The phonoscope (Nov 1896-Dec 1899)

10 THE PHONOSCOPE June, 1899 was a signal pole beside the machine, which we intended to use for our own anchorage. "The man with me had had some railroad experience, and I had relied largely on his opinion in arranging the business. Well, sir, when the express reached the curve and came toward us, it looked exactly as though she was going to run over us. The ex-railroad man stood it for about two seconds, then he dropped his ropes and bolted for the fence. I was tempted to follow, but I set my teeth, turned on the connection and started the reel. Then I grabbed the post and hung on to it for all I was worth. The train was only a fraction of a second in passing me, but it seemed like an hour. The suction of the train at that distance was terrific, but the mental strain was worse. I actually thought that my arms had been pulled out of their sockets, and felt them carefully over before I was convinced that they were all right and sound. They weren't even lame the next day, but I have never cared to get so near to a fast train since that time." The men who were sent to Cuba to photograph the Spanish-American war in action had some blood-stirring experiences in the pursuit of their duties. Arthur Marvin, who had charge of the photographic apparatus of the largest American Biograph Company, relates some of these : "One of our unusual experiences," said Mr. Marvin, "came before the actual beginning of the war, during those weeks of tedious waiting in Tampa. We heard that there was to be an execution by hanging in Jacksonville, and in the interests of science and the camera we decided to obtain views of it if we could. We got permission to set up our machine in the jail yard, and succeeded in photographing the proceeding from the time the death march appeared outside the jail door until the drop was sprung. This is perhaps one of the most unusual subjects ever reproduced in detail by means of photographs. "Some of our attempts to make camera records of the events of the war were not so successful as this. One of them was frustrated in a somewhat ridiculous way by circumstances temporarily beyond our control. "We had followed Sampson's fleet eastward from Key West to Porto Rico. It was at the time of the bombardment of San Juan. As that bombardment was our first opportunity to do any work, we were anxious, naturally, to get some good views When the firing began we steamed up toward the battle ships and got where we could take in the whole range of operations pretty well. We kept urging the captain of the yacht to get in nearer the shore, and he gradually did so. "Pretty soon the Spanish batteries began a reply to the American fire. Some of their shells came within three or four hundred yards of us, I presume, and we began to congratulate ourselves on the fact that there might be a' good exhibition before long. Presently the Spanish shots began to come faster and to splash up the water a little nearer to us. We were interested in watching the argument between the ships and the batteries, and didn't notice what was happening to ourselves until our yacht had got under pretty good headway and was making rapid time away from the shore. "We shouted to the captain to hold up and veer around, but he didn't hear us. We tried to argue with the crew, but they were equally deaf. By the time we got those scared fellows to listen to us we were twenty-live miles out at sea. When we got back the performance was over, and the American fleet had sailed away. "Although we missed the main show, we figured in a principal role for a side performance that followed. There were two small Spanish gunboats in the harbor, and when they saw us nosing about outside they came out and started in our direction. We had received no order to photograph pursuing gunboats, and we weren't certain as to whether a moving picture apparatus would be considered contraband of war or not. So this time we made no effort to discourage the energies of the crew. In fact, we turned to and poured oil over the coal that was spread out on the deck, and then passed it down below until we had flames coming out of the top of the smokestacks and were leaving Porto Rico in cur wake at the rate of fifteen knots per hour. "There was beer and champagne on board, and in our anxiety lest the stokers might give out, we passed both down below. ' We didn't slacken speed until we were safe within the harbor of St. Thomas. "Another photographer who went down to Cuba to do land work was set ashore with his apparatus by the yacht that had brought him. Along came a Spanish gunboat and chased off the yacht. The man was left at a spot where there was nothing to photograph except rocks and trees. He couldn't move his apparatus, and he didn't dare to leave it ; so there he remained for four or five days, with might} little to eat and not knowing at what moment the Spaniards might come up and capture him. ' 'Altogether, following the fortunes of war with a camera that weighs a quarter of a ton is likely to be about as exciting as following them with a gun." Slot fIDacbmes Cleaning up Scotch Plains The first result of the crusade for a reform of the morals of Scotch Plains. X. J., which has been inaugurated bv the Rev. Gideon M. Shott, formerly pastor of the Xorth Baptist Church in Xew York, but now pastor of the Scotch Plains Baptist Church, has appeared. It is