became the custom for the managers of theatres, when they could obtain no prolific attraction, to fill all their vacant dates through Sheppard's entertainments. While the latter secured the Manhattan Theatre (now the site of the Gimbel stores), which was the first regular theatre in New York used for this purpose, his success was prodigious, and although he had the theatre only from month to month, he and his successor, William J. Gane, were enabled to remain there nearly two years, amassing a fortune as a result. In the meantime every manufacturer of stereopticons, magic lanterns and calcium lights entered the gold-laden field, and then came the most attractive factor of all, "The Five-Cent Store-Theatre." These were first located in East 14th street, and were called at this period "The Nicolet." The first to enter this phase of the industry was J. Austin Fynes, who was the one first to secure the cinematograph for Mr. Keith. As an illustration of the vogue which the "store" theatre developed, it can be stated that at one time there were 600 of these in Greater New York alone, and more than 30,000 in the rest of the country. The expansion became so pronounced that millions of dollars were invested not only in the exhibition side of the industry, but in all the large cities, and in all the capitals of Europe large corporations were organized for the manufacture of films. The largest of these concerns are the Pathe Freres, the Edison Company, the Gaumont Company and the Vitagraph Company. In all there are over one hundred corporations, some capitalized in the millions. One of the first to enter the field in upper New York was Marcus Loew. He had been running a penny arcade, but found that the craze for moving pictures was reducing his receipts, so he divided his auditorium into two parts, and in one gave the regulation exhibit of moving pictures at a five cent admission scale. This man is now a millionaire. His activity has been all in the last five years; to-day he has a dozen theatres in Greater New York alone. Some of these are the Majestic, Yorkville, Lincoln Square, the Bijou in Brooklyn, and the Columbia in the same borough. Mr. Loew is building two theatres of prodigious size in Harlem and the Bronx, to be opened this fall, and in all he has at least thirty theatres which he either owns, leases or controls. Less than four years ago, William Fox, a man still on the sunny side of thirty, opened one of these store theatres in Brooklyn, the first in use there. Then he took the profits of this, and they were large enough to enable him to purchase the leases of two theatres in New York City, the Dewey in East 14th street and the Gotham on 125th street. The combined rental was not far from $100,000 a year, yet the profits were so great that in the short period of his sway he has become a very rich man. He has added five other theatres in Greater New York to his list, and a few months ago amazed his colleagues by leasing the Academy of Music, paying a rental of $100,000 a year for a property which cost its owners only three times as much. Mr. Fox is also interested in the new City Theatre on East 14th street, and has built a new and gorgeous establishment at 149th street and Amsterdam avenue. One has but to observe the policy of the firm of Keith & Proctor in order to become impressed with the amazing results which come to those who labor in this field. This firm has seven theatres in Greater New York, but only one, the Fifth avenue, is used for the policy this firm is supposed to stand for. All of the others are run on a five and ten cent scale, and the profits from their conduct are simply stupendous, unbelievable. Mr. Proctor, besides the theatres which he controls in conjunction with Mr. Keith, has a dozen in the smaller cities, such as Albany, Troy, Elizabeth, Plainfield and Mount Vernon. In the latter city, where I happen to reside, up to two years ago it was never possible to maintain a theatre with profit, but Mr. Proctor, by the simple process of installing a moving picture machine within the walls of a theatre which he had made look attractive in the manner which he so thoroughly understands, has made a veritable gold mine for himself. No week passes that at least fifty per cent of the population does not enter the auditorium, and it is a common sight to see a thousand persons waiting in the lobbies or on the sidewalks for a chance to enter, and this, too, despite the fact that there are two other theatres in this small town prospering with the same policy! Will it last? This query is put to me almost every day. There does not seem to be any indication that in this generation. we will see any important decline, though the "store" theatre is gradually giving way to large and commodious establishments where a combination of moving picture films is seen with vaudeville acts of a minor order, but the outlook is now for theatres of enormous size, where the prices of admission will be from five to twenty-five cents, and where an effort will be made to present a superior type of entertainment. The danger lies in the educating of the moving picture audiences to a stage where they will not be satisfied with an ordinary performance, and if the prices are increased, in order to make possible a higher grade of presentation, then these audiences will stampede the regular vaudeville theatres, where the difference in prices of admission is becoming smaller all the time. YOU AND BY EMMA PLAYTER SEABURY From the window-seat in the old chateau, The band played on in the flaring light, The idlers talked in the kiosks' shade, There were only two in the world, that night. Swung between river, and rock and sky, The river wound with a curve and smile, Past frowning fort, and the crag that chills, And crooned around the enchanted Isle, And kissed the feet of the purple hills. Fading anon like a ghostly grail, Or a shower of stars, or a burst of song. You and I, and the world below. What cared we for the old world feuds, Oh, lives atune with the song of the spheres! WONDERFUL INDIAN SHORTHAND WRITERS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA