THE DUST WE HAVE TO BREATHE. 267 



might be effective in dispossessing many a terrible 

 malady which now holds sway from time to time over 

 our towns 



(From the Daily News, March 6, 1869.) 



PHOTOGRAPHIC GHOSTS. 



ON the outskirts of the ever-widening circle lighted up 

 by science there is always a border-land wherein super- 

 stition holds sway. ' The arts and sciences may drive 

 away the vulgar hobgoblin of darker days; but they 

 bring with them new sources of illusion. The ghosts of 

 old could only gibber ; the spirits of our day can read 

 and write, and play on divers musical instruments, and 

 quote Shakespeare and Milton. It is not, therefore, 

 altogether surprising to learn that they can take photo- 

 graphs also. You go to have your photograph taken, 

 we will suppose, desiring only to see your own features 

 depicted in the carte ; and lo ! the spirits have been at 

 work, and a photographic phantom makes its appear- 

 ance beside you. It is true this phantom is of a hazy 

 and dubious aspect : the ' dull mechanic ghost ' is in- 

 distinct, and may be taken for anyone. Still, it is not 

 difficult for the eye of fancy to trace in it the linea- 

 ments of some departed friend, who, it is to be assumed, 

 has come to be photographed along with you. In fact, 

 photography, according to the spiritualist, resembles 

 what Byron called 



