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552 THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. LAtevsT 28, 1885. Zotes. The Photographic Exhibition authorities say they will not receive exhibits after Thursday, September 24, thus leaving a clear time of less than four weeks from to-day. A dinner to celebrate the coming of age of the emul- sion process in photography. On the 9th of September it will be just twenty-one years since Sayce and Bolton published their collodion emulsion method, and the majority of the process is to be celebrated by a dinner, to be held under the auspices of the Photographic Club, at Anderton’s Hotel, Fleet Street, on Wednesday, Sept. 9th, at 6.30. Anyone wishing to attend should immediately notify the fact to the Secretary of the Club, E. Dunmore, 1, Beacon Hill, Camden Road, N. Dinner to cost os. 6d. Several attempts were made to obtain comprehensive negatives of the great mass meeting held in Hyde Park on Saturday last, on behalf of the protection of young girls. How far these efforts proved successful we shall doubtless see. in due course ; but meanwhile the presence of a photo graphic artist in the Park afforded at least one scoffer a chance for making a poor joke. “If I’d my way,” he ex claimed, pointing to the apparatus, “ I’d have the whole of the speeches made in camera ! ” What is the best varnish for negatives? One who has had much experience—W. M. Ashman—says that he finds most satisfactory negative varnish made by mixing 1 part of commercial white hard varnish with 3 parts of methyl ated spirit; but 5 drops of castor oil must be added to each pint of the diluted varnish, as otherwise the film will be too brittle. People who keep valuable dogs should have them photo graphed, and keep plenty of copies for distribution at the police stations, in case the animal is lost—or stolen. It is very difficult to describe a dog accurately, whereas no mis take is likely to be made over a photograph. A greyhound has sometimes been put forward as the personification of grace and beauty. It is a pity that photography should upset this cherished idea, but it certainly did so, if we might judge from a collection of photographs of famous racing dogs which we saw the other day in the office of a well-known sporting publication. Small, mean-looking heads, enormously-developed hind quarters, and a certain scragginess of outline, were what the photographs showed. But perhaps the photographer was in fault—let us hope, for the sake of the reputation of the greyhound, that he was. Most of the animals were vignetted, and not very skilfully; and the celebrated “ Wild Mint ” appeared with a bit chopped out of its neck, the equally celebrated “ Mineral Water ” with a mangy- looking tail and the shape of its nose altered, while to the renowned “ Honey wood ” was given a shaggy coat, making it at a distance look only like a cross with the retriever. The moral to be drawn from these photographs is, that if you can only vignette clumsily, it is best not to make the attempt. Eccentricity and false art can go no further than in the decoration (?) of photograph frames with stuffed kittens and mice. What fun there can be in a couple of kittens popping up their heads from behind a plush frame con taining a portrait it is difficult to tell, and still more diffi- cult when a stuffed mouse is on the frame at one side of the face, and a kitten pursuing it on the other! Are such things really popular, or are they exhibited simply to draw a crowd to a shop window ? Mr. George Smith, of Colebrook Row, writing to the English Mechanic on the subject of lantern slides, points out the desirability of allowing an interval of darkness between the exhibition of each slide. He asserts that “most people are heartily tired of dissolving views.'' Without going so far as this, we are inclined to hold with Mr. Smith that the separation of the slides is the most artistic method of exhibition, as well as being less fatiguing to the eye of the spectator. The melting of one view into another, when first introduced, no doubt caused a pleasant surprise, but the public are now well used to it, and it may well be dispensed with, save in instances where sequence is a necessity. Mr. Smith also protests strongly against the practice of making all sorts of slides with uniform masks for the sake of uniformity of shape on the screen. The identification of the supposed murderer of Mr. Preller—a mysterious tragedy which is causing great ex citement in the United States—appears to have been brought about by means of a photograph of a pair of magic lanterns. Some time before the murder a young man named Brooks disappeared from the town of Hyde, in Cheshire, taking with him a pair of magic lanterns, which he had borrowed from a Dr. Sidebotham. After the Preller murder, Dr. Sidebotham received from America an illustrated police paper containing several portraits of criminals. One of these he recognized as the portrait of Brooks, and mentioning the circumstance of the lanterns, he was asked to give a description of them, which he did, in the best way possible, namely, by sending a photograph, which he happened to have, of the lanterns. The identi fication of these lanterns, which were made by the Sciopticon Company, Colebrook Row, Islington, would seem, so Dr. Sidebotham has told a correspondent of an evening paper, to be conclusive evidence against Brooks. We have never been able to discover the reason of the connection between photography and the music hall stage. It was a common thing, in the old glass positive days, for a man who practised cheap photography in the daytime, to appear at night at a music hall, generally in the capacity of an acrobat. The comic singer, Leybourne, who died recently, was at one period of his career a photographer s “ doorsman,” and now we have a biographer of Lulu, who made a name years ago as a female gymnast—but who in