The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-11-17
IN THE DARK ROOM.
The Uncanny Adventure That Befeil
an Amateur Photographer.

an Amateur Photographers.
InZ" in San Francisco Argonaut.1
when you go into your darkroom
10 develop plates. always lock the door
behind you to avoid Interruptions" SO
saith the learned writer of 'Instruc-
tons to Amateur Photographers. and
it is a rule that has saved many neg
atives.
OF cour-e it never occurred to the in
s'tructor of amateurs TO add: And al
ways take a good look about you be-
fore shutting the door and sitting
down in front of your ruby light
That admonition would be looked upon
as outside the book, and no amateur
would see in it sense or relevancy. Yet
1 never go into my darkroom now
without letting in a flood of light that
searches out every corner
When 1 bought my camera and be-
gan TO turn out foggy negatives, from
which sickly, spectral prints came on
1 had no decently appointed darkroom,
using a small closet in my house Tor
the purpose. Now, not being a social
ist or a shoemaker, / like good air,
and to sit in that stuffy hole in the
a time had the result of eating up some
of nv enthusiasm for dabbling in So
buttons of eikonogen, carbonate of soda
and sinking ether. My nl-Smelllng
lamp seemed to exhaust as much oXy-
gen as my good pair of lungs, ana
sometimes bore my negative out OF the
closet with such a pale face that, IN
spite of my triumphant air in exhibit
ing il to my wife, she declared L was
surely i'll and that she had always
heard that photographers were short
lived She did not like the smell of my
chemicals, either, and declared they
were a nuisance of the first order
That was why 1 had my new and
carefully ventilated darkroom built
for me- 1t was a house all by itself,
and stood down in a little hollow,
good stones throw from our dwelling.
We were living in the country then, in
a very pretty bit of woodland that had
a wilderness of brown plain all about it.
My new darkroom was quite
spacious affair, and l gloried in It's
completeness of detail and the handi-
ness of the appointments. L used TO
spend a good deal of time in there, and,
as l learned how much bromide TO use
and to hit upon the happy moment for
taking a plate out of the developing
bath, my progress was swift ana
sweet.
1t so happened in the autumn that
we went to the city for month 10
live. leaving our country place shut up
l took my camera to town and exposed
a dozen or so dry-plates on lot OF
marble statuary. Whenever, at odd
times. 1 thought of these, 1 became
feverish to know whether Ariadne had
been overturned or whether Venus had
been light-struck-
My wife smiled when 1 told her
intended to run down to 1.-The ranch
to look after things a bit.
1t was too diaphanous. When she
saw me packing my plates, she
laughed. But she was indulgent and
said goodbye with her own little
pleasantly about my not being so very
deeD after all.
Walking up to the house from the
station, l saw that the autumn winds
had been making very free with the
trees while we had been away, and the
brown leaves strewed the gravel walk
and were scurrying along on their thin
edges like little hoops driven by
children. A smoky haze lay over the
plain, and the hills beyond were deep
in it. The low-lying sun was blood
red, and sent a sickly yellow glow over
the place. Driving rather keenly, the
wind set me a-shivering. l had never
known the ranch when it showed so
bleak and forbidding a face. Not car
ing to enter the vacant house, I STROBE
quickly down the path into the hollow,
which lay darkly in the shadow, and,
hurrying on to my little studio,
pulled out my keys before the door.
Not finding the right key, it came to
me of a sudden that I had left it in
the lock inside on going to town, and
turning the handle of the door, 1 saw
- t,a 4 Of oil
really of little consequence as the
ranch was not near the road, and I
had often boosted that lock meant
nothing there anyway, though in the
darkroom it had probably saved a
negative or two on occasion.
1 went in, and, from pure force of
habit, turned the key, leaving it in
the lock. Then 1 struck a match, found
my lamp, lighted it, and poured my
chemicals out into my graduate and
tray. Then, with the lamp covered and
only the thin stream of red light COM
ing DULY forth, 1 opened a doubleback
and pulled out a plate 1t was Ariadne
and the Panther, for which I hoped
great things. AS I put the plate into
the developinS-tray and picked up my
graduate 10 pour forth the developer,
] was startled by rustling that
seemed TO come from the corner where
/ kept my printing stuff. 1t sounded
like a movement of the stiff curtain
that hung there, but it occurred to me
that the strange sound could have
come from a wind-puff among the
leaves outside; SO 1 poured the devel-
oper upon the light-yellow plate and
began TO rock the tray gently.
Nowhere, except probably on your
wedding morning or on getting a
wrapped copy of your first book, does
The charm Of expectancy get such a
hold upon you as it does on watching
for the image of an exposed object to
appear upon a Photographic plate.
Out of the yellow blank before me
now came, softly and silently, the fig
ure of the smooth-limbed Ariadne, sit
ting her panther with the majesty l
had seen in the marble. But she was
coming, on rather too quickly because
of over-timing, and l rapidly reached
back for the bottle Of bromide. AS I !
measured off four crystal drops that
fell splashing into the developer, ] |
heard a slight grating sound. as of a
key being taken from a lock- Surely |
the charm of Ariadne must have been
strong upon me, for the incident did |
not excite so much alarm as il did !
mere annoyance
Must have been in rather loose and !
just dropped out" was my illogical !
thought; bu: who can be logical con-
corning things external when snug in
his own tight little world Of pho
Biography?
Ariadne came on beautifully. and
laid her in the water near my right |
- i MI