The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 26, 1896, Page 15

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JANUARY 26, 1896. 15 mafljgeurfi)oto ) > o Tanas. graphers '\ JE cannot all be painters, nexther‘ YV can we all be poets. We may | © 7 neither be able to paint ideal pic- tures with nor by the aid of | bri alette make the canvas breathe a poem of nature; but it is nevertheless within the realm of possi-* words, itors who are qualified to judge that the clubrooms of this S8an Francisco amateur organization are the very finest of thekind in America; and furthermore, it is main- tained by artists who have attended the amateur photographers’ ctubs of London | and Paris that even in those Old World The Launch of the Oregon, by H. B. Hosmer. VA \ ty for all of us to obtain most faithful i often truly poetic pictures of pature h the instrume of the camera, The natural beauties which abound in Cal & are being more fully and more es fur- rtempla- ted as ti for with only lition to 1 cooking v is com- amera, and it that nearly ng party is duly v be fou S beae— =g | O1d Sam, by H. B. Hosmer. | that one may bring the mountain oaks or | pines or redwoods, the fretful brooks and their flowery banks—even the rollicking | waves of the dark, blue sea, as well as “‘the | oidest inhabitant”—back home with him | in his pocket, and thus possess about the w attractive mementos of the summer trip. | The California Camera Club of this City | s exercised no small influence in bring- | about such a eonsummation. For years its members have been carrying | their cameras into scemic localities both near and remote, and the club has grown | in importance almost in proportion to the | growth of the camera fad. It is a fact admitted by all Eastern vis- | | tween the amateur photographer: | tive scenes of the Pine Tree State | finding | visit Truckee on Sunday next, each mem- and so well equipped and the apparatus is not so complete as is that of the California | Camera Club. | The Camera Club is composed of 162 active members and 39 associate members, the latter embracing practical photog- raphers who live outside the limit of fifty miles from this Ci Some of the | associate members reside i in Europe. The lady relatives of the ac priv e members are also admitted to the eges of associate members. The as- | sociates are entitled to the use of the club’s | apparatus, library, darkroom, etc., and differ only from active members in not having a vote at the club’s meetings. Active members pay an entrance fee of $10, and their dues are $3 per quarter. As- sociates pay mno initiation fee, and are assessed §150 per quarter. Furthermore there are 211 subscribing members. A lectnre and stereopticon exhibition is g4ven once a week at the Metropolitan | Temple. It should be noted in this con- nection that the idea of free illustrated lectures at regular intervals which has been adopted in many cities originated with the California Camera Club. On Fri- day evening last the seventy-third con- secutive monthly entertainment of club took piace. Now the subscribing members pay §1 50 per quarter and receive | each four tickets of admission to theil- | lecture, but that is the extent of | rivileges. At the club’s weekly meetings discus- sions of methods are engaged in, and there are frequent stereopticon exhibitions. Be- associa- | tions of this country a close relationship | is maintained. An interchange of slides | is one of the features of this friendly | 1 | | | union, and by this means there is afforded | an endless variety of stercopticon views. | The most recent exchange was with the | Portland (Me.) club, and thus the attrac- | fur- nished an evening of pleasure and amuse- ment for the San Francisco amateurs, while the Portland club was doubtless not unprofitable pastime in a stereopticon entertainment that pictured | to them some of the scenes for which the | Golden State is famous. To these weekly lectures the club members invite their | friends. | The present officers of the California | Camera Club are: President, A. G. Mc- Farland; first vice-president, I. E. Thayer; | second vice-president, W. B. Webster; secretary, C. F. Cormack; treasurer, E. G. sen; librarian, H. C. Owens: correspond- ing secretary, C. 8. Close; directors—E. J. | Mott, B. W. Jensen, E. G. Zeile and W. E Goodrum. If the weather is propitious the club will | ber taking his camera along. Views of | i Scenc Near Crystal Springs, by H. B, Hosmer. the ice palace will be taken; Donner Lake will be visited, and on the return trip the Sierras will be crossed in the daytime, to give the club a chance to snatch some Snow scenes in the mountains. Following this excursion will be one to Castle Crags and Mount Shasta. Among the delightful rural scenes which the Camera Club