GETTING YOUR PICTURE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3212, 15 October 1881, Page 5 (Supplement)

GETTING YOUR PICTURE.

The operator is about to withdraw the •ioth. His back is towards you. J.'lic iniex finger of his unoccupied hand mutely narks cue place for your eye. livery nerve in your body is braced for the ordeal, xhe jloth is drawn; and the noiseless and unseen fingers of the prepared plate are picking up your features one ay ous, md transferring them to its mysterious surface. What an iniiue.net! is t.hin yon ■ire under, and winch you i-.anr.oi cijjaiu, which weakens every nerve, aud unloosens every cord and muscle and sets trco jpoii and over you a myriad of sensations >ou never knew before ! i'he eye of the jamera glares upon you line the i-ye of an jtfended and threatening power. Prickling sensations are felt in your scalp ; and a heat evolved within, which, with amazing rapidity dushes to the surface of your body, and leaves it pierced with a thousand pains. i"ou stare at the mark with an intensity that threatens to obliterate your sight. Heavens I now slowly tho time drags! ifour eyes grow weaker and weaker, lilling with water as they die out. You know tuat they are closing but you cannot help yourself. Will ne put back that cloth ? .a. thousand rejections upon your appearance, on the sounds in tiie streets, on things irreverent aid disastrous to your oouipoaure, doua your mind and take audi hold upon you, tuat you cannot shake tueiu off. Aud yet uo move to restore that cloth. He stands due a statute cut from flint, and you quivering from the crown of the head to toe sole of the foot, with eyes blinded by tears, with perspiration oozing from every pore, and every muscle strained until it seems ready do snap, and let you down upon the floor, a mass of disfigured and palpitating flesh, de ueed not put up the cloth now. The opportunity which he controlled to reproduce you in perfection has gone. It matters not now how it looks, only that you get away, and be at rest. You grow hysteric in your despair. It settles down upon you like a cloud, compressing your throat wthin its grasp, until your breath surges yuck on to your lungs as if it would rend them. a weight is pressing upon you. Yon =truagle to wrench yourself free from the dreadful oppression, and yet not a ir.uscle of your body is in motion. What dreadful uiiing is this? Yo\x must shriek; you — the cloth is up ; the thirty seconds have expired; and you are photographed.— Danbury Newsman,