“Sure enough,” nodded Randy, as if intensely interested. “In New York they wouldn’t be allowed to run this way,” and Randy added to himself: “That will give this spy something to set Slavin thinking.”
“Did they tell you about the big features the Standard has coming,” was Pep’s next purposeful break.
“Oh, you mean the great film?” answered Randy. “Say, that must have cost a lot of money. Just think! A man sent specially thousands of miles away to get reels on things never before seen by civilized man, and covering subjects never before caught by the camera! It will create a sensation; won’t it?”
“I should say so!” declared Pep, and then he subsided as their watcher squirmed and rustled about in his seat.
“That’s pretty fair,” said Randy, as the first film of the entertainment was concluded.
The subject was “Beaver Land.” It was old to Pep and Randy, but they were fairly indulgent about it. Vic had never seen it before.
“Those are real good pictures,” he observed. “Interesting, too. I know something about beavers and they show them up quite natural.”
“The Great Philanthropic Film—Among the Lowly,” was next announced on the screen. The delineation began with a guide starting out with a party of slummers to view the under life of a great city. The only philanthropic part of the display was where one of the group gave some money to a cripple, and another paid off a constable who was about to eject an invalid widow, and her little family of children, for non-payment of the rent.
“The Modern Fagin” was the central feature of this film. This was an elaborate showing of the life of petty thieves. There was a scene where one street gamin tripped up a market woman, while his accomplice made away with the contents of her basket.
Then there was a training scene in the thieves’ school. A wretched old man showed his apt pupils how to pick a pocket, snatch a purse, and pry up a window. The film ended with the successful robbers making a great raid by smashing in the window of a jewelry store.