The Morning herald., 1875-10-25
RE0S8 tJSH61e law

"A DEVokIyA FHOtOkHSpheT IAteiy AZ
peared in Court bearing with him seven
teen sspatate negatives, each purportiag II
be the portrait of one and the same youai
lady. She had come to his operating
room and desired to be photographed. Th'
photographer applauded her design, aat
promised to do full justice to her charming
feature. He placed her in the chair; in
serted the prongs Of the " head-rest +" il
Der back hair requested her to 'contem
plate with raptuous admiration the optica
bait which photographers pin upon tn
wall to catch the eyes of their patients, ant
then uncorked his camera. Whether tn,
young lady smiled too soon and thus i'm
pressed upon her negative series Of ..con
centric but entirely useless mouths, Of
whether she suddenly thought of hatred
rival, and was thus betrayed into an unin.
territorial wriggle whereby the negative
was made to bear the image Of broad but
nebulous maiden with features drawn out
into horizontal lines, and with expansive
hands furnished with dozens of faint and
fat fingers, we are not told. When, how
ever, the photographer emerged from the
dark closet wherein he had. poured out IL
bations of nitrate'of silver to the sun-god,
he brought with him picture which was
found unsatisfactory" and was compelled
to sffer to take a new one which
should be more like the sitter, and less like
view of the Nebula in Orion. Seventeen
successive attempts did this patient photo
grapher make to fix the features of his fair
visitor upon the sensitive plate, Each time
the result was allie ged to be = failure
There was too little nose in one picture. In
another, an excess ofnose belittled the 9TH
er features by contrast. In this one, the eyes
were lacking in expression, in that the
mouth was out Of drawing. Many of the
pictures failed to do justice to the ]ady's
chin, while others wore an air of hopeless
resignation to the photographers expert
ments which would have drawn smile Of
derisios from the severest of Cheshire
cats. At least We may suppose that such
were the complaints made by the young
lady as she. rejected each successive pic
ture. When the seventeenth had been
submitted and rejected, the long-sufsring
photographer declined to spend the rest on
bis life and chemicals upon so difficult
subject, and went to law to obtain some COM
pensation for his wasted time and capital.
The decision in this case will be sf|
much interest to persons about to be pho.
That process at present not
unfrequently results only in vexation of
spirit ia satisfactory likeness is not
obtained after two or three trials, the suf-
ferer, uncertain Of the law, and unwilling
to incur the further scorn of the
photographer as 4 person wholly devoid
both of good taste and ordinary eye
sight, consents to accept the least eb-
jectisnable negative, and thus becomes
the .possessor of collection of photo
graphs capable Of giving pleasure to tho
owners bitterest enemy, and utterly una
vailable for any other purpose, Should it
be decided in the Brooklyn case that
photographer who has once undertaken to
produce a satisfactory portrait can be
compelled to make good his promise, even
ifit takes an hundred sittings, the path to
patrons will be plain. No man or woman
will henceforth be compelled to hide in Sc
cret drawers, or to commit to midnight !
ash barrels, photographs which are mis-
cry is the owner, and which cannot be
given away, except with..a view of insult
ing the recipient. But, on the other hand
'he decision which should thus protect the
public might work serious injury to the
photographers. A malicious photograph
'r might ruin rival by perpetually sit
ing for his picture, and perpetually fe-
ecting the negative with sarcastic COM
nents. To take thousands Of photographs
or one man, and to receive in payment
'othina but gibes and insults, would break
he spirit and exhaust the pocket of fany
artist" The law can hardly be so negli-
'ent as to leave room for such possibility,
nd yet to fix upon definite number Of
i|tings as a limit to which the unskilled
photographers can be compelled to 60,
Vould be arbitrary, and unsatisfactory to