Aunt Jane's Nieces Out West
"
"Oh. I have helped out, sometimes, when a matronly personation is
required, but my regular duties keep me busily engaged in the office."
"May we ask what those duties are?" said Louise.
"I'm the reader of scenarios."
"Dear me!" exclaimed Patsy. "I'm sure we don't know any more than we
did before."
"A 'scenario,'" said the lady, "is a description of the plot for a
photo-play. It is in manuscript form and hundreds of scenarios are
submitted to us from every part of the country, and by people in all
walks of life."
"I shouldn't think you could use so many," said Beth.
"We can't, my dear," responded the lady, laughing at her simplicity. "The
majority of the scenarios we receive haven't a single idea that is worth
considering. In most of the others the ideas are stolen, or duplicated
from some other picture-play. Once in a while, however, we find a plot of
real merit, and then we accept it and pay the author for it."
"How much?" inquired Arthur.
"So little that I am ashamed to tell you. Ideas are the foundation of
our business, and without them we could not make successful films; but
when Mr. Goldstein buys an idea he pays as little for it as possible, and
the poor author usually accepts the pittance with gratitude."
"We were a little surprised," Uncle John ventured to say, "to find you
connected with this--er--institution. I suppose it's all right; but those
girls--your nieces--"
"Yes, they are motion picture actresses, and I am a play reader. It is
our profession, Mr. Merrick, and we earn our living in this way. To be
frank with you, I am very proud of the fact that my girls are popular
favorites with the picture theatre audiences."
"That they are, Mrs. Montrose!" said Goldstein, the manager, a lean
little man, earnestly endorsing the statement; "and that makes them the
highest priced stars in all our fourteen companies of players. But
they're worth every cent we pay 'em--and I hope ev'rybody's satisfied."
Mrs. Montrose paid little deference to the manager.
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There was once an honest journeyman tailor, by name Labakan, who learned his trade with an excellent master in Alexandria. It could not be said that Labakan was unhandy with the needle; on the contrary, he could make excellent work: moreover, one would have done him injustice to have called him lazy. Nevertheless, his companions knew not what to make of him, for he would often sew for hours together so rapidly that the needle would glow in his hand, and the thread smoke, and that none could equal him.
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