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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In a village there lived two men who had the self-same name. Both were named Claus. But one of them owned four horses, and the other owned only one horse; so to distinguish between them people called the man who had four horses Big Claus, and the man who had only one horse Little Claus. Now I'll tell you what happened to these two, for this is a true story.
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