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The sun. [volume], December 07, 1913, FOURTH SECTION PICTORIAL MAGAZINE, Page 10, Image 42
About The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916
Image provided by: The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundation
Newspaper Page Text
to 'tMe 'vsrjN,'"srjNikYy 'embiiS, h. GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE AS IT LOOKS TO-DAY 'l L;&viiHBTQu HLVQt.llllllllllllllllH.illllllllllllilllllllllllllllllllHLBin BjkBHBHHsllliiBslllilBlllllllllllliillllll llB lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllHsllsllllllllllllllllllllllllllllB MH HBrHflHB3& itttKKsfllHBllllllllllglliLalllllllllllllllsllllllllllllflBllllli BBHIBBBKiBiiy "s"ttt hBSbP " V Ss3HSiiS BllfefllS'HBiBHBSnP'r -HCjSfflSCDttbiBiT'iiiiB 4' "HdnlBBjiMvC OLD OLIVE TREE IN GARDEN OF GETHESEMANE. Just outside Jerusalem, on the Mount of Olives, lies the Garden of Gethsemane. It is a quiet, secluded spot, about one-third of an acre in extent, surrounded by a high wall and belonging to Franciscan monks. It is laid out in beautiful flowerbeds. The principal object of interest is a venerable olive tree. This tree, according to tradition, dates back to the time of Christ. Rosaries are made from the olive stones, and the oil yielded by the berries is considered sacred and is sold at a high price. Just inside the entrance is the traditional spot of the betrayal and the place where the Disciples slept. The garden is a placid, peaceful spot, that seems to breathe a spirit of harmony and good will. PUNCH AND JUDY VICTIMS OF THE MOVIES AFTER FOUR CENTURIES OF FAVOR Entertainment Was First Heard Of at Acerra, Italy, in Early Part of the Sixteenth Century Never Had Much Vogue in This Country Children's Hooked Nosed, Lovable Villain Is Squeaking a Lingering Valedictory, for Photo Play Is Slowly Crowding Him Into the Discard PUNCH AND JUDY are squeak ing it lingering valedictory. Ca ble despatches say the photo play, In England especially, Is slowly hut certainly pushing the four centuries old merrymakers Into the "has been" Umbo. The Punch men are indig nant, tearful, desperate; but the march of the moving picture drama cannot be halted. Uood night to the children's hook nosed, hook chinned, goggle eyed, humpbacked, lovable villain. For rive years the ancient showjhas been dwindling In popularity. The pho toplay vogue dates back further than this, but so strong a hold has the minia ture drama had abroad that It has suc cessfully withstood all the Inroads the "movies" have made on other forms of amusement. In the United States Punch nnd Judy shows have never had the same vogue, as abroad. Here they have been prin cipally the adjuncts of some regular show of larger proportions. Amusement historians say the number of strolling Punch and Judy showmen in America was always very small. In Europe, however, It was a type of travelling en tertainment considered a money getter In itself. Often the outfit and the art descended from father to son. Hence the passing of this form of entertain ment strikes a heavier blow In Kngland than It does here. Millions of children and grownups too abroad have witnessed the Punch and Judy show and supposed what they saw was a haphazard entertainment in which the antics of Punch depended upon the varying Inventiveness of the proprietor wno was cxniomng me pup pets, but Punch and Judy Is a his torlcul drama, .with the text, scenes, exits and entrances regularly set down, as In the tragedies of Shakespeare, And by the way, it was a rival of Shake- spcare for popular favor. While popular four centuries, Punch In origin is traced back to Itoman times. A bronze statue was unearthed in 1727 which was found to be the rep Ilea of an ancient mime called Maccus. The family likeness to Punch was there beyond dispute nose long and promi nent and hooked; eyes staring, hump at the back and on the breast. Hut the Punch of professional enter tainment came into existence in the early Dart of the sixteenth rcnlnrv In Italy. We hear of It definitely first at Acerra, near Naples. Punch was then called Pulllcinella, and variations on this were Polichlnelle and Pullchinela. His torians say the name was that of a merry waiter at an Italian inn who had a knack of amusing patrons. A travelling showman stopped at the Inn and was captivated. He added the waller lo his show and grew rich through his shrewdness. Punch spread rapidly to France, Spain and Turkey. uui. strange to say, in all the different forms of entertainment of which the hook nosed nerson formed hears nothing at all of Judy for nearly two centuries. An old ballad of 1790 connected with a Punch show of that tlmo affords the first glimpse w get of .luuy. So many cvnsv showmen trcivitii England with Punch and Judy outfits that gradually the busl distinct Komany vocabulary. This slang shows traces of Italian and Spanish orlulll. The traditional I the legitimate stage arc not more defi nite than those of tho Punch and July show. Here are some: SwntClU'l APnnrh nn1 HwatcheJ-cove The proprietor Pulsudukl The show frnmo nr hnv Top rounding upper framework Bottom rounding. . .Part containing puppet , . , worker Playboard Htaee ... - ........ i iiummiiK mum. . iiiik nir collecting money Slum The call of the "barker" jamiKiur T1. (lrum ;wiies The panplpei u.ncn Hwashcll JUUy Mn..v Darky The negro Vampo The clown Vampire The ghost Buffer The dog Blum fake Th,. c-otlln Scrappers The fighting men Demon The crocodile Stalk The gallows Dinorle or metiers The money There Is even a Hlang connected with the money paid for admission to a Punch and Judy show in England. 'Quarantine" means lid., "mezzo soldo" Is Hd., "soldo" is 2d., "due soldo" is 3d., "tre soldo" Is 3d., "quarto solde" is id., "chlckwa soldo" is Gd. Many have been the variations from the original Punch and Judy drama. The Introduction of the crocodile to replace tho good old familiar devil with whom Punch plays fast and loose, was considered rank heresy for over a gen eration. In fact this one innovation threatened more harm to the puppet drama for a time than has been accom plished by the photoplay. For nearly fifty years there were two sects the Devil and the Crocodile champions. Ilival showmen fought many a bloody battle on village greens to decide which should have tho right to show; finally peace was restored In a good sensible way by deciding there was room enough for lith Crocodile and Devil, and let the public take its choice. In 1828 Payne Collier, after an ex haustive research of all tho versions of the Punch and Judy drama extant, pub lished what was then and afterward generally acknowledged to be tho legiti mate text of the ancient puppet play, The action in brief Is: Punch enters singing that he can beat the devil at anything. Judy enters and is told to dress the baby nnd put u collar on Tobey tho dog. Tho dog bites Punch and Is killed with a blow of a stick, A negro pokes his head In and calls Punch "lobster nose." Tho stick kills him. Punch mounts a donkey and Is thrown; kills the donkey -and calls in a doctor; disagrees with doctor as to prescription and kills doctor with the trusty stick. Judy gives him the baby to mind. I It throws the baby out of tho window. When Judy expostulates nnd attacks him, ho kills Judy, Haunted by the 'ghosts of all his victims to date, he never quails, but whacks lustily at them with Ills stick. A constable who came to arrest him is killed. It takes a platoon of constables to arrest him finally nnd get him to prison. "I have an order to arrest you," says the constable leading the platoon. "And I have an order to knock you down," says Punch, doing so to tho shrieking delight of the children. Punch Is sentenced to hang. In comes the hangman, carrying tho gallows. Punch asks to bo shown how to put his head In the noose. Tho hangman shows him, but Punch promptly pulls the noose nnd hangs the hangman. Then comes the ghost asking for the Restaurant Owner Finds It Pays to Be Polite Till? proprietor of a successful down town daylight eating place was doing the talking. One of his ad miring customers had said something to him about his Invariable politeness to nil comers. "Well," ho said half apologetically, "I guess I am polite, but it is not my fault. You see, it is easier for me to be that way than any other. I'm no scrapper, and the way to avoid scraps Is not to brush the fur tho wrong way. "Sometimes I think I am too polite and I ought to bang somebody In the face Instead of passing out the pleasing smile, but what's the good of that? I'd not only Iobo a customer but I might get licked besides, I've been polite not because I felt that I owed it to other people but because I owed it to myself. "Most of them don't think about it, don't appreciate it, lots of them, I sup pose, but I know I feel better when I remember that I smoothed somebody out Instead of ruffling him up. Then politeness pays, though I was pollto before I ever thought of the pay part of It. Listen. "Ten years ago-I was a waiter In a swagger place up town, one of the finest, but not a lobster palace. Tips were Plenty, for the trade was fashionable, and tho waiters soon got the habit of looking for customers who were sure to shako down well. If a customer didn't remember the waiter the waiter soon forgot htm. I'll admit I wasn't much different from the others, but I wasn't rude about It, and I tried to be as polito to the party who tipped me a dime as one who tipped me a dollar. I averaged It up, you see, and called It fi! cents from each one. "Well, there was an old fellow who came In one day who looked like ho 'had got Into tho wrong place. Nobody wanted him, but somebody got him, nnd he wasn't easy to wait on. His hill was a dollar nnd he tipped 10 per cent. I used to think that was fair enough, but the other waiters thought It was Kid form for anybody to tip less than n quarter, and the old chap, who began to come In every day, was handled like a bale of rags. "I kept clear of him for a week, and then I got him because nohodv else would have htm. By that time I was feeling kind of sorry for him, that's tho way I always do, and I treated him like I would a Plttsburger. He seemed to appreciate It. hut he tipped me only his usual 10 per cent. Some of the waiters gave mo the laugh when they saw the tip for the politeness I had handed out with his meal, and next time when he came and called for me they simply haw hawed at me. "Well, I got that old fellow every day for a month, but he was always polite, and I thought I