Stratford News

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 138, 29 October 1912, Page 3

Stratford News

From Our Resident Reporter, LABOR DAY.

Labor Day yesterday. It was a piebald holiday. Banks, lawyers and auctioneers closed. The auctioneers had notified that they would close, and people naturally though the rest of the town would follow suit. So they did not come out to shop. There was little life in the business area. Tiring of the unprofitable monotony, many business men closed in the afternoon, and sought the bowling greens, tennis courts,, or other distractions. Employees want to know why the holiday was not observed here as in Inglewood, Waitara, Eltham and Ilawera. PERSONAL

Last night at the Stratford Hotel the employees in Mr. John Leydon's business (now conducted by the new proprietor, Mr. G. E. Wilson) spent a couple of convivial hours, at the invitation of Messrs. Leydou and Wilson. .A capital dinner was served by Mr. Abbott, after which the healths of the old and the new proprietors were honored, and the toasts, "'Success to the Firm" and "The Staff" were also heartily drunk. Mr Leydon was presented by his late manager, Mr. Sidney Clarke, on behalf of the staff, with a hansome gold albert.

BERNARD'S PICTURES I ''The Race for Life," a 3000 ft. film, was released at the Theatre on Saturday night. The film is Danish in thought, character and action. The whole picture was photographed on Danish soil and, what is still more interesting, was depicted by the famous Danish actors. The drama, quite apart from its enthralling interest, served to enlighten the audience on many points concerning the Danes, their style of architecture, and the like. Some of the castle scenes were superb. The story itself was dramatic and sensational, with a deep tinge ot quaintness, characteristic of its Danish setting. The plot was cleverly conceived j and excellently pourtrayed 1 by the Danish actors, who seemed to have their hearts in the work. It involved a murder, and the wrongful condemnation of an innocent man, and showed the subtleties of a noble woman to secure a confession from the real murderer—the condemned man's brother. The race for life ensued when the heroine galloped and ferried across country just in time to save her lover from the headsman's axe. There is something irresistibly "taking" about that popular actor Maurice Costello. A point in his favour is that he is always associated with only the best of films. One of these- was "Jfcmc-sis," which figured Costelio as a rising young medico whose wife proved faithless. In the end Nemesis descended on both his runaway wife and her unscrupulous lover in a manner as interesting as it was terrible. The other star film was "From Fireman to Engineer." It showed how a fireman secured promotion by catching up to a runaway engine by means of another locomotive and sensationally rescuing the manager's daughter, The'little girl was on the runaway. The new programme also included a splendid industrial film depict- ' ing the making of lead pencils, Pathe's Animated Gazette, a view of the Henley Regatta, 1912, and three comics. J