A rare set of pictures taken by this color process which had not been
given to the public was courteously shown to the writer in the private
theater of the company. These, which are called “From Bud to Blossom,”
show a stream of pictures in such rapid succession that they simulate
the trick of the Eastern magician who makes flowers grow into being
before the eyes of the spectator. The pictures are taken in intervals
of about three minutes by an automatic arrangement which continues the
work for a period required for the flower to blossom, which is usually
about three days. The speed of the growth, as seen by the spectator,
is thus magnified about from six thousand to nine thousand times the
actual growth of the flowers. So faithfully has the camera performed
its task that even the loosening of the petals can be counted one by
one, and in one picture, where two buds of a poppy are shown, the
growth of one is far enough ahead of the other to show its shattered
petals wither and drop while the companion is left in its magnificence.
In another picture the water in the glass is seen to evaporate to one
fourth its quantity before the flowers have fully blossomed.
As a fitting climax, to excel in gorgeousness the pictures of the
flowers, there were retained until the last a series of pictures of
a battle “unto death” in an aquarium between water-beetles and a
magnificently marked snake. It almost passes the imagination to see
the distinct preservation of the many and varied colors of the snake
as it writhes and twists among the rocks on the bottom in its endeavor
to loose the hold of the beetles. The thought is delayed too long,
for soon after the bottom is reached one of the beetles finishes his
well-planned attack, and the neck of the snake is shown where these
vigorous little insects of the water have chewed it half-way through.
Vanquished, the snake gives up the battle as its lifeless form is
stretched on the rocks at the bottom.
[Illustration]