Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 41, Number 79, 11 February 1916 — Page 9

THE RICHMOND PALLADIUM AND SUN-TELEGRAM, FRIDAY, FEB. 11, 1916.

PAGE NINE

Panoramic

View of Battlefield of ' Petersburg

. 4hJh Startling Realism in "Birth of a Nation - Film

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is not a day's outing for a small and straggling crew of picture takers. It is bard, grueling continuous work. Regiments, - brigades, not companies are employed. There's everything from tbe far-flung panorama of tbe general battle to the handgrips of personal combat. Many hundreds of separate and distinct scenes are taken. The amount of labor and detail in the Battle of Petersburg alone would more than equal the combined labors of actors and stage directors in a dozen indoor" productions.

METAL STRUCK CHEEK.

D. W. Griffith is the most talked about, and probably the piodt sought after, man in America. Me learned how to plan things, in tho making of the 6,000 scenes of "The Birth of a Nation" or he would be Jost. He gallops through the myriad and one business details of a theatrical success without turning a hair or developing the slightest case of "nerve." When the turmoil and the tumult 'lies and the hours wax small, his refreshment is the dance or a friendly chat with a round table of chums.

It was said on the first night In

New York that only the son of a soldier could have conceived and execut

ed "The Birth of a Nation." As a Kentucky lad, the son of Brigadier-General J. W. Griffith, he drank in the Civil War narratives greedily. As he grew up came the poet's vision or the entire struggle and of Reconstruction days. In the prime of manhoci awoke the genius to make it a reality. While planning the Battle of Petersburg, Griffith drilled the regiments as faithfully as Kitchener in England or

Dr.Parkhurst On The Birth of a Nation"

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By REV. DR. CHARLES H. PARKHURST

IT is impossible to witness the film drama "The Birth of a Nation," now being shown at the Liberty Theater, and not want to say something about It Every one who has seen It is saving something about it. When - one has been crowded upon, pressed down and ran over it is against nature not to make some kind of an outcry. That la tbe way one feels when coming out of the Liberty Theater. The thing is vast. It is overwhelming. Nothing like it has ever before been pat upon the stage. Tbe tension of the performance is bnt a single feature of it, but it is that which one feels most poignantly after three straight hours. It begins in an easy way, but commences soon to find its muscle and goes on to the end, pounding upon one's senses with blows that come heavier and heavier, more and more rapid. It is not apparent what are the grounds of the objections urged against it nor what is the animus of those who are scheming to have the exhibition prohibited. The na tonal board of censorship has approved it and reaffirmed its approval. Tbe popular indorsement which the play has since received by the thousands who are seeing it dally will require more than small prejudices or moral eccentricities to disturb. In the meantime efforts to suppress it are thus far successful In nothing so much as in giving it wider and more remunerative publicity. The intimate familiarity which David W. Griffith has shown with the events of the reconstruction period along with the detailed scholarly study which he has made of the wider territory of events wbich the play cover renders the production one of surprising educational value to those who were either young children still or even unborn In the stirring years of 1800 to 1870. A boy can learn more true history and get more of the atmosphere of the period by sitting down for three hours before the film which Mr. Griffith has produced with such artistic skill than by -weeks and months of study in the classroom. This drama is a telling illustration of tbe possibilities of motion pictures as an instrument of Instruction in history. ' The criticism that it exhibits the negro in an unfortunate light and that It is calculated to engender racial animosity is fully met by the consideration that It represents the negro, not ns be is now at all, but as he was in

McClellan on the Potomac. Like them, he had national guardsmen to work with. -They knew the manual of arms, but had to acquire the grapd tactics of picture evolutions.. After the drill was completed, the director took his thousands of militiamen on a month's countryside campaign? Each squadron was commanded by a sub-director. Pioneers preceded the soldiers to dig the long miles of trenches, to throw up embankments, and reproduce the physical landmarks of the battle. Among the noted Petersburg landmarks was a high tower. Griffith made it serve a double purpose by using it as field headquarters. From its lofty eminence, he commanded the whole range of mountain and valley. Right at hand was a modern telephone switchboard. Prom it field-wires "ran to his various sub-generals. Mostly these wjres were in conduits under

ground; , they had to be, or the camera would have produced the anachronism of field telephones in Civil War time. Thus completely equipped as a modern Joffre or Von Hindenburg Griffith saw everything and telephoned all his Instructions. In the artillery actions, real cannon were used which discharged real shells. All were of the 1864 pattern. When the infantry got busy, they used the antique Springfield muskets with the old-fashioned bayonets. As the men charge, it is to be seen that their uniforms are far from spick and span. Many of them are coatless and hatless; the clothing of others is tattered; the flags, even have the look of battle-scarred ribbons. For the first time the grime, dirt, sordidness, as well as the glory of war, is accurately presented. Plainly War, as Griffith makes it,

HOLLANSBURG, O., Feb. 11. Mr. Sebring had the misfortune Monday, to be struck by a piece of metal that fell from the top of the wind-pump. It made a wound on his face that required several stitches.

