HEMMED IN
Elaborate preparations had been made for this prairie fire picture. In
fact, in a way, the whole story of the drama "East and West" hinged on
this scene. It was the climax, so to speak--the "big act" if the play
had been on the real stage. Naturally Mr. Pertell was anxious to have
everything right.
And so it seemed to be going. The flames crackled menacingly, and the
black smoke rolled up in great clouds that would show well on the film.
In brief, this action of the play was to depict the hardships of one of
the early Western settlers. He had taken up a section of land, built
himself a rude house, and was living there with his family when the
prairie fire came, and he was forced to flee.
Of course all this was "only make believe," as children say. But it was
put on for the film in a very realistic manner. Pop Snooks had
constructed a slab house, with the aid of the cowboys, who said it was
as near the "real thing" as possible. Later on the house, which was but
a shell, and intended only for the "movies," would be destroyed by fire.
Scenes would be shown in which the settler (Mr. DeVere) and his helpers
would try to extinguish the fire before they fled from it.
The first scene showed the fire starting, with the plowmen (Mr. Bunn and
Mr. Sneed) in the fields at work. They were seen to stop, to shade their
eyes with their hands and look off toward the distant horizon, where a
haze of smoke could be seen. The big distances which were available on
the prairies of the West, made this particularly effective in a film
picture.
The taking of the film had so far advanced that the warning had come to
those in the slab shanty. There were gathered Ruth, Alice, Miss
Pennington, Miss Dixon, Paul and others.
"Ride! Ride for your lives!" cried Mr. Sneed, dashing up on one of the
plow horses. "The prairies are on fire and it's coming this way
lickity-split!"
Of course his words would not be heard by the moving picture audiences,
though those accustomed to it can read the lip motions. Really the words
need not have been said, and it was this feature of the "movies" that
enabled Mr. DeVere to take up the work when he had failed in the
"legitimate" because of his throat ailment.
"Flee for your lives!" cried Mr. Sneed. "We're going to try to burn it
back, or plow a strip that it can't get over."
Thereupon ensued a scene of fear and excitement at the slab hut. A wagon
was hastily brought up by some of the cowboys, who were taking part in
the picture, and the household goods, (provided of course by the
ever-faithful Pop Snooks), were hastily packed into it.
Then the girls and others, with every sign of fear and dismay, properly
"registered" for the benefit of those who would later see the film in
the darkened theaters, gathered together their personal belongings, and
entered the wagon.
Meanwhile Russ was kept busy getting different views of the big scene.
Sometimes there would be shown the raging fire sweeping onward, the
black clouds of smoke rolling upward, and the red tongues of flame
leaping out. In reality the fire was only a small one, but by cleverly
manipulating the camera, and taking close views, it was made to appear
as if it was a raging conflagration.
As Russ would have difficulty in showing alternate views of the fire
itself and the preparations at the slab hut to flee from it, Mr.
Pertell, at times, worked an extra camera himself. Thus the time was
shortened, for the fire was something that could not be held back, as
could something of purely human agency.
"Ride! Ride for your lives!" now shouted Mr. Sneed, as he sat on his
heaving horse, ready to ride back and help fight the fire. With dramatic
gestures he pointed ahead, seemingly to a place of safety. "Ride for
your lives!"
"But you? What of you?" cried Miss Pennington, as she held out her hands
to him imploringly. She was supposed (in the play) to be in love with
him.
"I go back--to do my duty!" he replied, as his lines called for.
There was a dramatic little scene and then Miss Pennington,
"registering" weeping, went inside the "prairie schooner," as the big
covered wagon was called.
Paul, on the driver's seat, cracked his whip at the horses and the
vehicle lumbered off, Ruth, Alice and the others who were inside,
looking back as if with regret at the home that was soon to be
destroyed.
Mr. Sneed remained for a moment, posing on the back of his horse, and
then, with a farewell wave of his hand he rode back to join Mr. Bunn
and the others in fighting the fire that had been "made to order." Mr.
DeVere, too, after seeing his family off in the wagon, leaped on a horse
and also galloped back to help fight the flames. There had been a
dramatic parting between him and his daughters--for the purposes of the
film, of course.
"Say, this fire's gettin' a little hot!" cried Baldy, who, with the
other cowboys, had been detailed to put out the blaze. Mr. Pertell was
there to get a film of them, while Russ, a considerable distance away,
was to film the on-rushing wagon containing those fleeing from the
blaze. The picture was so arranged as to show alternately views of the
wagon and the fire fighters. Always, however, there was the background
of the black smoke when the wagon was shown tearing over the prairie,
and the smoke constantly grew blacker.
"Get at it now, boys!" cried the manager, grinding away at the handle of
his camera. "Put in some lively work! Mr. Sneed, don't be afraid of the
fire. You're standing off too far."
The plot of the play was that first an attempt would be made to beat out
the fire, by means of bundles of wet brush dipped in a nearby brook.
This plan was to fail, and then an attempt would be made to "fight fire
with fire." That is, the prairie grass would be set ablaze some
distance ahead of the line of fire, and allowed to burn toward it. This
would make a blackened strip, bare of fuel for the flames, and the hope
was--or it used to be when prairie fires in the West were common--that
this would check the advancing blaze.
For a few seconds the men fought frantically to beat out the fire, then
Mr. DeVere exclaimed, with a dramatic gesture:
"It is no use! We must fight fire with fire!"
The men ran back some distance, Mr. Pertell taking his camera back the
same space. Then the prairie was set ablaze in a number of places, at
points nearer the slab cabin which was, as yet, untouched.
The scene of starting a counter-fire was a short one, for it was quickly
discovered, in reality as well as in the play, as planned, that the wind
was in the wrong direction. It simply advanced the flames nearer the
cabin.
"It's of no use, boys!" cried Mr. DeVere. "We must plow a bare strip."
"Bring up the horses and plows!" ordered Baldy. A number of these had
been held in reserve, out of sight of the camera, and they now came up
on the rush. The idea was that neighboring settlers, having sighted the
prairie fire, had come to the aid of their friends in the slab cabin.
Horses were quickly hitched to the plows, and the work of making a
number of furrows of damp earth, to act as a barrier to the flames, was
started.
While Mr. Pertell was filming this, Russ was busy getting views of the
on-rushing wagon containing the refugees. Several times the team was
stopped to enable the operator to go on ahead, and show it coming across
the prairie. This gave a different background each time.
It was after one of these halts, and just when the team was started up
again that Alice, who was on the front seat with Paul, the driver, cried
out:
"See! There is smoke and fire ahead of us, too! What does it mean?"
For an instant they were all startled, and then, as Ruth looked behind
them, and saw the fiercer flames, and the blacker smoke there, she
gasped:
"We are hemmed in! Hemmed in by the prairie fire!"