Picture Play Magazine (Oct-Nov 1915)

8 PICTURE-PLAY WEEKLY eral increase in the prices of admission to picture shows, the lowering of the prices of one large house in Harrisburg, Pa., to one and two cents comes as a decided shock to the exhibitors throughout the country. The Equity Motion Picture Company, which has made twelve thousand feet of comedy films at Lake Sunapee this summer, removed to New York October 15th, where they have a studio, with offices, in the Strand Theater Building. The movies are to be used in raising a million dollars for the University of Michigan, and Dartmouth College is to show in moving pictures the sports at the winter carnival, with a hope that it will augment the membership. The Lasky picturization of "Carmen" has attracted more attention in the theater world and caused more comment than any motion picture ever has, and the first appearance of Geraldine Farrar on the motion-picture screen has also caused considerable comment among theatergoers and music lovers. No industry in the history of America has expanded with greater rapidity in less than two decades than the movin-. pictures. In less than twenty years th> moving-picture business ranks with thleading industries of the world. Aloving pictures of the funeral of i leading man for one of the film com panies were taken in New York th other day to be shown to the actor' mother, an invalid living in Rochestei The camera clicked all through the senice and while Mary Pickford and othe film players were passing by the corn afterward. The Man Who Couldn't Beat God (VITAGRAPH) By Burns Patterson In absolute earnestness Martin Henchford asserted that he did not believe that there was such a thing as conscience, and emphatically defied it. Later, in the course of events, he had occasion to test the power of his mind in this respect. And he took upon himself, because there was nothing else for him to do in his situation, to make himself the first man who had beaten God. The result of Martin Henchford's fight against nature is told in this story, based on the Vitagraph Company's production of the same name. The cast includes: Martin Henchford Maurice Costello Lord Rexford Thomas Mills Elmer Bradford Robert Gaillard Elizabeth Bradford Estelle Mardo I TELL you there is no such thing as conscience," declared Martin Henchford, as he sat at a small, round table with several friends in the Red Lion Inn, in Rexfordtown. "A strong-minded man can do anything, and the thing called conscience will never trouble him." This astounding declaration shocked his companions. For a moment they were so nonplused that they could not reply. The strong, compelling, dynamic personality of Henchford thoroughly dominated those about him. "Why, man, you can hardly mean that," rejoined the man on his right, who was the first to recover his composure. "I do mean it," said Henchford, his cold, steel-gray eyes glittering. "But God has planted that within us which shows us the difference between right and wrong." "Such an opinion is all very well for dolts, idiots, and pious old women." "So, you put us in a class with fools, eh, Martin?" spluttered another man at the table. "Yes, if you believe in such a thing as a conscience." "Do you mean that a man may do a wrong thing and not suffer mentally for it?" ' "Certainly," declared Henchford. "For instance, could a man commit the greatest of all crimes — murder — and "Most assuredly a man may commit murder, the greatest crime in the eyes of the law, and still never suffer a twinge for it. This talk about men having a crime so prey on their mind that they confess before dying, is all bosh." "If you deny the existence of a conscience, then you deny that there is a God," said the man on Henchford right. "I do deny the existence of God' declared Martin, with startling emphasi "Has any one ever talked with God: Has any one ever seen Him? Can an one prove that He exists?" "Why, the Bible " "Yes, a mere book written by a 1< of old fossils, who thought to insti fear in the minds of simple people 1 setting down as true things of whk they themselves knew nothing." "Martin Henchford," said his rigli hand neighbor impressively, "I'll not s here and listen to any man blasphen his Maker." As he concluded, the man rose fro his chair. The others at the table fc lowed his example, and the sacrilegioi one was left alone with his agnost thoughts. Hunched over in his chair, Henchfoi