PRODUCERS PREPARE FOR EAGLES' SHOW

- Charles Todd and L. B. Evans, both local men representing the Fraternal Producing Company located at Columbus, O., are here to supervise the arrangements and direct the production of the minstrel show which will be given soon under the auspices of the Wayne Aerie. 666, F. O. of Eagles. Regular meetings are being held by the amusement committee of tbe lodge appointed to make arrangements for the show.

Hammers were fashioned originally after the outstretched human hand and fist.

RHEUMATIC OR BACKACHY? GETTOEX NOW Twenty-five. Cent Worth is Plenty; 'i Try HI Take Harmless, Sooth , -i- - Inn Trex for Just 3 Days. Then no more stinging ' rheumatic pains; ' good-bye 'chronic, miserable constipation; no more sore kidneys nor aching back. Trex Is vonderful! acts right off. Trex induces natural drainage of the entire system; promptly opens your clogged up kidneys, liver and bowels; cleans the stomach of fermenting gassy foods and waste; dissolves , out .. Irritating rheumatic poisons; relieves feverlshness, beadaches, dizziness and constipation misery. Don't stay "knocked out" any longer. Get this quick relief today. 25c at A. G. Luken or sample direct from H. B. Denton & Co., (Not Inc.) Beardstown, 111. adv.

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. Aristos Cook Book for the asking Send to

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Aristos Fairy Loaf

PrnrfQQ Beat yolks of eggs, sugar and butter until creamy. Add tbe 1 I wj,ites beaten dry" add the milk, last the flour and baking powder. Beat well and add any desired flavoring. Grease paojrcll and sprinkle with flour. Bake in moderate oven.

Note the amount of Flour required ia this recipe. Yea ) save when you use Aritto beeaese it goes farther.

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the days when he had Just had the chains broken from him and when he was rioting In the deliclousness of a liberty so new and untried that he bad not yet learned to understand it and was as Ignorant as a baby of tbe way to use it It Is In this respect exactly true to history, and if it reflects upon the negro as he was then It is a compliment to the black man of today. An exhibition of lawlessness might not have been proper thirty or forty years ago. ' Such proprieties change with the passing of time.

The battle scenes wbich Mr. Griffith

nas aepicrea are or surpassing power and realism. Every lover of peace must experience a certain painful gratification that Just at this time the ghastly horrors of carnage can be brought so closely home to the eye. It Is one thing to read about the trenches, the killing and the corpses. It Is quite another thing to have them bodily pressed before the eye, with all tbe demoniac fury that marks conflict at close range. A well written description of a battlefield allows the place and the occasion to be invested with features of magnificence, with the heroism of the contestants and the glory of the victors. On Griffith's screen we see tbe real thing. There is no magnificence, no glory, but horror, brutality and stark butchery. It sickens with the sense of man's inhumanity to man. It makes war ' jpicable and devilish. It conveys an indelible lesson to all who have been bewitched by those who have decked out the naked hideousness of war with tinsel drapery. There are also scenes of surpassing dignity andboauty done by a master artist's hand the signing by the president of tbe proclamation for volunteers which marked the end of the old regime, the surrender of Lee to Grant and the assassination of the president In Ford's theater. The tender affection In which Mr. Lincoln is held was manifested in the way tbe great audience received the

fscene of a heartbroken southern moth

er pleading with him for her son, sentenced to death as a guerrilla. Every eye was dim with tears in tbe strangling hush that fell on the theater. What might not our country have been saved had the problem of reconstruction been left to the great heart the one man who compassed within himself the resources of the Intelligence, experience, breadth and sympathy of Abraham Lincoln! ' '.'The Birth of a Natron" has my unqualified approval.

Twice Daily Except Thursday Afternoons at 2 : 1 5. Evenings at 8:15.

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Twice Daily Except Thursday Afternoons at 2 : 15. Evenings at 8: 15.

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MaHMee Friday and Sattnirday Afftteraooinis

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EVENINGS. Orchestra $1.00, $1.50, $2.00. Balcony $1.00, $1.50, $2.00. Gallery 50c.

Sale Starts Mon. Feb. 14, Harrison's Pharmacy, Westcott Hotel. Mail Orders now will be honored immediately if accompanied by checks and self addressed stamped envelopes. . Address Checks to E. M. Anderson, P. O. Box 158.

MATINEES. Orchestra $1.00. Balcony 75c, 50c. Gallery25c. .

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Rich in Historical Value

Th most realistic and stupendous view of stirring events in the development of

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. Founded on Thomas Dixon's Famous Novel and Play. t fi6TItae 1imi" Symphony Orchestra of 20 Seats Ready Monday.

18,000 people, 3,C00 hems, 8 months in the make; Cert $500,000.00.