The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-06-16

words. sentences. and sometimes long
messages from beyond the Styx. Well,
that continuance, obsolete In spiritual
ism, is now utilized at Coney Island.
The planchette is here so enlarged that
a person can stand on it; the corner
where the pencil used to make marks
on paper is rugged with wheel that
pretends to be controlled by two reins
in the hands of the rider; and ne, poor
fool, undertakes to make circuit of
an asphalted court; but the vehicle
| traces more hieroglyphics in its eccen-
| trio course than the planchette ever
dreamed of, dots an i and crosses I
oftener, and hints at more excitable
messages from the dead and inferen-
TALLY the damned. The Wiggfe- Wog-
gle has a disposition like bucking
| bronchO and a desire to break the neck
of the rider; and its homicidal purpose
ought to be achieved before the season
| is over.
The side-showman at Coney Island
needs small provocation to call his
catch-penny fake a theatre. The
Brownies theatre will serve as an illus
tration. The signboards say it is a
| theatrical wonder. An eloquent per-
suader at the entrance vociferates its
merits as shaming those of the Theatre
/ Francois. And the price of admission.
| a dime, strikes you as, absurdly small.
/ You go in with hundred others, or
about all that the auditorium will hold
at one sitting The rise of the curtain
discloses a stageful of little folk of the
| Brownie sort-pop-eyed, pot-bellied
/ dwarfs, and for just about a minute
even the expert observer is fooled TO
expect a noteworthy performance by
| new company of Tom Thumbs and
/ Minnie Warrens But quickly he sees
| that all the figures save four are dunn
mics, whose activity is exhausted with
moving their eyes, heads and limbs.
/ One of the four Brownies that are alive
shows a few simple tricks in sleight-Of-
hand, a second sings and dances like
an unable novice, third does nothing
but inertly stand around, and only the
| fourth evinces bit of talent, his antics
| serving to protract the entire perform
ance eight minutes And when you
come out the dime you've paid looms
/ big by comparison with the show that
/ it has bought.
| An apparatus sure to be multiplied at
! Coney Island is introduced this week
in one garden. 1t makes a sympathetic
use of the speaking photograph and
the moving photograph, thus produc-
| ing pintures that talk while they make
motions. As now exhibited. il is a GU
riosity rather than a delight, the fig
ures being d quartette of vocalists who
would be tiresome if alive. But I'll
bet, and give long odds, that soon we
shall get plays from machines, with no
human power except the men at the
cranks. and no need of actors after
the first performance to make the pho
| Geographic negatives and the phono-
graphic records.
! The Coney Island manager strives
after big effects with few and little
salaries. He will pay $50 a week for
an enticing barker in front of his show.
but if more than half as much is given
! to a performer inside it is begrudged.
! So he will grab at the photO-phono
fake, and willingly hire a DemOsthenes
at a hundred to be eloquent at the en-
| trance, If only he can present Camille
or Uncle Toms Cabin why Girls
Skidoo" or THE Mystery of Twenty
Three" with a full company of actors,
| a heavy set of scenery, d brass band
and specialties between acts. by having
his wife, son and daughter work the
/ machines, while he takes the money.
! X x
/ Vaudeville down there is abundant
and some of it is good. but more of ii
! is of the female buTlesQue sort: and in
one case the bluff is akin to bunco. The
place is wide open TO the street. A
dozen feet inside a curtain is stretched
| across, but il is so short that a lower
section of the stage is visible hon
! without and the feet and shins of a
score of women are seen in intense ac-
tivity, while great noise of singing
and dancing is heard The barker tells
of the astonishing performance that is
being given free. You walk in and
take a seat at table. A waiter gets
at you so quickly and strenuously that
before you can give any attention tC
| the stage. you must give an order fol
a drink to him. After you have bought
a glass of beer at a dime, and so poor
that there seems to be no need to make
it small. you give heed to the womer
whom the feet and shins belong to
They are life-siZe, but have no Other
living quality. They are figures in e
moving picture, and the noises yol
heard are made by a photograph anC
a pianOla.