The photoplay entitled "Doomsday" represents it as being love (of an extremely pallid nature) in a very dismal farmhouse, with one of the most disagreeable young men a girl could wish to duck.

Florence Vidor is the girl. She lives with her invalid father in a cottage under the lee of a great English country house. The owner of the mansion is an elderly bachelor who keeps a pair of field-glasses trained on the damsel while she goes about her housework.

Several needless subtitles explain that he is thinking of taking a wife, and, sure enough, he hobbles down to Florence's and pops the question. But Miss Vidor has met Gary Cooper, a young farmer, and she isn't sure about her plans.

She's deadly sick of housework, she knows that; so one is not surprised (after seeing Mr. Cooper's menage and hearing his views on what a wife should be) when Miss Vidor ditches him for the senile Midas.

But, although everything in her wedded life turns out just as the old gentleman had promised, she isn't satisfied. She gets a divorce, and the final fade-out catches her in the act of mildly obeying Mr. Cooper's behest to clean his boots.

Here are (roughly) some of the subtitles:

"I have placed some chairs in the living-room.'

"You will remain with your husband."

"I shall obtain [or procure, maybe] a divorce."

Miss Vidor's quietly scintillant charm is inextinguishable, even in this impossible film. There are some scenes of pastoral beauty, and there is Gary Cooper. This Lincolnesque young man has come into prominence by reason of the unforgetable bit he contributed to "Wings," but if he has had a good picture since his big chance came we have failed to hear of it.

The Movies

By A. M. SHERWOOD, Jr.

always see a foreign film-often one of exceptional merit.

They also specialize in Charlie Chaplin comedies and usually make a most adroit selection of news-reel subjects.

As we write, the current offering at the Fifty-fifth Street is a German picture dealing with the problems of illegitimate children. It is preceded on the bill by Miss Nan Britton, author of "The President's Daughter," who gives a little talk, and is followed, mercifully, by "Shoulder Arms."

Protracted discussion of the picture would hardly seem desirable, because there isn't anything to discuss. Some of the children act well and the subject in itself is provocative; but it isn't particularly entertaining, and doesn't seem to prove much of anything.

"Shoulder Arms," on the other hand, proves considerably less than nothing, and is still one of the world's swellest pictures.

Rod La Rocque is the star. He is supported by Warner Oland and by Lupe Velez, the young lady who bites and kicks Douglas Fairbanks with such single-minded energy in "The Gaucho." The scenes around the eyrie of the Greek bandits are majestic and well photographed.

In spite of these persons and things, "Stand and Deliver" succeeds in being one of the wettest of current wet smacks. Perhaps the trouble is that most of the situations are so incredible that the spectator, who has seen it done better before, begins to lose interest in the plot.

The picture, whatever the trouble may be, is one of those things which, without being actively objectionable, have called down on the industrious little workers of Hollywood a flood of such epithets as "dimwit," "square-head," "skull," and "oof."

SO.

And, we are compelled to say, rightly

On Melodrama

HAT a liking for the "curse you, Jack Dalton" school of entertainment presupposes a weak intellect is a major tenet in some circles.

Confess that you're intrigued by melodrama, in whatever guise it may appear, and certain "best minds" will forthwith be thrown into a paroxysm of sniffs. You'll find yourself more and more alone, until finally you seek solace in the companionship of such mental equals as Peaches Browning and George Remus.

This eventuality, if you like all melodrama, would be no more than just; nothing can approach bad melodrama when it comes to simon-pure badness.

But good melodrama, apparently, can reach a point where it ceases to be melodrama. It can pack the "brows" in along with the morons, and distinguished commentators will dance in the streets and throw "this old hat" into the air.

This is not to say that such authorities on the drama, articulate or otherwise, will first make sure that it's really melodrama and then roast it; not at all. It is that they demand a much higher standard for this form of dramatic expression than they ask of its variants.

This makes it bad for the movies.

Next to travel subjects, the screen is relatively in a better position to portray melodrama than any other agency; and it seems a pity that when as good a picture as "The Trail of '98" appears, its eye-filling magnitude goes for practically nothing in certain quarters, while its melodramatic shortcomings get an avid panning.

When the movies try to achieve scope and succeed-they deserve a hand, melodrama or no melodrama.

Ο

UR sermon on humidifiers for moistening the air of the home was so well received that we hasten to inform you of a different type which seems to have some value. It is a sort of double metal trough which sits on top of the radiator. Between the two water reservoirs-which you have to fill yourself—is a space bridged over by a wide-meshed wick, which, being soaked with water, moistens the warm air rising through it from the radiator. This isn't very handsome in a drawing-room, but it is inexpensive, and we believe should be effective. Provided, of course, that you can remember to keep it filled with water.

