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18 ILLUSTRATED WORLD
No One Can Play Poker in the Cinema
Of course gamblers can be portrayed, but not the games
they play! The theory is that the element of chance is
made to appear too attractive.
where the actress Clara Kimball Young
in the play, 'The Foolish Virgin', is
shown, some time after marriage, taking
a baby sock from a sewing basket. That
scene was ordered cut out.
"And you can't look at snakes. The
kind of creature that tempted Eve in the
Garden of Eden is not permissible.
"Neither will Ohio permit snakes to
be seen ; nor will it permit a bandit to
be exhibited, unless his nefariousness
has brought him to a timely end.
"The whole motion picture world is
still laughing over the Ohio Board of
Censors' cutting out a motion picture of
Villa from the Selig-Tribune News reel.
on the ground that 'the picture might
have a bad effect on the young'. This
action was taken notwithstanding the
fact that the same photographs, of Vftlai;
were published in newspapers '"all over
the land.
"That's what I mean when I say the
censors are moral obstructionists rather
than conservators of morals. I'm going
back to Pennsylvania for further proof.
"A wave of prohibition is sweeping
the country. Over half the states are
now dry, and out of the twenty-eight
hundred counties in the forty-eight states
of the Union, twenty-five hundred are
officially dry. Anything that would
complete the crushing drive on booze,
would, one might think, be approved by
thinking people.
"The poet informs us that 'Vice is a
monster of so frightful mien', that we
hate it on sight. The Pennsylvania
board of censors evidently does not
think so, however. It seems to think
that even a sermon on drink is dangerous
to the morals of the community. Take
the film play 'John Barleycorn' from the
late Jack London's book of the same
name. This book, as most of us know,
is a treatise in spectacular form on the
evils of alcohol and shows how under
the present system of free access to drink
it is a constant menace to society—from
boyhood up. It presents clearly and
powerfully the firm conviction of a
strong man—London—who could be regarded
by no one as a mollycoddle, that
alcohol is something to be strictly let
alone. Its lesson strikes home to the
rough and ignorant, as perhaps no other
could: Yet, in' Pennsylvania, it is illegal,
a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of
from twenty-five to one hundred dollars
to show this film in any motion picture
house.
"Again, every one will admit that
children make for the happiness and
sanctity of the marriage relation. Let
us consider the case of 'The Valley of
Decision'. Let us also consider this film
in the light of the agitation now raging
on the subject of birth control.
"Arnold Gray, according to the story,
is ambitious to become governor of New
York State. Gray marries a writer, also
very ambitious. Mrs. Gray is blessed
with the.prospects of motherhood. This
affirst is pleasing to both husband and
wife. However a clubwoman friend.