Smyrna times., 1875-10-27
Satisfaction in Likenesses.

a test case of great concern to photoora
piers and of considerable interest to the
public Is before a Brooklyn court. Fo,
seventeen successive times young lady sat
ior her picture. Duly after each successive
sitting the photographer sent the evidences
OF his labor for criticism and possible ac-
ceptance. None of the pictures suited. At
last the lady declined to sit again, and the
gentleman who had originally made the
contract-if it can be so called-decIined 70
take any Of the pictures or to pay for any
thing done. The photographer has brought
before the court his seventeen negot;vos
and proofs, doubtless quoting Hamlet. 'Iooll
now upon this picture and on this" His
labor in preparing them amounts to Ger.
tam sum Of money, to recover which he
mas sued. There were the front face, and
the side tlce, and the halfaverted ,,ozo
the chin little more up; the sad lool,
the faint smile; the expression of being
very niue, pleased-more in fact than the
lady actually was, and consequently not at
ali a truti Iul picture. There were also the
standing ortrait, and the one with hand nm
10 the head in a position ofreAection. theone
with the Lair drawn back and the one with
1t let down; the one with the necklace. the
one with he iurs, and the one that seemed
as II 1t might have suited, with the last new
thing OF bonnet. All these the lady. and
the gentleman, and all their friends, and
now the jury, have contemplated. As Beau
BrummeIs valet said of the MORNINGS
bundle of tried and rejected nccties. "These
are our failures"
The defendant replies to all this array of
testimony that his agreement "with a tall
young man in the rooms" was simply that
a portrait would be obtained that should
give satisfaction; that failing, nothing was
to be paid. The Autocrat of the Breakfast
Table has told us how that same reo1isite
OF ''satisfaction" tortured him with anxiety
when lyceum trustees specified it as a con-
ditlon OF his lectures. To promise satisfac-
ton in this part of the country is almost as
serious matter as to demand il. further
south. So far as photographers are con-
cerned, they have put themselves in the
Vocatlye, where they have adopted such a
method o. doing business as is in evidence
The usua experience is, when a potocronb
does not suit, another and another attempt
IS made, ill all parties to the transaction
are weared beyond endurance: and ot
last the sitter, grown desperate, takes what
does not really give the coveted satisfaction
takes any Of the lot, and usually the
worst; Oh the principle that people who 90
all through the woods to look for \ cona
usually put up with crooked stick. Most
persons get into this condition of desnoir
before they have settled themselves for the
seventeenth time 10 gaze at the black
cloth, to be asked to throw up the chin
md to look smiling. Were human nature
not so constituted, the business of photo.
sraphing likcnesses would have to no
'eorganizcd, or it could scarcely last
For all that appears in the BROOKLYN
'ase, which probably offers fair specimen
N'A4'' 'Stt Va dS-lttIlltIlt, IL tlG sitter had |
been willing to 20 on with the attempts at
Getting a likeness they might have con-
mued indefinitely, til! the golden tressess
Il youth were whtened with the SHOWS of
ge. But camera sittings arc like the
infinite denominators Of mathematics: with
very new figure obtained, they grow more
lumsy. The suit under consideration
uggcsts, however, new feature in the
roblem. Suppose a gentleman has made
his bargin respecting lady's portrait.
uppose also, the lady becomes tired of the
experiment., and putting the sole of her
lumber three fatty on the ground, declares
hat she will not present herself before the
amera again. Photographers probably ,
ave some rights as well as wrongs. Can ,
hey compel the gentleman to find a {
lbstitute?-N. Y. T}iJune. !