When daguerreotypes were first made, when we heard that the sun
was going to take everybody's portrait, it seemed almost too
great a marvel to be believed. While it was yet only a rumor that
such a thing had been done, somewhere across the sea, I saw some
verses about it which impressed me much, but which I only partly
remember. These were the opening lines:--
"Oh, what if thus our evil deeds
Are mirrored on the sky,
And every line of our wild lives
Daguerreotyped on high!"
My sister and I considered it quite an event when we went to have
our daguerreotypes taken just before we started for the West.
The photograph was still an undeveloped mystery.
Things that looked miraculous then are commonplace now. It almost
seems as if the children of to-day could not have so good a time
as we did, science has left them so little to wonder about. Our
attitude--the attitude of the time--was that of children climbing
their dooryard fence, to watch an approaching show, and to
conjecture what more remarkable spectacle could be following
behind.
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