The Washington herald., 1916-03-28


"How-de-do, my friends" !
wonder if the people really know that
while the picture is being taken we are
always thinking of them, and are ever
so much more keenly interested in all
of those strange faces than they are in
the ghosts of us who walk before them
on the screen.
Sometimes we actresses talk about
the worlds of people to whom we pay
our silent homage, and what varied
types we play to, from the alien to
the little. chubby-faced American
boy, who knows and loves his movie
stars and would rather spend his pen
MES on Charlie Chaplin than the most
alluring toy shop window.
The question was asked US at the
studio by a non-believer in pictures:
What good have pictures done for the
world, and how have they educated the
people, as is their hue and cry?"
OF course, we have mental reams of
defense, which we can reel off to such
condemners of our art, but | did not
answer-I merely turned to several of
the stcnographers who had recently
come TO the studio, and who, up to that
time, had had no knowledge of pictures
outside of the pleasurable viewpoint of
the audience.
1t is what these girls told us that
verified the statements made by hun
dreds of other working girls, who have
been only too glad TO express them
selves upon the subject. Pictures mean
to them not only rest and amusement
hours, but hours of actual association
with girls of other races and the knowl-
edge of social conditions existing in
other countries.
There are few of us who are not al
ways eager TO absorb knowledge, and
those girls who have been unfortunately
denied the higher branches of educa-
ton make valiant efforts not to allow
their burdensome labors to limit them
or hold them down to prescribed men,
tai chalk line
Summing this up mathematically, we
find that to the first question we ask
the girls: What do pictures mean to
you" the prompt reply is always
Amusement" Before there were NOV
les to go to, evenings not spent in visit
ing or partying were long and tiresome,
and but few of the girls could afford to
go to the theaters except to the cheap
stock companies or burlesque perform
ances. In order to give zest to life
"one must play part of the time" they
would add, naively.
Entertainment and education" an
other girl as decidedly answered, "but
chiefly education. How happy we feel
when we leave the theater carrying with
US new knowledge either of plant or
animal life, gigantic industries in other
cities. or introductions TO foreign coun-
tries"
DO you know, Miss Pickford," ex-
citedly said one of the girls, that until
l went to moving picture | thought
costumed Indians had become traditions
and did not know that real feathered
tribes were still living in the United
States, preserving to a certain degree
the customs of their grandfathers. You
can imagine how fascinated was when
| saw the pictures of the Yaqui snake
dancers and the war dances of the Nez
Perces Indians. And how excited we
were to see pictures actually taken in
the land of the midnight sun. The night
the picture was showing at the theater
near our homes, we took the little boys
and girls of the neighborhood that they
might learn about the ways of the Es-
quimaux."
Il was so glad to see pictures of the
great Western ranches one girl told
me, "for l have never been out of the
city in my life. and for years have read