regales itself with in the course of its outings throughout the year there are spots that only prove the pov- erty of a pencil description, and from which even the eye of the camera can take only half an impression. Within a few ! hours’ ride of this City are places of which | the gentle Druid, Thomson, might have dreamed in his poetic soul; for this beau- tiful passage from the “Castle of Indo- lence’” might be applied hereabouts in scores of instances: Was naught around but images of rest; Sleep-soothing groves and quiet lawns between, And flowery beds that slumberous influence kest, From popples breathed; and beds of pleasant green, Where never yet was creeping creature seen. | Meantime played, And hurled everywhere their waters sheen; That, as they bickered through the sunny glade, Though restless still themselves, a lulling mur- | mur made. | The California Camera Club follows art | for the pleasure it affords, and, in a| measure it is true, too, that it follows | unnumbered glittering streamlets | A Cocoanut Head, by Dr. E. G. Eisen, “The Launch of the Oregon,” the battle-ship now receiving the fin- ishing touches at the Union Iron Works, is an excellent view taken at a favorable moment from a command- ing position. Tke other photograph is thatof a cottage on the road to the big dam at Crystal Springs, San Mateo County. Itis a familiar landmark to all who have yisited that inviting region. The members of the Camera Club are ments. would earn patronage by its merits. Nearly all of these comic views are in miniature form, being intended primarily for slides, which furnish rich variety at the stereopticon lectures. The “Lagunitas Creek Scene,” by W- 8. Hochstadur, is a rare piece of photo- graphic work, The Camera Club has taken several outings in this particular locality, and the view presented by Mr. Hochstaater is one of the happiest of the many happy efforts made to do justice to the picturesque place. Glassy stream and overhanging boughs and beautiful foliage are not the only attractions of that region. Lagunitas Creek, near Taylors- ville, in Marin County, is one of the best fishing-streams in the country, and so | there is plenty of fine sport thereabouts, as well as a wealth of scenery. “Black Point” will be recognized by every one at all familiar with San Fran- cisco Bay. Itis from a photograph by W. J. Street, who has obtained an exceedingly good effect. The Golden Gate is visible in the distance. “Drying Bails” on the ship Clan Mac- | kenzie conveys a fine idea of the appear- ance of a big ship under those conditions. The camera artist, H. E. Owens, succeeded | admirably in his selection of distance and point of view, and thus made a creditable contribution to the club’s collection. The sketch of ‘‘Agua Caliente,” Sonoma County, is from a photograph by Miss M. E. Faucompre! Agua Caliente is a station on the line of the S. F.and N. P. C.rail- | road, near Glen Ellen. Hot soda springs in the vicinity give the place its name. Water at 110 degrees comes up out of the ground. The scene in the picture is that of a bridge over the creek, near the station, and the character of the surrounaings is shown with artistic faithfulness. In the cabins along the Alviso marshes no man is more highly esteemed than “‘0ld Sam.” He was boatman and cabin tender thereabouts for many years, and all the sporting clubmen who every win- ter haunt the Alviso siough, where ducks Lagunitas, by W. S. Hochstadter, vleasure for the art | not forever seeking it affords. Itssum-| after mirroring waters and charming ruraf They are a versatile set, mer outings are | nooks, however. with lon T ging eyes | abound, know ““Old Sam” as a sturdy | mer obtained the friend and valued sporting companion. The old man’s full name is Sam Collier. view of “Old Sam” |from which the sketch is made. fraught with rare | and have as much genuine fun on their | Lately he has given up life on the marshes enjoyment. | outings as any cor-pany of picnickers who | and settled down with his good old wife| That “a thing of During summer | seek merely to swim, as it were, in care- | on_a farm near Newark. *Old Sam’ is beauty is a joy for- and autumn the | free joy from dewy morn till dusky eve. | quite well off, and although on the down- ever” is a truism club goes into the | The comic pictures of the club would make | hull side of 70 he is as spry on his feet and that finds response dounke i An oo a large volume, and such a volume as | as buoyant of spirit as ever. H. B. Hos- 2 in the poetic soul of ing once a week, Dr. E. G. Eisen. The Marin, Sonoma, doctor has given the Napa, Contra Costa, world a bit of high Alameda, Santa art in his superb Clara and San Ma- teo counties have been traveled over, and these visits are bappily recalied by the wealth of views that are added