The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1911-04-28

size of the hat was No 8. The man was Thomas
A. Edison.
Before us spread that dream in frozen music
the buildings fronting the esplanade, mall and
plaza of the exposition. The twilight was done
and the moment had arrived for the night birth
of that dream into splendor. For the first time
in history architecture was to be made alive at
night more living than by day Half million
incandescent bulbs were hid along the transverse
lines of the buildings The current was turned
on and they simultaneously bloomed Ensued a
spectacle for which a Caesar would have bar
tered a province-a JOY that brought a gasp of
ecstacy from every one of the millions who
saw it.
Edison, bare-headed squnted his eyes. The
poetry missed him. The gallop of scenic history
over the verge of a new era missed him The
glory of the spectacle itself missed him Instead,
he glanced shrewdly and carefully all around on
the enhancing wonder, then cautiously into his
battered straw hat and said:
Il could put every flament into that hiatt"
Economies, mechanics-these obsessed him.
That brain, which required No. hat for cover
ing, could think only of the compressed fact
that all the space occupied by the vibrating en-
ergizing and gloryworking source of that gigantic
spectacle could be replaced by about two pints
OF water-or quart of human brain
Edison is man. In his speech of which
he is as careful as of his filaments, he pulls the
core from a field of ideas and thrusts it at you
as if it were ponard You think about what he
says for a week, month; and in years you don't
forget it,
All of this is leading up to consideration of
what the wizard-sage said few weeks ago when
a select audience sat in his studio and watched
the first performance of the kinetograph, that
fabulous instrument which is destined to repro
duce plays, operas. public spectaces with the
action the color and the voice intact
The great old inventor was gratifed once
again. Another thrill had come into his life His
latest adventure into the unknown had pros
pered and his friends and associates clustered
about him with congratulations with questions
with assurances.
For some time Edison was silent. He is CRATE
full that he is deaf Then he squinted from one
to the other and said
Before long you'll be working that in an aero
plane for you'll be able to pack it into a soap
bubbe"
soapbubble! Rather a fragile packing case
Rather a small compass in which to place a
grand opera. curious comparison. Did Edison
mean what he said? Did he know what he was
talking about?
Ever since l heard that Edison said that
have been thinking of moving pictures in connec-
ton with soap-bubbles. And not always in the
way he meant bubbles in connection with the
photograph
soap-bubbe is cheap 1t is easy to make-if
1t reflects all colors, all forms 1t appeals uni.
versally to children Sages ponder over 1t. Poets
celebrate it. Artists reproduce it.
COMMUNICATES is moving picture like
soap-bubble?
First. you find them everywhere.
On the back streets of Reno l saw the pictures
of the bull fight at Guadalajara Mexico The
Guadalaiarans now look on the moving pictures
of the prize fight at Reno
At Punta Arenas. the southernmost port in the
world, | Chileans applaud moving pictures
Of the Bowery and the New York water front
On the Bowery l saw pictures of the battleship
feet entering the harbor of Punta Arenas
On an island 1000 miles out in the Pacific
Ocean the eXiled lepers of Molokai gather daily
before the Pickering wonfers of world which
before had been but vaguely in their dreams
The Sunday evening young peoples class of Eau
Claire, Wisconsin looks in pity on the trans
planted and resurrected life of Mololai which
passes before their eyes-on the screen.
A group of travellers in the luxurious saloon
of an ocean liner study the lifelike pictures OF
the country for which they are bound The beg
Ing backsheesh give up their pennies to see the
living presentment Of their prey bounding to
hem over the ocean wave
In Iceland excited Eskimos applaud the hero.
SIN of a cowboy who rescues captured maiden
rom the redskins Halfway round the world.
IN Northern Russia, fearful peasants
The pictured plight of French lover.
The Bengalee moves down Mowringhee Road
and gives up two pennies to see the funeral OF
King Edward-to see it actua:,y move The
Moro in the alleys of Zamboanga goes without
extra shirt that he may view the reception OF
Universal as Froth.