The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1897-02-27
IN THE DARK ROOM.

Wntu you 30 lnpO your uarK room TO
develop plates, always lock the door be-
hind You to avoid Interruptions So saith
the learned writer Of "Instruotions 10
Amateur Photographers, and 1t is rule
that has saved many negatives
OF course 1t never occurred to the IN
struotor Of amateurs to add, "And always
take good look about you before shut
ting the door and dtting down in front of
your ruby light" That adInonition would
be looked upon as outside the book, and
no amateur would see In 1t sense or rele-
vancy. Yet never go into my dark room
now without letting in food of light
that searches out every corner.
When bought my camera and began to
turn out foggy negatives from which sick
ly, spectral prints came of, 1 had no de-
Gently appointed dark room, using small
closet in my house for the purpose. Now,
not being socialist or shoemaker, 1 like
good air, and to sit In that stuffy hole In
the wall for the better part of an hour at
time had the result of eating up some Of
my enthusiasm for dablbing in solutions
Of eikonogeD, carbonate of soda and stink,
ing ether. My Ill smelling lamp seemed
to exhaust as much oxygen as my good
pair Of lungs, and l 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 I
was surely III and that she he'd always
heard that photographers were short lived.
She did not like the smell Of my chem
icals either and declared they were
nuisance of the first order
That was why / had my new and oare-
fully ventilated dark room built for me.
1t was house all by itself and stood down
In little hollow, q good stones throw
from our dwelling. We were living in the
country then, in very pretty bit Of wood
land that had wilderness Of brown plain
all about IT. 49,.
d, My new dark room was quite q spacious
affair, and gloried In its completeness of
detail and the hardness of tho appoint
ments. used to spend good deal of time
in there, and, as learned how much bro
mide to use and to hit upon the happy
moment for taking plate out of the do
veloring bath, my progress was swift and
sweet.
1t So happened In tho autumn that we
went to the city for month to live, leav-
ing our country place shut up. took my
camera to town and exposed dozen or SO
dry plates On u lot of marble statuary
Whenever at odd times thought Of these
! became feverish to know whether Ari-
adne bad been overturned or whether We
nus had boen light struck
My wife smiled when told her intend
ed to run down to "the ranch" to look aft
er things bit.
1t was too diaphanous. When she saw
me packing my plates, she laughed. But
she was indulgent and said Eoodby with
her own little pleasantly about my not be-
ing SO very deep after all.
Walking up to the house from the sta
ton, 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 wood ond along the
plain, and the hills beyond were deep in
it. The low lying sun was blood red and
sent sickly yellow glow over the place.
Driving rather keenly, tho wind set me u
shivering. l had never known Hthe ranch
when it showed 90 bleak and forbidding q
face.
Not caring to enter the vacant house, I
strobe quickly down the path into the hol-
low 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, 1t came to me of sudden
that ! had left it in the lock inside on 60
ing to town, and turning the handle of
the door, l saw 1t had not been locked at
all. This was really Of little consequence,
as the ranch" was not near the road, and
l had often boosted that lock meant
nothing there anyway, though in the dark
room 1t had probably saved negative or
two on occasion.
went in, and, from pure force Of hab-
1t, turned the key, leaving 1t in the lock.
Then l struck match, found my lamp,
lighted 1t and poured my chemicals out in
to my graduate and tray. Then, with the
lamp covered and only the thin stream of
red light coming duly forth, opened
double back and pulled out plate. 1t
was "Arladne and the Panther, for which
hoped great things AS put the plate
into the developing tray and picked up my
graduate to pour forth the developer was
startled by rustling that seemed to come
from the corner where l kept my printing
stuff. 1t sounded like a movement of the
stiff curtain that hung there, but 1t occur
red to me that the strange sound could
have como from wind puff among tho
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 |
ling morning or on getting wrapped |
copy Of your first book, does the charm Of |
expectancy get such hold upon you as it |
1oes on watching for the image of an ex-
posed object to appear upon a Photographic
slate
Out of the yellow blank before me now
,ame, softly and silently, tho figure of the
smooth limbed Ariadne. sitting her pam
ther- with the majesty had seen In the
marble But she was coming on rather too
quickly because of overtiming, and rap
dly reached back for the bottle of bromide
Az measured off four crystal drops that
oil splashing into the developer heard
light grating sound, as of key being
AIKEN from lock- Surely the charm Of
Ariadne must have been strong upon me,
or the incident did not excite SO much
Harm as it did mere annoyance.
Must have been in rather loose and
usp uroppeu out, was my Iloglcal
bought, but who can be logical concern
ng things external when snug in his own
light little world of photography
Ariadne came on beautifully, and laid
Ter in the water near my right hand to
'ain detail before fixing. Then took out
'enus and began to develop her She came
III well enough and dipped her into the
water too. Everything was going well,
nd l should have fine set If this kept
N. Being my first trial with such hard
Of of subjects, l was rather proud Of my
elf.