Views and Film Index (1908)

4 VIEWS AND FILMS INDEX. to come, for the moving pictures arehere to stay and their development in interest and amusement is, after all, only in its infancy. Before the close of the year just opened many very pleasing surprises in that direction may be looked for. Talent, ingenuity, time and ex¬ pense will figure more extensively dur¬ ing the next twelve months than ever before in the manufacture of films and the enterprising manager is not going to be behind in his part. With the quality of goods that are promised at his disposal the wide-awake manager knows it is up to him to give them pro¬ per presentation and this community of interest, if properly carried out is going to make the new year a banner one of the moving picture business. SCIENTIFIC FILM. The United States Agricultural De¬ partment is seeking to cultivate in this country, by irrigation, plants which have heretofore been known to thrive only in foreign, tropical cli¬ mate. The condition of our soil in our great arid West is adaptable for the success of the scheme and all that is necessary is that the farmers be given an accurate knowledge of the characters of the plants. The Govern¬ ment, therefore, has an ingenious method of meeting the question, and they have already sucteeded in so far that there are date trees now grow¬ ing on American soil. The bulb is imported and set in one of the Government’s propagating hothouses. An automatic camera is focused on the plant and a clock-work attached. This clock mechanism is adjusted to snap the shutter every hour or two hours, or as frequently as desired. This device is installed before the plant has reached above the ground so that the machine may record its progress from the very be¬ ginning. Considering that it takes three weeks for certain plants to bloom completely and that pictures of its development have been taken hourly, there would be 504 pictures in all, making a film about 60 feet long. This film, then, would show the en¬ tire development of that plant — birth, growth, flowering and fruiting. The machine may be kept in position also to show how the plant, after reaching the zenith of its develop¬ ment, droops to decay. Thus it is possible by the aid of motion photography to bring before the eyes of farmers . in Nevada and California actual growth from the banks of the Nile, the steeps of the Caucuses or the bowers of Japan; and in such a practical way is it done that he is saved the energy and ef¬ fort of experiment and the watching and waiting and anxiety which comes with it. It has not yet been found in how many different ways the won¬ derful soil of the West can be utilized, flut the fact that date trees are now thriving there is goour reason to hope drat some day we will grow our own ■"manas and figs — and motion pic re photography will surely be a eat factor in accomplishing it. / A WASHINGTON CRITIC. He Finds Room for “Ye Satyre” Seeing the , Nickel Shows of the Capital. The Rev. Zed H. Copp is a pious, God-fearing clergyman of Washing¬ ton, D. C., and he nobly placed his reputation in jeopardy by actually witnessing the picture shows one night. But don’t forget that the rev¬ erend gentleman has a weakness for newspaper notoriety, and that ex¬ plains the presence of a press agent, who was apparently instructed to use all of the sarcasm at his command, for it must be borne in mind that even a graduate of the correspon¬ dence school of journalism is good enough to write something once in a while. Thanks to his wonderful cleverness, we are able to treat our readers to an account of his good master’s wanderings. He visited, he says, the dark spots of the city, and he confidently tells us that some of the spots were so black that the searchlight of a modern battleship wouldn’t have pierced through, but some were only indifferently vulgar, and others really interesting. There was the gorilla— at least the slide of the moving picture machine called him a gorilla, although he looked like a cross between a nature fake and a special press agent’s story from a big menagerie. This was a very naughty beast, who stole the wife of a peaceful jungle in¬ habitant and carried her far away into the swampy, dark, noisome and tan¬ gled jungle. Here milady learned to live, how¬ ever, on grass and roots and jungle breakfast food. In the mornings she played bridge with the jungle “Four Hundred,” while her husband played the jungle stock market. In the afternoon she played more bridge, and in the evening she lapsed into viaduct, which is more intense than ordinary bridge, because it usual¬ ly comes higher. Well, one day along comes her husband, his brother-inlaw and the little son of the jungle lady. Hist ! They see the ugly beast. Hist, twice more, for they shoot the noble jungle stock manipulator and see him fall to the noisome, swampy soil near a real-looking rock. Back to the house they go, milady carried all the way. But a cruel fate has made her mad. Enter little Al¬ gernon, son of milady, a tear cours¬ ing down his rapidly moving cheeks. Milady spurns him, and asks in the best junglese for breakfast food and cards with which to play viaduct. He turns to go. Suddenly milady sees his hair is wet. She sees he has been in swimming, without a life preserver and a corps of life-savers. She clasps him in her arms. All is well agafn. Here comes Willie de Freighter,, who steals a bicycle and proceeds ! to ride it for several hundred miles, with the assistance of the machine, a strong light and a