The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-02-25

II hear a great deal about ice bridges
| at Niagara Falls and other places, re-
| marked an old oyster boat captain on the
| river front the other day. but have seen
the Potomac bridged with ice right here at
this Seventh Street wharf. The water was
frozen TO depth of eighteen inches solid
all across the river. remember one time
when hundreds of people, for the very FUN
! of the thing were crossing over into Nir-
| ginia on the ice. Crowds had been making
| the trip every day for almost a week, and
| the Ice was getting frmer daily, be-
cause there hadn't been the break of
| degree in the below-zero point OF the Their
mometer since it formed.
"A colleague of mine and made wa
| ger with a party of fellows one day that
we could stop that procession on the ice
in less than an hour. This was long
| while ago. remember. The morning on
which we tried the trick was not so
very cold. but the ice was solid enough to
have carried a dozen elephants from
here to Alexandria. My friend and stood
on the wharf as the enthusiastic people
began TO gather about 10 o'clock in the
/ morning. and We looked down the solid
ice pointed our fingers in a certain direc-
ton, and whispered to each other, with
our faces as solemn as tombstones. 4
young lady left her escort who was tell
ing her about what a health giving walk
awaited them. and asked us at what We
were looking. oh. nuthin'.' said my
my friend but | nudged him and said loud
enough for anyone to hear, Don't brighten
the lady. | guess the ice will bear an
other crowd at least today
That simple remark broke up the ice
parade. 1t spread like wildfire: skaters
and everybody else became convinced that
the ice was giving way, and more disap-
pointed crowd of young men and women
never saw. Some few. skaters disported
themselves near the shore. but didn't dare
to venture into the middle OF the river.
The ice remained solid for more than a
week after that little episode, but my
friend and | won the bet
NO doubt the problem Of producing col
or photographs that will more or less re-
semble the tints found in nature will some
day be solved remarked camera
drummer yesterday. but nothing has yet
been furnished to satisfy the eye of the
oonnoisseur. l mean the average person
who enjoys exceptionally good color re-
suits. | notice that the color photography
Of a Chicago man has recently attracted
attention. but | do not regard it as salts
factory. The man who discovered the pro
cess. strange to say. was not photoera-
pher. but furniture dealer. He had ex-
perimented in chemistry. in dabbiing !
way. and accidentally stumbled upon his I
color scheme II is said to consist OF !
printing the negative through screens rul- |
ed with miscroscopio lines of different pri- |
mary tints. Why this should produce the |
result. no one outside of the people who |
control the process seems TO know The |
inventor himself is dead. While | was I!
disappointed in the pictures thus produc- |
ed. must acknowledge that they were dif
ferent from anything in that line | had !
ever seen. The colored photographs are /
little more than a curiosity. however. The /
blues have a suggestion of purple and the |
yeliows a greensh cast. thus making them
false to nature. The general color ar
rangement however. is undeniably there
and, in a way. the discovery is an uncom-
mon one. II is not generally known that
there are already three processes In use
for making color photographs. but they
are all more or less imperfect Most OF the
Photographic experts believe that the
problem will yet be successfully worked