A

HANDY little article for a murderer

or assassin who does much night work is the Lite-Site Flashlight, which he can attach to his rifle, and thus get an illuminated bead on his victim before pulling the trigger. Some years ago in an Adirondack camp we were much troubled by porcupines who came nightly and devoured large portions of the front porch. We shot at them at a distance of three feet both by moonlight and lantern light, but seldom succeeded in doing anything more serious than irritate them. They'd just grunt exasperatedly and go away, only to come back in half an hour and go on gnawing. If we'd had one of these jiggers, it would have saved us a new front porch and a lot of sleep. If you're planning any light shooting this spring-at cats, for

LOREN STOUT

instance-we recommend it. Not that we would use it ourself in that way. We like cats and cat music, and can't see that the latter has anything to lose by comparison with the orchestral effects of some modern composers. But we know that there are people who shoot at cats from bedroom windows, and if they must do it, we'd like to have them shoot straight. What we think of them for doing it is our own business.

ow as to iron furniture for the garden. There is a table with a plateglass top and a holder beneath for a pot containing a fern, which we thought nice. The leaves of the fern come up nearly to the table-top, so that you see them through the glass. Then there is some imported French garden furniture -iron tables and side chairs and armchairs-which is simple and light in appearance. The chairs have spring seats, and seem a little less uncompromising than the usual iron chairs. Also there are folding metal chairs with seat and back slats of wood, and cross-bars at the bottom to protect the turf.

shallow copper bowl, 16 inches in diameter, set on a shaft which you plant in the ground. The bowl has a four-inch edge in which is a groove for crumbs or bird seed. This should be set up, by the way, in the open, and not too near shrubbery where hungry cats may be ambushed, since birds with wet plumage fly with difficulty.

P

ROBABLY we'll never own an ocean

going yacht, although if we were paid what we are really worth. . . . However, there isn't enough space left to discuss that. Anyway, we've been looking at pictures of a new yacht-the largest Diesel-engined yacht afloat. She is 294 feet over all, 38 feet 3 inches beam, has a maximum speed of 18 knots, and a cruising radius of 15,000 nautical miles. She has sun-room, living-room, dining-room, library; owner's suites of sitting-room, stateroom, dressing-room, maid's stateroom, and two bathrooms; guest quarters of 7 double staterooms, one single stateroom, 2 dressing-rooms, and 8 bathrooms; servants' quarters of 4 staterooms and 2 bathrooms. Below decks there is little to suggest that you are afloat. The decorations throughout are eighteenth-century French; there is a pipe organ, and a grate for burning coal, and the bedrooms have nothing in common with the conventional yacht stateroom.

The yacht is equipped with two 8-cylinder 1,500 H. P. direct reversible Bessemer Diesel engines, a Sperry gyrostabilizer, and a Sperry gyro-compass and pilot, which latter we tried to tell you something about after the Motor Boat Show. There is a 32-foot owner's launch, a 26-foot Chris Craft launch, a 26-foot crew's launch, a 28-foot motorized lifeboat, and a 28-foot rowing lifeboat. There is a fathometer-an automatic electrical depth finder which makes use of echoes to determine the depth of water beneath the yacht. Everything materials, furnishing. equipment-is of the best. The result is the most luxurious floating home you can imagine. Well, we wonder what old Noah would say if he could see it.

UST for contrast, let us tell you about

used more and more both indoors and out. There are all sorts, to hold any number of pots, but, as we're not allowed to draw pictures, you'll have to imagine what they look like. Some of the modernistic ones which hold cacti gardens are very handsome.

And while we're outdoors, have a look at the Henderson bird bath. It is a

Taylor has put in a filling station for cigarette lighters, where those whose lighter tanks need replenishing can go and get filled up for nothing. We wonder if the opening of a number of such filling stations wouldn't make practica! the sale of a lighter that will hold a quart of essence.

111

air of Switzerland. Flooding sunlight... yes, but sunlight stroked with the cool white fingers of the snows 111 Valleys like great baskets of flowers where a thousand fragrances mingle Skies an incredible blue Lakes that lie like prodigal heaps of jewels ▾▾ Centuries of tradition that whisper out their SWISS FEDERAL RAILROADS, 475

legends from ancient castled crags, medieval towers and strange old doorways And always the white magic of the Alps flung in jagged splendour against sunset or moonrise, 1 Doesn't it bore you to think of the same old round of summer at home? ... Switzerland renews the joy of life Plan your entire trip on this side... we are here to assist you. FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY

Τ

been a particularly happy one

for bondholders. As Edgar L. Smith has demonstrated with finality in his "Common Stocks as Long Term Investments," the investor who closed his eyes and bought a miscellaneous group of stocks in 1900 is infinitely better off today than the neighbor who put his money into gilt-edged bonds.

