Reel Life (Mar-Sep 1915)

Sixteen REEL LIFE A Four-Part Mutual Masterpicture Based On the Famous Poem By Lord Alfred Tennyson "Enoch Arden" l £• t ot"I"I"I"I,"I"I"I",I"I,uI"I"I',I"I"I,'I'"I* Produced by the Majestic Company, Under Direction of W. Christy Cabanne with an All-Star Cast Enoch Arden. Philip Ray... Annie Lee. . . . FROM their earliest years Enoch Arden and Philip Ray loved pretty Annie Lee. It was not that there were not other boys and girls with whom they might have played, had they been so disposed, in the quaint, little seaside village in which they lived, but from the beginning all three seemed drawn together by the bonds of a sympathy and understanding, far closer than most friendships of more mature years. Thus while Enoch and Philip were constant rivals for the favor of their fair companion, this rivalry increasing as they grew to man's estate, their warm friendship was never impaired. It is doubtful Annie — at least during those joyous childhood days — set either of her companions first in her affections. As" the three played together on the sands of the seashore or watched the great full-rigged ships bearing away toward the enchanted world that lay, in their childish imaginations, just beyond the horizon's edge, to her both lads seemed the ideal of all that was manly and gentle and kind. And yet it may be, that the fact, that Enoch was an orphan, made fatherless and motherless by the grim, gray ocean beside their playground, led the girl to think of him with a certain shy pity, which her young heart did not extend to Philip. This may have been the reason why Annie, the three friends having reached a suitable age, chose Enoch as her favored suitor. Her decision was a bitter blow to Philip, but his love for his two friends was equal to the supreme sacrifice and they remained first in his loyal affections, just as he continued foremost in theirs. All the village turned out for the wedding, which was a gala affair, and thereafter Enoch and his bride settled down to the simple manner of life of the little hamlet. And Philip remained the loyal, steadfast friend of both. Years passed. Two children had come to Enoch and Annie, a son and daughter, the eldest of whom was seven, when, upon an ill-omened day, it became necessary for the father to take ship for a long voyage. Times had been hard in the little fisher village and the voyage promised to make Enoch a rich man, at least as wealth, was counted in that simple community. To Philip, Enoch entrusted his dear ones. "See that they do not want, while I am gone," he said to his friend as he bade them all goodbye. "In a year at most I shall be with you all again." The year passed, slowly, as years do, and then another and still others, and Enoch's ship did not come into the harbor, though many another vessel did. But none brought .Alfred Paget .Wallace Reid . . Lillian Gish The Wedding of Enoch and Annie Was a Gala Affair + <><><>❖<><><><> J word to Annie of the stanch, oaken hull, which had borne her husband from her. Then a strange ship told of seeing wreckage in the far-off Pacific, which must have been that of Enoch's ill-fated craft and all his friends and townsfolk mourned him as dead. But for ten years Annie hoped and — waited. Meanwhile Philip, faithful friend of both, had cared for her and the children. He too had hoped and waited. And at last, convinced that Enoch indeed was dead, Annie listened to his pleading and the two were married, making their home with Enoch's children, now almost grown, in the tiny cottage, which he had called home. Hither came one night, a year or two later, a gaunt, bearded figure, garbed in rough sailor's garments. The wayfarer peered through the cottage window at Annie and Philip with the children, seated before the warm fire within. He shivered in the chill wind, as though unaccustomed to the rigors of a northern latitude. His eyes glowed, as if with fever, but in them also shone another higher, purer light — that of sacrifice. It was Enoch Arden, come back after many years. He watched the scene of peaceful happiness, which meant to him the wreck of all that he had hoped to find after his long absence, but a great light of understanding shone in his heart. He reflected that all the village must long have believed him dead, and Philip, his friend, in fulfilling his trust, had acted as seemed best for all. He did not enter. From an old wife, who recognized him despite the changes and vicissitudes of half a score of years, he learned of Philip's kindness to Annie and his children, and how, believing him dead, they had married after ten years waiting. In his turn Enoch told the aged woman how he had been cast away on a desert island, where he had led a precarious existence for many years, until picked up by a passing vessel. When he had done, he turned away from the village that had been his home, determined not to mar the happiness of his friend and faithful wife. He pledged the old woman to keep his secret and set out on the journey, which was to be even longer than the first had been. For the privations and suffering he had endured had weakened him and in the hour of his supreme sacrifice, his emotions wrenched loose the slender hold his soul had on his wasted frame. Thus it was, that at the close of the next day, they found him lying on the sands far down the seashore, where, with Philip and Annie, he had been wont to play aforetime. He was dead. But on his lips were a smile.