University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1912-05-20

own money is no joke when you have
to earn the money. OF course, there
are all kinds of philanthropic peo-
pie offering students employment for
the summer-such as the man who
has wooden legs to sell, the sausage
grinding machine man. the book
man and the aluminium ware man.
Still these persons have articles for
which there is either little demand
or else Over-prOduction, which
amounts to the same thing. More
over the lines have permanent repre-
sentatives in all parts of the country
quite equal to the demand for the
goods.
Jim knew these facts. He also
knew that he could do one thing that
offered possibilities. He could point
a camera, press the bulb and develop
films. True, one of his last pictures
of Jumbo trying to catch his tail had
turned out to be nothing but a fuzzy
circle. Yet he knew that to get good
negatives he had only to make expo
sures enough. He decided to make
them until he acquired such techni-
cal knowledge as would enable him
to better determine the stops and
speeds to use.
| What to do having been settled, the
next question was where to do it.
With a map and immigration statis-
tics he went carefully over the North
American continent. He finally
placed his finger on that great prai-
rie country between Alaska and
North Dakota.
There" he said to himself. ''is a
country just opening up. 1t has peO-
pie from all beyond. What a~e they
thinking of? The people back home.
What do they wish most for the home
folks to know? OF exact conditions.
of successes in the new land. What
most effectively tells the story? A
| oph. lhCIS
With a bicycle. a camera and con-
fdence in his analysis Jim went
north. An old Photographer told
him he was on a wild-gocse chase.
but he determined to chase it,
Jim landed. He alighted from a
realm of theory on the banks of the
Assiniboine River at the lend of
STEEL on a new railroad that was
pushing it's way across continent.
With a camera strap on his shoulder,
half dozen film packs in his pocket,
a tripod strapped on the crOss-bar of
his bicycle, he showed the wheel up
the abrupt western bank of the river.
At the top he made his first picture
1t was of cigarette salesman from
Toronto who was driving from one
town to another. The photographer
stopped him on the road, made his
little talk. The salesman entered
into the spirit of the college mans
work. He parted with SO and left
an order for six pictures. The sales
man drove down the rivers bank;
the student rode to the nearest farm
house to be seen on the miles of lev
ell prairie.
The plan worked. He had a good
talk of the camera in the home and
on the farm, of the people in the old
land, of the talking power of a pic
ture. He told his story not Obtru-
sively but incidentally as he showed
samples of his work, as he set up his
camera and on the ground glass let
his prospective customers see just
how the picture would look which he
had found by leading them to talk
was uppermOst in their minds. In
a few weeks he had three other men
working for him and would have had
more except for the fact that every
cent he had with which to buy sup
plies was a borrowed cent.
Jim was not content to simply take
pictures. Every spare moment was
spent in analyzing his work and find
ing how he could make it more eff
cient. For example, much to his
disappointment he learned mothers
would insist on washing their child
ren's faces and starching them up in
their sermon clothes before posing.
This meant a waste of time. To over
come it he decided to spend the even
ings when it was cool in riding ahead
and soliciting the next days work.
On the following day while the light
was good he made his exposures at
arranged times. The plan increased
efficiency more than so per cent.
Jim evolved some selling princi-
Piles. The first was: talk to women
about children. An incident occurred
a short time after he had gone to
work. He took a picture of a baby