The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1909-03-30

THrn MARION
could sign checks in six figures.
The leading dealer i'm Providence,
who handles nothing but scrap-iron,
is worth half million. Philadel-
phia has two junk milllonalres and
a cluster of near-milllonaires One
of these Philadelphia dealers has
half million invested in buildings
and equipment alone. Ground in
New York is too costly for many
large warehouses or iron yards. and
most of them are located in New
Jersey. Scattered over that State.
are dozen dealers who have made
fifty, one hundred, two hundred.
five hundred thousand dollars from
chat which the metropolis has
thrown away. One of these New
Jersey dealers recently bought the
greatest "lot" of junk ever han
died in the worlds history-the old
iron and refuse which the French
abandoned at Panama. The original
cost of this material was about
twenty million, dollars. What was
the tune of the mere song he paid
for It, or how much he has made
by selling off the scrap-iron and
metal no one has ever dared to es-
innate.
PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN PUB
LIGHTLY.
long before he was nominated,
most of us were intimately, If i'm
personally acquainted with 'Big
Bill" Taft. The public prints had
given us the inDermost details of
his life; his likes and dislikes were
public knowledge; so were his
tnstes, his home life, his physical
characteristics and his favorite di-
versions. But most important of
all-thanks to bhotography-we
knew what he looked like, we knew
his smile, we knew the expression
of his face under varying emotions
we knew his idiosyncrasies of dress;
we could have picked him out among
thousand. Taft was our familiar.
We knew him better than old
neighbors who live in the next
block.
q. When the problem of attracting
attention to Taft become paramount
the question arose How? The tour
of the world solved that partly
expert press-agenting must do the
rest Taft might do all sorts OF
things calculated to win popularity,
but unless these things were given
publicity, nothing would be gained.
Nor would the mere writing of sto-
ries suffice. Because of certain
features of the case, the public
must 'be shown must be brought
face to face with the man. And
so was brought on the scene Robert
Lee Dunn, presidential photographer
sub rosa, who had handled, pictorial
publicity on behalf of Roosevelt, Nc
Kinley, Vice-President Fairbanks,
and others. His forte Is making
photographs OF the unstudied,
snapped-against-thei will.
Mr. Taft was hardly an ideal sub
jeot for photography. At that time
the world knew him as ffat man"
Now 'adipose tissue I'm man is re-
garded with friendly interest; but
the trouble is that the interest is OF
humorous quality-scarcely an as
set for one who seeks the Presi-
dency Besides overweight con-
veys the idea of sluggishness and
i'll health, and there we're vague ru-
mors that life insurance companies
had declined Mr.. Tart. Whether
there was truth in this has nothing
to do with the case. Mr.. Taft must
be introduced acceptably to a nation
that Is at bottom Jealous of its
highest office and fearful OF sud
den changes of administration 1t
was therefore squarely up to the
photographer to make his camera
change this adipose muscle-to
present Taft as a lowering Hercules,
an Unsuitable follower of athletic
diversions. In other words to ma
nipulate Taft's helt to an actual
asset by IbOasting OF 1t as "a dis
tinctive characteristic of the man.
1t was done; and many and ingen-
ious were the means to the end. 1t
was a problem of sltillful posing as
well as actual camera distortion" /"
the latter with the object of bringing
Taft in ithe foreground of every
picture without making him appear
too bulky.-"A Campaign or tine
Camera" in The Bohemian NIaga-
zine for April.
Mr.. Frank A. Perret, formerly
honorary assistant at Royal Vesu-