Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1921-03-24
Children And The Movies"

The other day a man who is inter
eSted in moving pictures. and seldom
sees them. departed from his usual
habit and attended a SATURDAY. after
noon performance in the city in which
ne lves-a residential suburb of one
OF the great cities of the country and
made up chiefly of middle class pep-
Pie. which means lust average Amer.
lean, What the mLn saw interested
him very deeply and may interest 9th.
erS.
HE noticed first OF all that the pa
irons were mostly children-at least
~o thirds of them, and probably three
'ourthS. They were of all ages, from
high-School pupils down to Youngsters
of not more than five years: but most
OF them were of the grade-school age,
say from sewn to twelve years of age.
The chief attraction, the real thrill
er' was play in which an innocent
man is accused of a murder because n
revolver was found on his person. In
the attempt TO make him confess the
police give him the third degree:
In other words, they string him up BY
the thumbs and otherwies torture him
until his agony upsetS his mind and he
sees visions that furnish clue TO the
real murderer Another part of the
programme was triangle" PLAY, in
which two men love the same woman
and there is the usual shooting and the
usual melodramatic "heroism." AS a
relish and TO Tighten the afternoon.
there were the antics of Mutt and left
What most impressed the man was
the fierce interest of the children and
the alertneSs with which they took in
and even anticipated the action on the
screen and what it meant. All about
him were blase little "movie fans"
OF eight and ten years who saw tho
trend of the play quicker than no
could see it, and who appauded what
ever pleased them by yelling at the top
OF their voices and stamping their feet.
until the theatre was Justified pan
demonium. The man went home with
the feeling that he had spent the most
depressing afternoon in years.
There is nothing unusua, in what he
saw. The same thing is going on
everywhere in America every day in
the year, and no, one seems to think
much about it. The question is, What
is il doing to the children?
There used to be old fashioned par
ents who thought that dime novels were
bad reading for their boys and cheap
love stories bad reading for their girls
but there is no reading that presents
or can present things so vivildy as the
motion picture screen presents them
and much of what it presents is in
trInsically more vitiating both to mind
and to morals than all the dime novels
that were ever written What charm
ing picture childhood presents when it
appears as sophisticated little men and
women passing judgment and making
criticism upon murders, holdups,
problem plays" and matriomal infe.
licities!
We hear sporadic talk now and then
of censorships, but no censor and no
board of censors can do the work that
belongs to fathers and mothers. That
work is to keep themselves informed
Of what moving pictures are instructive
or wholesomely stimulating to the i'm
aginaticn or inspiring, there are
plenty OF them,-and what ones are
moral and intellectual claptrap; and
then to make sure that their children
do not use the pernicious kind.-The
Youths Companion.