The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-07-10
A PORTABLE AURORA BoREALIs.
Simple Means by Which the Beautiful
Stage Effect Is Produced.

Simple Means by Which the Beautiful
Stage Effect Is Produced.
tChicago Heraid.l
If the old axiom that the most insignifi-
cant, even ridiculous, causes produce the
most impressive effects is at all true it
certainly holds good of scenic effects in
spectacular pieces The illusion is we'll
nigh perfect under the efforts of modern
stage mechanism Even if one knows
that the raging ocean is in reality but
a piece Of canvass, under which per
spring Supers hump themselves:
that the wig of the statuesque Galatea is
but cotton waste; that electric light is used
In counterfeitinE the heavenly artillery of
Jeve; that the lights london are pro-
duced by carving holes in a worn out drop
curtain; that the pure and silent Luna IS
disk caused by the reflection of the stere-
opticon lens that Juliets balcony is tot
tering ladder, steadied by grimy car
penter; that the beautiful moon lit Alham-
bra scenery is but a conglomerate of
incoherent daubs made with whitewash
brush upon canvas-even if all that is
known, the effects from the auditorium
are nevertheless thrillingly real
The growing craving for realistic scenes
upon the stage has taxed the ingenuity of
the property man sorely, but he has so far
been equal to the occasion. When the
play demanded an aurora bOrealis, this
magnificent natural phenomenon of polar
ATTITUDES, it "had to be did, " and done it
is with the most beautiful effect magma
BILE. Softly the wonderful colors of the
arctic light steal over the background of
the dark horizon, filling the seemingly in
finite waste of ETHEREAL expanse with all
the splendor of gigantic rainbow. The
impression is marvelously soothing and
peaceful. Then as if all the lightning of
heaven had been unclaimed the electric
currents in dazzling brilliancy shoot
through the Illuminated sky in ever vary
ing rays of light The audience, spell
bound in the beginning, is wild with de-
again, the wondrous beauty of the arctic
scene-the stage carpenter turning little
crank at pine box, 2x124 feet
That box contains revolving disks Of
colored gelatine; these produce the colors
Of the rainbow. There are also two disks
of sheet iron, perforated with prismatic
figures and revolving in opposite direc
tons; these give the electric fluid. The
machinery is moved by common crank,
and the box is placed on piece of
scantling about six feet high. In front of
the box is dark blue drop, representing
the sky, and behind the simple mechanism
is the lime fuse of strong calcium light,
fed from the condensers by means of rub
Der tubes This plain outfit Is all there is
10 Tue magnlncent aurora DOreal S--Dut
the latter is nevertheless magnificent in
splendor as seen from the auditorium
The French Canadians.
Montreal Minerve.l
We are to-day a good million and half
of French speaking people who know
what it means to speak French, and who
will hand over our language to our chill
dren, who in half century will number
at least i, 900, 000 Our children, be as
sured, will speak French without the need
of any whip to force them. We
intend to keep up our language for all
time, and 80 we have faith in our future
Cur hard times have passed, and there is
now in Canada a French center which
will never be destroyed or kept down.
Our 300 st. Jean Baptiste societies make
this sure; our 500, 000 compatriots emf
grated to the United States prove it. See
their attachment to the French language
in a place so fatal to every tongue but the
English 1t is when we have spread |
over Ontario and the United States. when
we have made large holes in all English
counties of the province of Quebec, when
the Franco Acadian race is so visibly en-
larging itself in the maritime provinces,
that prophet of evil, taking his desires
for realities, dares to predict our future
absorption?