Show I AMERICAN AM INGENUITY IN STAGE MECHANISM The creative American stage mechanist let is fast becoming the most important personage in connection connection with the worlds amusements amusement The strides made me meIn In the last lat few fen years ea inventing sIn stu stupendous scenes has h commanded races recognition rg heretofore denied denle Up to a a few lew lewers years ers ago managers simply simpy rehe rehashed plays plas imported Importe from Europe Europ until the firm of Klaw Erlanger entered the field fel Their progressiveness worked woke wonders and today toay it can be b stated that their individual efforts efort ave Ive succeeded In eclipsing all al foreign forg im importations In New York City away a back baek in 60 0 when Jarrett 8 Palmer pr Pl pre santed The Black Blak Crook and a spectacles doe cles originated by the Kiralfy Brother the only piece of or stage mechanism that tt the public marveled at was a a trap tr cut In the stage through which one OM of the performers mode ma le a springing en entrance entrance trance trane In those days a melodrama called cle The World had a scene show allow allowing showIng ing a raft at sea gea being dashed dash to pieces pt by huge waves which aroused amused arous consid considerable erable interest In 1885 1888 the firm fr firm of oC Klaw Erlanger in conjunction with C B Jefferson whose who death was recently re to recorded T corded son or ot the th late Joseph Josp Jefferson commenced mme producing Their Thir first Aret play A Dark Secret was wa brought out at the New ew York Academy Acae of Music One of the scenes showed showe boats bt sailing to and fro It I scored an instantaneous hit and fired tred this progressive firm with an ambition to attempt bigger things Next on en their list was wa The Te Country Count Count Circus giving a parade on the th stags stage with horses hors animals anima IE all al kinds of live livestock Uye livestock stock and wagons the same as I I Brothers Brothen and Barnum Bailey Battey present prent today In the public toay thoroughfares This Thi attempt was wa also highly successful and from that time on they have bae stopped a at nothing in the way of expense stopp in I giving the American public the biggest indoor in entertainments possible Ten years yer ago the attention of Klaw 8 Erlanger was wa drawn to General Low Lew L Wallaces Interesting novel Del Ben Be Hur Hut Hurand Hurand and negotiations were started toward tw dramatizing it I General Wallace was wa like the man from Missouri that is l be he b would not agree asree a e to this work worp being wo bg dramatized unless the chariot chr race r could be b as artistically presented as a his description In the book bk It is here bee the creative American mechanic showed his capacity for Klaw Erlanger corn com commissioned c everyone of prominence n In i this country to furnish practical work Ing models for this We big he scene ee and aR the th prize Was waa won by Claude Clude Hagan Hg It cost thousand of dollars In experiment I Ing but a rich reward has ba been ben reaped for In the years that rp er Ben Hut Hur has hae I ben been b for fore the publIc a profit Hur of over ver ove h OO has been be n earned The meehan ical device doice which Mr Ir Hagan Hagn employed In constructing this scene Is not nt epe new ne to the stage In its simpler sense it has bas been seen the backbone of or The Th County I T Cont Fair and many other plays and has baa a h helped enrich the men who have be staged melodramas with their a of storms steamships moving trains life Ife bridges and avalanches But these have ha all al been cheap Illusions while the chariot race in Ben HUt Hur Hur Is not It is isa isa isa a race scone scene In Jn which h the th jy r js ite not progress it differs ll r from the hK i j races in such suh plays as In Old K N Jc tucky The Te Suburban Sul and anders ad Ch Cher i iere ers ere er where the th horses are a ridden fr frn I wing n to wing In 18 D t th horses h actually crow crone C the tbt stage t tr t no n need ne of illusion to give gle the aita a ap p r anee ance a of movement but in a ra n 1 K that tt driven by b the charioteers charioteer in i H Her Hur Hu where the horses home hol actually r rr but bat bt do d not nt move me forward foward there mu m ir t t t t some s mechanical means mens of ot de df d jing i ithe v the 1 eye e to give ve the th impression lon nf of a atul tul progress PIru It I is 18 such sUh case ce a 8 i t that makes of ot Ben B Hur a me iii h ir l triumph There I Is nothing half hal d dr if The T illusion is II complete even eEl in n t P whirring of o the te wheels and clouds Iona of dust dus that tt fly f from the mary inary ln floor for to t the hippodrome It ia Is not behind the that i I I n t scenes yu i Had find the secret of o all al this but down r sooth neath h the th stage I m In I a wilderness of ry dY H rl electric elc wires w shaft c cand and wheels While Wie the hoM ar aI pounding pl out oat ot thunder on o the t stage stag I fl nr r r during the t race n the under und region is i i h ha n na a bee b hive Electricians Enl run he t A ather there ther throwing switches and signals signIa The T men are a tugging tug ng at a alane lass lane 1 cranks crank cr The T signal bells fr tron i v h r wires wr lead l to the t stare stage aboe ko kp k p r up t i constant din oae ring for ont on v n r two rings for another and so 8 on r two minutes it teats lasts but during t 1 I minutes minot the tension ta in I th the r rIs Is I greater t than in the t f |