Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1897-02-23
IN THE DARK ROOM.


| 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 shut
ting 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 rele-
vanoy. Yet never go into my dark room
now without letting in a flood 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 off, had no de-
Gently appointed dark room, 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 for the better part Of an hour at
time had the result Of eating up some of
my enthusiasm for dablbing in solutions
of eikonogen, carbonate of soda and stink
ing ether. My i'll smelling lamp seemed
to exhaust as much 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 chem
icals either and declared they were a
Hnsaisapce Of the first order.
That was why had my new and care
fully ventilated dark room built for me-
1t was house all by itself and stood down
in a little hollow, good stones throw
from our dwelling. We were living in Abe
country then, in a very pretty bit of wood
land that had a wilderness Of brown plain
all about it.
My new dark room was quite spacious
affair, and gloried in its completeness of
detail and the hardness Of the appoint
ments. I used to spend good deal Of time
in there, and, as I learned how much bro
mide to use and to hit upon the happy
moment for taking plate out of the de-
veloping bath, my progress was swift and
sweet
1t so happened in the autumn that we
went to the city for month to live, leav-
ing our country place shut up. I took my
camera to town and exposed dozen or so
dry plates on lot of marble statuary.
Whenever at odd times thought Of these,
became feverish to know whether Ari-
nus had been light struck.
My wife smiled when told her intend
ed to run down to the ranch" to look aft
er things bit,
IL was too diaphanous. When she saw
me packing my plates, she laughed. But
she was indulgent and said goodby with
her own little pleasantly about my not be-
ing SO very deep after all.
Walking up to the house from the sta
ton, 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
lutte hoops driven by children. A smoky
haze lay over the wood and along the
plain, and the hills beyond were deep in
1T. 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. had never known the ranch"
| when it showed so bleak and forbidding a
| face
| Not caring to enter the vacant house,
| 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 1t in the lock inside on 60
ing to town, and, turning the handle Of
| the door, I saw it had not been locked ut
all. This was really of little consequence,
as "the ranch" was not near the road, and
| had often boosted that a lock meant
nothing there anyway, though in the dark
room 1t had probably saved a negative or
two on occasion.
went In, and, from pure force Of hab-
| it, turned the key, leaving 1T in the lock.
Then / struck a match, found my lamp,
| lighted 1t and poured my chemicals out In
to nv graduate and tray. Then, with the
lamp covered and only the thin stream of
red light coming duly forth, opened a
| double back and pulled out plate. 1t
was "Ariadne and the Panther, for which
hoped great things. As I 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 kept my printing
stiff curtain that hung there, but 1t occur
red to me that the strange sound could
have come from 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 wed
ding morning or on getting wrapped
COPY of your first book, does the charm Of
expecto nov get such a hold ,pon YOU as II
4 does a., watching for the image of an ex.
posed object to appear upon q Photographic
plate.
Out Of tho yellow blank before me now
came, softly ana silently. the figure Of the
smooth limbed Ariadne. sitting her pan.