Picture-Play Weekly (Apr-Oct 1915)

PICTURE-PLAY WEEKLY The night stage came rolling along the road that lay between Hillsvale and Red Gulch. Suddenly, the driver half rose in his seat, throwing himself back on the reins. The horses reared, whinnying in alarm. In the middle of the road before them that lay like a white ribbon in the moonlight, stood the tall, black figure of a man with a handkerchief bound over the lower half of his face, and a pair of guns in his hands. The driver, anticipating the highwayman's order, flung down the leather mail bag that lay in front of his seat to the road at the masked man's feet. "Never mind that, this trip," the road agent spoke sharply. "Climb down and open up the door. I want to look over your passengers." Obeying, the driver explained : "I'm only carrying one.'' He opened the door of the coach, and a short, square-shouldered man stepped down into the road with his hands abox'e his head. "This is him." Texas Smith — for so the masked stranger who had held up the coach was — stepped forward and scrutinized the solitary passenger in silence. He took in the man's sensuous lips under his waxed mustache, his pasty skin and dissipated eyes. Then, with a satisfied nod, Texas stepped back. "You're right," he told the driver. "It is him." He pointed with one of his guns to the mail bag in the road. "Pick that up and put it back where it came from," he said shortly. "And then you drive on, without lookin' behind you." The driver, keeping whatever surprise he may have felt discreetly shut up inside him, followed the directions to the letter. As the stage wheeled out of sight around a bend in the road two hundred yards ahead, Texas Smith turned to his captive. "Mr. 'Handsome Jack' ]\Ialone," he coldly addressed him, "take a piece of advice from me. It's a nice night, and the walkin's good back to the place you come from. Pack your freight !" Texas pointed in the direction of Hillsvale. "But I've got business here in Red Gulch !" protested the other. "No, you haven't," denied Texas. He put his two guns back in his belt, and turned away. "Do like I tell you, and bike. You " Texas wheeled, one of the guns back in his hand. He had seen, out of the corner of his eye, Malone start to take advantage of his turning away by whipping out his own weapon. Texas fired from his hip. ^lalone pitched forward to the ground, and lay still. "And serves you right, you rat !" Ruth Stonehouse. RUTH STONEHOUSE is a wonderfully interesting little actress. Though not yet twenty years old, she plays leads and does it so well that you are anxious to see her aga'in. "The Colorado Girl," Miss Stonehouse is called, because she lived in Victor, Colorado, where her father is an expert in mining operations. The remarkable grace of Miss Stonehouse is due to her being a dancer — a professional at that. Her ability in this art makes her adept in many roles for which otherwise she would not be eligible. It is a pleasure to see Miss Stonehouse in films and a pleasure equally great to meet her out of them. She is vivacious, interesting, and pretty. Texas muttered through his clenched jaws, as he looked down at him. Then, removing the handkerchief from his face, Texas turned to look toward the lights of the town of Red Gulch, where his friend, the parson, must have got home by this time. "I guess we're even now," said Texas Smith, in an undertone. "He saved my life, and now I've wiped out the debt — by saving him his trust in his wife !" and is considered one of the best leading women in photo plays to-day. She came to the Essanay Company three years ago, without having had any previous stage experience. Miss Stonehouse was a schoolmate of Mr. G. K. Spoor's daughter, and it was Miss Gertrude Spoor who coaxed her father to give Ruth a chance. She was put in as an extra girl, and played just bits for the first six months. Since that time she has been made the leading l-ady, and enjoys a popularity that extends from coast to coast. [=] A Great Film Promised. T^HE Selig Polyscope Company has * obtained the motion-picture rights to "The Garden of Allah," the spectacular play made by Mary Anderson and Robert Hichens from Mr. Hichen's novel. The royalties paid by Mr. Selig are said to be the highest ever paid for a motion-picture play, and a production befitting the spectacular nature of the story is planned. Antidote — Spring Fever. '\1/HEN the dread spring fever gets '* you, And you don't know what to do ; All that happens seems to fret you. And the whole world's painted blue ; When the days seem long and dreary — Time is lying on your hands — When your work has made you weary. And the clock's hour hand just stands ; When the dime you've left will end it By a dose of poison — oh. Just think again and spend it For a Charlie Chaplin show. Plays and Players