Le Cinematograph d'Isaac Kline (Perkins' Opera House, 19 septembre 1899)

Isaac Kline présente son cinématographe en septembre. La presse propose un long compte rendu de la séance :

SAW THE WAR AT HOME
Cinematographe Pictures Prove Interesting and Realistic.
SHOWED THE 20TH FIGHTING
A Large Audience Withnessed the Pictures and  Cheered as the Patriotic Scenes Were Presented-A Successful Entertainment.
Judging from the pictures shown by Kline's cinematograph at Perkins' opera house Tuesday evening, the "camera fiend" was an omnipresent and almost omnipotent character of the Spanish American war. The display of moving pictures also demonstrated that the art of photography has been brought down to an almost perfect science whereby the scenes of actual moving life can be reproduced with life-like exactness upon canvas. 'The seating capacity of the opera bouse was taxed to its limit and many stood up throughout the entire entertainment.
It was a "war program." It pictured the events of Johnny's life from the time he bade father and mother and brother and sister farewell at the little country station and went off to war, until he came marching home again, covered with a hero's honor but perhaps scarred or maimed or wounded in the terrible conflict. It showed the rapidly moving trains which carried Johnny past the old farm house, where his father and mother stood waving the last affectionate adieu, to the camp in the south or east or west, for the Johnny of the picture was the same at Santiago as at Manila and the audience cheered him just as much one place as at the other. It showed Johnny tossed in the blanket; it pictured him in the camp drills and and practice. Then he went aboard Uncle Sam's ships to sail for Santiago or Manila.
The pictures showing the Santiago campaign dealt largely with naval displays, showing battles at sea, the use of torpedo boats, the quick work of marines and other scenes. The best of these was probably the Oregon destroying the Viscaya. The scene was thrilling, and as the hull of the Spanish cruiser caught fire and the dense, black smoke arose, the large audience burst into cheers.
One section of the program was devoted to a portrayal of Philippine war scenes. It showed the Twentieth Kansas regiment chasing Filipinos through a jungle. It was the scene of the evening, but it sent the cold blood chilling through all who saw it. It was real and lifelike in tho extreme. It showed the fatal charge wherein more than one brave boy from Kansas laid down his life that his country's honor might be saved. The audience saw the smoke and flash from the Springfields, the waving aloft of the stars and stripes, but too often a Kansas boy was seen to fall Never until they saw that picture, supposedly from real life, have the people of Coffeyville, and probably of other Kansas towns, been able to appreciate or even conceive the horrors and hell of war and see what it means to face the fatal, deadly fire of a treacherous, stubborn foe. But the Kansas boys kept the colors up. Several times the color bearer was shot down, but each time the old flag was eagerly snatched from death and waved on to triumph and to victory. After witnessing the picture, one can readily understand how the Twentieth Kansas won its worldwide reputation for gallant fighting.
The audience cheered frequently through the course of the evening when some picture appealing to patriotism was shown and this was quite often. The applause was several times interrupted painfully by the falling of an American soldier, but it took the form of shouts and cheers whenever the scene showed the stars and stripes carried up some charge or planted victoriously upon some vantage ground or pinnacle.
The scenes were accompanied with graphophone music, selected so as to be appropriate in each case to the picture. The rendering of the "Stars and Stripes Forever" and "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep" were worthy of mention. The whole show was good.

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The Coffeyville Daily Journal, Coffeyville, mercredi 20 septembre 1899, p. 1.