It is so easy to mar the appearance of a well appointed studio by the employment of some piece of apparatus, usually a makeshift, that does not harmonize with the rest of the equipment.Most of us find it necessary in making certain lightings to shield the lens from an excess of light, in order to obtain the proper quality in the negative. For this purpose we have employed all sorts of makeshifts, utilizing a funnel or shield made out of heavy wrapping paper or cardboard, that cannot, even when new and clean, add anything to the appearance of the camera with which it is used.

We all of us know that appearances count for a lot and that we are apt to judge the studio by its equipment. Even when realizing this we have had to put up with an unsightly lens hood or shield because, until the advent of the Eastman Adjustable Lens Hood, a shield for this purpose was not manufactured. You can now dispense with unsightly paper funnels. Let your dealer show you.

Artura In Rolls

Hereafter Artura paper and Artura Backing paper will be listed in both 20 and 40-inch rolls instead of only in 25-inch rolls as formerly.Of course you can get the 25-inch rolls if you want them, but as the 20 and 40-inch rolls will be the ones listed, those are the ones dealers will regularly have in stock. Prices of Artura in rolls .

A Moral Tale

This is going to be a good story because it isn't true, so the characters and plot will work out right. Once upon a time, as all orthodox fairy tales begin, a good young man was walking along a dusty country road, it was June and the birds were singing merrily; glancing down he spied a brightly shining object; picking it up he discovered it was a brand new portrait lens working , so he decided to become a professional photographer. Reaching at last the gates of the great city, he glanced about him for a studio and noticing a house with a sign on it Take One '' he moved in. Some previous tenant had carelessly left behind him a portrait camera and half a dozen plate holders, together with a brand new black background. I wish the background had a scene painted on it, he murmured, but no matter, I can work in my backgrounds and be right up to the minute a la Garo.

Desiring to commence business he clapped his hands and summoned the fairy queen (capitals are usually used for this purpose, but she was new at the game). I want some sample prints for my show case, he said. Disappearing for an instant she returned with two trunks of costumes and a case of Seed 26 X plates. Get busy, she said, for I saw a plate tank demonstrator and two paper demonstrators heading this way and they will develop your plates and make your prints for you. In a jiffy the work was completed, not a failure among them, and all mounted on Tap-bell's latest creations, for the F. Q. had given him a dollar and a quarter's worth of stamps to send for Tap-bell's complete sample line.

Glancing outside he saw a beauteous maid eagerly inspecting his display - then the door slowly opened and she timidly entered. I'm the real goods behind the reception counter, she said, and I can make a welsh rarebit and do fine mending, and so they were married and lived happily ever after.

Moral: It pays to be kind to the Demonstrators.

Another Game

There is said to be a gentlemanly appearing slick talker at large, who may or who may not cross your path with an advertising proposition that on the face of it is attractive, and one that you would be apt to accept.

The proposition is alleged to be this. He is to act as a representative of your studio and sell contracts to residents of your town for fifty cents each. The contract states that upon the payment of the fifty cents the buyer is entitled to one portrait mounted in a handsome seal grain folio.

Your agreement with the contract-selling gentleman is that he is to furnish you with one seal grain folio for every contract sold.

Your part of the agreement is to honor every contract that comes in by making a sitting and finishing one print free of charge, depending upon duplicate orders for your profits.

As we have said before, the proposition is all right, but a down-East photographer wants to warn you through these columns that there is sometimes a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip.

His experience, so he says, was both unpleasant and unprofitable, and if said slick talker behaves everywhere as he is reported to have acted in this particular instance, a warning is not out of order.

The agent said he would order the seal grain folios and have them sent to the studio.He did, but they are said to have come by express C. O. D.The photographer took it up with the house which sent them to see if there was not some mistake, but they stated that they had followed the agent's instructions.

Customers were getting anxious, and the photographer paid the C. O. D., took the folios out of the express office to keep the peace, located the agent, writing him to that effect, asking him to refund the money on the ground that he had agreed to furnish the folios free of charge.

He is said to have answered that the photographer would have a swell chance" to get a penny from him, and that he should consider himself lucky to get the folios at any price. We might add that all transient agents who are reliable will be able to give references. Avoid the unreliable.