Evening Star Newspaper, May 26, 1929, Page 105

THE SUNDAY STAR, W e — ASHINGTON, D. C, MAY 26, 1929.—PART 7. available funds. Arrangements have been made, however, under contract with a commercial film concern, whereby copies of department films may be bought by both foreign and do- mestic purchasers. State governments, educa< tional institutions and organizations, and in- dividuals interested in better agriculture pur- chase annually nearly 400,000 feet of depart- ment films, and there are now in domestic cir- culation probably more than 2,000,000 feet ob. tained in this way. To compete successfully with commercial films the Government departments have been compelled to turn out a product of comparable dramatic interest that yet retains an educa- tional message. The methods employed in achieving this result are exemplified in a recent picture of mine rescue work. - The scene is a quiet village street in a Penn- sylvania mining community. Pedestrians greet one another on the pavement or stop to gossip with householders over front gates. Suddenly a siren sounds; life becomes paralyzed for an instant and then springs into action as women and children pour out of the houses and race down the street with the pedestrians. The siren has only one meaning—fathers, sons and brothers trapped in the bowels of the earth! The scene shifts a thousand feet underground. Half 8 miners are running hither and yon ig{ & rapldly increasing cloud of gas and smoké] passageways that will lead them to free air above., But the exits have been blocked by fallen timber. Realization brings panic among the trapped miners, ready for any act of self-preservation. There is a fight. Then one of the men, revolver in hand, compels their submission. He directs the building of a barri- cade behind which the men hover in prayer of rescue. - Meantime, a fescue crew has been at work endeavoring to clear the workings of the death fumes of monoxide, They manipulate the air ¥ forcing the air first through another, the ways ‘¢ompressors force life-sus- Imosphere into every crevice nse volumes of smoke and gas. The rescu¢ men advance, supported by the ever- increasing barrage of fresh air. A POWDER magazine is reached and brat- tices are erected to isolate the magazine from the source of the gas and fumes. Mean- while, other crews direct their efforts toward reaching the fire, upon which are played streams of- water through several thousand feet of hose from the surface. The fire is extin- Filming underground scenes for one of the Government movies. Twelve-million-candlepower lights are used by the cameramen. guished and the rescue crew, having reached the entrapped miners, escort them to safety above ground. A few days later a group of Government of- ficials in Washington were viewing the scenes on a motion picture screen. The audience in- cluded some world-famcus mining experts who made notes during the running of the film. At the conclusion of the film, the motion picture director was instructed to correct a few minor defects in the action, retake one or two scenes and then to distribute copies to educational A camera crew of the Department of Agriculture on location. In the “Kingdom of Tiny People” unlighted cigar. More jewels flashed from his watch chain, which was a massive thing. Such a restless one, flashing about among his admirers, waiting cn “Mrs. Tom,” patiently referring to her as “the countess,” as he had done for 30 years; rarely correcting those who mistook him for her former husband. He doubtless realized that the mantle of the late Mr. Stratton was no small business asset. Primo was several years younger than his countess, but carried nearly twice her weight, and he was five inches taller. They say that she never weighed over 29 pounds at her roundest, and her early-Victorian bustles and pointed basques were still cut as she wore them at the Court of St. James, when Lilly langtry was wearing the same thing. She was born plain Lavinia Warren of Middleboro, Mass. Her mother was Huldg Bump, and even in the daszzling courts of old Europe she never lost her Colonial Bump independ=nce. Tm'.’Y seemed very gcod friends after 30 years together, this small Italian from Bologna and his New England wife; to be in perfect accord in everything, even in complete- ly ignoring the Baron Ernest, Primo’s younger brother, who traveled with them and played the jealous rival in their skit at the theater. Beycend our introduction I never saw either of them notice him off the stage. He effaced himself completely when they were near, but to meet him in another part of the grounds was to find a pocket edition of Chesterfield. With tiny hands fluttering he sketched flash- ing impressions of his large and faithful wife waiting in Bologna, like the lady in Mother Goose—for a little husband, no bigger than her thumb—with beautiful manners and the utmost delicacy in kissing a lady’s hand. Imagine one’s husband in a high chair at breakfast! Picture the small count and his tiny lady after a late show going sleepily into a big hotel room, where the bed must have looked to them like a load of hay. Continental beds are mountains of ciderdown. Barnum gave her a comfortable four-poster, built to her measure, but that was left behind in Middleboro. So was the Cinderella coach. The three traveled in cabs that must have seemed like moving vans, and in trams and busses that were mountains to climb. Years ago, in the old Barnum days, Primo had played in the same show with Gen. Tom Thumb and had known Lavina as a young woman, the wife of his friend. Her sister, Minne Warren, married Commodore Nutt and at one time thoy were all in the show to- gether. The general dicd and two years later his widow and his friend were married. For half a lifetime she has been the wife of Count Magri, yet who has ever thought of her other than as “Mrs. Tom Thumb”? The Kingdom cf Little People passed, and went into Winter quarters. ' The midgets who were fortunate joined other groups. Little Sing Hpoo died and never had the glittering wed- ding they had planned for him. THI Magris came back to the States. The small actors played for a while at the vaudeville houses, and then they retired to her old home in Middieboro, Mass. She was an old lady now and her health was failing so rapidly that the thought of further public life was abandoned. The two settled down in the old home, like any elderly couple, to quiet- ly enjoy their declining years. She had made a will, some time before this, providing