Because the dollar's purchasing power has been shrinking, which is another way of saying that commodity prices have been rising, about forty per cent of the value, appraised in terms of food, clothing, rent, etc., of the indebtedness represented by a bond has disappeared in the last thirty years. During the same period bountiful National prosperity has been pouring bigger and bigger dividends into the laps of stockholders.

But the bondholder has good reason to believe that the next thirty years will treat him more kindly. Today he draws almost as much in interest as the stockholder does in dividends. The forty representative bonds used in the DowJones averages yielded 4.6 per cent on April 1, while the forty representative stocks yielded only 4.9 per cent.

In the post-war period common stocks have continued to outstrip bonds, but not at any such rate as in the first twenty years of the century. The DowJones average stock price climbed from 83.14 at the beginning of 1919 to 146.43 on the first of this month, while the bond price average went from 86.83 to 97.38.

Bonds rose for two reasons. The purchasing power of their interest mounted and the supply increased less rapidly than the demand. The second cause was, to some extent, a result of the first. It is to the bondholder's interest that these trends should continue, and the probabilities seem to favor him.

The purchasing power of the interest depends entirely on commodity prices. They have been declining fairly steadily since 1919. Taking the 1926 level as 100, they have dropped from 128 to 96 in the last nine years, according to the Bureau of Labor. Among the principal reasons for believing that they will continue downward are the following:

(1) History shows, as Secretary of the Treasury Mellon points out repeatedly,

(C) New York Stock Exchange Bldg. Co. Floor of the New York Stock Exchange

that this is the regular trend for many years after a great war.

(2) The potential production of the United States is much larger than present consumptive capacity, and any sizable increase in commodity prices soon would be washed away by a flood of new production.

(3) The outflow of gold, which has been in progress for nearly eight months and which promises to continue for some time to come, will tend to decrease commodity prices.

Actual economic factors are so closely interrelated that it is extremely difficult to isolate them even for purposes of discussion. The reasons above might be grouped differently, but they are all valid. The same can be said of the bases for the bondholder's belief that his securities will appreciate in value because of a decreasing supply and an increasing demand. This is, of course, relatively speaking. Over a period of years, the actual supply and demand both should increase.

Among the conditions that will tend to cut down, relatively, the supply are the following:

(1) The country's large productive equipment, in the form of factories, railroads, machinery, etc., will limit borrowing for the purpose of new construction.

(2) Modern industry and transportation are so efficient that the demand for commercial loans, relatively speaking again, is steadily declining. So-called commercial paper is now decidedly

scarce.

(3) It is cheaper to raise money, with

the public in its present mood, by selling stock rather than bonds.

(4) The Government, by its policy of debt reduction, is pulling bonds out of the market at the rate of about threequarters of a billion dollars a year.

(5) European countries, in desperate need of capital a few years ago, are now pretty well on their feet. In 1920 they were begging for loans. Today American bankers, seeking profitable employment for their funds, are begging them to accept loans. Some of these countries -France, for example-are themselves lenders.

Now as to the increasing demand. The first of the conditions which make it likely is familiar. The American people have been educated to the policy of saving. Billboards, magazine advertisements, and leaders in every field of business and industry have preached its virtues. A large proportion of these savings have found their way into bonds. The volume of savings probably will increase even faster than the country's wealth, and so will the volume of bond purchases.

The second is the general faddishness of the public. This extends to investments as well as to parlor games like Mah-Jongg and cross-word puzzles and to heroes like Dewey, Lindbergh, and Gene Tunney.

At present common stocks are the rage. Mr. Smith's book was a powerful influence in stimulating it, and the steady rise of the stock market for the last four years has been an even greater one. In the grip of this craze, investors have undoubtedly lost sight of fundamentals. They have bought shares at prices which yielded them 3 per cent when they could have and, by every investment principle, should have bought bonds which would give them 5 per cent. In most cases, probably, capital appreciation has more than repaid them for the low dividend rate.

The stock market, however, cannot go up persistently forever. Sooner or later it will have a setback, one that will make many present stockholders seek the safety and steadiness that a bond offers. Then, perhaps, bonds will be the fad of the day and stocks will again be considered the dangerous, almost disreputable elements in the securities markets that they were supposed to be in the days of our fathers.