Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-09-01

continued Mr.. Brady. TT was the day after
he came from the west to Washington to
take command of the army of the Potomac
You will be surprised to learn that only
two or three people in this city knew what
Gen. Grant looked like when the announce
ment of his transfer to the most important
command Of the army was made, and / was
one OF them. The day he arrived Hanscom
OF the New York Herald. and Crounse of
the New York Times, got me to go down to
the depot with them to identify him, so they
could know who to talk to. And he was
so unknown that there was not a corporars
guard on hand to receive him. The next
day he came to my gallery with Secretary
Stanton. 1t was a cloudy afternoon and
rather dark in the gallery, so / sent an as
sistant, who was a German, up on the roof
to take the tarpaulin covering of the plate
glass skylight. Grant was seated before the
camera Immediately beneath the light In
his attempt to get off the tarpaulin my as
sistant slipped and fell on the glass, break
ing it in innumerable pieces and falling
through to his waist The glass fell ali
around Gen. Grant in a shower, and IL any
of il had struck him 1t would have injured
him severely, because II was an eighth Of
an inch thick, and the pieces were as large
or larger than a dinner plate. Grant never
look up ard see the mans legs hanging
through. His only movement of counte-
nance was a slight drawing up of the
nostrils; that was ALL Secretary Stanton
10
pulled me into the dark room and whisper
ed: For Gods sake don't let this get out to
the papers. 1t would look like a design to
kill the general
War Photographs.
"Ah! yes" said Mr.. Brady. with a sigh
those were stirring times and full Of Incl
dents. / was the first man to take a cam
era on the battle field and make II the hls-
torian Of war. Many years ago the War De-
negatives that / took during the war and
they have been largely used in illustrating
the works issued from time to time by the
government. Did 1 ever photograph Gen.
Lee? oh, yes! I performed what was con-
sidered an impossible feat in photography,
with Gen. Lee as a subject, on the day af-
ter his surrender at AppomatoX. In the
rear of his own house at Richmond took
twelve negatives of Gen. Lee in an hour, a
performance in the art which wa then con-
sidered impossible. Over 10000 copies of
that photograph were sold i'm a short time"
Mr.. Brady would never have been COM
PEELED to wage the battle with adversely in
which he is now engaged had the copyright
law, which was in existence during the
period of his greatest activity, been pro-
tective to those who sought its advantages.
Mr.. Brady's rivals were nowhere with him
in the artists race, and his photographs
gained national reputation. This feature
caused them to be pirated numerically.
Despite the fact that each one was copy
righted they were still copied and sold in
thousands by unprincipled publishers, to
whom the laxity of the law gave full power
to use Mr.. Brady's work in any way they
saw fit. 1t is understood that a movement
is on foot among Mr.. Brady's friends to
subscribe an amount sufficient to satisfy the
claims of bis creditors and release his valu-
able collection now in their possession. The
members Of the seventh regiment OF New
York, Of which Mr.. Brady was a popular
member many years ago. and where he is
still esteemed in a high degree. are said TO
be formulating a plan to this effect which
will admit Of cooperation by the other
friends Of Mr.. Brady throughout the coun-
try