Birmingham age-herald., 1895-09-11
WASHINGTON MONUMENT.
Photographers Find It Difficult to Take the
 Big Shaft.

Big Shaft.
 If you ask any local photographer
 what is the hardest thing to get picture
 of about Washington, he will, without
 hesitation, tell you it is the Washington
 monument, according to the Post Of that
 city. There is no fence around the shatt, to be sure, but the fact that blue sky always photographs white handicaps the ambitious amateur sadly. The mar ble shaft photographs the same coior' and the result is that when he develops his plate he gets a beautiful white mon-
 ument on a beautiful white background,
 and the sum total is nothing.
 It is a rather curious thing that the finest negative ever made Of the monu- ment was destroyed before halt dozen prints had been made of it, and it's equal has never been made since. It was the work of Charles Cudlip, Washington photographer, now dead, and one of the three prints of it in existence Is now on
 exhibition in a window down on the av- enue, though not every one knows its his tory.
 The artist who wants to catch the shaft by camera has to choose a, time when it has a good light on one side of it and bank of thunder clouds for background. This is not a common occurrences but one afternoon when it looked as though such a combination Mas likely to come about Mir Cudlip packed up a big camera and hurried down to the monument The rain got there ahead of him, and he was forced to seek cover till the storm was over When it had passed, however, the sum- which was already low down, came out bright and strong, while all to the southeast there was a dense bank or clouds almost to the zenith.
 He hurried up and got an excellent eX- posture on a big 1Sx24 plate. It developed without a flaw, and made a magnificent t1 -l1 -hn n cent rain streaks on the sides, with the fish ponds and the island in their midst for a foreground.
 Of course, he was delighted, and after making three prints for specimens,stored the plate with a lot of others in neigh boring wareroom. He sent the prints around to various firms from whom he thought he might get orders, and soon re- ceived an order for 300 from railway company which wanted them for ex- cursions advertisements and other or ders from photographic supply firms, which wanted them as advertisements for negatives and silver paper. When he went to look for the plate, however, he found that the storeroom where IL had been kept haAa leak in the roof, and the rubber blanket with which the big plate had tken covered had number of small holes in it. The result was that the water had drpped through on the gelatine side of the negative, and it had been eaten to pieces with mold
 MT. Cudlip tried many times to dupll- cate the picture, but never succeeded, and no one else has ever done as we'll Chicago and the South.
 Chicago Inter ocean
 We commend to our readers the inter view which we publish in another column. between Mr. Enslen and MT. Skaggs of Alabama and reporter for the Inter Ocean. MT. Enslen is banker in Birmingham. which already IS the chief city of Alabama, and which ineVlt- ably is destined to become one of the chief cities of the nation. MT. Skaggs is nrominent lawyer, who has distinguish ed himself by activity in promotion or the agricultural and manufacturihg ln- dustries of his state and who also mas | taken active part in the campaign or nolitical education that has honesty and freedom in elections as its objective point. The interview however, is wholly con corning industrial matters, and speclally concerning the need and the probability of close commercial relations between Chicago and the southern states
 The visit of these gentlemen to Chicago has been lengthy enough for the forma- | tion of intimate acquaintance between | them and many of our leading merchants | and manufacturers. They were accom- panied during a part of the tune py other notable citizens of Alabama. the editor of the Birmingham Age-Herald being of | the number. We believe that MT Ems | len expresses the opinion of all when he says that the eyes of the south are turned toward Chicago as the trading metropolis. Tradition long bound the south to the east, but the great Colum- | bian exposition was an object lesson to | the progressive southerners. and the generous sentiment of Chicago on the matter of the monument to the Confed- crate dead and it's hospitable treatment of distinguished southerners who have visited it have strengthened the com mercial instinct by the social impulse. Already, thanks to the activity of Messrs. Enslen and Skaggs. and perhaps especially to the influence which a bank CT of such repute as Mir. Enslen naturally exercises upon capitalists. the Southern