Adventure Magazine Cover, April 1916 — page 180: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

178 out of plain folks that they have to tie their heads up in veils to keep the crowds from follering them around.” “Stage people?” he asked. ‘“‘And movies,” she added. She was surprised at the animation that sprang up in his face. “‘C-could you g-get me in at one of the b-big plants?” “T guess so,” Miss Dem nodded. He beamed on her, and proceeded to tell her why he wanted the favor. He was at work on a non-inflammable, non-explosive film. A disastrous fire in a cinema plant, resulting from the explosion of a safe full of films, had set him thinking. He had been at work on the problem for several months with nothing more to his credit than half a dozen small fires and the accumulated ill- will of the foreign element in his house and the immediate neighborhood. “B-but,” he finished, “I’ve got the hang of it now.” that he came to Paolo’s establish- ment so joyous that he could hardly tee still to eat his sausage in its blanket of roll. When Miss Dem hove in sight he sang out happily to her: “T’ve h-hit it this time—right in the eye!” ‘Good for you!”’ she commented heartily. ‘“‘C-come round and see,” he begged her. “T’ve g-got a roll of film so fire-proof that you c-could c-cook on it!’ Miss Dem jumped at the chance to see Jimmy Squires in his lair. They walked up the street together, and presently she fol- lowed the inventor up three flights of dingy stairs to his little garret. She had seen editorial sanctums, so she did not drop dead at the disorder, nor did she ask for a chair. There were two, piled high with papers, a rickety desk, and a table that held a one-jet gas-stove. <A sevenfold row of bottles stood like battered soldiers against the wall. A glass retort faced them from the other side. Test tubes of all sizes and ages lay all over the floor. The inventor steered his swift steps among them almost without looking. “‘Here,”’ he said, and picked up a roll of film from the window-sill, “‘this is finished.”’ He struck a match and applied it, his long lean hands trembling with eagerness. The match burned under it to the last half inch, without doing more than smoking the IT WAS about a week afterward Adventure stuff, exactly as it would have smoked a china saucer or a bit of graniteware. Miss Dem’s eyes were round with aston- ishment. “‘There’s a fortune in that for you,” she announced. “TI’ll take you to the biggest movie man I know, any day you like—and I wish you luck!” She picked up a piece of film from the window-sill, and holding it up to the light, glanced at the name that ran along the edge. “The Half-Moon Photo-Play pany,’ ” she read aloud. The Hot Dog nodded. ‘““A m-man got me some old films to ex- periment with off their waste pile.” A few days later Miss Dem ushered Jim- my Squires into Mr. Morisson’s private office. ‘“‘Here’s what you movie men have been yelping for,” she told him. ‘‘Fireproof films,” Morisson looked the young man over keenly. Without a word he motioned him to a seat and heard all he had to say with that unmistakable expression of doubt and bored indifference against which inventors have had to struggle since the dawn of the world. The Hot Dog saw that Morisson was branded Missouri, and he manfully strove to do his part in the corollary. He stam- mered painfully in the face of the unsym- pathetic silence. Finally he took a roll of film from his pocket and struck a match under it. For the first time Mr. Morisson showed interest. He leaned forward and watched the flame rise and smoke the translucent photograph, then die out. The Hot Dog held up the film for Moris- son to see, having brushed off the char left by the match. The millionaire reached out and took it into his own hands. Plainly he was im- pressed. After a moment’s minute inspec- tion he handed it back to the inventor. His countenance was as blank as a wall. “Well, really,” he demurred, ‘‘there isn’t much use for such an invention—we are so careful, that the chance of explosion or de- struction by fire is negligible.” Miss Dem’s mouth dropped wide open. She had personally seen Mr. Morisson tear his hair because of the film fire danger. And she knew of other movie men who were Com- COMmMichoooks (©