The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1893-01-28
PICTURES OF ROYALTY,
THE "GRANO OLD MAN" AMONG EN-
GLlsH PHOTOGRAPHERS,

Nhen She chilcu- Ahs hmpFsS oh
Austrias Negative,
You'll gst ON in life, said John Bright
enc day to n shrewd, energetic Vynestdsr
after the said Tynesider had done some
thing for the said John Bright which
pleased him very much That young man
was William Downcy. photographer kv-
cry profession has its grand old man. Mr.
Downey is the grand old man OF photoGra.
ply He began to practice his profession
nearly forty years ago, and during that
long period he has photographed emparors
and empresScs kings and queens, sultana,
princes Of the blood, peers OF the realm
peeresses Of the realm, soldiers and states
men. men OF letters and women of letters,
queens Of beauty, private beauties aud
beauties of the boards
Just now. when, like all the rest Of us
Mr.. Dowucy looks down the long perspsc.
tive OF years past, he can summon to the
session of sweet, silent thought series OF
triumphs which must no very gratifying
No order glitterS on the homely coat Of this
famous court photographer There arO no
academies in the world of photography, no
degrees, no honorS-only honorariS, but
Mr.. Downey is we'll satitcd to rest bis famo
on the work he has done in his forty yNars
Of active life, and he still hopes to see his
craft reckoned among the professions The
following are notes OF aconverSatiou which
representative had recently with Mr.
Dowuey In his house in Nevcrn squares
BROWN SHOOK SHARP.
One of his great Successes was the "smil.
ing photograph Of the queen, Mr. Downey
says this is his chef d'oeuvre. for her maj
eSty on most occasions assumes 4 grave
aud even solemn mien, as ii the lens was a
dangerous weapon instead Of = harmless
scientific instruments, and IL is, therefore,
the grave and solemn mien with which we
always enduw the queen. Every lover of a
dog will be pleased To hear that Il was dog
Sharp, the collie on the chair, that raised
that smile to the queens face Sharp alto
gether declined to sit still. but John Brown
would stand no nonsense, and, despite the
presence of his mistress, he gave the dog u
good shaking He won't sit, Brown"
said the queen He 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 Mr.. DowneJ
made great hit, all because of Brown and
Sharp The queen continued the vet
eran. has done more to promote photog-
raphy than any one, for she has always
been great collector Of photographs,
though she does complain of their fading"
One of Mr.. Downey's treasures is a pho
tograph of the queen and the late Empress
Augusta of Germany. taken when the en
press was the guest of the queen at Frog
more Mr.. Downey had been summoned
to the court, and found the queens at
breakfast. The empress, who, of course,
was queen of Prussia then, declined at first
to submit to the operation, but Mt length
she succumbed to the persuasion of the
queen, and the result is the only photo
graph in existence of her majesty, our own
queen, wearing an old fashioned poke bon
net and a mantle, and the other queen
wearing much the same sort Of costume.
When the empress of Germany died many
were the demands for the photograph, but
she had insisted that no prints should be
sold or given away Some men might have
interpreted this agreement literally, saw
ing their consctences with the quibble that
the empress stipulation was only made for
utI liltlilIits loul WI buNICg hCilALCu
every offer though he had one order from
Germany for million prints, and another
from Paris for many thousands. One day
the Emperor Frederick happened to look
into the Windsor studio when Mr.. Downey
was at work there MIR Downey showed
him the photograph. and ultimately al
lowed the emperor to carry away copy
of the photograph OF his mother. "And
you couldn't well refuse to give the son a
photograph of his mother, could you"
asked Mr.. Downey pathetiCally.
SELLS ON PRIMROSE DAY.
Some men have the greatest objection
to having their portraits taken, said Mr.
Downey 1t is a species Of vanity" Mr.
Disraeli was one Of these peculiar people,
and we owe it to her majesty that Mr.
Downeys well known photograph of the
famous statesman is in existence. One day
be happened to be in attendance at Bal
moral, and after much persuasion by the
queen, consented to face the lens, which
was on the lawn. Mr. DisraeIi was always
a dandy, and on this occasion he wore a
light coat and pair of light blue trousers,
which was not the sort of costume that a
statesman should make his bow to the
world in The negatives were not sue.
cess
Dizzy consented to sit again next day.
The rain was coming down little when
Dizzy stepped out into the grounds wear
ing beautiful black velvet coat The
rain annoyed him dreadfully, for he was in
great fear about the welfare of this beauti.
full black velvet coat and insisted upon an
being held over him. The UNI
brella was held over him, and the second
set of negatives were failures. On the third
day he consented 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, especially
On Primrose Day, the demand is still great.
Mr. Downey considers this the most popu-
lar photograph Of statesman that was
ever taken. A few years ago he had an ap-
Dlication from an academician for photo
graph from which to paint a portrait. and
after that Mr.. Downey believes that Mr..
Disraeli only sat once for his photograph.
Pail Mall Gazette.
A Comforting Reflection.
Pat wanted position under the govern
tnII hok he b@ |