Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-01-09

I didn't have ten times as much patience
as Job ever had. The best-natured people
in the world seem to try as hard as they
can to be just as mean as they can when
they visit photograph gallery. They are
particularly cross and hateful during the
holiday season. They come in a week be-
fore Christmas to sit for their portraits,
and demand that they shall be finished,
ready to be mailed all over the country,
two days before Christmas.
''They always make this demand after
they have had their sittings. If they'd
speak of 1t before they go upstairs. I'd
have them done by Christmas, but they
don't. They wait until they have been
posed, and then they come down here ard
try to make my life miserable. But they
can't-no, indeed, they can't. I've been
here too long for that.
THE men are a good deal worse than
the women. They either abuse me or want
| to flrt with income or the other. 1 never
horrid kickers! And vain! Why the
women are nothing to them for vanity.
Nine out of every ten men who come in here
to get their pictures taken think that rhey
are just the handSomest people that ever
lived. They demand twice many re-
sittings as the women. They are all right
when they first come in, and they all get
off those two frightfu jokes that I've
times about breaking the camera and
rather have a tooth pulled than have a
picture taken and expect me to laugh
Historically every time.
Masculfne Pride.
''The trouble begins when they see their
proofs. You can't much tell how the pic
lures are going to be by the proofs. you
know. but it's the hardest thing in the
world to convince a man of that. And
man is hardly ever satisfied with his fin
ished pictures For heavens sake, am
I oh, 90
nearly all of 'em say. They all want to
look grand, and noble, and heroic, you
know. It's a funny thing, but most men
scoWl when the operator tells them to look
pleasant. They don't want to look pleas
ant. They want to look solemn, and ter
rifle, and mysterious, and profound, as if
they were being weighed down by secret
grief, SO that life is a long drawn out
misery to them at best. Little men, es-
| pecially. want to look tragic and gloomy
Why. declare 1 don't know.
of course, 1t would be ruinous IL 1
should grin, but I always have such lot
OF fun all by myself when young man
comes in to have his picture taken in his
| first dress suit. He brings his suit and
dress shirt and paraphernalia along with
| him, and is just as solemn about it as he
can be. No matter how pimply faced or
ungainly he may be, he considers that the
evening suit squares everything. and he
| gets terribly angry If his pictures don't
| look like those of Maurice barrymore or
liz
| or those other dress-suit actors who make
1t their business to look lovely.
Then the Men Primp.
and primp! Before l came here used
to think that all the primping In the world
was done by women, but oh, dear me, 1
DON'T think SO any more! Why, men are
the conceitedest things! You just ought to
see them making up to get their pictures
taken. 1 declare. 1 think 1t sometimes
takes en- DEMONSTRATING before the glass
grinning at themselves. poking at their
neckues, brushing their eyebrows, twisting
their mustaches and practicing-yes just
neutrality-suspicious.! Yes, and some of
them bring little powder puffs here with
EN-, to take the shine off their noses! 1
1t with my own eyes.
1t makes young man with a small
mustache awfully angry when his mus
iache doesn't come out in the picture big
and ferocious and military. Then, a lot
OF men year big diamonds in their neck
ties and shirt fronts when they are pho
tographed. and when the diamond looks
like big white spot in the picture they
get mad and say the operator is :iot On
to his job" Yes, and any number of men
go somewhere and get thei~ hair curled
with curling irons before they get took.
Vain! why. women don't know the meaning
! of the word in comparison.
"Of course, some of the women who
come here are pretty fussy. Those whose
ages are uncertain Cor. rather, all too GER
tain) are the worst. They all want to look
| so very young. Before we show some of
| these their proofs we occasionally have the
negatives retouched so that every wrinkle
and hollow is removed and the pictures
don't look any more like the originals than
| anything. but this scheme always works,
| and such sitters are always delighted. But
when / show 'em the 'unrevised proofs
| don't have any particular joy of my ex-
| istence
1.-The young matron with the new baby
| is the hardest person of all to please. 1
] don't blame her for thinking her baby
| is the cutest Cupid that ever was, but
| do blame her for blaming me when a pin
| happens to be sticking in the baby when
| its picture is taken, and its hair is all
| tousled up, and the negative is all mouth
| and ears and fists and legs. AS If 1 mad
put the pin there.
1.-THE easiest people to get along with
are the theatrical folks, both men and
| women. They have been getting them
selves photographed everywhere for years,
| know just what they want and how long 1t
| will take to get it. and they are nearly al
| ways satisfied. They are used to atti-
| tudinizing that they fall into the poses
easily and. as trey give no trouble to the
| operator, he spreads himself upon them. "
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