St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1888-01-12
AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY.

Ia Paper read before the New England Social
Society, at Hotel Clarendon Brooklyn, n. Y, Dec
s. 1887, by Miss Charlotte Morrill,, and a copy
furnished the Caledonian by request of the Pub
lisher.I
When your president surprised me
with an invitation to speak here to-
night L asked him, "What shall speak
about 7" and he answered about ten
minutes. | searched all the encyclo-
pedias | could find and not one of them
gave particle of information on that
subject. | consulted my learned friend
opposite me, DR.. Perkins, and he said
it was a subject that did not interest
him in the least and though he was
sorry to criticize the president he
thought the people would prefer that
| should speak about three minutes.
My ardOr was a little dampened but
finally chose the subject your president
has announced. Kindly keep it in mind
as l shall make no further allusion to
it.
Many leagues from Brooklyn, many
years ago there lived clergyman who
preached serial sermons. He trailed
the plaques in slow tedious march
across the platform. The weary audi
once sometimes wished he would give
up the search for she ten lost tribes.
The ten historic virgins went in end
less procession until the audience grew
weary of them all and even felt as
though their interest in oil would new
er revive. They almost wished the
prOdigal son had gone into country
so far off that he might never have re-
turned, and though the preacher as
sursed them that his loving father had
kept that calf many long years wait
ing for his return, they almost wished
that he had disappointed them. They
grew impatient with jobs patience.
AS OH week days so Sunday after Sun
day they worshipped the golden calf.
At one time he served up the Patriarch
Lot in several courses. After his de-
vious wanderings they followed him to
his grave with infinite relief and ca
gerly waited for fresh subject only to
be disappointed, as they heard the text
announced Remember Lots wife"
Recalling this and wondering if there
was any thing yet unsaid about New
England l thought, shall l ask my au-
dience to remember New England's
wife, to remember the army of women
who spend their time managing hus-
bands, or that larger army who spend
theirs managing without husbands
Speak for New England women They
speak for themselves their hands may
forget their cunning but their tongues
never cleave to the roof of their mouths.
There must have been New England
blood in the veins of that brave wOm-
an who, when Horace Greedy growled
out at her, "What would you do in
time of war if you had the suffrage ?"
answered, "Just what you have done
stay at home and urge other people to
go and fight" Nothing but New Eng
land pluck could have nerved Il woman
to "talk back" to the father-in-law of
the Apollo Belvidere. Could 1 pre-
sumo to speak of Harriet Beecher
Stowe, whom nobody can write down
not even she herself,-of Charlotte
Cushman, whose rags still futter in
every breeze. Does Harriet Hosmer,
whose name is enshrined in marble, or
Ida Lewis, whose name is equally i'm
perishable though "writ in water"
need any word of mine2 Should call
the name of Maria Mitchell, who night
ly reads the illuminated missal of the
heavens as | read the daily papersq
Shall loyal daughter of Mt. Holyoke
eulogy of that grand pioneer of the
higher education of woman, Mary
Lyon, the woman who introduced man
ual training into school successfully
and of trustees began to consider
whether it would be wise to do so?
Ralph Waldo Emerson, the beloved
disciple of modern times, told us that
LilcEc HtEt dG Glit w tSG MANY GOtuS
which commence grand and stately
with rows of trees on either side but
gradually narrow and finally end in
squirrel track run up a tree. Doubt
less Louis Jacques Daguerre went to
his rest feeling that his discovery had
conferred an inestimable boon upon
the world. Could he have seen it pro-
crossing from the dauguerreotype,
whose case was as difficult to open as
that of an oyster, and which required
adjustments of light before unknown,
Or through the ambrotype and the
horrors of the tin-type, emerging at
length into the photograph, widening
with the terrOrs of the composite and
finally ending in the efforts of anna
teurs, he could hardly have faced a
camera with erect chin and pleasant
expression.
There was a time when the lecture
room was reckOned among places of
amusement and interest. Now people
can only be enticed into one by the an
nouncement that a sterOpticOn has
been engaged as we'll as the lecturer.
Wondering how | could induce people
to hear my paper for this evening it
suddenly occurred to me that | too
could take picture and possibly some
one would look at it. OF course turn
ed at once to New England. What is
there in nature or art lOvelier than a
photograph of group9 The distort-
ed hands, the blotting out of the
blOnds-the inky blackness of the bru