Bryan daily eagle and pilot. [volume] (Bryan, Tex.) 1909-1918, 1911-04-29


depravity. TO me that was wonderful revela-
ton OF AngloSaxon psychology
lnus y VIII always be In our theater. whether
the admission price be FIVE cents or two dollars
American audiences want action; they want
thrills; they want desperate courage and wild
heroism but they want 1t all clean. They want
the good to triumph. the guilty to be punished.
and wrong to be avenged
A Partisan manufacturer offered 5000 600 for
the right to make moving pictures OF the ODER.
ammergau Passion Play. His offer was refused
He went back to his studio. engaged company
OF very skillful actors, rehearsed them carefully
and reproduced the Passion Play. almost as well
us II was originally done. and the cost was about
twentieth of what he offered for the original
This manufacturer had an eve on a new field
for the moving picture. While his imitation will
perhaps find comparatively small market, 1t
cannot hope to reach the class that would have
purchased guaranteed reproduction of the
Obefammergau play; viz. the churches
For the churches have not yet come utterly I'M
der the sway OF the moving picture, despite the
fact that the Congregational and Presbyterian
churches Of Redands California showed moving
pictures all last summer in their outdoor paw
lion
Yet the moving picture manufacturers are de-
voting lot Of time and money to religious sub
jects Joseph Going Into Egypt The Repuse
OF Herod, Jephthah's Daughter THE Relief
OF Jericho and THE Wisdom OF Solomon are
few of the subjects of moyingpicture plays
founded on Biblical accounts
While the moving pictures are battering at the
doors OF the churches they have already par
tally scaled the walls OF the schoolhouses Out
OF every seven subjects passed by the National
Board of Censorship. one is classed as @peda-
gogical"
In the catalogues of the manufacturers one
nnds films that show lessons In agriculture.
aeronautcs. animal life. bacteriology. biography.
biology, botany, entomology, ethnology, fisheries.
Fsosfai,.-s. history, industry kirdergaitce stra-
les, mining and metaiurgy microscopy mill
tary and naval life natural history. ornithology.
psclculture. religion. travel and
zoology
II looks like the catalogue OF an educational
house. Yet 1t is only the list of films
that may be and are ordered by "the trade"
Subjects under these lists are shown daily In the
1900 heaters that exhibit moving pictures In this
country They form entertainment not instruc-
ton They have put the stereopticon out OF
business not the schoolmaster
For the public schools have no more surren
dered to the new and plausible invader than have
the churches
Why?
Why not teach children history by showing
hem scenes from the lives OF great men.
pageants from the great moments that are duly /
and laboriously recorded in the books. Why not
SIT and watch George Washington cross the Della
ware on the moving picture sheet instead of /
having to puzzle your head over the dry print /
hat records 1t on unlivened page? Why not I
earn about the growth OF flowers pleasantly BY /
Watching picture instead of having to patiently I
iissect the flower and then piece II together /
igain under the Instruction OF botany text I
book? Such pictures can be and are constantly
shown. Do they not mean the revolution Of |
Not long ago the New York Board Of Education
'ppointed committee to investigate this sub I
ect and find out II II were feasible to install !
noying-picture machines in the various schools
y the city Superintendent Maxwell was on the (
Committee ! saw him few days after the ex-
libition
: He was not very enthusiastic about the pic
ures
"a method will never be devised that viii save \
ny human being the labor of learning he said.
I'VE learn only by taking thought and that is 4
FORK. hard work. You cannot insert learning
ypodermicaliy. You cannot swallow 1t In tab
Did form. There IS but one way to take It, and |
hat it the Oldest way known. Youswill find after
Il of these wIll-o-the-wisps have vanished that
will be the newest way. too"
Which throws the moving picture right back
there II belongs in the theater. II can have no
place in the church. II can have no I
cal place in the school. though 1t may be auxil
ary to either. or both