The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1914-10-29

mlll1on dollar palace OF MOVIES
success. following out and advancing
his Minneapolis idea.
The Strand has a talented II
piece orchestra, each individual
having been picked by the manager.
Its music and effects are wonderful,
and so are the picture shows. Mr..
Rothapfel believes IN touching the
senses. For instance; in an Orien-
tai picture, the pugent odor of In
cense invades the house, being
quickly blown away by electric fans
before the next reel. When a scene
shows man coming from the dark
into the sunshine, hidden electric
lights light up the huge play house,
but so subtle that one feels it
through the scene he is watching.
Foreign opera singers are en-
gagged and the amusement seeker
who pays his ten. twenty-five or fifty
cents, hears the classics at the two
hours performance.
The weekly expenses of the house
are $4,000 which shows the height
this original genius has risen to aud
how far the movies have advanced.
While singing and talking NOV
ing pictures are now in use, they
are as yet unsuccessful aud will
never command the steady patron
age the movement houses do until
the phonograph is perfected to rec
ord the true tone of the human
voice.
AS an educational force, the
movies are without doubt superior
to the text book and teachers. A
child will learn more in five minutes
from screen than in an hour from
a book; and the knowledge becomes
imbeded in his brain permanently.
Not only does it teach the child,
but every stage of educational ad-
vancement. Geography and history
for the little people, botony, zoology
aud PHYSIOLOGY to high school stu
dents, engineering, mining ETC., to
University students and. by aid of
the x-ray aud microscope, the high
er branches of animal and vegetable
life are taught to scholars.
That great divine, Richard G.
Hallaman, said, Ny opinion il that
the moving picture is the coming
educator. This | believe to be true
not only in the education Of youth,
bat in the church. / believe that
in very few years every we'll
equipped church will have a NOV
ing picture apparatus, SO that the
minister will appeal TO the eye more
than the ear"
Mr.. Edison says that in his opin-
ion the cinematograph will displace
all other methods in the school room
for the teaching of Geography. And
the different states are using the
movies to educate their citizens in
all branches of its plant, animal and
mineral husbandry.
While we read in the papers what
is taking place in Europe, So. Africa,
Alaska, China and in our own u. S.,
the animated weekly shows us in a
pictorial way exactly how things
took place.
AS moral force, the moving pic
ture is a medium for both the good
and the bad things of life. What
acts as an amusement for the adult
mind will be unfit for the mind of a
child whose Imagination Is still in the
prospectus. and what amuses the
child would bore the adult; there
fore, more than a rigid censorship is
needed. The women of the east are
demanding a governmental censor
ship on songs and stories. and soon
they will demand aud get censor
ship on ALL reels before their re-
lease.
1t does not sound practical to sug-
gest one picture house for the
children and another for adults, yet
that is the only way the moral at
mosphere of the movies can be
rightly controlled.
State, county and government in
stitutions-at least those which lead
in modern doctrine and look for the
best results installed picture
machines. and they have been prov
en- profitable from every point of
view. Thus we see that while the
movies may have few bad points,
the good they have done. are doing,
and will do, makes them an epoch in
this generation.