ENTERTAINMENTS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 162, 8 January 1912, Page 8

ENTERTAINMENTS

EMPIRE PICTURES. There was again a good house to witness the pictures at the Empire Theatre on Saturday evening. They opened with. a beautiful scenic of North Wales,, which* was quite as interesting a film as those depicting scenes of other countries. "The Writing on (the Blotter" was a little drama in which the manager of a firm was scheming for a robbery, and was found out through the cashier'swife securing a position as a stenographer. "Lost in the Jungle," which. - has been fully described before, wasgreatly appreciated by the audience, particularly that part where the elephant, 1 finding the lost girl in the- jungle, gets j her on to its trunk and takes her to Bafety. "Cupid's Chauffeur" was an, I amusing item, in which a stern father I refuses to given consent to his daughter to marry. The young fellow and hia friends beat the old man nicely.. He dresses up as a chauffeur, stakes the father and daughter' outy: are ' waylaid by "robbers" (the' ifiiejjdfl of the ' young man). The chauffeuf changes hi* dress, enters the bush shotting ati tire, and goes to the (fescuVof'lhe father lajgd; daughter, for which "bravery" he I eariiS'.-the gratitude vi thp oilman, and: the usual orange ceremony follows, the "robbers" forming ffirt of: it. "The Siege of. Calais" was ! <jrie of the finest' productions Hhai has been, shown-,, and its magnificence aid the thousand* of people taking part, plaeWt'om a high cinematograph relates ,jta the siege and capture by Edward HI., m 1346-47. Immediately after Ms great victory won at Creei, the English. King, EdwaTd IDT., laid siege to the strong, citjr of Calais. He built a town of hute round the city, which he called "Newton, the Bold," and laid it out with a market,, regular streets and shops, and all the. necessary accommodation for an army, and hither were carried in< vast supplies f of victuals and other necessaries,, obtained by ravaging the country round and by shipment from England*. Calais held out for a year, and angered tha King so by its obstinacy that when, ia August, 1347, starvation forced its people to surrender, he required that six of the chief burgesses should he given up him, with halters round their necks, foe execution. Eustace St. Pierre and five others nobly offered themselves for the sacrifice, and it was only by the weening intercourse of Queen Phfflippa that Edward- was induced to spare their lives. He expelled all the inhabitants who renused to take an oath of fealthy to him, and repeopled the town with Englishmen. "Ice Effects in Odessa" and "The Hundred Dollar Bill" were all good items. The same programme, one of the best yet shown in New Plymouth, will be repeated this evening.