to the club’s collec- tion. Tue CAiL to-day presents a number of choice camera views by members of the California club. They covera variety of subjects, although, for the most part, they treat of scenes on and around the bay of S8an Francisco. “The Launch of the Oregon” and a “Scene Near Crystal Springs” are from the collection of Harry B. Hosmer, and it isonly just to say here that Mr. Hosmer’s work in photography, and as au amateur, chal- lenges ccomparison among those who are not profession- als and is equal to the best profes. sional achieves photographic achievement enti- tled ** A Cocoanut Head.” It is a re- markable study in cocoanut, and, it is natural to suppose, one to which the medico looks with pardonable pride. Visitors to the Mid winter Fair will remember the per- forming equilibrist, who always adopted asa means of loco- motion a small steam carriage. Each afternoon he gave a performance in the grand court of the exposition, A scaffolding was here erected, attach- ed to which was a spiral descending plane. At the top rung of the plane the performer placed a large, round, wooden ball. Taking his stand on this ana holding in his hand a wood- en pole by way of balance, he gradu- ally worked his feet, s An Equilibrist at the Ezposition, by Emanucl Elzas. |y | | | | Black Point, by W. J. | | | causing himself and the ball to slowly | descend the spiral plane—a very difficult | not to say dangerous feat. His perform- | ance was always watched by vast crowds, who cheered vociferously. The sketch is from an instantaneous photograph by | | Emanue! Elzas, and shows the performer | in the act of descending the plane. Itil- | lustrates the remarkable strides made by photography in the last few years with | the aid of rapid plates and lenses. The | | time occupied in exposing the original 'negative plate was one twenty-fifth of a | | second on a sunny day. | Among other notable pieces of work | of local amateurs should be mentioned | “Enoch Arden’s First Signal,” which is a | | dramatic piece of work by Jesse Pound- | stone. A member of the club posed for the effect, and its original object was to | | represent the actual predicament of a certain young man who, while out duck- hunting, tarried too longon a reef and as cut off from the mainland by the | rising tide. | A snapshot by H. B. Sullivan deserves mention. The vieture caused no end of merriment among the friends of the sub- ject, and the subject himself is said to have recovered from his first impuise to | annihilate the perpetrator of the joke and | | to have falien in love with this highly suc- cessful *‘attempt at distortion,” mede with a Waterbury lens on an extended figure. On the whole the amateur artists of the | City have abundant reason to be proud of their club and proud of their artistic achievements, and San Francisco has rea- son to be proud of her amateur knights of the magic lens. In very few :hings, out- | side of climate and natural resources, | must New York and Boston and Baltimore | yield the palm to the City by the Golden Gate, but this is one of them—our amateur photographers have left the old cities of the East completely in the shade. ! A Tiara and Its Fortunes. In 1789 Pius VI had his tiara altered, and | | it was reset by Carlo Sartori, the Pope’s | | jeweler, with the addition of three dia- | | mon.is of large size, thirty-six smaller ones, | | twenty-four large balas rabies from Mogul, | | twenty-two large Oriental sapphires, twelve | rubies and a large number of pearls, | with this inscription in diamonds: *“Ex- | | Munificentia Pii VI, P. 0. M.” Pius | VI was, as is well known, forced by the | | French to dispose of this tiara, as well as | of most of his treasures, to pay in part the | 6,000,000 francs required by the treaty ot Tolentino in 1 Napoleon I, in the month of June, 1805, sent as a gift to Pius VIIa new and magnificent tiara, on the summit of which again appeared the cele- brated emerald of Gregory XIIL It wasg presented to the Pope by Cardinal Fesch, the Emperor's Minister Plenipotentiary, and the Pope, in hisletter of thanks, dated Jun , 1805, informed the Emperor of his intention to use it for the first time at the Papal mass on the Feastof Saints Peter and Paul. When the Pope was taken Drying Sails, by H. . Owens. prisoner in 1809 by the Emperor, this tiara was seized by General Miollis, together with other treasure, and taken back to Paris; but, on the restoration of the monarchy and the return of the Pope to Rome, it was restored to him by Louis XVIIT. —Notes and Querie It is believed that shooting stars are small solid bodies, revolving round the sun. Asthey are traveling in a contrary direction to the earth, the velocity with which they enter our atmosphere is very great—on an average about thirty miles g second.