The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-08-09

ouo iiO ucCSub photographic dTtiSt Will
sell his customers Enthusiastically not
fer SO disgusting purpose"
THAT is true enough in theory, but not
in practice. The cigarette portrait maker
is acquainted with methods by which he is
able to secure for his own use the photo
graph of pretty nearly any one he chooses.
In his pay are men who go about in the guise
of canvassers from one Photographic studio
to another, offering to buy club and other
tickets and sell them on commission. Now
the selling of tickets in this way has be-
come well-nigh universal among sun-pic-
ture makers, who are not likely to refuse
the gift of samples to anybody who will
agree to drum up custom for them. This
rule applies even to many concerns of the
first class. In good faith the pretended
canvasser is supplied with number of the
prettiest cabinets, ETC., in stock which are
subsequently turned over to his employer
for consideration. Very likely two or three
particularly charming ones are found in
the lot, and these are reproduced without
scruple, to serve as an advertisement for
the Dudes Delight or Crooked Cut
brands of opium-loaded paper. If the
pirates are not successful in obtaining the
likeness they want by such methods they
do not hesitate to secure them by bribing
the employees in the studios. Not long ago
the photographs of an entire young ladies
school near Boston were gotten hold of in
this manner and published. Fifty cents or
dollar apiece for copies of exceptionally
seductive negatives will furnish big temp
tation to a subassistant operator on dry
plates. Thus no one who can take pretty
picture is safe against the danger of being
mounted, in counterfeit presentment, on
cigarette packages, in company with Mile.
Leila of the Boufffes Parisiennes, Mike Kelly
of the Boston base ball club, the queen of
the New York demi-monde, and other like
celebrities
THAT is all quite true" reluctantly ad-
mitted Boston's crack fashionable photo
grapher yesterday, to whom the above re-
marks were quoted. I'VE have small
means of defense against these unprincipled
people, who will stop at nothing in their
efforts to secure what they want The
portraits of private individuals are, as a
rule, too commonplace for their uses; but
when they can find one that is exception
ally pretty or attractive, they are always
eager to get it. A young woman who has
pleasing picture taken in Photographic
studio can hardly be certain that she will
not subsequently appear as cigarette ad-
vertisement, though the chances in an
necessarily small. If the likeness is exposed
in the window or seen in any other way by
the cigarette agents, they will surely try
to obtain tiff it takes their eye-by brib-
cry or otherwise. Such cases have given
rise lately to suits against the producers in
several instances, but it is almost impossi-
bic to get any legal satisfaction out of them.
Under the circumstances, it is advisable
that young women who sit for pictures
should avoid theatrical attitudes and low
necked dresses, which may render their
counterfeit presentments more available
from the cigarette fend's point of view
Sooner or later | hope to see law passed
that will hold these scoundrels and put a
stop to their abominable business
"Will you not tell me,' inquired the
writer, something of the method by which
these cigarette pictures are reproduced in
such countless numbers and put on the
market SO as to ingeniously combine moral
destruction with the physical injury in-
1icted by drugged tobacco upon youthr
at is very simple A photographer is given
by the cigarette manufacturer a contract to
supply so many million pictures of the size
and general description named. He goes
into the market and buys, chiefly through
agents, every new and suitable photograph
he can lay his hand upon OF actresses, bal
let dancers, popular celebrities, anything,
in short, that will serve his purpose and
attract the popular eye. These he mounts
in sizes matched, on huge cards or mats,
100 or more on each. The card thus pre-
pared is placed in front of the camera, and
the whole taken on a scale as much smaller
as may be desired. In this way whole
sheets of portraits are struck off at once
from the resulting negatives, to be subse-
quently cut apart, mounted and delivered
to the cigarette maker, who places one of
them in each package he sends out.
But do not these photographers hire
people to sit for themP'
mot as a rule, though it is sometimes
done. Not long ago a manufacturer hit
upon the notion Of having the prettiest girls
he could get to do the work pose as opera.
tors in the act of making cigarettes.
Something off color being considered essen
tial in a cigarette picture, every young
woman had her dress so arranged as to
expose about foot, more or less, of rather
ugly ankle. 1t was difficult for the healthy
eye to discover wherein the seductiveness
Of the thing lay, and yet the shop windows
where these portraits were exhibited always
had an eagerly curious crowd about them.
At the same period of time, you will re-
member, cigarette pictures of all sorts were
displaying steady tendency to the worse
but a howl against the abuse rose in the
newspapers, and the very Objectionable
ones were prudently withdrawn from cir.
culation. 1t is only a temporary reform
however. l presume you are aware that
Boston is the great depot for such photo
graphic supplies, which are turned Out
here in incalculable quantities. The most
popular photographer in the city produces
millions of them every year ON the sly
There is money in the business"