Movie Brain Food.
A Boston girl was found tied to a tree. When discovered, she told a moving tale about having been chloroformed, bound, and gagged by two men, thrown into an automobile, ill-treated in divers ways, and finally tied to a tree. She stuck to her story for several hours, making it bigger each time she repeated it, but finally broke down and confessed that the whole was false. She had gone to a "movie" the night before, had seen a play bringing in the events she described, got a friend to tie her to the tree, and then tried to palm herself off as the "movie" 'heroine.
This is only a sample of the stuff the moving-picture shows are pouring into the brains of the boys and girls. Children make up the vast majority of "movie" crowds, and, though of course there are worth-while "movies," the great majority of them are trashy or worse than trashy.
Bad books, frippery and sensational stories, constitute a fearful evil, but they are as nothing to this later evil that has developed so rapidly. Comparatively few children care to take the trouble to read, but all children enjoy looking at pictures. Reading is usually a solitary employment, but the movies are delightfully social. Moreover, there is nothing novel about reading, in spite of the term, "clime novels"; but the movie makes use of one of the most fascinating of recent scientific and mechanical inventions, and produces with ease the most astounding phenomena. Besides, it has the "pep," the "go," the "zip," which means so much to young folks.
The remedy for movie abuses is in the hands of the parents. Absolutely immoral films can and doubtless will be suppressed; but trashy ones, merely sensational ones, can hardly be touched by the law. They can be driven out only by the care of wise parents, who learn what the movie theater is exhibiting, and keep their children away if it is not worthwhile.