The Redwood gazette., 1891-10-08
ence es to camera, and can then suit


doubtless Jones himself thought he
was good-natured person who was
acting in good-natured way to fel-
low creature. Had there been, at this
time, somebody to whisper a kindly
word of warning to young John Smith,
how different might have been the re-
suit! But there was no one to whisper
the word.
The story is sad enough without hav-
ing any exceptional gloom added to it
by me; and it would be an exaggeration
to say that Smith at once became ire
trievably addicted to photography. He
did not. 1t was gradual process. He
took the camera out on a Saturday half
holiday, and then developed his plates
in a room he had fitted up for that pur-
pose. But he did not take it out every
Saturday, nor did he relinquish his
boating or many of his usual habits. If
he thought about the matter at all, he
thought that he could at any time give
it up; that all he had to do was to send
back the borrowed camera to Jones,
and there would be an end of it. If
any body had told him that he was be-
coming q confirmed amateur photog-
| rapher, he would have laughed at the
idea. None of his friends noticed any
difference in him, and his employer
still thought him a model young man
as, indeed, with the exception of the
one growing vice, he was.
BIT by and by he began to think
about his camera during business
hours. AS he sat on his high stool in
the somewhat somber room in the city,
little bits of pretty landscape would
come up before his eye. and he yearned
to be away in the green fields, or be-
side the streams, or among the rocks
and woods with his camera He now
spent nearly every Saturday away W ith
the little instrument, and he gave up
his usual Sunday avocations to print
the pictures he had made, which every
body admitted were about as bad as
they possibly could be. Nevertheless
he improved, and one day he joined a
Photographic society in his neighbor-
hood, composed mostly of reckless
young fellows, who saw no harm in
photography, and who would have
laughed to scorn anyone who had
warned them of their danger. These
people met once a week, and often
listened to papers read by fellow-mem-
bers on "New Developers" and on the
''Mental Alteration of Lenses" and on
"Hydroquinone as Useful Stimulant," "
and all that sort of thing. Wild bac-
chanaliau smoking concerts were held
by the club, where the air was blue,
and songs were sung, and glasses which
did not contain an authorized developer
were cmptied. These young fellows
during the summer were in the habit
of going off on dissipated Photographic
revels, meeting at the station, and 60
ing out to parts OF the country unpro-
tected by the police, where they de-
scerded, each one armed with his
camera, and photographed things right
and left without regard to conse-
Quances
Smith joined these bacch analian
tours, and l regret to have to say that
he liked them. By and by he gave
Jones back his camera, but not with
the intention of making an effort to re-
form. Far otherwise. He had gone
and purchased half-plate instrument,
and this he told Jones with apparent
pride.
That's the way fellows generally
act" said Jones. They are rarely
contentcd with quarter-plate, and I
hope you have got good instrument"
You see the young man was not
among people who could give him
word Of warning. If he had had any
friends who would have said to him:
'My dear sir, you commence with a
quarter-platc, and at first the quarter
plate satisfies you; but after awhile
you ycarn for a larger dose, and go in
for h;:lf-plate; so don't you see that
by and by you'll go in for a whole
plate, and then an eight by ten or per-
haps a ten by twelve? Think, my young
friend. Pause for a moment and con-
slider where you will bring up. Con-
slider tac hold it is getting on you.
Consider that it takes larger and larger
plates to satisfy your craving for them.
Break it off while there is yet time"
But there was no one to say these
words, and Smith went on his career
unchecked. If. therefore, these re-
marks Of mine reach the eye of some
young man, at present respectable, but
having still yearnings towards photog-
raphv, let him think seriously and ask
himself what is to be thought of vice
that begins at municipalities and ends
who knows where?
One would have thought that Smiths
own people would begin to take notice
OF his general change of conduct. One
woull have thought that his mother
would have asked herself: "Where is
my boy spending his nights?'
The time was when he played a
friendly game of cards or of chess witt
his peop,e; the time was when he met
his friends down at a city club. and
played AN inaocent game of poker with
the stakes limited; the time was when
his aspirations led him to believe that
sometime he might find himself seated
among highly moral people around a
baccarat table; but, alas, all these as
pirations were now gone, and his mind
was wholly taken up with photog-
ioPhy' l1lo ilCo "CIc SpeuU LII Il
darkroom, surrounded by bottles that
glittered ominously in the fendish red
light which pervaded the unventilated
apartment. With trembling hand and
with Z graduated glass raised up against
this demon light, if a person could now
have seen John Smith, he would have
seen him pouring from bottle labeled
No. so many ounces of fluid and from
a bottle labeled No. so many more
ounces and then from adropping bottle
so many drops, until the graduating
glass was filled to its highest mark.
This was how John Smith was spend
ing his nights; but he took care that
no one saw what he was at, for he
locked the door firmly behind him and
he arranged the room so that not
chance was visible for the most inuuis-
tive eye to peer in at his nefarious
work.
1t was his kind hearted employer
who first realized his change of con-
duet 1t was old Mr.. Robinson who
noticed his restless eye, heated with