P BY LILLIAN E. ZEH Photographs by the Author. ROBABLY the only tribe of real Indian shorthand writers in the world who contribute and subscribe to the queerest newspaper now being published, are those belonging to the Kamloops and Douglas River bands living in the interior of British Columbia. Over two thousand of these natives have mastered the art, and regularly. read all Kamloops Indian girl of British Columbia, who reads and writes shorthand. the news pertaining to the tribe and individuals in their curious journal called the "Kamloops Wawa." Bible, hymn, prayer-books are likewise printed in this sign language. These natives have be come members of the Catholic Church. The writer recently returned from this region, obtained a series of characteristic photos together with some interesting information in regard to these little-known and remarkable Indian folks. This extraor was dinary advance in Indian culture brought about through the efforts of a French missionary, Father Le Jeune, sent out from Brittany a few years ago. One of the illustrations shows this enterprising priest kneeling, surrounded by the chief and other members of his shorthand tribe, in front of their church. Kamloops, the headquarters of Father Le Jeune, is some 300 miles and more northeast from Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. Just across the river a few miles up from the town is the main Indian village or rancherie. Here the natives congregate in large numbers at certain seasons, for this is the important center of Indian life for some 50 or 100 miles around. The occupation is principally hunting, fishing and ranching, and farming on a limited. scale. Prior to the appearance of the priest, the fraudulent Shamans, pretenders at the curing of disease, claiming, by aid of supernatural or magic powers, to be able to ward off evil spirits and prevent sickness, completely held the people in their superstitious and powerful grasp. Besides hindering their progress in religious matters, a good deal of property was squeezed from the people by their misleading influence. These so-called magical prophets fled at the coming of the French priest, who fully exposed their tricks and false creed to the Indians, and before he began his educational work, the tribes of this locality living along the canyons and banks of the Thompson and Fraser rivers in British Columbia, were unable to write their language and had no written literature, although each possessed a language which has an extensive mythology, which was preserved by oral tradition. To-day, nearly all these different tribes, some half-dozen or more, are writing letters to one another in their several languages, reading a newspaper, Bibles and song books, all by means of shorthand. Father Le Jeune found that to be successful in his mission it would be absolutely necessary to devise a system of communication both to arouse and gain their interest by placing instructive printed matter in their hands. Having no written language or grammar of their own, he conceived the novel and useful idea of teaching the Indians of the various tribes. to write their language, and showed them a sign to represent each sound which they uttered in pronouncing their words. The signs were simply the shorthand symbols. of the Duployn phonographic system. After working out an Indian vocabulary containing nearly all the words most commonly employed in every-day use in his shorthand signs, the priest, in early fall when the village was thickly populated, first showed and explained his system to one of the bright Indian boys. He took to it intuitively, and set to work to decipher some Indian prayers which the father gave him. Before a few months had passed, he had pretty thoroughly learned the art of writing his language, and being so pleased with his rapid success, he set to work at once to instruct his friends. The new "talk language" created wide-spread interest, and the Indians were all eager to learn it. Soon the young, as well as the adult members of each habitation, for miles around, were engaged in practicing the new method of communication. A glimpse into one of their homes at night, where these Indians, some of whom live in wigwams made of poles covered. with mats, birch bark dwellings, log cabins, and where the women still use stone implements to prepare and scrape deer Chief Louis of the Kamloops tribe of Indian shorthand writers, British Columbia. skins, grouped around, eagerly bent on learning shorthand, was indeed an odd and unique sight. and unique sight. During the first few months of their schooling it was found that as soon as a few Indians of a camp had learned to read and write shorthand, they were extremely anxious to teach the whole community. Consequently, Father Le Jeune taught a few members of each village, and left it to them to teach their neighbors. They made rather slow progress in the summer time, owing to the fact that they were off at work, ranching and picking berries, but in the winter, when they returned home, they devoted whole nights to study, and in this way made excellent progress and soon became proficient. After about five hundred or more had mastered this system, it became necessary that their interest be retained by placing reading matter before them, and thus was one of the purposes of the Father Le Jeune and his Indian congregation, in front of their church at Kam loops, B. C. In the rear of the building is the room where the shorthand newspaper is prepared priest realized, for he wished them to be able to read the Bible as well as other religious books. His task was to provide this literature printed in the characters of the system. Father Le Jeune was not satisfied with teaching his Indian parishioners to write letters in their own language by means of shorthand, and to read a paper in their native tongue, but he had published various parts of the Bible in nine different languages spoken by the several tribes in this region, using the same method, and still is laboring on additional publications. Shorthand, he claims, is so many times simpler than English orthography |