One Viewer at a Time

A narrow amusement parlour on Broadway in New York on a wet April evening, warm gas lamps in frosted globes along dark wooden panelling, a row of tall cabinets of light-brown oak one hundred and twenty-three centimetres high, each shaped as a small house with a gable roof and a black curved eyepiece on top, in the front of the nearest cabinet a glass pane with a pointed arched top showing a hanging curtain of film loops over two rows of light wooden rollers and small brass gearwheels above, every surface plain and unmarked, a man in a dark wool overcoat and bowler hat seen from directly behind, bent low over the eyepiece.