The Bewitched Traveler

Kleine summary: (Original by Hepworth & Co., of London. Authorized duplicate only can be furnished.) This is a trick film, different in character from the usual type. The trick effects are not only peculiar but extremely funny. A young gentleman is travelling for pleasure. In the first scene he is in the dining room of an inn endeavoring to get a meal. The table fades away before his eyes and simultaneously appears on the opposite side of the room. He changes his seat and takes up a cup of coffee, but the table again fades away. Then, in anger, he goes into the street and stops a 'bus. He has no sooner taken his seat than the horses fade away. He dismounts and, with the other passengers, goes to the front to investigate. The entire 'bus and the other passengers then disappear. He tries to get on another 'bus, but it slides out from under him, and he rolls headlong into the street. He then goes to the railroad station and tries to board a train. The train comes in, and before he can board it, it vanishes into ghostly nothingness. Another train goes through at full speed and vanishes in a similar manner. The young man then determines to try a 'bus again, and sits down on his valise at the roadside. A 'bus comes, but just before it reaches him it fades and goes by like a vision, and he never sees it. The young man, now thoroughly distracted, goes crazy and dances about the road waving his arms over his head as if pursued by a swarm of imps. As he does this he vanishes, and his valise follows him in a puff of smoke. The disappearing effects in this film are not sudden, but gradual. Solid bodies, like omnibuses and railroad trains, become transparent and fade slowly from view.