screen. Willie zigzags al¬ most over all the universe, and if there is any loose piece of humanity or crockery he doesn’t hit the fiist time round he either goes back after it or wears an injured air that sits ill upon his, well massaged counten¬ ance. Willie knocks over pedestrians with the ease and precision of a 40-horse¬ power automobile. He rides in a wa¬ vering line that is meant to bring tears of laughter to the eyes of the spectators, but is more likely to give them the jimjams. He has a careless, debonaire manner that fits him like it would the Duke de Cakiak. Jaunty is not quite the word for Willie; but enough of such persi¬ flage. Willie is about his business, earning twenty-three per for posing for the machine. He turns square cor¬ ners, upsets “loidies,” runs into ped¬ dlers and finally gives two policemen such a waking up as they haven’t re¬ ceived since the flood. But he gets away — they always do. The darker side has a tinge of things other than nature or hoboes. Here comes the great comedian im¬ ported straight from Hester street, or the Ghetto, wearing an open-face suit, a diamond and a sense of impropriety. He cracks jokes which wouldn’t be printed in any paper that was ever published. He sings in a voice much more strained than the quality of mercy, and yet he makes a decided hit. His remarks are greeted with laughter and side-shakings, so that there must have been somebody amused in the audience. See how proudly the little dog, run¬ ning before its little mistress, who can’t be more than four years old, wags his tail. They are taking a walk. They walk very far into the fields. The little girl loses many things. She has a full baby-buggy when she starts. When she stops beside a river she has not so many things. The river flows swiftly. The little girl grows afraid. The little dog jumps into the river. He swims across and runs home. He brings back a bigger dog, who also wags his tail. When he has time in between he jumps and swims. The big dog takes a necklace from the little girl’s neck. He goes back to his master, who is the little girl’s father. The little girl’s father runs back and swims the river. He does not— he is busy running. The little s father swims the river and ®ets the little girl. See the little girl ceding candy to both little dogs/paPa is not bein° fed; perhaps Jre is in the next room drying hi* clothes. The sun shines down on Zambesi RiveE which is in Africa. The boats, driven by the natives or by gasoline, come up to the landing and take aboard their passengers. The river grows swifter. Hush! The Great Vic¬ toria Falls are roaring; can’t you hear them in between the georgemcohan music ? There they are. How magnificent! See how they revolve slowly in front of the audience, as if the audienct were being carried past them in a Chi¬ cago street car. They are really beau¬ tiful falls, and the moon looks pretty good, too. Here we have the balloon, and com¬ ing here is a lady — at least she would have fo be called that, because we’ve never been introduced. The lady clambers into the balloon and starts for Pike’s Peak. Here comes the first villain. He seizes the rope ladder. “Ah, Geraldine de Montmorency, you shall not escape me now.” Enter villain number two as vil¬ lain number one disappears in the flies, or over the edge of the screen. He grabs a rope. “Geraldine” — and the rest — “you shall be my meat.” Scene, the clouds in summer, with the fields below in autumn. The hero¬ ine and the villains dangle in midair, wherever that is. Enter a bright thought. Villain number two falls off. He lands on the ground where he started, which is convenient, for he can walk right back where he was when he had to come on for the turn. Again we see number one purusing Geraldine about the meshes of the balloon’s net. “Ha! almost, Geraldine. Almost thrice more, and once again.” And all of the above, we are to sup¬ pose, is to the everlasting fame of the noble Rev. Zedd H. Copp! Jus 111 BIRTH OF POST CARDS. Who, when, what, or how originated the idea of picture post cards is a matter of dispute. But meager information can be obtained on the subject. It is said that M. Leon Besnardeux a bookseller and stationer, conceived the idea in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War. There were forty thousand soldiers in camp in his vicinity. The supply of en¬ velopes was limited at the time, being difficult to obtain, and this wideawake stationer thought that the men woult t f preciate having some way of letting tftd friends know of their environm|jty Qf ' life in the camp without the£^quent writing long letters and '' hustle for envelopes^ent of havink He tried the^ cannoI1) tents and cards engrave^hich mfeht prove of in_ various tjrr away rejatjves and sweet tep The soldiers promptly took them .p6 The first supply was soon exhausted, However, 1 and he issued a second set. when the camp broke up the issue of cards was discontinued and forgotten at the time. Some years later it was taken up by Germany and Austria, but attracted little attention at first. One story goes that a German was the fmst to print an object of interest on a ca"d with a cordial greet¬ ing thereon and l ad it through the post, paying regular letter rates. Some say the industry developed from this simple beginning. A business man wants practical suggestions, not idealistic flights ; and we know it, because WE ARE PRACTICAL MEN. The VIEWS AND FILMS INDEX is the practical paper. When writing advft-rtJserg ulndly mention Views and Films Index.