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

meanor, and seems to live again in the days
when fortune was bountiful to him, as he
recouhts the "reminiscences of their pleasant
hours. A representative of The Star met
Mr.. Brady yesterday, and spent a pleasant,
II pathetic half hour with him.
Il remind myself" he remarked. "of one
of these ocean derelicts, which once sailed
proudly over the sea, but has become bat
tered almost out of usefulness by the tenn
pests and the storms. and now drifts help
lessly about waiting to be driven on the
rocks / have other thought now than
to seek to have preserved in its entirety the
collection of my works, which represents
the busy period of over forty years. 1 can't
bear to think of its being broken up and
scattered IN innumerable quarters. / be-
lieve 1 have right to be proud Of II and to
love It, because it represents, / am free to
say, the most important contribution In
existence to the illustrated works of the
world from historic standpoint. When i
was lying in bed suffering from my leg.
broken, you remember, some months ago
by n carriage which was driven over me
near the Treasury Department. my cred
itors took possession of my life work. and
1t still remains in their hands. / have been
moving heaven and earth since / managed
to get out to devise some means to regain
possession of il, and now am almost at my
wits ends to know what to do. / try to
dissipate the belief that it will be sacrificed.
but every day the feeling grows stronger, in
spite of me-.
The reporter sympathized with the ia
old man ana enQeaNOreQ TO draw MIN
away from his present unhappiness by
asking him for an insight into his career.
A Pioneer In Photography.
'T took up photography" said he, short
ly after Daguerre made an artist Of the
sun. and my purpose ever since ana all
my tastes and energies have been devoted
to advancing that branch of art in Ameri-
ca. My first associate in the study of pho
Biography was Prof. Morse. the inventor of
the telegraph, and l shall never forget our
researches and experiments and the dis
appointments that overwhelmed us one
after another. Diligence, however, always
proves the greatest factor In success and
it was not long before L was well estab-
lished in my profession. My first
gallery was in New York and old-timers
will tell you what a central point of at
| traction 'Brady's' was forty years ago.
Well-to-do visitors to New York deemed 1t
| n proper thing to come to me to have their
pictures taken and to look at the collec-
ton of distinguished people whose faces
looked out from my walls, and when i es-
tablishei gallery in Washington the same
custom prevailed here"
What distinguished people have pho
tographei," you ask. Il was almost
going to tell you to take the list of all the
men who have attained national promi-
nence in this country. and all the distin-
guished foreigners who have visited II in
the last fifty years, ard use 1t for an an
swer. They all came to me. and l can see
of ghosts, passing In review.
RecOllectiOns of Famous People.
Tell you something about the character
istics of the great people who sat for me?'
repeated Mr. Brady. well, can only skim
here and there over the pond, SO to speak.
There was Henry Clay. He sat to me in
New York In the forties. He was easy
enough to manage when you got to him,
| but he was the most difficult man to Sc
cure for a sitting l have ever known. He
was diffident, backward, / might almost
say bashful, about undergoing the expert
ence with the camera, and II needed almost
as much influence to get him to consent
to sit as would have been needed to Sc
cure appointment as collector of the
port of New York.
ster in New York in 1S4S. He was as cour-
teous and as rlable as 1t was possible for
man to be- Use me rs the potter would
the clay, Mr.. Brady, he said to me, and
he was more than pleased with the result.
Webster cane to my gallery with Stetson
of the Aston House, In response to sig
nal waved from my window, showing the
office was vacant
My first picture of Lincoln was made
| in New York In 1858, on the day before he
made his famous Cooper Institute speech.
| He was full of fun In the gallery, as gen.
| ial as q summer day, and teeming with
"reminiscences. One day after he was elect
ed President, Ward Lamon,; who was mar
| shall of the district, met me at the White
| House, and started to introduce me to Mr..
| Lincoln. Don't introduce me to Brady,
| calculated the President, L know him,
| Lamon. Why, man, his picture Of me and
my Cooper Institute speech made me Pres
ident.'
1.-The first negative I ever took Of Gen.
| Grant was attended with exciting '~"ients. -