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August 21, 1885.J THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. 537 hear that our cricketers practise the virtue ; but it is to be hoped they will not be frightened by the misleading state ment of our contemporary. Plates at eighteenpence the dozen would answer their purpose. Under the somewhat misleading title "Photoscope," an ingenious electrical apparatus, by which a signalman may always know if his distance signal lamps are burning, is described in La Nature by M. Laplaiche. The essential part is a Breguet metallic thermometer, which is pl iced in the lantern, and while this is heated by the lamp flame an electiical circuit is kept closed. Verdicts in County Courts are not always easy to under stand. A Brighton photographer last week sued a person to recover £1 5s. for an enlarged photograph supplied. The defendant denied having ordered the photograph, but admitted that he offered to settle the matter for the sum named. Plaintiff refused to accept this sum, but subsequently, according to his statement, he wrote accepting the offer, but received no answer. The letter, defendant said, never reached him, whereupon the Judge decided against the plaintiff. Ou the face of the matter, it would appear that although the defendant admitted he would pay the five-and-twenty shillings, yet the J udge ruled that the plaintiff should not have his money. This seems rather contradictory. The old Queen’s Bench Courts at the Guildhall, rendered vacant by the removal to the New Law-Courts, are likely to be transformed into a picture gallery for the city. The various curiosities contained in the Guildhall, scarcely known by the public, and never seen, will form the nucleus of the collection, and promises of assistance have been made by some of the rich patrons of art. A photographic section should certainly not be lost sight of. There are already a goodly number of photographs in the Guildhall library, and these could be well added to : the great City companies, for instance, might take the matter in hand. Photographs of the interiors of the various halls into which the public seldom or never gain admittance would alone be of great interest, while the documents and mementoes of a byegone age, in possession of the companies, capable of being photographed, must be very numerous. The City is so rich in souvenirs of historical associations that a photographer might almost be kept permanently employed. Strolling in Brussels a few days ago we noticed in a shop window in one of the arcades a twelve ten photograph of a chiropodist engaged in operating upon the foot of a lady. There was nothing extraordinary in this per sc, as we had seen similar photographs in London ; but what attracted our attention was the fact that the lady was masked. The reason for obscuring the lady’s face was not at all apparent. A companion suggested that the opera tion was probably a painful one, and that it was better the patient should not see it; but this hypothesis was scarcely favourable to the chiropodist, whom the photo graph was intended to advertise, and we rejected it. Then there was the suggestion that the lady, from motives of delicacy, covered her face while the operator was gazing upon her bare foot. Neither was this theory entirely satisfactory, and it was only by enquiry that the true reason was discovered. The photograph, so our informant gravely stated, was that of a lady of exalted position who, attracted by the fame of the chiropodist, visited him for the purpose of having a very painful corn removed. So grateful was she to the professor, and so struck by his skill, that she consented to be photographed in the position of being operated upon. Only one condition did she im pose, namely, that she should be masked, so that she should not be recognized. Thus ran the story; but we still have our doubts. The Pictorial News reproduces from Harper's Weekly a picture from an instantaneous photograph of a " block ” in Broadway, New York. Why should we not follow this example, and take instantaneous photographs of scenes in our public, streets and places, where, through either the obstinacy or supineness of the authorities, much inconveni ence is caused. The annual “ break up ” of the Strand, which causes dire confusion during the busiest months of the year, would be a good subject ; and so would a block at Billingsgate, the maintenance of which seems to be an article of faith with the Corporation. Railway directors, too, might be put to the blush if they could really see what goes on on some of the suburban stations between eight and nine every morning. It is said that when representata- tions were made to the directors of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Company respecting the over-crowding at Walworth Road Station, and the fighting for seats, a couple of these gentlemen paid a visit to the station at twelve o’clock in the day, and pooh-poohed the com plaint, because they only saw five persons on the platform. An instantaneous photograph of the scene at eight o’clock in the morning would have altered their opinion con siderably. Already have we received proof positive that the silly season has set in with its accustomed severity. It is true that no photograph of the Sea Serpent has yet reached us, nor, indeed, have we received cartes of the latest gigantic gooseberry, grown at Mangel-cum-Wurzelton ; or of the primeval toad, just extracted from the interior of a tree trunk at Padlington l’arva; but in other ways, the con dition of our waste-paper basket bears witness, evidence of the days through which we are pessing is profusely forthcoming. By this very post, in fact, a correspondent sends us, at some length, the details of a plan by which the card-sharper can be baftled and exposed. “ It is well-known,” he writes, “ that the swindler in question depends for success on the facility with which he accomplishes sleight-of-hand tricks in cutting the pack, altering the position of particular cards, withdrawing kings, queens, aces, and so on, and so forth. But I main tain,” our correspondent goes on, “that, by the aid of photography, the sharpest villain of the kind can be found out. All that has to be done is to take care that the