Like Mary Pickford, Miss Lawrence was an awfully good sport about doing stunts. One day a scene was being filmed with Miss Lawrence thrown tummy-wise across a horse’s saddled back. As the horse dashed down the roadway he came so close to the camera that we who were watching breathlessly, for one moment closed our eyes, for Miss Lawrence’s blond head just missed the camera by a few inches. Rainy August days forced us to work in the studio. Mr. Griffith had read a story by Jack London called “Just Meat.” He changed the name to “For Love of Gold” and let it go at that. We had no fear of lawsuits from fractious authors those days. The story was about two thieves, who returned home with the latest spoils, get suspicious of each other and each, unknown to the other, poisons the other’s coffee and both die. The big scenes which were at the table when the men become distrustful of each other could be told only through facial expression. “Ah,” puzzled Mr. Director, “how can I show what these two men are thinking? I must have the camera closer to the actors--that’s what I must do--and having only two actors in these scenes, I can.” Up to this time, every scene had been a long shot--that is, the floor--the carpet--the greensward--showed yards in front of the actors’ feet. But Mr. Griffith knew he couldn’t show nine feet of floor and at the same time register expression. So to his camera man he said: “Now don’t get excited, but listen. I’m going to move the camera up, I’m going to show very little floor, but I’m going to show a large, full-length figure; just get in the actors’ feet--get the toes--one foot of foreground will do. “Well, we’ve never done anything like that--how do you think that’s going to look?--a table with a man on each side filling up the whole screen, nearly.” “We’ll do it--we’ll never get anywhere if we don’t begin to try new things.” The burglars were screened so big that every wicked thought each entertained was plainly revealed. Everybody came to like the idea afterwards, especially the actors. Along in November, Mr. Griffith began work on a series of domestic comedies--the “Jones Pictures.” Florence Lawrence played Mrs. Jones, and John Compson, Mr. Jones. Their movie marital début was in “A Smoked Husband.” The Jones movies were probably the first to achieve success as a series. CHAPTER IX FIRST PUBLICITY AND EARLY SCENARIOS In Biograph’s story, quite a few who stuck to the ship in these first days are big names in the movies to-day.