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720 THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. [October 16, 1891. Motes. The Editor begs to thank the numerous friends who have sent him their valuable contributions to the forth coming Year-Book of Photography for 1892. He also takes this opportunity of acknowledging many kind promises to send. As the matter in hand is now being made up into pages, he will be still farther obliged if those who have promised contributions will send them in quickly. In asking this favour, he is mindful that last year some of the articles arrived too late for insertion, and others had to be printed in such haste that there was no time to submit proofs to authors. We reproduce this week a picture to which brief reference was made in our last issue. It appeared origin ally in a French paper, and is said to have been taken immediately after the suicide of General Boulanger. The picture is, we think, open to some doubt. In the first place, the small crowd which quickly assembled directly the report of the pistol was heard would hardly stand aside while the camera was adjusted. Their attention would naturally be concentrated upon the body of the unfortunate man before them, and they would be busied in raising him up and ascertaining whether life was extinct. In the second place, it would be an extremely easy thing, after the body had been removed, to place a living man in the position which it had occupied. The want of likeness of the living man to the dead one need present no difficulty if the face were hidden, as in the picture under discussion. A new and charming method of book illustration is indicated and demonstrated in an article which appears in the October number of the Bulletin du Photo Club de Paris. The pictures are collotypes of small dimensions; but, instead of being printed on special paper separate from the text, they are interspersed with the letterpress, giving the pages a very attractive effect. In this case the collo type printer has done his work first, leaving to the ordinary compositor the task of filling up the blank spaces left. The little pictures are, in this case, very pretty in them selves. They are photographs from life, and represent a small child dragging about, playing with, and otherwise maltreating a couple of St. Bernard pups. This, of course, cannot be a very cheap method of book illustration ; but, for certain purposes, when expense need not be considered, it is, perhaps, the best that could be devised. Has the Zoological Society a photographic establishment in the Regent’s Park Gardens? We are afraid not, but that it has to depend upon outside efforts for its photo graphs. Many fine collections are extant, notably those of Mr. Frank Haes, Mr. Dixon, and Major Nott; but it is evident that the work of these gentlemen can only be done at intervals. A photographic staff attached to the Gardens would have constant opportunities of studying the animals, and of recording peculiarities, and would thus render a great service to zoology. As a commercial specu lation, a photographic establishment should pay ; hosts of visitors would be glad to preserve mementoes of the animals if the prices were moderate. Photographers troubled with customers who are not very ready in paying their bills might take a hint from Russia. According to a society journal, Russian photo graphers, when they can’t get a settlement from their sitters, hang the portraits of the latter upside down. It is to be presumed that the significance of this is understood by the public, or it would have no effect. An Odessa paper has entered a protest against the practice so far as. children are concerned ; it does not think that the sins of the fathers should be visited upon their offspring. The pastel portrait trick, which was some time ago exposed in these columns, is still flourishing. Apparently, dupes are plentiful. The swindle has, it seems, a Yankee origin, and the nuisance is carried on to such an extent in America that the Government has undertaken the task of stamping it out, the Public Prosecutor proceeding against the managers, and the post office refusing to cash their money orders. It is to be regretted that newspapers over here insert the advertisements of the gang. Although photographic fashion plates have not suc ceeded, foreign modistes make use of the photographs of their customers. The death of the Grand Duchess Alexandra of Russia, for whom three months’ mourning has been ordered, has suddenly made the Paris dressmakers exceptionally busy, one firm in the Rue de Rivoli receiving an order for 214 dresses for the Imperial family. We are not told how the dressmakers get over-the difficulty of fitting without seeing the wearers, but it is interesting to know that photography renders some assistance in giving views of the personages who were to be dressed. A newspaper paragraph describing the presentation of a portrait of the late Mr. Bradlaugh painted by Mr. Walter Sickert for the ball of the Manchester Secular Society is rather puzzling. We arc told that Mr. Sickert painted the head from a photograph by Mr. Vanderweyde, but the clothes are those which Mr. Bradlaugh actually wore. Are we to infer from this that when Mr. Vanderweyde photographed Mr. Bradlaugh the latter did not wear the clothes which he actually wore ? The photographic profession will be much exercised in its mind if the rumour be true that the Queen now refuses altogether to be photographed. The story is that Her Majesty was completely satisfied with the portraits taken of her in the jubilee year, and that she thinks these can not be improved. The Queen and the Royal family have been such good friends to photography and photographers that we doubt the truth of all this. At the same time, it is quite likely she may object to be the subject of a snap-shot. It seems that one of the gentlemen in waiting had the presumption to present his camera as she was passing, and, though Her Majesty afterwards asked for a proof and laughed at the caricature, it was understood that the act must not be repeated. Probably this is the founda tion for the rumour referred to. Mr. Garrett P. Serviss, in an article in the New York Popular Science Montlily, deals with the probable longevity of the sun, observing that the question whether it is still approaching the climax of its radiations or has passed that point and is descending the scale, depends, so far as our knowledge concerns, upon the revelations of the spectro scope assisted by photography. The conclusion Mr. Serviss comes to is, that there is every reason to believe the sun will long continue in its present condition, and that astronomers a million years hence may still be found studying the sun, though it would not be safe to assume that any astronomers will be left upon the earth five million years hence.
