Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1897-01-08
IN THE

when You gu into your darkroom to
develop plates. always lock the door be-
hind you to avoid Interruptions" So
saith the learned writer of ..Instruc-
tons to Amateur Photographers" and
1t Is IL rule that has saved many mega
tives.
OF course it v occurred to the ill.,
stluctor ut amateurs to add: And al
ways take II good look about YOU before
shutting the door and sitting down in
front of Your ruby light" That adj
mpnition would he looked upon as our
side the book, and no amateur would
see in it sense or relevancy. Yet l
out letting in IL flood of light that
searches out every corner.
When l bought my camera and began
to turn IL fn.gy negatives. from which
sickly. spectral prints came off. l had
no deecn;ly appointed darkroom. using
Il small closet i'll my house for the pur-
| pose. Now, not being Il socialist or a
shoemaker. l like good air. and to sit Ill
! that stutfy hole in the wall for the l,ct-
ter part of an hour Mt Il time had the
result OF eating up some of my enthu-
. siasm for dabbling i'll solutions of eiko-
ogc carbonate of soda and sinking
ether. My ill-sme,ling 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 IL
/. pale face that. in spite of my triumph
ant air in exhibiting it to my wife. She
declared l was surely i'll and that she
had always heard that photographers
We're short-liyed. She did not like the
smell of my chemicals. either. and de-
clarcd they were IL nuisance of the first
order.
That was why l had my new and
carefully ventilated darkroom built for
me. 1t was Il house all by itself and
stood down i'll n little hollow, n good
stones throw from our dwelling. We
were living in the country then. in a
very pretty bit Of woodland that had n
wilderness of brown plain all about it.
My new darkroom was quite ii spa
cious affair. and 1 gloried in its COM
pleteness of detail and hardness of the
appointments. l used to spend a good
zeal of time in there. and, as l learned
how much bromide to use and to hit up
on the happy moment Of taking a plate
out of the developing bath, my progress
was swift and sweet.
1t SO happened in the autumn that we
went to the city for n month to live,
leaving our country place shut up. 1
took my Gamers to town and exposed n
dozen or SO dry plates on a lot Of mar
bic statuary. Whenever, at odd times.
1 thought of these, l became feverish
to know whether .Ariadne had ever
light-struck.
My wife smiled when I told her I in
tended to run down to 1.-The ranch to
look after things a bit.
1t was o diaphanous. 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 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
We're scurlying along on their thin
edges like little hoops driven by chill
dren. 4. smoky haze lay over tile wood
and along the plain. and the hills be-
yond were deep in it. The low-lying
sun was b~lood-retl. and sent a sickly
yellow glow ver the place. Driving
rather keenly. the wind e me a-shiv-
ering. l had never known 'the ranch
when it showed so bleak and forbidding
a 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. I pulled out my keys before the