for the janitor in his forceful way convinced her, and as she told Percy when he asked her for her answer as to whether she would be his: "I have spilled your words to my steady and he says it can't be did."