The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1896-12-05
CAMERA TELLS TRUTH.
Country Photograph Gallery Marks
Christian Civilization.
Arp Finds Food for ThOught-Bartow's
Philosopher Discusses Human Nature
rs 1t Appears In Rural Picture
Takers Home.


Of Christian civilization and the adj
vancement of modern science. 1 pass
by one every day and it is gratifying to
see it's patrons Awaiting their turn or
coming out with smiling faces and all
arrayed in their best apparel. It is a
family discussion before they como
what dress to wear, what ornaments,
and how the hair shall be arranged, or
whether to sit or stand, whether n side
view or a front or whether the baby
shall be taken alone or with it's mother.
All classes are on an equality before the
camera, for the sunlight of nature has
no favorites. So far as faces and
features are concerned, the camera tells
the truth, the whole truth and nothing
but the truth. This morning as l passed
I saw a countryman sitting on the
steps with a child in his arms. His wife
and little girl were inside awaiting
their turn. l used to know him before
he vas married, and so l stopped and
and gave him my hand. His folks we're
poor, honest and industrious, and l have
great respect for all such. The women
do the housework ard have the care of
the children. The men cultivate their
little farms, work the roads, sit on the
the juries, nurse their sick neighbors,
bury the dead, go fishing on Saturdays
and take the family to meeting on Sun
days. They are generally Populists,
not because of any political principles
involved, but because of utilization and
association. Most of their kind are
populists and therefore clannish. They
stick together because they are either
poor or less than rich. Their fathers
fought in the late war, and these will
fight in the next one if it comes in their
days. 1t may be n rich mans war, but it
will be q poor mans fight.
Are you going to have the baby's
picture taken?" No; not this one"
said he. W want my wife's and our lit
tie girls. They are in there. 1 Thought
/ would like to have them about the
house, for life is uncertain, you know.
Jim Moore's wife died last year and jim
says he would give the world for her
picture, and Jack Brown lost his little
girl in June. She was a mighty purity
little thing, but Jack hain't got no
picture and so l concluded to have some
taken for fear of accidents"
"That is all right" said 1, but sup
pose you die; wouldn't your wife like
to have one of you?"
81 reckon she would. She mentioned
that, but pictures don't become a
rough man like me, and besides, it
would cost more money than I have got
to spare. The winter is comm on and
we all have to have shoes and stockings
and the like, and my cotton crop was
powerful short, but l Will have mine
taken sometime. I reckon all your
folks have got 'em, haven't they?"
Love for wife and children is the best
virtue of human kind, and poor folks
have rs much of it as rich ones. Yes,
more. Many of them haven't anything
else to divide their affections. 1t is a
pleasing thingto see them at the picture
gallery and to witness their pride when
the work is done and the faces of their
loved ones are before them on enameled
cards, fresh and clesa from the artists
hand. What a wonderful art it is. |
remember well when the first daguer-
reotype was taken in our town. 1t was
only 40 years ago, and when our first
little girl was four years old we had her
picture taken. She was a little beauty
then and 1 thought the picture was the
sweetest gem on earth. We have it now
in its ~oid-fashioned case. That little
girl rs long since a mother and has pic
lures of her own little girls, and they
are much finer in their finish, but l
prize the first one most. It carries me
back in memory to the days of my
sweetest, fondest ,proudest ,parentallove.
l idolize that child and l love herdcarly
yet, but she left us for a young man she
was no kin to in the world, and who had
never done anything for her but to give
her a ring and books OF poetry and a
little French candy now and then. We
had to give her up to him, and as Tom
Hood said:
"She took our daylight with her
And the Joys that we love best,
With morning light upon her brow
And pearls upon her breast"
Daguerre was a benefactor to the
emotional side of our nature. He was 4
French artist-a painter of Panoramas
OF cities like London and Paris and
Naples. He used the rays of the sun
through colored glass to heighten the
effect of his paintings, and kept on ex-
perimenting with sunlight until in 1880
he caught it on the king and made it
stick to metallic plates and reflect the
images thrown upon them. His sue
cess was partly accidental, partly de-
sign, and he himself was astonished at
his discovery. In 1S4O Arago made the
announcement 10 the Academy of Sci
ence and Daguerre was made an officer
n the Legion of Honor and voted a
pension of 6,0o0 francs a year. He died
In 1851 and a monument was erected to
him in Paris.
But like all inventions. Dagrerre's
was crude and imperfect. Photog-
raphy has grown put OF it and seems
low to be the perfection of art. 1t ia
used in making the exact likeness of
all the great works of art and nature
and bringing them within reich of the
millions who have never seen and never
VIII see the originals. All the monu-
maufs nyvami1z ah,,rohas oa{Io1-.l.