Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-09-07
'CAD|RIA" FILMS
DEPICT SCIENCE
APPLIED TO WAR
Photo-Drama at Proctor's an
Unusual Production That
Stirs Audiences.
BL IRVING r. RAcnN

BL IRVING r.. BACON.
Science and superstition celebrate
tneir victories in the events which
gabrielle D'Annunzios stupendous
photo-drama, "Cabiria," depicts.
saw tnls spectacular marvel of the
moving picture screen last Saturday
hlght at Poctors Park Place Thea
IRE, where II will continue to be shown
curing this entire week,
Inc part which science plays is en-
ooaied IN the machines invented by
arcnliiledes, the famous Greek geo.
t nit IN defense or his native
CITY syracuse, Sicily. In the 212th
year before the Christian era. during
the second war between Rome and
carthage, Marcellus, one of the great
est OF the Roman generals, was about
10 take syracuse, an ally of Carthage,
Wheh Archlmedes came to the rescue
Win engines of war which Judging
from their description by ancient au-
thors, must have been cannon. They
We're capable of hurting great weights
upon the enemy at distances far be-
yond the range of the catapults, the
ordinary missile-hurlers of that age;
and the noise they made is spoken of
as terrifying-can as sure as
tate! But it is not upon these i'm
Elements of war that stress is laid in
,Cablria." 1t is Archimedes's "burn-
ing glasses that are principally
SHOWN in the picture, gathering and
concentrating the rays of the sun
upon the enemy's ships. These glasses
started fire which destroyed the
entire Roman fleet and protracted
Tor eight months a siege which. with
cut Archimedes, would probably have
lasted less than eight days.
However the admiration which is
engendered in the beholder by the
wonders of science of that early Pc
Rod in hiStory-wonders, the secret
of which persisted with their inven-
tor, is but feeble in comparison with
the horror which is aroused by the
superstitions of the Carthagenians
All through "Cabiria," superstition
appears to be the "leit motif upon
which its double triangular plot Of
romance is based. For it is partly
lust, partly a desire to appease the
god Moloch with human sacrifice
that prompts Carthalo, the priest, to
prosecute Cabiria, the heroine of the'j
drama. And superstition it is too,
which sways the beautiful Princess
Sophonisba. daughter of the chief
general, Hasdrubal, to surrender Ca
biria for sacrifice to Moloch.
This is a phase of the remarkable
photo-drama which does not appear to
have attracted the notice of those
who have heretofore written about III !
True, nearly all have deScanted upon !
the atrocious cruelty of the Offering t
of babes to the frightful idol in |
"Cabiria;" but none, as far as has |
come to my notice, has written about |
the human INSTRUMENTATION which |
lies at the bottom of those offerings. !
Any modern spectator is shocked to |
behold even the pictured representa-
ton of such a sacrifice, and can
scarcely understand how il was ever
possible for such a custom to prevail.
And we feel proud, by contrast,
to think how much more civilized we
are nowadays, how far removed we /
are from any such faint of supersti-
ton. 1
Even Plutarch, the great historian. +
who was a heather, writing nearly
1000 years ago about these human
sacrifices to Moloch, says: i
Can this be called worshipping
gods? Can we be said to entertain
an honorable idea of them if we sup
pose that they are pleased with
thirsty of human blood and
of requiring or accepting
such offerings? Religion is placed be-
tween two rocks which are danger
Gus to man and injurious to the
mean impiety and supersti-
ton The one, from an affectation of
free thinking, believes nothing the
other, from blind weakness, believes
all things"
In the stupendous temple of Mo-
loch. vast sea of humanity dances
and waves torches and appears to be
beyond itself with relig-
ious frenzy while babes are being fed
into the fiery NAV of the brazen idol.
At one time the people of Carthage
and of their mother country, Tyre,
used to offer their own children for
the sacrifice But in time this custom
became honored in the breach, and
the rich wou d buy children from the
poor for this purpose. In the Valley
of Hinnow (Gehenna), near Jerusalem,
similar sacrifices were one time Of
fered to this rapacious god.
For all our Wanted superiority, are
We moderns altogether free from SUI
perstition and the fanaticism which
usually accompany it. Often do we
not rejoice when one who differs from
us i'm opinion is Inundated, is "cruci-
fed" as the saying is?
What is this, if not a superstitious
sacrifice to some Moloch. some idol
we adore?
is not the patTlOllSln 10 NHiCh
Europe is sacrificing so many vic
tins now, precisely such an idol as
that of the Carthaginians? What
Moloch more Unsuitable than that 20
which the cannon make music while
hundreds of thousands go down TO
death invoking damnation one upon |
the other?
"Cabiria" has a hundred angles, |
any one of which makes it well worth |
going miles to see. But none, | |
think, is of greater use in teaching |
the lesson of human infirmity than |
that angle around which it seems en- !
tirely to pivot superstition! 1t is apt |
to jog our indolent brains into think |
ing. And when thinking begins, light |
enters the mind: mind and super |
and all other intellectual ig- |
bats which infest this
world take flight and leave the path |
open for a brighter day and hap
pier humanity.