The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-11-10
A COMPOSITE PORTRAIT.


AcoLLEcTWE LIKENESS OF TWEN-
TY YOUNG COLLEGE GIRLS.
Interesting Results Obtained by Means
of an Extraordinary Invention-some-
thing Fascinating to the Imagination.
Alteration OF a photographer.
Before me stands q cabinet photograph Of
young girl, with clear and thoughtful eyes,
dark hair and eyebrows, oval face, straight
nose, and well-rounded chin All who SEQ it
are attracted by it, yet the universe would be
vainly searched for the original in q wolnan's
form. 1t is one Of those wonders OF recent
art known as composite portraits" it does
not represent one person, but twenty; it is
the collective likeness of twenty young girls
one whole section Of the senior class or
woman's college in Massachusetts,.
remember that when Mr.. Francis Galton,
the originator of this extraordinary invention,
gave me in London, eight years ago, some ex-
PLANTATION of his project, it seemed to ME as
astounding rs If he had promised to photo
graph the unspoken thoughts of the human
mind. 1t grew, believe, out of his studies in
that Hereditary Descent" on which he has
written book SO interesting. His first oim
was to take several faces of the same family,
presumably possessing something in common,
and, by photoglaphing them successfully upon
prepared plate, to eliminate and omit What
ever was individual in each, preserving only
what they had III common, the pure type, or
family look. Succeeding in this, the art has
been carried much farther, being next applied
to men of like pursuits, extracting from O
dozen rathcmaticians, for instance the char
actcristic mathematical face, whatever it is
from dozen philologists tho facc that marks
the student of flanguagc-and so on.
PERPETUATIoN OF YOUTH AND BEAUTY.
Many such typical faces have been engraved
in scientific journals, but it is only lately that
the process has been applied to tho I'crpetua-
ton of youth and beauty, or to that substi-
tute for beauty which youth puts into every
woman's face. When we have, in addition,
the type of intellect represented in higher
studies, the result becomes doubly interesting.
Ever since Tannysoa wrote lis Princes tho
newspapers have been quoting his pleasing
ALTERATION Of the "swect girl graduates, but
the girl graduate herself has never been pho
toSraphed in collective unity Before. Yet
hero she stands. :. ..y,
The process is not so magical as it seems,
and the composite portrait can be made either
from tho separate living faces or from pho
tographs previously taken. Tho former course
is more direct, and gives the better represen-
tation; but the latter has the advantage of
excluding all motion in tho sitter, and there
fore cfTccting surer result. A photograph
plate is prepared for what is called tho "long
process" and is to he exposed perhaps for an
hour On this plate are to be re-photographed
in succession, we will say, twenty pho
tographs of young girls. For each OF these
twenty can be allowed three minutes
making sixty In all; 60 that it is us if one sat
for three minutes to be photographed, then
another, then another, oil being thus finally
represented on the samo plate, and each modi-
flying the lincamcnts previously taken. Tho
result is that ut the end you obtain the av-
erasc or typical face Of the whole twenty 1t
is of course necessary to fix each face at tho
same centre, this being usually or always
taken ut the point between. the eyes; and
hence there is always little less sharpness
and precision about the lower part of tho
fare. For this reason the mouth and chin of
a composite portrait aro rarely quite SO satis-
factory as the eyes and brow; but i'll that be-
foro me even the chin is we'll defined, and Of
O youthful rcundness No one who has not
previously heard of the new discovery doubts
its being the likeness Of an individual person,
though Observers are apt to remark little
hazy look about it, as if it might be taken
from crayon drawing.
FASCINATING TIE IsrAG1NATION.
There is something very fascinating to the
imagination about q composite portrait. 1t
is q link between the real and the ideal, the
photographer cmulating with more precision
the constructive Imagination of tho painter.
Rusiin used to laugh at artists who tried to
put upon their canvas somc four-leggcd crca-
ture that should be the generalization between
O pony and pig; yet here is generalization
between Mary and Charlotte. between Kate.
and Caroline. 1t carries us into q world of
dreams; into "Pato's Theory of IGcas," or
that Gnc conception SO imprcssirely worked
out by Milton, i'll one of his Latin poems, Of
Plato's archctypal man. the grand ideal of
the human race, coeval viii the stars, and
dwelling among them, or pacing the regions
OF the eartl yet uneXDlorcd by cctual men
and women. Or it takes It's into Poes worlds
of phantom; or among the conceptions of one
of our most imaginative younger writers.
Edward Bcllamy, who III miss Lulirgton's
Sister, fancics al elderly woman as believing
in the Immortality of her past self, and rs
finally obtaining through spiritual medium
the lnaterialized image of herself at eighteen
"a Young creature whom she adopts as Il
sister.
So is this pretty portrait the more than
twin sister of each of these twenty young
girls; for each of them it IS herself and yet
not herself; it is herself modified in face, Us
she really is more or less in character, by the
companionShip of all the rest; it represents
their common life, and will ever remain with
them as the image Of their collective youth.
But how hopeless the position Of some modern
Pygmalion, turned photographer. and falling
in love with tho goddess of his OWN crcatloni
There would 10 longer, to be sure. be any
difficulty in warming her into life, the trouble
is that when made alive she would not be one
woman, but twenty, end the alteration OF the
enamorcd artist would have to be so sub
divided as to be scarcely worth reccirmS.-i
"T. w. H." in Harper's Bazar
What n Spruce Gum Merchant Says.
"Therc's only one kind Of spruce gum,
though they advertise medicine made from
rcd spruce gum, just rs if there were blue
yum or any other color. There's 10 use talk
in. spruce gum is good for the stomach, ON
I advise everybody to chew it, 1t don't need