The Carlisle independent., 1907-01-10

tleman to fill the position of chief op- orator. There was nothing suspicious about the advertisement, and its straightforward, almost pleading tone prepossessed me
 Required--A capable photographic operator to undertake sole charge of dark room and developing branch of our business. Liberal salary. Apply to Snap, Shott & Shutter, etc.
 The liberal salary seemed to promise well. As regarded my own giyings. Photography held no unsolved mysteries for me, while in algebraic formulae connected with diaphragms, angles and foci of lenses I was quite at home. Further, Messrs. Snap, Shott 6 Shutter were an eminent firm, and their particular make of apparatus was probably the most terrible with which the amateur photographic fiend could arm himself.
 It was called ia hand camera i'm plying that it could be carried in the hand and to distinguish it from that variety which entails the attendance of a strong porter for locomotion. You surely know them?
 Thousands of persons, who are ab- solutely ignorant of the chemical transformation required to produce a photograph, are now able, through the instrumentality of Snap, Shott & Shut ter, to write themselves amateur pho tographers."
 The firm do the developing and print as many copies as are ordered by the photographers The latter then have the delight of exhibiting to their friends with an assumed care lessness1 the choicest of their efforts.
 These are a few little things I snapped the other day, one will re- mark, with a modest, depTecating air. That's MT. Brown, the merchant prince, arguing with man, and heres Miss Green, the poetess, eating a sand ;. wich I'm told it's quite unique in it's : way my friends rave about it"
 I dropped Messrs. Snap Shott & Shutter a line, and begged to be ia vored with the name and address of the operator lately holding the post. By return the following reached me:
 Dear Sir-In answer to your cour- teous note, we regret to inform you that the gentleman you alluded to is dead. Yours truly,
 Snap, Shott & Shutter"
 p. S.-We trust to receive shortly your application for the position
 It was disconcerting to be unable to ascertain how he had liked the work. I tried again, and asked for the ad- dress of his predecessor in office. To my surprise I learned that this gen. tleman was at present in charge of his medical attendant at a private asylum. A postscript informed me that S., s. & S would await my appli- cation before coming to a decision.
 As the firm were meeting me more than half way I did not wish to ap- pear too exacting, and accordingly ac- cepted the post.
 My arrival created somewhat of a sensation. The interest 1 excited was distinctly fiattering to modest man. Some of the clerks seemed to regard me in a strange manner, and l could have vowed there was a look almost akin to pity in the eyes of the lady typist.
 I began with a batch of a dozen plates, which the sender, by his letter, declared to be of exceptional interest. The first six plates were negatives, but not in the generally accepted sense of the word. By no stretch of imag- ination could the eye of faith detect the slightest trace of any picture, and mopping my brow I wondered whether the photographer had dispatched me a box of unexposed plates. Number seven was like it's predecessors, and so was the next and the next. The mistake was obvious The man had sent me a dozen new plates in error. A few minutes would suffice to finish of the remainder.
 A shock awaited me with the last of all. Gazing darkly into the develop ing dish, signs of great distress were quickly manifest in the film. I dashed 1t into clean water Proceeding eau tiously. with a weak solution a faint image of church became apparent, considerably obscured by the masts of ships. Beads of precipitation kept my forehead cool as further incongrui- ties became evident. A phantom auto mobile and an indescribable tumble of the art museum and Brooklyn bridge darkened the whole. It was, indeed. an interesting set of pictures, marred by the fact that all had been taken on one and the same negative. The operator had diligently pulled the trigger" a dozen times, but had not thought it necessary to change the