The Moving Picture Girls in War Plays: Or, The Sham Battles at Oak FarmHope, Laura Lee
General
The Moving Picture Girls in War Plays: Or, The Sham Battles at Oak Farm
Hope, Laura Lee
Girls -- Juvenile fiction; Motion pictures -- Production and direction -- Juvenile fiction
The rehearsal went on and finally the director announced that he was
satisfied. Then the scenes were enacted over again, but with more
tenseness and with a knowledge that every motion was being filmed with
startling exactness.
"Now, Ruth, you come on!" called Mr. Pertell. "We've made a little
change from the original scenario. You're to relieve Miss Dixon, who has
been on this case. He's one of the Northern officers, you remember, and
he has with him papers that the Confederacy would do much to get.
"They are under the officer's pillow, you know. He is afraid to let them
out of his possession. You must humor him, though you know that the
papers will soon have to be taken away as he is to be operated on. It is
here that Alice, as the spy, gets her chance. She pretends to be one of
the nurses of this hospital, dons the uniform, and comes in here to get
the papers. Are you ready?"
"Yes," answered Ruth.
Then the big hospital scene began.
Ruth, in her garb of a nurse, took her place at the side of the injured
officer's cot. She felt his pulse, took his temperature and administered
some medicine. Then the injured man, who was Mr. DeVere himself, sank
back on his pillows. His hand went under the mass of feathers and
brought out a packet of papers. At this point a close-up view was taken,
showing on the screen the papers in magnified shape, so that the
audience could note that they were Civil War documents. It was these
that the officer was afraid would fall into the hands of the
Confederates, so he kept them ever near him.
Ruth made as if to remove them when he had placed them under the pillow
again, but he awoke with a start and prevented her. This was to show
that it was necessary for some one to take them while the operation was
being performed.
Then the scene changed to show Alice preparing for her work as a spy.
The camera was taken to another part of the hospital, Ruth and her
father having a respite, though they maintained their positions.
"Did I do all right, Daddy?" asked Ruth.
"Very well, indeed. You are getting to be a good actress. I wish you
were on the speaking stage."
"I like this ever so much better. I never could speak before a whole
crowd."
Alice was shown making her way into the hospital, a previous scene
having depicted her as promising the Confederate officer in whose employ
as a spy she was, that she would get the papers. She entered the
hospital, pretending to be in search of a missing relative. Then,
watching her chance, she prepared a sleeping powder for a tired and
half-sleeping nurse off duty and prepared to take her uniform.
Alice played her part well. The sleeping nurse aroused, took the drugged
drink, and went more soundly to sleep than ever. Then Alice was shown in
the act of taking off the uniform. Another scene showed her walking
boldly into the ward room to relieve Ruth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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