THE WOMBAT. 49 



this latter process invited swarms of all sorts and conditions 

 of people to the practice of it. Its easy method could be 

 mastered by anyone. Clumsy ignorance, coarse impecunious- 

 ness, rushed to it, as if it were a mine of gold. It lived its 

 day of prosperity, and then passed away before the various 

 paper processes that began to find favor. Of these the "carte 

 de visite " was highly remunerative for some time. At the 

 introduction of these paper pictures an artistic taste began to 

 assert itself. An artist here and there drifting unrecognised 

 on the tracks of fate had the acuteness to see this new business 

 lying like an Eldorado before him, and he stepped in 

 among the intensely ignorant, who were the bulk of those who 

 just found its riches. This addition of artistic operators soon 

 began to raise the standard of work in photography in the 

 large towns. Unfortunately some of the prosperous began 

 to employ inferior artists to work for them, and this, though 

 it did not impede the progress of the profession on the whole, 

 was at the same time a very ungracious characteristic, which 

 is only too prevalent now. The artists who took pride in 

 doing their own work have almost fallen out of sight. 



As photographers increased in number, and photography 

 found public favour, so miniature painting died out, Sir 

 William Ross being among the last who made it a success. 

 The painter's room had held a charm of its own hitherto. It 

 seemed as if poetry, elegance, beauty, radiated an influence 

 from every corner, all qualified by the Bohemian charm of the 

 owner. The photographer in his glass house took possession 

 of the people. A tale is told of two gentlemen who were 

 walking through a photographer's waiting room into the 

 operating room to speak to the photographer ; one gentleman 

 was smoking; an assistant stopped them and said, "Gentlemen, 

 you must not smoke, this is no common hartist's studio 

 remember ! " The intruders retreated hastily. One was an 

 architect, and the other an artist of great repute at that time. 

 What is Fine Art ? A trustworthy person once said, " Fine 

 Art is the work of the head, the heart, and the hands." Does 

 the photograph employ all these in its production ? It must 

 do before it can be classed among the fine arts. When the 

 light artist works, he places a sitter in a glass house, and 

 having arranged him or her hastily beside various accessories, 



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