for her midget furniture to be preserved in a museum, with her curios and ornaments, many of them gifts frcm royalty. Her nephews and her husband were to share the estate, it was understood. So Primb had no worry by the saddness of watching his wife grow weaker. After a long illness she died, when she was 77 years old. Then the will was read, and a second and later will. The little count learned that his wife had willed him only $200. He was heart-broken and alone in a thankless world. There was not even his brother to comfort him, for when their last show was over the baron had disappeared as usual. Per- haps he went home to his big Penelope in Bologna. Another small woman could easily have been found to take over the stage role of Lavinia, but never could sh2 be “Mrs. Tom Thumb.” Whatever the stars still held for Primo, help- lessly he must have realized that with her passed his greatest business asset: that to all the world he was “Mrs. Tom Thumb’s hus- band.” In Octeber of the following year he decided to have an aucticn of what was left, and with agencies in the principal mining towns throughe- out the country. The underground scenes in this film were» actually taken in a deep mine by the use of high-powered lighting equipment. Similarly,, close-ups are taken of burning metal furnaces,, of dust explosions and oil well fires. Undere- ground pictures are made where there is danger® of monoxide poisoning; in coal mines where» fircs have been raging for scores of years. The» efficlency of monoxide poison detectors anad! alarms, of methods of diverting gasses throughw by-passes, of preventing fires from spreading,. are tested in these mines. In one case the: camera men descended more than 7,000 fees: into the depths of thz earth, making their way’ sometimes on hands and knees along narrow’ passageways to reach the main workings. More than 1,400 reels of. films depicting mine ing activities have been prcduced by the Bue- reau of Mines. Government camera men who: recently returned from Africa, where they made: pictures of oil wells, recount thsir experiencesk in being imprisoned by local officials, their’ cameras and films seized; of being attacked by’ bandits in the Sahara. Filming coppasr scenes: in Alaska, the photographers made their pice: tures from aerial tramways that stretch across: the valleys. Some of the photography for this film was made thousands of feet underground' with the use of lighting equipment of a capacity’ of 12,000,000 candlepower. Photographing an oil well in the Southwest,- & Government camera man remained at the’ crank of his machine continuously for five days,. ready to “shoot” when the gusher broke loose.- In another scene a two-ton string of tools is’ catapulted through the top of an oil derrick.- Making dust explosion pictures, the camera® man, in an explosion-proof shelter, was blown' up by a premature explosion. The shelter was® wrecked, and the photographer was almost: killed, but the film was. saved. In Nine Seconds! Continued from Tenth Page. quarter-miler he ever saw, and gives the halfe mile honors to Mel Sheppard, despite Mere=" dith’s 1-yard victory previously mentioned. He' explains this by saying that Sheppard was then “on the slide” and was actually in his prime’ from 1906 to 1908, when he ran many marvels' ous races on poor tracks, where the recorded- time did not do justice to his ability. As the greatest milers he has seen he selects Nurmi, present holder of the world’s record; Joie Ray, ‘“greatest American miler we have' had and perhaps the most consistent of them- all”; John Paul Jones of Cornell, Abel Kiviat: of the Irish-American Athletic Club of New’ York, George V. Bonhag, and, more recently," Dr. Otto Peltzer, who ran 1,500 meters in 3 mine" utes 51 seconds, equivalent to a mile in 4 min<" utes 9 seconds. Coach Robertson thinks that, in this age of invention after invention, it is time for a me=" chanical device to be adopted which will do® away with the human element in timing’ runners. “Many runners get credit for records they have never made due to the human element in" timing,” he says. “A fifth of a second means’ a lot in a short dash, but a fifth of a second- is only the barest instant, There is always &~ chance for a mistake when the timer presses his stop-watch as he sees the flash of the’ gun 100 or 220 yards away. There is always & chance for another mistake at the finish line if the timer fails to press his stop-watch at’ the proper instant. Yet in those instants a° man’'s chances for making a record may be’ spoiled or, on the other hand, a fifth of a sege" ond be given a man who does not deserve it. “Several new mechanical methods ‘of timing, have been suggested. One consists of mechanical - timing equipment by which as a runner breaks ‘he tape a clock on a recording board autoe matically stops and his place position is desige" nated. If proved practical, such an instrument would be a great help to the sport. It would : eliminate the human element. Personally, §° doubt if all the records in American track ame" nals deserve to be there.” (Copyright, 1929.) —Continued from Page Six the proceeds return to Italy. ‘I'he Bostom papers printed pictures of the sale and o¥ Primo in the foreground, playing on the tiny grand piano that went to its new owner for $11. The four-poster bed, tiny sewing machine and little chairs stood around and watched their future owners bid them in for a song, The whole collection brought only about $300, the small bed reaching the highest bid of $80. Those Potatoes. TBE average production of potatoes in the United States runs between 3.2 bushels per capita and 3.8 bushels, and therein lics a factor whicii, according to the Department cf Agricule ture, takes the gamble out of the farmer’'s early marketing. When crop forecasts indicate that the lower, figure will prevail, the raiser of early potatoes stands a good chance of profiting by holding for higher prices in spite of the possible loss - to himself through shrinkage and rotting. If the crop is nearer the top figure, however. it . is his notice to unload bef~re the main or late crop comes in. x The figures gathered by the department over a long period indicate that of the late crop, which constitutes about 85 per cent of the total raised in the United States, not more than two-thirds is shipped to market. The rest is used up on the farms either for food or for, seed purposes. A great wastage through shrinke ing and rotting also cuts down th: amount available for shipment.