The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1882-10-21

move. A photographer instrument IS
not an artist, but am one, and by the
dizziness of my art | can show you much
more Of your child's soul in portrait
than a photographer instrument can.
This photograph that you have just
bought does not satisfy you wholly, does
it? No photograph ever wholly satisfies;
it lacks something, or it distorts some
thing But | will take this one of yours
to a solar print shop, and get Il copy of
it on as large scale as you choose, and
by the aid of my art will produce for
you crayon photograph which will
show you your child in the lovelness
which is really hers" Do you not think
that proposition of that sort would en-
gage the mothers attention?
The fact is that thousands of such pro-
positions are being made every year to
American mothers, and the art of crayon
photography is ilourishing. In the prac
tice of it thousands of young women are
earning from twenty-five to one hundred
dollars for every crayon photograph that
they produce.
There are three principal methods Of
obtaining orders for such work. First.
go to photographer-an ordinery pho
tographer-and make inquiries. He may
have customers who desire your services.
But of course he cannot afford to pay
you as much as his customers would had
you applied directly to them. lie must
have a commission for his trouble: and
if you receive from him one-sixth as
much as you would from one of his Gus
toners, you will do as well as can be ex-
pected. STILL by beginning with him.
you may become acquainted with profit
able patrons of your own. Secondly, go
to photographer S canvasscr, a person
well known in many country districts.
whose business it is to visit people and
kind of work that You desire to DO. He,
too, must have his commission, and you
will earn less money than you might
otherwise. The business of "drum-
ming" the country for such orders is
now extensive and increasing, especially
in the Western States. 4 canvasser calls
at house, and talks precisely as | sup
posed you might talk to mother who
had an imperfect picture of her child,
1pIptinp tn hnr tha md
the practicability of converting her poor
picture into good one. You may be
sure that he is listened to; the statistics
prove it.
But why shouldn't you go directly to
the mother herself? This is the third
and best method. And you can use it
very delicately often. You have, we will
say, specimen of a crayon photograph
of your own hands and brains work
GU show it to the next friend that calls
at your home, and explain how it was
done, and what purpose it fulfills. She
OF he asks you to lend it, and carries it
away. The house to which it goes con-
tainS peaSons who admire it, and soon
you get an order. Or, even while you
are exhibiting the picture in your own
parlor, some visitor gives you a commits
sion to execute similar one; and this
commission, when executed, may bring
you another one. A pupil of the Cooper
Institute, after studying the art of crayon
photography for about four months,
went home on a visit, and soon wrote 10
her teacher (Mrs. NJ. C. b. Ellis. herself
an accomplished artist that she had re-
eeived three orders after once displaying
4 sample of her work; and this success
full instructor could relate 4 score of in
stances even more noteworthy. The year
before the last her pupils, about forty in
number, earned about seven thousand
dollars while pursuing their studies in
the Cooper Institute. That is something
to think of, is it not? Seven Thousand
dollars put into their own pockets by
young women between the ages of fifteen
and thirty-tive during one year of pre-
paratory study. And it would be easy
to cite similar statistics concerning the
money making capacity of young women
pupils of art school in Boooklyn, Boston,
Chicago, Philadelphia, and other cities.
Do you appreciate the significance of
fact like this-seven thousand dollars
earned in one year by forty young wo-
men while learning the art Of crayon
photography in school? 1t means that
during the school term of eight months
each pupil earned one hundred and sew
enty-tive dollars-a sum sufficient to pay
almost all her necessary expenses, if she
were absent from home. For in the city
of New York two young who have come
for the purpose of acquiring an art-edu
cation can find respectable, comfortable,
nay. pleasant-board and lodging in ELI
gible locations for five dollars week a
piece. In eight months there are thirty
five weeks, and thirty-fve times five
dollars are one hundred and seventy-fve
dollars-the precise sum that each has
been able to earn.
Having acquired knowledge of her
art, the crayon artist is able to earn from
three hundred to one thousand dollars
the latter sum; it is very common indeed
for her to earn the former. Some adopts
earn twenty five dollars in a single day in
making a crayon photographs; to earn as
much as that in three days is not unus-
uaI. A clever girl who has knack of
interesting her friends in her work can
easily obtain more orders than she can
fill.
She can de more than this. Without
using a collar print at all, she can soon
draw portraits directly from photographs
and thus lift herself into a higher artistic
rank. making her pictures eligible for
admission into the annual exhibitions of
the National Academy of Design, and
enrolling her name with the names of
the most celebrated artists of the land
She will be surprised to see how easily
her ascent has been made; how much
less difficult it was to draw portrait
from photograph than to have drawn
it from life. By-and-by, too, this clever
and dilligent girl may learn, if she
chooses, to accomplish with her crayon,
pencil, charcoal. or India ink, teats that
the best artists would respect.
At the outset she can buy for a few
dollars magic lantern, aud having plac-
ed in photograph. make an outline.
with her crayon. of the figure Or head
thrown upon the paper. Meantime and
all the finn Size has 4 rirht tn fol flint