A String of Pearls

A picture of contrasts whose purpose seems to be to show something of how a tenement house is organized on its human side. What we mean will be much dearer to those who see the picture. Life is an organism; we are in truth one. All of us can see ourselves in others; even the rich man of the picture, the man who paid a quarter of a million for the string of pearls, could do that. He said, "I have worked for my money, let them do so." On the other hand, it needs some humanizing experience to make us recognize others in ourselves, to make us sympathetic. Hard luck is very apt to do this. That is why the poor are charitable to the poor. It was on the thread of human sympathy that the spiritual pearls of the tenement were strung. The picture shows these in contrast with the material pearls owned by the rich man's wife. The connection between these poor people and the rich man is in that he is their employer. The scenes keep changing from the one to the other. The picture tells an interesting but very slight story. It is a suggestive picture; it is meant to stimulate thought, and on that account it may seem slow to many, although three or four characterizations among the poor people keep it very much alive. It is, in fact, a modern interpretation of the parable of Dives. We fear to wholly commend it to exhibitors as a sure, drawing feature; but to spectators we most heartily commend it as a big, worthy picture, one well worth going some distance to see. The photographs are fine. - The Moving Picture World, March 23, 1912