El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-10-13

~HE man who turns the crank
that takes the pictures that
make the moving picture show
IS one Of the most versatile of all the
men in the world. He is a stage di-
rector a dramatic critic, a war cores
pendent, a landscape artist, a sea-far-
ing adventurer. an explorer, a teacher.
a scientist, a historian, and
preacher.
He points his camera daily at hun
dreds and hundreds o. things-this
morning at a fake indian plotting the
iOus ranch I'm the Bronx; this after
noon he catches the maneuVers Of a
handful of steel filings animated by
the attraction Of an electro gnet-
Tomorrow he viii catch a gigantic
derrick working to remove the debris
Of a disastrous railroad wreck and the
next day his camera viii, at intervals
of three or four hours, record the
bursting Of a rosebud in some bOtan-
lists greenhouse.
Take Many Imaginary Scenes.
His brothers are at work in every
part of the world. The moving pic
ture camera man is busy in the su-
burbS OF Paris making pictures or
North American indians supposed to
be on the Warpath in Wyoming, and in
Bound Brook New Jersey, another
camera man is taking pictures Of OIL
yer Cromwell and his ROundhead sol
diers, pictures destined to be exhibited
under the actual shadow of that min
aret Of Westminster Abbey where
CrOmwelfs grinning skull was once
exposed
The glory that was Greece and the
gradeur that was Rome have breathed
and burned again in Flatbush, Brook
lyn, for the deleCtation Of millions Of
men there represented by the viCariOus
"a n
the Carthage Of Dido have been re-
built and repeOpled in HObOken for
the moving picture man; the dlgntt1ed
Washington and the sOrrOWing Lincoln
have been resurrected to enact again
great deeds in the cameras mouth.
Many Real Scenes Depicted.
But not alone in the mimic world
does the camera man find his field.
The emperor Of Germany, the car Of
Russia, and the king Of Spain are
everywhere accompanied by official
photographers who record their
every public royal act for their con-
tempOraries and for pOstertty. When
the telegraph flashes the news Of q
disaster the maphOtOgraphe rush
IS to the scene with all the haste or
/ the newspaper correspondent If these
is a great military parade, a meeting
of nOtables, naval review, or any
/ thing that IS out Of the ordinary and
I that is capable Of Installation, IL IS
there that the camera man must go
lie for moving pictures The moving
picture camera man has cranked his
machine within the sacred confines OF
Lhassa in Tibet, he has leaned over
the edge Of a crater to take the pic
ture of an actual hell he has invaded
the frozen Businesses Of the Arctic
circle, and has brought away, to be
the prize Of every eye, the mysterious
secrets OF the densest Jungles Of dark
est Africa.
It may be that sometimes he is vuI-
gar, that often he is crude, that &C
casiOnally he is immoral; but 1t is
also true that with his camera and
its crank he has focused upon the
space Of a canvas screen the photo
graphic presentment of the entire
human race at work and at play.
The Great Picture Playhouse.
The reader is invited to fare forth
into the farthermOst reaches Of the
Bronx, a half dozen blocks beyond the
northern terminus Of the Third avenue
L" and there TO go into great thea
ter with three STAGES. but lacking a
proscenium arch and having no boxes,
parQuet, balcony or gallery. High over
{ the stage is a glass roof through
which the sun shines brightly. One
stage is curtained off on four sides
, and above with Opaque Canvasses, and
within, under the glare of electric
/ lights of $4,000 candle power. is be-
ing enacted an incident in the life Of
an Eskimo. the aurora bOrealis being
substituted for the too brilliant Bronx
sun. On another stage, with a 18th
century cathedral for a background,
Jack Cade and his ruffiaus are begin
ming again the wars Of the roses
But to these we must close our eyes
On the third stage Is discovered the
/ interior of the general pOstOffice and
store of a frontier mining camp. Real
Z letters are I'm the pOstOffiCe boxes.
and real sides of bacon hang from
real rafters. 1t is an anaChrOnism