AMUSEMENTS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 37, 30 September 1914, Page 8

AMUSEMENTS.

BERNARD'S PICTURES. The programme to be presented tins evening will ,mark a wonderful progress in motion pictures. “Down the crater if Vesuvius” is a wonderful picture diowing the descent into the crater of the most active volcano in the world. Mr Burlington risked his life in taking this wonderful record. Some of the great scenes are: “Bay of Naples,” “Vesuvius Smoking,” “The Ruins of Pompeii,” “The Train of the Funicular Railway ascending the steep slope to the Mountain Top,” “Battery ot Fumaroles,” “Hell pit filled with Burning Lava,” “Mr ’Burlington getting ready for the Descent,” “On the edge of the Abyss 1212 feet Down,” “In the Bowels .of the Earth,” etc. Other fine films are: “The Third String,” a W. ■W. Jacobs story, and a ripping comifiy. , “The Gaumont Graphic” gives Lie latest news. “Through the Quercy District” is a fine scenic. “The Gate Told”, is a fine dramatic story. “The Ar&of the Furrier” is a fine industrial film,’.and a first rate comedy, “A Night put.” “A TRIP BEYOND THE CLOUDS.”

Yesterday afternoon there was again a full attendance of pupils of the Consent school to listen to Mr John Gilbhrist give his illustrated lecture on “A Trip Beyond the Clouds.” Beoro going beyond the clouds the lecturer showed that there are two sgas on this earth of ours, one of water md the other of air, and that we are 'iying at the bottom of the deepest

ea. Clouds and their formation vere. then described. An extremely teantiful picture in color showed one .f the wonderful expressions of the nidnight sun in Norway, the crystals if the highest lying clouds being responsible for producing the glorious oloring of that scene. The children ■/ere then shown one of the famous ■bservatorics of the world situated on Vlt. Hamilton. California. The uses ,f the giant telescope, 57 feet long, end tlie spectroscope, were explained in a‘ simple fashion. The immense Instances separating the earth from 'ach of the other planets were most graphically brought to the mind by i picture which showed the earth turn'd into a huge railway station, from vhich trains were departing for the afferent worlds. The shortest jourisy Would I)e to the moon, and would ake, at the rate of 60 miles per hour, ’66 days, while the longest journey von Id 1)0 to Neptune and would take the enormous period of 5055 years. But the lecturer here remarked that, vast as that period of time was, it vas dwarfed into insignificance by a murney to the nearest fixed star, Aloha Centauri, the bottom star of the oointers of the Southern Cross, which it .would take the train 40 million years to reach. Wo saw the sun as . t would appear from Neptune, a tiny >oinlTof light, and were told that although it was a million times larger .hairthe-earth it was dwarfed by the nagnitude of many other suns or stars. The lecturer traced the growth >f a solar system such as ours from ho time that it was a fiery mist or tehula without form right through' the ■piral stage to a multiple star, and hrough the cooling of the small stars if the group, the advent of planets. Planets were explained to be cold -tars. Splendid pictures, of the sun luring eclipse, and one showing the ictual face of the suil with the glowing clouds of calcium high in its atmosphere, of Saturn and its wonderful ■■ings, Mars and its canal-like markings, the red hot planet Jupiter, the moon with its mountains, valleys and extinct craters, flame storms on the sun, were all part of the series. After this an exquisite set of colored mov-j ing pictures conveyed to the minds j of the children as never before the actual working mechanism of the solar system. The whole of the planus wore seen to be engaged in majestic procession round the sun. Other .moving pictures explained the causes of the tides, day and night, the seasons, and the apparent stationary position of the planets at times. Such lectures are sure to he invaluable in mabling the mind to grasp the beauty uul wonder of existence. ,

Mr Gilchrist gives another lecture, he last of the series, entitled, “The Wonderful Story ,of Our Earth,” and then lie will be finished at the Convent school. But we hear that there is i probability of the lectures .being repeated here next week to enable all those school children wiio belong to the District High School, which is closed at present, to be present. The general public, will also he able to attend, should the arrangements lie ■made.