The Nickelodeon (Feb-Sep 1909)

September, 1909. THE NICKELODEON. 75 and functions of the international bureau of American republics. Perhaps the hardest topic in the lot — that is, hard to laandle in a seductive and alluring way — is the one allotted to C. J. Blanchard. "The Call of the West." It is a tribute to Mr. Blanchard's powers, both in knowledge and oratorical gifts, that he is able to handle the subject so skilfully as to hold his audience from start to finish. His story is of the reclamation service, of what it has done, and is doing, to make fertile the waste places of our great Western land ; of the almost impossible engineering feats ; of difficulties surmounted ; on making gardens of the desert, and making possible the habitations and homes of men and the upbuilding of towns where before there was naught but wilderness and desolation. To those whose thinking faculties have not been utterly blinded, to those who possess a particle of imagination, it is a wonderful story well told. With this lecture Mr. Blanchard alternates "The Land That God Forgot." This deals with haunts of the prehistoric cliff dwellers and tells what is being done by irrigation to civilize and settle the region. The first mention of moving pictures sometimes raises an incredulous smile — surprise that the federal government should be the sponsor and director of such an enterprise. A study of its workings, and attendance at the lectures, including observations of those attending them, brings home the conviction that it is one of the most efficient agencies in educating the public as to what our government is, what it does, what it holds in trust for the people and, in general, its duties and responsibilities. A regular college cotirse in government reports could not begin to teach so much, nor could it be done in any other way likely to make a lasting impression. The lantern slides and moving pictures are manipulated by Mr. Thompson, who has made a national reputation by his photographic work. Recently Mr. Thompson has taken a series of pictures on his own account that depict all the operations of the Puget Sound salmon industry. He has trained his camera on the glistening and flopping fish as it is yanked out of the trap, and held it there until it is carted off, steaming hot and appetizing from the ovens to the warehouses. The best part of a day was spent by Mr. Thompson on the Gulf of Georgia, where the fish are trapped, and when he returned to Bellingham he said : "I have seen some strange sights in my life, but nothing to approach that which unfolded itself before my eyes as I turned the crank of my machine. It was incredible — nothing short of incredible. Like Easterners in general, I had heard wonderful tales about the fishing industry of the Sound and, with the rest, had taken them with huge quantities of salt. I have been shown and now expect to show other doubters the error of their ways, if I've had any luck at all with my pictures." Mr. Thompson has seen other interesting sights. He has snapped the great aviators, the Wrights, in full flight, in their trial trips at Washington ; taken the fleet as it steamed into Hampton Roads from its around-the-world cruise ; covered the army balloon races at St. Louis ; sketched immigrants as they landed at Ellis Island ; spent two years in the Yellowstone National Park, takingviews of the big animals there ; and has photographed the great irrigation and reclamation projects of the country. In taking the series of fish pictures Mr. Thompson mounted his moving picture machine on the dock of the Pacific American Fisheries at Bellingham and unwound 200 feet of negative ribbon, taking the tugboats in the act of making up their tows of scows and heading out into the bay on their way to the fishing grounds. As the guest of officials of the company, he was taken out oil the Callender, the flagship of the Pacific American Fisheries' fleet, to the famous Alsop trap at the west end of Lummi Island. There he sketched in animation the fishing operation from start to finish. He got pictures of the lifting crew slipping a small scow into the trap over the backs of big salmon, of the fishermen in the act of drawing in the web and driving the catch into a pocket under the steam brail, of the steam brail in action, dipping into the solid mass of fish and lifting them, several hundred at a time, high in the air and throwing them into a big scow lashed in front of the spiller. Among other things Thompson's film will portray a scene not without its share of heart interest. South of the lead of the trap will be seen half a dozen Indian canoes, manned by aborigines fishing with reef nets. "Why does the company allow them to blanket its trap that way?" asked a tourist as he gazed first at the primitive and then at the modern method of catching fish. "They don't hurt us much," explained Burt Huntoon, a representative of the company. "Besides, they have a moral right to fish there. In the early days this was their fishing ground. When the Alsop trap was driven they hired attorneys and sought an injunction to restrain the trap from being located here. The case went to the supreme coui^t and was finally decided against the Indians. This location was lx)ught a few years later by the company. The price paid was $90,000." When the Callender returned to Bellingham, Thompson took views of the disposition of the fish at the cannery. He trained his machine on the big conveyor built out into the water from the dock, into which fish are pitched from the scow and carried into the canner}-, there to be hurried along and deposited on the floor before the eight big "iron chinks." Among other scenes his film will show is one depicting young girls in the act of packing the salmon into cans, and another of cable cars hurrying crates of steaming cans from the ovens to the warehouse. Mr. Thompson states that the government would use moving pictures much more extensively than it does if it were not for the stringent laws in most cities, which it is almost impossible to comply with for only one night in a place. Motion picture theaters can have their permanent establishments lifted up to all requirements, but the government expert who wants to give a scientific or instructive lecture before schools or societies is kept from doing so by the present laws. Inasmuch as only the most modern apparatus is used, and, in competent hands, it would seem that the laws should be amended to cover such exhibitions. Mr. W^ M. Hays, assistant secretary of the department of agriculture, has also done considerable work along motographic lines. In 1904, as a member of the committee of the American Association of Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations, supplied with some money by the Federal government for the exhibit of the work of these institutions at the fair at St. Louis, he made an initial attempt at introducing motography in agriculture. He had films made showing various steps in the breeding of wheat. Others were made showing handling of dairy cattle, preparing beef cattle for the show ring and