Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1915-12-14
FILM BRINGS OUT
CHEERsANDTEARS
Large Audience Mt Illinois Theatre
Moved by @The Birth Of
Nation"
WEEKS ENGAGEMENT Is BEGUN
Accompanying Orchestra Lends To fm-
pressiFeness OF Picture Of
Civil War Days.

life compared with the HIckerlng sna1~
ow of tattered film in d backwoods
nickeiode0n.
D. W. Grifith's picture OF the re-
construction period in American his
tory. THE Birth Of a Nation" was
shown for the first time last night at
the Illinois theatre, where ii will re-
main for a week. The cast of char
acters follows
Col. Ben Cameron ... Henry Walthall
Margaret Cameron. the elder sister
....................M Miriam Cooper
Flora, the pet sister .-.... Mae Marsh
Mrs, Cameron. 49,. Josephine Crowell
DIR. Cameron. .,.. Spottiswoode Aiken
Wade Cameron, the second SON..
............-......,,J. B. Beringer
Duke Cameron. the youngest son.
.................. MaxfieId Stanley
Nanny, their faithful old servant
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS., Jennie Lee
Hon Austin Stonemau, leader Of the
House .........,..... Ralph Lewis
Elsie his daughter ...... Lillian Gish
Phil. his elder SON.. Elmer Clifton
Tod, the younger son. Robert Harron
Jeff. the blacksmith. .... Wallace Reed
Lydia Brown. stoneman's mulatto
housekeeper ............M Mary Alden
silas Lynch, mulatto lieutenant
governor ....... George Seigmann
Gus, a renegade negro. Walter Long
Abraham Lincoln. Joseph Henabery
John Wilkes Booth, .,.. Raoul Walsh
Gen. Il. s. Grant. ......- Donald Crisp
Gen Robt. i. Lee. ..-... Howard Gaye
Nelse, an old-fashioned negro.
................ William De Vault
Jake. a black man faithful unto
death William Freeman
| Stoneman's servant. Thomas Wilson
The management of THE Birth of
| Nation" claims that the picture is to
be presented but one booking in a
city Ii this is the case every person
should make the greatest possible eff
fort 10 see the picture-drama, no mat
| ter il it entails a considerable priya-
| ton. Especially should children Of
ages above IL be taken to view this
masterpiece, for it will give to them
definite idea Of history they must
| learn by rote and Of events of which
| there is no better way Of instilling
Hove of their land because Of its ira
vail. and the lesson the attainment of
peace carries by contrast with the
then and now.
While much that's seemed extraya-
CANT has been written Of the picture
| il transcends all description and is too
big for words. TO tell its story would
| take pages, to portray in language as
1t does in film would be a chaos OF
! English unless one had space to care
fully piecemeal the history Of the Civil
war and the longer period of the years
Of the reconstruction and to this could
add the tremendous genius Of its Gre
| ator and all the imagery Of photogra-
ply, Were it humanity possible to do
this there still would be the musical
setting of itself an orchestral enter
| tainment of superb power and exquis-
tie harmony, accompanying as it does
each emotion with its high, queer
strain Of alarm in the swiftly chang
| ing tragedies to the sweetness Of rip
ping melody matching the delicacy
Of the southern girl, or playing softly
some old-time tune and swelling into
patriotic American songs.
Some Of the most affectipgly tender
glimpses Of homes and their surround
ngs and the great clutch they had on
the hearts Of the people Of the south
are brought out in such sharp relief
that errors of mind while coldly read
ing its history give way to warmth oil
feeling for the men of that time who
surely were not alone in their mis-.
takes and who rectffed them at too
terrible a cost. AS the pictures un.
fold they are as so many revelations
and one feels that he is relearning
the most vivifyingly romantic ant
tragic pages of humanity's documents
In prologue 1t reads that it is like
unto the bible and Shakespeare-it Il
presenting a truthful version of tht
time. leaving in all Of the dark places
and showing the way to the light. I'll
appeal is for abolition Of war and We.
it breaches. oh so powerfully, tina
while hot passions sway the intellec
and ignorance is rife there is no peace
Hatred and Tears.
From the opening scenes, introduc
ing the Cameron family the interes
grows until the audience finds ftseI
gripping the chairs TO hold in least
the spirit provoked at sight of outragt
all too clearly true, TO those othe
moments when it weeps in sympathy
with the mother who gave her son!
one by one TO the maelstrom Of i1a
tired. Also one begins TO sense tn
amount Of money necessary in tn
production when he sees Sherman
march to the sea and the assembling,
in General Lees last stand on the bat
tlefield OF Petersburg Now swift,
comes victory for the north and thu
vision OF Lineofn's assassination /.
portrayed so actually that the audi
ence at the Illinois last night sat still
ed and stunned. Then follows tn
reign of the carpetbag who in
ducsd the negro to at once ASSUME
equality together with the insoIenct
OF power run mad, and which Is only
checked after a seourge more devas.
tating than the war by the organize.
ton OF the Ku Klux clan. A painful
picture Is the seat OF government aft