The National tribune., 1896-11-26

"When you 60 into your darkroom to
develop plates, always lock the door behind
you to avoid Interruptions" So saith the
learned writer of Instructions to Amateur
Photographers" and it is rule that has
saved many negatives.
OF course it never occurred to the IN
structor Of amateurs to add: And always
take good look about you before 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 l never 20 into my darkroom now with
out letting in a flood of light that searches
out every corner.
When / bought my camera and began to
turn out foggy negatives from which sickiy,
spectral prints came off, had no decently-
appointed darkroom, using small closet IN
my house for the purpose. Now, not being
socialist or shoemaker, like good air,
and to sit in that stuffy hole-in-the- wall Tor
the better part of an hour at q time had the
result of eating up some of my enthusiasm
for dabbling in solutions of eikonogen, car
Donate Of soda and sinking ether. My Ill
smelling lamp seemed to exhaust as mucn
oxygen as my good pair Of lungs, and
sometimes bore my negative out OF the
closet with such pale face that, in spite OF
my triumphant air in exhibiting it 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 nuisance of the first order.
That was why had my new and carefully
ventilated darkroom built for me. 1t was
a house all by itself, and stood down in
little hollow, good stones throw from our
dwelling. We were living in the country
then, in very pretty bit of woodland that
had wilderness of brown plain all about
it.
My new darkroom was quite a spacious
affair, and l gloried in its completeness Of
detail and the hardness of the appoint
ments. / used to spendsa good deal OF time
in there, and, as / learned how much bro
mide to use and to hit upon the happy mo-
ment for taking plate out of the develop
ing bath, my progress was swift and sweet.
1t so happened in the Autumn that we
went to the city for a month to live, leaving
our country place shut up. / took my cam
era to town and exposedIa dozen or SO dry
plates on a lot of marble statuary. When
ever, at odd times, / Thought of these, be-
came feversh to know wtether Ariadne had
been overturned or whether Venus had been
light-struck. ~
Mywife smiled when Istold her intended
to run down to the ranch" to look after
things bit. ~ 81
1t was too diaphmousi When she saw
me packing my plates she laughed. But she
was indulgent and said goOd-by with her
own little pleasantly about my not being 80
very deep after all.
Walking up to theshouse from the station,
/ saw that the Autumn winds had been max
ing very free with the trees while we had
been away, and the brownaeaves strewed the
gravel-walk and were Iscarrying along on
their thin edges like little hoops driven by
children. A smoky haze layrover the wood
and along the plain, and the hills beyond
were deep in ii. The slow-lying sun was
blood-red, and sent sickly yellow glow over
the place. Driving rather keenly, the wind
set me a-shivering / had never known
" the ranch when it showed so bleak and
forbidding face. Not caring to enter the
vacant house, l strobe quickly down the
path into the hollow which lay darkly in the
shadow, and, hurrying on to my little studio,
1 pulled out my keys before the door. Not
finding the right key, it came to me Of
sudden that l had lett it in the lock inside
on going to town, and turning the handle Of
the door saw it had not been locked at all.
This was really of little consequence, as +" the
ranch (" was not near the road. and l had
often boasted that lock meant nothing
there anyway, though in the darkroom 1T
had probably saved negative or two on
occasion.
went in, and, from pure force of habit,
turned the key, leaving it in the lock. Then
struck match, found my lamp, lighted it,
and poured my chemicals ont into my grad
uate and tray. Then, with the lamp covered
and only the thin stream of red light coming
duly forth, opened a double-back and pull
ed out a plate It was Ariadne and the
Panther, for which hoped great things. AS
pnt the plate into the developing-tray and
picked up my graduate to pour forth the de-
veloper, | was startled by a 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 poured the
| developer upon the light-yellOw plate and
began to rock the tray gently.
Nowhere. except probably on your we'd
ding morning or on getting wrapped
| copy of your first book does the charm
| OF expectancy ScO SUCH d uolu upon you AZ
| it does on watching for the image of an ex-
posed object to appear upon Photographic
plate.
Ont of the yellow blank before me now
came, softly and silently, the figure of the
smooth -limbed Aradne, sitting her panther
with the majesty had seen in the marble.
But she was coming on rather too quickly
because of oyertiming, and rapidly reached
back for the bottle Of bromide. As meas
ured off four crystal drops that fell splashing
into the developer, heard slight grating
sound, as of key being taken from lock.
Surely the charm of Ariafne must have been
strong upon me, for Hlle incident did not ex-
cite so much alarm as it did mere annoyance.
! Must have been In rather loose and Just
dropped out" was 'my illogical thought
But who can be logical concerning things
external when snugin his own tight little
world Of photography?
Ariadne came on beautifully, and I laid
her in the water near my right hand to gain
Chrnlnic