PHOTOGRAPHY'S QUEER SIDE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2273, 23 September 1897, Page 47

PHOTOGRAPHY'S QUEER SIDE.

Few people have much notion of the queer Bide of photography — the extraordinary cases in whioh photographs have played a port. Yet when one remembers* that there are estimated to be over 15,000 professional photographers, in these islands of ours, and quite an innumerable aray oE amateurs — some of them as olsver as professionals— it is easy to imagine that their productions have in many instances had remarkable experiences.

A photograph exhibited in a shop window at Bristol somalaw years back became somewhat celebrated. It was that of a young girl, and it evidently took the fancy of an old gentleman who one day saw it in the window. Inquiry made by him as to the original failed to secure very satisfactory information; the photographer had only recently bought the business, and the photo waa one of an old stock. The old gentleman was wealthy and alone in the world, save for only remote relatives ; and',- failing to discover the ilesh-and-blood original of tbe likeness, he left £3000 in ,'bie will to go to her, providing his executors could find her within two years of his death. As he left a considerable sum for the purpose of paying the. expenses of the search, inquiries were mads far and wid*. AM, however, without success. The fair original was never diioovered.

Photos often play important parts in breach-of-promiee caEes, and at the risk of even injuring my business, let me warn the ardent lover that havine his photo taken with the lady of his choice—especially if, in the fervour of his passion, he chooses to adopt an affectionate attitude — is

A VERY BISKY PitOCEEDIKG. Little, I expect, did a certain gentleman who recently figured in the courts — being sued for the compensation due to blighted affection — imagine that an eighteeapenny pboto taken at Margate was to very considerably help in mulcting him in a further £430, with costs, A photo like that in the hands of a clever counsel, pleading on behalf of a jilted fair one, works wonders with a ansceptiole jury.

It was no doubt the recognition of the weight attaching to such a piece of evider.ee that some time back led to a very audacious attempt being made in a like case to deceive a court by means of a £aked photo. The young man and the young lady were discovered in the likeness aide by 'tide, and the gentleman's arm bad a very suspicious appearance of being somewhere at the back of the fair one's waist. The pboto, it was alleged, had been taken " oxythe sands " at Hastings, and, as usual in such cases, was a tin affair, with no name or address of a photographer upon it. The defendant swore most emphatically that he had never been so photographed ; but still, there he and she were — there could be no doubt about it. It was only through a discovery msde by a secret inquiry »gent that the truth came out. A photographer bad from the separate photos of the man. and girl made a composite photograph of the' two, receiving a considerable bum for tbe fraud.

Few people imagine that photography can be made to play such tricks. A pboto " cannot lie" they bay. If they only knew But I am not going to give away all the tricks of the profession.

An officer who served in the Egyptian war told me • A YEEY SAD FACT IN CONKECHON WITH

PBOTOGBAPHY..

AEter an engagement iv which some of our men have fallen, it is the custom to search the bodies before burial for any possessions the dead men may have upon them, with a view to restoring theih to the killed one's friends. It is the rarest thing possible not to find some photo upon the pocr dead chap— the likeness of someone deareßt to bis heart, which he has carried with him into the fight which was to stop bis heart for ever. The officer told me that he had often seen the oldest and bravest soldiers break down and cry like children -when they came across these relics on their dead comrades.

It is needless to say that photos have led to the arrest of numberless criminal;. A likeness is one of tbe first things the police look for whe.n a person . " bolts," and I Jiava often wondered at the recklessness anown by offenders in manufacturing this help to the sleuth-hounds of tbe law.

-In one case .a photo was neatly use&ito put the police off the track. A detectivaengaged in the case-supplied the details to me A The man wanted had, it Was- suspected, and as it really turned out:, been engaged in the robbery of* a bank, and after effecting his coup, promptly disappeared.' In spite of all his precautions the police suspected who the perpetrator was*, and paid a visit to his house. In his desk they found several photos of a man, and one of thorn was wrapped in a piece of a torn letter, apparently from a friend, saying how much he considered the photo like the man wanted. Without further inquiry, the police jumped to the conclusion that it was the photo of the man they were pursuing, and flashed details of it all over the country. As a matter of fact, the photo was not his at all, and had been placed there only to put the police on a wrong scent. It succeeded. While the detectives at the ports were all looking .out for the innocent original of the photograph, the real clever scoundrel passed through their firgers, and escaped to America. A brother London photographer had A QUEER EXPERIENCE last year. Hew*s one day -waited on by a gentleman who gave him no name, but whOj handing him four £5 notes, requested his services in .the following case. A girl had been found dead in the Thames, and was then lying ia one of the dead-houses. The photographer was to take steps to get a photo of her. If he succeeded, the gentleman, who appeared to be very wealthy, promised him another £20. As may be supposed, the* photographer decided this was a matter worth exerting himself in. By the judicious laying out of a sovereign or two he obtained admission ;to the mortuary, took his snapshot of the dead girl, came away, and set to work to develop the photo for his mysterious customer. They were ready, 50 of them, when he called, were handed over, and the photographer nceired his promised £2(4

" I often wondered what on earth he could want the photo for," my friend told me. "It seemed one of the saddest businesses I had ever undertaken. Photographing the dead is a gruesome job at any time, bnt the white

fac« of that poor girl — quite a young thing — with her wide, staring dark eyes and losg,

mud-stained hair, fairly haunted me. I had decided that I should hear no more of the matter, when suddenly the result came like a thunderclap upon me. A young gentleman at the West End committed suicide by sbootiDg himself with a revolves one day.' His reason for the deed no one could imagine. H« was young, wealthy, an officer in a crack regiment, and was to be married in a day or two to a wealthy and handsome lady. He had sat down to breakfast, his valet said, and had proceeded to open his letters. Tbe servant left the room for a few moments- only, to return upon hearing a shot-, followed by a deep 1 groan. He £ound bia master dying, and on the table beside him the photo of a girl, apparently dead, and lying on a slab -in a morcnary. It was one of the photos I had taken. I learnt from the servant what did not come oat at the it quest, that these photos had come by post each -morning for some time past. Who sent them no one knew; and I held my toDgne as to emy customer. It was a queer case; and for the sake of all parties I kept silence."