Dewey County advocate. [volume] (Timber Lake, S.D.) 1910-1913, 1911-05-05

iV vi and was Topping his capacious
chest. 1t was a warm evening, and
~ he had removed his battered straw
49, hat, which he held in his hand. The
size of the hat was No. g. 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
spectacle for which Caesar would have bar
tered province-a joy that brought gasp OF
ecstacy from every of the millions who
saw 1t.
Edison bare-headed, squinted his eyes. The
poetry missed him. The gallop of scenic history
over the verge Of 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:
81 could put every fament into that hat!"
Economics, 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 rare In his speech, Of which
he is as careful of his filaments. he pulls the
core from field Of ideas and thrusts 1t at you
as II it were a poniard You think about what he
says for q week. month; and N years you don't
forget it.
All of this is leading up to a consideration Of
what the wizard-sage said few weeks ago when
a select audience sat in his studio and watched
tho first performance of the kinetograph, that
fabulous instrument which is destined to repro
duce plays, operas, public spectacles with the
action voice
The great old inventor gratifed once
again. Another thrill had come into his life. His
latest adventure into the unknown Lad pros
pered, and his friends and associates clustered
about him with congratulations, with questions,
with assurances.
For some time Edison was silent. N< 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 1t into soap
bubble"
soap-bubble! Rather fragile packing-case.
Rather a small compass in which to place
grand opera. curious comparison. Did Edison
mean what he said? Did he know what he
talking about?
Ever since 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.
A soap-bubble is cheap It is easy to make-if
It reflects all coors, all forms. 1t appeals uni
versally to children. Sages ponder over it. Poets
celebrate it. Artists reproduce it.
Conundrum-Why is moving picture like
soap-bubble?
First, you find them everywhere.
On the back streets of Reno I saw the pictures
OF the bull fight at Guadalajara, Mexico. The
Guadalajarans now look on the moving pictures
of the prize fight at Reno
At Punta Arenas, the southernmost port In the
world, saw Chileans applaud moving pictures
of the Bowery and the New York water front.
On the Bowery 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 MoloKss gather daily
before the Pickering wonders OF q world which
before had been but vaguely in u;eir dreams.
The Sunday evening young peoples +lass of Eau
Claire, Wisconsin, looks in pity OF the trans
planted and resurrected life of Mllokai which
passes before their eyes-on the scs&en.
A group Of travellers in the luxurious saloon
of an ocean liner study the lifeke pictures of
the country for which they are bouLd The beg
CARS who line the pathways of the tourist implor.
ing backsheesh give up their penni4s to see the
living presentment of their prey bounding to
them over the ocean wave.
IN Iceland excited Eskimos applaud the hero
ism of a cowboy. who rescues captured maiden
from the redskins. Halfway round the world.
in Northern Russia fearful peasants sorrow over
the pictured plight of French lover.
The Bengalee moves down Mowlinghee Road
and gives up two pennies to see the funeral Of
King Edward-to see 1t actually move. The
Moro in the alleys Of Zamboanga goes without
an extra shirt, that he may view the recentiou Of
Universal a. Froth.