would give him as good as he sent, which I did. Every time ho came in I got a sendoff from the other waiters, but I didn't care, I was getting used In It. "Ono day ho didn't show up, and tho gang asked me If I was going to pay his funeral expenses nut of tho tips he had given me. I didn't know but what I might have to, but about a week nfter ho had left the manager called me In and gavo mo n letter. It was from mv late customer, nnd I here was a check In It for $R0 as a mark nf his apprecia tion, ho wrote, of mv courtesy when I knew I wasn't getting any pay for it. You ought to hnvo seen the others when I pulled that check on them nnd told them whero it came from nnd whv I got It. "And that Isn't nil. Ho had n talk with the manager about me nnd then nsked me to come to his office and see him. It wns down In this neighborhood, and Inside of the i.ext six months I had the capital to start this place, and the old feilow nto hero and brought his rich friends here, and I have never had any cause to complain about being polite to people, oven If I don't know who they are. "He's dead now, rest his soul, and If I ever feel like being Impolite I think of him and smile and don't feel that way any longer. Beer' murderer and Punch hands him tho dead hangman. In comes tho devil nnd Punch Is giving him the light of his life when tho little curtain falls. Some times the crocodile comes In Instead of the devil nnd Punch Is dropped into his mouth. Hut some showmen insist that the children object to Punch getting tho worst of it and so they have tho hook nosed hero get tho best of even the devil and the crocodile. If you go back far onough you will llnd that tho obliteration of the Punch and Judy show by the photo play comes as a species of historical revenge. Pup pet plays were always called "motions" by ancient authors to distinguish them from the regular drama. Shakespeare In "Tho Winter's Tale," Act IV., 3, says; "Then he compassed a motion of the Prodigal Son and married a tinker's wlfo within a mile of whero my land and living lies." Ben Jonson in "Bartholomew Fair" talks of a motion play and "Tho Tule of a Tub" tells of a "motion" for company amusement. It was said of them that they "were popular with tho lower orders" and some called them "tho villainous motions." In tho reign of Charles II., tho propri etors of tho regular drama theatres of London, situated In Drury Lane and Lincoln's Inn Fields, petitioned tho King to order the removal of a puppet show then exhibiting on the south side of Cecil street In the Strand to such a distance as would rid them of Its rivalry and restore their waning prosperity, There Is no record of what the King did In tho matter. It Is clearly Indi cated, however, that tho "motions" of that day were cutting Into tho box offlco of tho "legit." When the Punch nnd Judy men began to note the growing popularity nf tho photoplay five years ago In England they talked much of banding together to resist tho Inroad threatened by tho "movies." Hut the very nature of their mode of llfo and presentation of their miniature drama made It Impossible to work out an effective combination. So year by year slnco 1908 they havo watched tho decline of their popularity. r.xacuy wnat lias mode Punch and Judy so nomilnr it i ilnni tn ti, wickeder Punch is the more he seems io no imea. He has the nose and love of adventure of Cyrano nnd that may be part of the reason. He has tin. hum,. back nnd the m.illrn nt Tir.i,nr.i tit and ltlchard Is still a popular tlwtir despite his hlomlthlrstiness. He Ji.i the native wit of ;Esop. Combine the i j pes. nun ii uoesn l explain It. Ill tho earlv nart nf ih iiiintn.,is century the puppet show man travelled uuoui mo sirceis or L.oudon, weather permitting, currying his "motions" upo.i bis back. The exhibition took place In the open air. It wan a precarious sourco of income, depending upon volun tary contributions. It is told of ono showman that nt ono stopping placj wine were uui inreo spectators and tho collection was sixpence. This collec tion, remember, was always taken up In i.dvanco nf tho show. Thero was a lmiir wntt n.i tutors became imimilnnt. Tim,. greatly surprised finally to seo th mien mm .limy man IIU his little show house on his back again and without re turning the money stalk away with t'teso words: "I never yet played for sixpence und I never will. So gnoj morning." In Hermany Punch is called Hans Wurst or Jack Pudding. Collier says for fascinating wlckidnia im in all doubt the lion Juan of the people. ii m rciiiieii mai m .iniin Leech's "tVod up Man" the man and his friends found Punch nnd Judy the .only thing in which they could take a lively Interest. The passing of this four century puppet show would seem to prove a famous utterance of 1852 wrong. M. Magnln, in his book on marionettes pub lished about thnt time, said: "Pollchl nelle est Immortel." Thnt was half a century plus ten years ago, nnd tho French author cannot bo blamed for not foreseeing tho moving picture In ventlon. Hut lie may have meant that tho theme, rather than tho method of Interpretation, was destined to immor tality. Punch hus already lieen placed In the "movies" and It may bo he will survive us u photoplay until amusement fashions change und ho comes in for a revivul.