Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1920)

' ''•■ /-r r • < Jqainel A.GNUTT ^^1^ IIIRTS are $30.00 each in Russia. w E are shorter when standing than when lying, and taller in the morning than in the evening. Dr. Marand. of the Royal Academy of France, made several experiments to prove the theory. He found after a year's trial that usually in the night he gained almost threeeighths of an inch, and lost almost an inch during, the day. The cause of this is to be found in the different state or condition of the cartilages which go to make up the spine. TT HEY knew how 10 handle profiteers in tha '■ olden days. Here are some of the penalties meted out in the time of Edward 1. to "engrossers, foreslallers, and all sorts of frauds and impositions in the sale of provisions." The chief offenders in those days were the bakers and millers, who were experts at giving under weight, and against these the_ law was especially severe. For a first offense the fraudulent baker had his stock confiscated, and for a second he was imprisoned, for a third pilloried. As for a "thievish miller," he -was put in a refuse cart and driven through the streets, exposed to the derision — and missiles — of the people. DORIS: "I thought you were going to kiss me when you puckered up your lips just now." Jack: "No — er — it was only a piece of grit in my mouth." Doris: "Then for goodness' sake swallow !t — you need some!" FRANCE has suffered sev-erely through America, "going dry." It means that the wine export trade to America — averaging $150,000,000 a year — is lost. ''11 OW do you like that cigar I gave you, old *^ man? For two hundred bands otV that brand they give you a gramophone." "Vou don't say! If I smoked two hundred of those cigars I wouldn't want a gramophone; I'd want a harp." A STRANGE custom is practised among the Eskimos. When a doctor is called in he receives his fee as soon as he arrives. If the patient recovers it is kept; if not, it is returned. THE official Japanese board of film censors has a strong objection to kissing scenes on the screen, and in ten months 2, .350 such scenes have been banned from imported films. THE sergeant had been having a trying time with Fome very raw recruits. For a long time he kept calm, but at last, exasperated, he shouted : — "Hang it all! I know I'm not a Mary Pickford, but you might have a look at me occasionally!" I_l E was a collector for an installment-system ** establishment, new at the business, and very sersitive about performing his unpleasant task. He was particularly .embarrassed, because the lady upon whom he had called was so exceedingly polite and beautiful. Still, the van wa's at the door, the lady was in arrears in her payments, and he remembered his duty. "Good morning!" said the lady. "It is a beautiful day, is it not?" "Beautiful i:ideed!" he agreed. "Won't you take a chair?" she said. "Er — no, thank you, not this morning," he stammered. "I think I'll take the piano," 'T'HE learned men in the Massachusetts Insti^ tute of Technology have employed their spare time in weigln'ng the earth, and now announce that it weighs 6,000,000,000,000,000.000,000 tons, six sextillion tons, in short, six and twenty-one ciphers, to put it in simplest term. 94 A LITTLE GIRL (to film actress): "My father says he often saw you on the stage before vou went into pictures." Excited Actress: "What did he say he had seen me in?" Little Girl: "The 'Eighties!" PATENT has been taken out for the manufacture of "pearls" from the crystalline lenses of the eyes of fishes and sea animals, wliich are said to be almost indistinguishable from genuine pearls. PROCRASTINATION has saved a lot of men from getting famous, or going to jail. AN amusing sidelight on the recent Peace Conference at Versailles is thrown by one of the American correspondents, who not only reported the proceedings proper, but took notes regarding the hair, moustaches, beards, and whiskers of the peacemakers. Two-thirds of fhe delegates were more or less bald. Perhaps some of them made up for this bv wearing moustaches. Out of sixty-five men w-ho sat round the Peace table, all had moustaches but fourteen. Whiskers, on the other hand, were not popular. Only three people wore them, and by a, curious coincidence, the names of all ^ these three people began with V. They were Venizelos, of Greece, Vandervelde, of Belgium, and Vassitch, of Serbia. The latter's whiskers were particularly prominent. In regard to dress, there was less formal attire than one might 'have imagined. The English paid no special attention to dress. Bowler hats and frock-coats, once a combination that would never have been sanctioned, were riuite popular; but there were some countries which put all they knew into their attire. These were, notably, the Japanese, and some of the South American States. "pROPINOUITY is what brings about mar^ riages," declared