the removal of the nickel-inthe-slot gambling machines which have graced nearly ever} bar in the town for the last few months, and at times put a premium upon nickels to such an extent that it is asserted young "sports" of the community have offered local merchants fifty cents for nine five-cent pieces that they might feed the capacious maw of the gambling device in the fruitless hope of beating the machine at its own game. When the Rev. Mr. Shott had come to the conclusion that the time had arrived for the reformation of Scotch Plains he set about it with a vigor and persistence that quite astonished the prosaic citizens of the community, which nestles picturesquely under the shadow of the Watchung Mountain up in the eastern corner of Union county. "Of all the towns I have ever seen," declared Mr. Shott one Sunday in the pulpit, "Scotch Plains is the wickedest." Then the minister pitched into the subject of the morals of the town with a fervor that was quite alarming to the easy going townspeople who had lived in the community all their lives and believed that as towns go Scotch Plains was about as good as any of them. For several weeks Mr. Shott preached every Sunday upon the morals of the community with a terseness and bluntness that divided the place into factions. Some made open avowals of approval of the minister's course ; others said he was employed to preach the gospel and not to tell, the people how they should live ; while still others looked on, half approving and half deprecating. But all the while the Rev. Mr. Shott kept up his fusilade of argument for reform. He thought that the root of all evil in the place wa.s in the existence of the five road houses, which, he argued, turned the youth of the town from the path of rectitude and sobriety and brought a great influx of disorderly elements from the neighboring towns to add contamination to the moral ruin already prevalent in local circles. While he was preaching to the public in a general way the Rev. Mr. Shott was working privately to bring about a movement that would effectively cope with the conditions that he thought existed as a blight upon the fair name of the town. This resulted in the organization of the Citizens' League, with the Rev. Mr. Shott as president and general director, and associated with him were some of the most prominent and influential men of the community. Their expressed purpose was to carry out the ideas of reformation as expounded by the minister. Mr. Shott selected his co-workers and started them out on detective duty. One of the first things that impressed the detectives as contributing to the bad state of affairs in the town was the presence of the nickel-in-theslot gambling machines. They were patronized largely by young men of the place, who could little afford to risk their meagre earnings in this manner, but over whom the fickle chance of winning something for nothing had fastened itself with a tenacious desire that moral suasion did not counteract. Even evening the click, click of the nickels could be heard as they were dropped through the right set of pins and brought returns to the embryo gambler. But the playing went on all the same. Recently the Rev. Mr. Shott started off on his vacation and everyone thought that until his return there would be no effort to carry out reformation in any direction. But here they were mistaken. The officers of the Citizens' League determined that action should be their slogan, and so it is. They quietly notified the county authorities at Elizabeth, and County Detective John Keron paid a visit to the places where the slot-machines were in operation. He immediately ordered the hotel keepers to remove the machines and not dare to put them in use again on penalty of vigorous criminal "prosecution. The order was complied with as cheerfully as the circumstances would allow. Thus the Citizen's League has won its first victory without a struggle, and the advocates of the Rev. Mr. Shott's methods are in high glee, with a corresponding amount of glumness displayed by those against whom his endeavors are directed. "We're in this fight to win," said one of the Citizens' League men recently, "as some of our friends, the enemy, will soon learn to their discomfiture. Scotch Plains has got to have a better moral tone and we propose to see that she gets it." The next thing the Citizens' League will probably take up will be the cock fights. Scotch Plains has been a rendezvous for these affairs for years, but the league's emissaries are on the outlook and the first time that the sports gather to see the game cocks do battle it is likely that they will be swooped down upon by the county authorities with more disagreeable consequences than prevailed in the case of the slot-machines. In looking over the list of articles that might easily yield a hundred dollars or so additional war revenue, the office of Commssioner of Internal Revenue, has hit upon the slot-machine as an article that ought to pay a special tax, the same as billiard tables and pool tables. According to the report recently, the Treasury Department will recc mmend to Congress that a special tax be placed on all slot-machines. It is estimated that considerable revenue would be derived from a special tax on these machines. As the expenditures of the Government are still on a war scale, additional revenue is needed to keep down the deficiency.