The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-11-10
THE CAMERA HABIT AND TIPS
PERI ERSE ADVENTURES OF 4
TRAVELLER IN IRELAND.

lucuhaT HAppAuH am AnhUwefu9m and NWrs
Drtses TN ~ireland-Uses % tho Camera.
DUBLIN, Nov. The poor man never
knows. the cares and responsibilities thaS
beSet the man Of wealth, and the man with
oVt a camera does not know how keen
iy the disappointment Of a picture missed
- be the cause what IL may.
Heretofore | have travelled care free
.sfOr two reasons: ono was l never had any
money TO speak OF and the other was /
never carried a camera looked nc thu
superb view or the picturesque street
group solely for its passing interest. with
never a thought OF locking 1t up in a black
box for the future delectation OF my friends
and to bore transient visitors who, az |
have noticed. always begin to look up
time tables when the snapshot album is
produced Of a rainy Sunday afternoon.
But this year some one with the Glib
tongue of a salesman persuaded me Of the
delights that were consequent on the press-
ing Of a button. and l purchased a camera
OR the sort that makes its owner a marked
man wherever he goesL
The first two OF three days / was az con-
sciOus as a man who has just shaved his
mustache on a dare and Wit expects his
wife home. from the country any minute.
ANhOpO bh1b CNCly OuC hutN u WAh ~ nov
zoe, although sven l hadn't seen any Of
my pictures as yet.
snapped a number OF friends on the
steamer. and even had the audacity to
make the captain look pl~eassnt-but in
hia case It came natural. and really. when
It was printed. even strangers could hear
his hearty laugh whenever they looked at
the picture. so true to life was il.
OF course it was beginners luck, but
as l went on swapping and getting the
films developed l found that l had picked
np a fine lens. and the pictures | was TAX
ing were really worth while. and then
Say. have you ever had hen fever? Has
your pulse ever quickened at sight OF an
egg you could call your Own? Have you
ever breathed hard when the old hen led
forth thirteen fluffy chickens and you re-
fiected that thirteen chickens would reach
the egg laying stage in seven months. and
that IL each OF them Matched out thirteen
yoU would have 100 inside OF a year-and
then have you gone out and bought twenty
old hens. so as to have Wholesale success
with deplorable results?
II you have done all these things YOU
know what a man does whose first snap
shots are successful, I laid in supplies Of
films till my pockets bulged and my purse
looked lesn.
And the first time the sun shone after
landing at Derry | went out to see the
Giants Causeway and left my camera
behind me.
Then | experienced for tho first time the
sensation as Of personal loss when the views
that might have been mine were left where
they grew.
On my way back | came on a hardened old
sinner OF sixty-odd years teaching a little
kddie OF 4 20 smoke a cigarette. II had
mad my camera I could rave batted the old
man over the head with il. But il was
IN the hotel.
When | show my views to visitors they
will say, And didn't you go to the Giants
Csuseway?" and they will not accept nv
reason for the lack Of "A view. And | feel
that the set il incomplete.
As the time went on | noticed several
things that are probably obvious To every
amateur. One was that on the DAYS on
which I remembered to take my amera
saw very commonplace subjects and only
snapped because | had the habit. Another
vas that no matter how fine the weather
was when l set out with my camera it WAS
sure to cloud up just as we reached the
castle or met the pretty peasant girl who
was only too willing to be taken.
One day l was walking from ~Cappoquin
to LismoTe all unconscious of what lay
before me, and just for w%antOnness l took
trees and pictures that might have been in
any country. At.last l had but three left, and
then the meeting of several droves of cattle
coming from Lismore told me that il must
be fair day there. Just then lovely, noble,
glorious Lismore castle burst on my view
and l had to take it.
And then / came on the fair and saw pic
lures at every turn,
Funny little donkeys with heads quite
buried in burlap bags the while they sought
for oats, gay petticoated and pretty faced
women in groups, grizzied farmers that
looked the part, waterbutts on wheels in
Rem~brandtesque passageways leading TO
sunlit courtyards beyond-regular prize
winners if one had any sort OF luck.
And then a man with an ingratiating
brogue asked me to take him and his cart,
and almost before | knew It l had taken a
SOW that weighed all Of 500 pounds, and my
snapshottin9 was over for the day.
You may be sure that next day went well
prepared, but fair day is only once a month,
and fair days are not much more plentiful,
and il rained all day, and the only thing l
saw worth taking was a sort Of Don QuixOte
Windmill that had been run by a horse
probably years before the expression the
curse o. Crummie" (CromwelD came to be
used, and l was in a swiftly moving train and
there was a woman in the way-ohi there's
no doubt that camerading is fascinating, but
II ia also veXatiOus.
Still, my advice to those about TO travels
take a camera. II it's a very rainy Sun
day you may want them to leave on an early
train.
Tipping is a subject that is always worth
discussing A man does not like to give
less than the usual tip. and he ought not TO
give more. because it makes il hard for the
next man. Who may not be able TO AFFORD
much Of an expenditure.
Tipping in Ireland is a very mild thing
compared to Continental tipping. Ill
never forget my first experience in AmSter-
dam.
! have spent many agreeable and useful
years since then. and the world has been
better for my presence. for eighty-fOur
months at least. since that day. but the
comic opera features OF that first wholesale
tipping stand out as IL I heard the whole
thing last night at some Broadway theatre.
There we're two OF Us. and We had spent
two delightful days in Amsterdam. doing