MEXICANS AND A CAMERA.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11654, 8 June 1912, Page 3 (Supplement)

MEXICANS AND A CAMERA.

An. American camera man recently ventured into Mexico to take some pictures ol Mexican scenery, together with a parade of a Mexican regiment. Mistaking him for an insurrecto about to start another revolution by turning a machine gun on them, several hundied Mexican soldiers, comprising tho garrison at Tia- Juana, broke ranks while 011. dress parade and ran in every direction for shelter (says Photog-ra-pny). Officers joined the privates in getting behind buildings and trenches, and the regimental bugler luid hardly sounded the calls to arms to repcll tlio attack oi' the supposed invaders v.'heu the moving picture man, now thoroughly frightened himself, tucked his machine under 01:0 arm and started to run tor the boundary line. He had gained the outskirts of "the town when a Mexican officer .ventured to snatch a. look-from his hiding place, and seeing the grouna clear ordered a charge with nxeu bavoner.s. It took ' considerable prodding. however, to get the privates back into the ranks and into military iormation.

The- frightened operator was overhauled by mounted'men, dragged back into town and 1 taken before the comm and nig officer. The enraged soldiers \yantccl to make a target out or him then and there, but the officers prevailed upon them to let the regular military law take its course. The tiLovingpictnrc machine was carefully taken apart and searched for explosives.' Ihe camera man pleaded with the officers io let him go. Ho explained to the Mexicans that lie was not a lilibuster 'iior a soldier of tortunc ; that- lie was only working "for a living. He went through a pantomine with tlie aid or a sheet oil the wall to show the sokliei h how pictures ate taken lor the nickelodeons in the United States. Then a great light burst upon the intelligence of the commander-in-chief. ljr> rapidlv interpreted his discovery to his fellow' officers and his _ privates. Tlie moving-picture man stood distrustfully bv. not quite sure that he had vet' made himself plain. / " Tlie soldiers were so overjoyed at tlie. fact that thev were to have been sent down into posterity b.v the moving picture . rente that the man was ordered to take their picture without tear or interruption. A brief examination or his machine, however, convinced the moviag-picturc man that he could never accomplish the tent, hut he feared to arouse the ire of the Mexicans, so lie. went through the motions of taking a real picture while the soldiers marched back and forth within his range, drilled iixed their bayonets, charged upon imaginary foes, pitched their tents and wont through every detail of .war lito in Mexico. . i f-£is arms were aching irom the crank of his broken machine, and he would have ordinarily nsed- up several miles oi film, AVlicn the regiment came to attention and the commander stepped to the front and proudly doited Ins Cii That was the end. The picture man was loaded doivn with cigarettes and ci ,v ars and presented with a silk scan" bv' one of the officers. He refused an invitation to dine and hurried with air escort of honor to the boundary line, the men insisting 011 carrying his machine for him.