the father of three single daughters. "Yes?" murmured his wife. "It works this way. From among the men who call most frequently at a house the daughters of the house naturally select husbands." "In that case," said the mother sadly. "I fear our girls are doomed to marry bill-collectors." Dl'RING last year the gold output of tnc Klondyke was some four hundred thousand pounds. Since this goldfield was first worked about forty million pounds of the precious metal have been secured, and it is believed that there is still an equal amount waiting to be worked out. AVERY grim joke caused a war on one occasion. The ratification of a treaty was in question, and the Turkish Grand \'izier asked the Venetian Ambassador to swear in Moslem fashion upon his beard and the beard* of the Prophet. -, The Ambassador would not. "Venetians wear no beards." he said. "Neither do monkeys!" replied the Turk, and that interchange of "compliments" cost 150,000 lives. JOHN and Mary had been sharing one chair all the evening. John sat on the chair, and Mary sat on John. After about three hours of this, Mary suddenly exclaimied: — "Oh, John, aren't you tired?" John smiled a brave, patient smile. "Not now," he said gently. "Not now. I was about an hour ago, but now I'm only paralyzed!" piRDS cannot open the foot when the leg ■'-' is bent; that is the reason they do not fall off their perches when asleep. If you watch a hen walking, you will notice tliat it rloses its toes as it raises the foot, and opens them when it touches the ground. THE lighest w»od, in weight, that is known is "Balsa." Cork is three times as heavy as this wood. -It can easily be indented with the finger nail. It is treated with paramn and used in making floats of life preservers and in constructing life rafts. VIOLINS made by Stradivari are rarely worth less than $5,000. One recently realized $15,000 and a 'cello $20,000. Yet Antonio Stradivari sold his fiddles for about $20 each! An old Strad, like an old coin, always tires our imagination. Sometimes theyi do represent a fortune, but, unfortunately, there are so many spurious instruments about that many a person is doomed to disappointment. THAT the age of bride and bridegroom need no longer be inscribed on the marriage certificate is a new rule in regard to F'rench marriages. It is sufficient if they are declared of age, or over thirty, a statement of specific age being unnecessary. /~\N a snail's tongue, which resembles a long, '-' narrow ribbon, as many as 30,000 teeth are sometimes distributed. 'T'HE "earthquake" shock recently experienced * by the Pacific battleship fleet off the Mexican coast was so severe that the big flagship, AVic Mexico, trembled from stem to stern and "Collision quarters" was sounded. "T'HE expression "once in a blue moon," mean*■ ing that occurrences are so widely separated by time as to almost never recur, is not a figure of speech. It has a basis of astronomical fact. The phenomenon has been twice observed in both Italy and Austria, and once in England. There is no available record of it having been noticed in America. GRIEG, the musician, when about to ccni< pose, would first memorize the words whose meaning he wished to express by sounds. "I require several days to heat my head," he once said: "then I lose my appetite, my eyes become inflamed, and the imagination is stimulated. Then I compose an opera in three weeks." Most people will agree that work produced under such conditions deserves to succeed. P DGAR ALLAN POE was in the habit of '-' drinking brandy for the same purpose. \'oltaire went in for coffee, and de Musket for a mixture of beer and absinthe. De Quincey is said to have used opium, though he found it as much a hindrance as a help; and Burns preferred whisky. There are odder methods still, however; Schiller put his feet in ice while he sat in a room filled with the odor of rotten apples. Miltoiu buried his head in cushions and blankets. Rousseau preferred to have the sun beating on his head, while Shelley wrote with his head close to the fire. Quite a number of people, other than men oi genius, have discovered the advantages of thinking in bed; but of the intellectual giants who always preferred this method, Descartes and Leibnitz are noteworthy. Mark Twain wrote sitting up in bed. Lecky, the historian, modified the method: he used to kneel upon a specially-constructed sofa and write upon the head of it. so that the line between head and heart was horizontal and the blood flow therebj aided. The same result was secured more comfortably by Swinburne, who used to write while lying on the floor. In contrast. to these, ^'ictor Hugo always stood upright at his desk. Herbert Spencer used to utilize physical exercise, perhaps the best method of all. After rowing or playine with a ball for a time, he would sit down and dictate. Later he would try more exercise, and so on.