Evening star., 1915-02-28

be inclosed in back-ined structure facing the glass
side The lighting to be sunshine from above.
When the glass arrived from New York it proved to
be only seven-eghths of inch thick. The director
of the Agars Island Aquarium, who had charge of the
tanks construction, thought it too thin to stand the
strain. Mr.. Brenon, himself an expert swimmer, de-
cided to play the under water part with Annette Ke
lermann who the heroine, rather than ask pro-
fessonal to risk the possible bursting of the tank
There many underwater scenes, which they prac-
sed again and again with little disturbance of the
waer-cube possible and when the began its
work Mr.. Brenon had each taken twice to make
sure of it.
But the final scene, in which the mermaid, after
fierce struggle in the depths with the mortal whom she
had dragged the high cliffs Gtself thrilling and
dangerous feat), succeeds in stretching him drowned
upon the bottom not enacted twice.
lust as the mortal relaxed himself in pretended death
he heard what sounded like rifle shot In spite of the
leaden belt that enabled him to hold the bottom, he
felt himself irresistibly swept away lnvoluntary he
gasped, and found he breathed air. Realizing that
something extraordinary had happened he called out:
Miss Kellernann, you all Tght!'
He saw her toward him and suddenly recoil,
hiding her face in her hands. Then, though he had
sensation of pan he knew he must have been injured
and mutlated.
The glass front of the tank had burst. Mr. Brenon
had been swept fifteen feet away and had been fright
weeks his life in the balance, and more than sixty
stitches, fortunately well covered with clothing,
leave him the most mutilated man have alive.
Miss Kelermann off with cut foot. The film was
miraculousy saved.
HAD the caught the accident, it might have
secured the greatest of all the thrillers-though
after ALL perhaps greater than the play of Joseph
in the Land of Egypt would have proved had the
camera calmly ground his reel instead of pulling
his revolver and shooting the trained lion that had
fused to keel over and look dead when stabbed by
hypodermic needle loaded with dope" The animal
merely nfuriated by the sharp sting of the needle
had eaped with deadly purpose upon a defenseless
actor.
Another scene that the public would have appreciated
was cut out of the films when Cecile DeAle and his
group of and critics sat in the projection of
studio in Los Angeles and watched the first showing
of aThe Vrgnian; for, when the Vrginian rode into
mid-rver and rescued the Yankee schooistress from
the stagecoach Miss Kingston shown bounding, not
into Dustin Farnus arms, but first upon his shoulder
and thence with mighty splash face down into the
water The watchers exclaimed excitedly; but
there was Miss Kingston among them to prove that
she had not been hurt by her spectacular fight She
explained that Mr.. Farnum's horse had shifted his
position. Immediately afterward the screen showed
repetition of the scene, in which Mr.. Farnum made
perfectly satisfactory catch.
Farnum himself had fall when playing James
Carstow in @The Squaw Man." He was to tumble into
crevice in the ice, from which he to be rescued
by the Indian wife and cowboy Choosing what seemed