The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1911-09-29

they could hope to get on the regu-
lar stage. 1t is said, for instance,
that one girl whose name Is virtually
but who has a peculiar
aptitude for pantomime, receives
from one of the film manufactur-
ing concerns $4,000 a week for her
services. This may be an exaggera-
tion-probably is-but no doubt
her actual salary is large enough to
furnish a reasonable foundation for
this munificent version of it.
The moving picture men do pay
well. They want the best and the
only reason that we are enabled to
see our Thespian stars anywhere ex-
cept on a lantern screen is that
their prejudices have prevented
them from selling their whole time
at their own figures to the moving
picture firms.
But here, also, the camera men
have driven is an opening wedge at
last, and a very large wedge. Nine.
Bernhardt-the Divine Sarah -
after many indignant refusale has at
last succumbed to their blandish-
ments and will act for the camera.
Whether she was influenced in her
decision by the money offered her
or by the opportunity to perpetuate
her fame, the dispatches do not
state, but it seems odd that this
means of removing one of the great
est objections to acting as a profess
sion-its impermanency-ha not
been eagerly seized upon.
The work of the composer, the
writer, the partner, the architect, ram
writer, the painter, the architect
| lives after them, but the achieve
ments of tn actor lap off into obliv-
ion with his last prformance. What
do Booth and Forrest mean to the
younger members of this generation?
What will Joe Jefferson mean to the
next generation? Only hazy sug-
gestions of something that was
said to be worth looking at and lis
tening to.
But, thanks to the phonograph
and the biograph, the stars that are
left to us may be looked at and lis
tened to by our great-great-grea
grandchildren. The youth of 100
years from now may marvel at the
sweetness of the Bernhard voice
and understand why the play of the
Bernhard countenance held thous-
ands speechless. 1t will be possible
to compare the voice of Caruso with
those of the great tenors of genera
tions to come and the touch" OF
Paderewski will not be matter OF
description after he is gone. 1t is
preserved in the records for ages un-
born.
The combination of these two in
ventions, the phonograph and the
moving picture, has already been ef'
fected, so that we may see and hear
at one and the same time. What
this will mean to posterity if proper.
ly utilized to-day can only be i'm
agined by endeavoring to conceive
what it would mean to us to attend
a concert by Jenny Lind; to see and
hear Napoleon, George Washington
Queen Elizabeth, Cleopatra, Caesar
Moses.
History means nothing when there
is no history to write. The bio
graph and the phonograph are toe
young for us to grasp the full import
of the gift they have conferred up
on mankind, by showing us how
to fraternize with the next millen.
mum, like Phra the Phoenician, OIL
the Wandering Jew in Sues tale.
Fifty years from now there viii
be no difficulty in persuading the
most highly favored actors and ac.
tresses to perform for the phono
graph and the biograph. The diff
Guilty will be to get them to perform
in the absence of these greatest his
torians the world has ever produced
Harrisburg Telegraph.