The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1916-03-24
Moving Pictures Are Used
To Aid in Showing Ferri-
BILE Effects Of Gun Fire.
(special to The Flar1ner.)

Paris, March 24-In the midst of
war the French government has open
led a. sort of Palace of the press, next
door to the old American Embassy
building in Rue Francois I. It is a five
story mansion built to contain very
modern flats.
Each fat now contains a depart
n1ent of the Maison de La Presse.
There is a floor for everything an
accredited visitor can want. There
is a diplomatic floor. a military floor.
a propaganda floor "a photograph
top, the movies
The diplomatic floor, is, of course,
a branch of the Quai d'Orsay. or For
eign office, and attaches ply between
8 it and the latter, which is not a quar-
ter of a mile away, besides using tele-
phones, OF which the Maison de Ia
Presse has six main lines, with vsri-
GUS inner lines.
s The attaches still feel a. little home
sick for their venerable quarters at
the Quad d'Orsay, when they sit in the
white and Louis XVI. rooms of the
MaisoY1 de Ia Press, but, of course,
the great use Of centrahzing all work
connected with the press is clear to
everyone.
The military floor is inhabited by
representatives of the war Office some
elderly officers on active service, 9TH
photograph department is one of the |
new things the House OF the Paris
Press prides itself upon The service |
geographique de PArmee-the official |
photographers who travel at the front |
have taken thousands OF remarkable !
pictures. Some are too realistic to /
be shown to the public, and only privi-
legged visitors can see them, but in the |
main the useful innovation IS that |
nearly all the pictures can be bought |
by the public at Eve cents apiece
There could be no better propagan- |
da than photographs, for instance Of |
Gerbevillers and Sermaize, in the
Some photographs on glass can be
used for lantern slides, and a. lantern
Is installed to show them off.
The floor above belongs to the /
movies. Films have been taken at
the front by Official OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
II nearly had the life OF the last oper-
ator took to the front on my con-
science said the captain who was
showing me over "A shell burst with
I'm ten yards of us while he was turn
ing his machine
The films once taken are the prop
erty of the war Office, and strict super
vision ensures that none shall be udsed
without authority Some cannot be
shown yet The others. are exhibited
once or twice a week in the cinema
room and cinema managers from neu-
trail countries chiefly, are invited to
see the pictures and make their
c1aoice.
The military and etrategieaI del
partment contains much that is
shown only to a few privileged visit
ors of the allied nations. There are
collected there the maps drawn of the
enemy positions from photographs
taken from aeropIanes. The minute
ness and accuracy Of the maps are an
ever new wonder.
The staff of attendants Of the Press
Palace are all men who have been
mobilized and; after months or a year
at the front, have been called back
Most of them are of the same social
standing as any attache or ofhcer, but
there are no social classes in France
In war time, and the Maison de la
Presse is an epitome Of the democratic
French army.
For the military floor of the Maison
de la Presse the organizers have had
an original idea. Beaumarchais said
"a calculator was wanted and SO a
dancer sjot the job At the Maison de
Ia Presse the right man is in the right
place The rooms where one is shown
maps and statistics and. fed with in
formation are full of Uniforms from
corporal to colonel. But these war
fiors are-aIl journalists. Actually
On behalf Of the French government
with journalists.
The men in various uniforms were
IN peace-time editors. or members of
the editorial staffs of the Matin, the
Temps, the Debats, O,Opinion, and so
Dn. Those of military fitness have an