The St. Johns herald., 1891-05-14
A ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHER.
The Man Who Always Takes The Queens
 Picture.

The Man Who Always Takes The Queens
 Picture.
 William Downey is the grand old man of photographers in England, says the Pail Mall Budget:
 He began to practice his profession nearly forty years ago, and during that long period he has photographed Elm perors end Expresses, Kings and Queens, Sultans, princes of the blood, princesse1 of tho blood, peers of the realm. peeresses of the realm, soldiers and statesmen, men of letters and women of letters, queens of beauty, private beauties, and beauties of the boards.
 One of his greatest successes was the smiling photograph of the Queen, taken twenty-four years ago.
 Indeed, Mr. Downey says this is his chef d'Gugre, for her Majesty on most occasions assumes a grave and solemn mein, as if the lens was dangerous weapon instead of harmless scientific instrument, and it is, therefore, the grave and solemn mein with which we always endow the Queen. Every lover of dog will be pleased to hear that it was dog Sharp, the collie on the chair, that ralsed that smile to the Queens face. Sharp altogether declined to sit still, but John Brown would stand no nonsense, and, despite the presence of his mistress, he gave the dog a good shaking. ''IIe won't sit, Brown" said the Queen. file won't, your Majesty. He maun obey ye and be complaisant like the rest of us. He maun sit.'' And after another shaking Sharp sat, and the Queen laughed to see such sport, and MT. Downey made Q great hit, all because of Brown and Sharp. ''The Queen" continued the veteran, ''has done more to promote photography than any one, for she has always been a great collector of photographs, though she does complain of their fading"
 When Mir. Downey began, it was with the greatest difficulty that photographs of the Queen could be procured. To- day all that is altered, and the portraits of the Queen are in enormous demand, though it is extremely difficult to se- cure sitting, owing to the many calls upon her Majesty's time. MT. Downey relates with zest how on one occasion at Windsor the Queen entered her photo graphic studio there, took off her bon net, adjusted her hair, posed against the headrest, and said: ''Now, MT. Downey, I have just five minutes, Lord Derby is waiting for me-" Mr. Downey is not a nervous man, so he got good result.
 "Some men have the greatest objec- tion to having their portraits taken,'' said MT. Downey. Ut is a species of vanity" Mr. Disraei was one of these peculiar people, and we owe it to her Majesty that Mir. Downey's well-known photograph of the famous statesman is in existence. One day he happened to be in attendance at Balmoral, and, after much persuasion by the Queen, con- sented to face the lens which was on the lawn. MT. Di5raeli was always a dandy, and or this occasion he wore a light coat and pair of light blue trou- sers, which was not the sort of cos tune that statesman should make his bow to the world in. The negatives were not a success. Dizzy consented to sit again next day. The rain was com ing down little when Dizzy stepped out into the grounds wearing a beauti- ful black velvet coat. The rain an- noyed him dreadfully, for he was in great fear about the welfare of this beautiful black velvet coat, and insist ed upon an umbrella being held over him. The umbrella was held over him, and the second set of negatives were failures. On the third day he consent ed to try again, but for five minutes only. In those five minutes Mr. Downey took four successful negatives, from which innumerable prints were taken. From these hundreds of thousands of prints~have been sold, and to this day, on Primrose day, the demand is still great.