Conservative ,
THE OLD TOWN CLOCK.
( Monroe , Michigan ) .
On the public square in the quiet town
The Court House stands , and , looking down ,
AH If thu gnnrdinn of the placu ,
In scon the clock's familiar face
AH from the tower o'er trco tops tall
It hourly tolln the time to nil.
In Hummer days from the street below ,
So closely do the green leaves grow ,
Its hands , slow moving , can scarce bo seen ;
But o'er the rustling boughs of green ,
Above the song of the joyous bird ,
Its warning voice is plainly heard.
"Tho hour has gone , " rings the faithful chime
That tells again the flight of time ,
And through the shaded and still old streets
The bell tone lingers and repeats.
Down River Raisin that flows along
With low and gently rippling song
Of shallow murmurs that douper grow
Are sent thu bell tones faint and low.
They warn the fisherman in the bay
To note the passing hour of day.
They call the dreamer , who , out afloat
Among the islands in his boat ,
Is drifting on 'ncath the the summer sky
Where shadows fall and the sunbeams lie ,
And lotus flowers lift creamy heads
Above the swaying lily beds.
And , faintly ringing , the bell's sweet sound
Sweeps o'er the marshy hunting ground ,
Whoso waters tranquilly move from rest
To swell Lake Erie's blue waves' crest.
A saddened depth has the clock's slow chime
As if it grieved o'er vanished time ,
And seems to waft like a sigh through air
To reach the hillside , still and fair ,
The consecrated , the sacred spot
Where many rest who hear it not.
Unheeded , echoes arc falling there
Among the sleepers who've ceased from earn ,
Who heard it oft , perchance loved well
The daily warning of the bell.
The hours , the days of their lives are told ;
They rest together , the young , the old ,
So hushed , so silent , no earthly sound
Will call them from that sleep profound.
Yet o'er their names on the hallowed stones
The old Town Clock rings out its tones.
MAUY FKKKCH MOUTON.
PHOTOGUAPIIY.
[ W. H. Jackson , landscape photographer , inter-
viewed. The world's greatest camera artist
tells of his work the world over. Ho has
taken CO.OOO landscapes ] .
It is an interesting fnct that W. H.
Jackson , the official photographer of the
Detroit Photographic Co. , now in this
city getting photographs for the Santa
Fo railroad company , is the most fam
ous scenic and landscape photographer
of the world. His prints , especially of
the mountain scenery of the western
United States are known the world over ,
and the United States government hns a
large number of his negatives. Ho was
interviewed last evening by The Facts
reporter and some interesting state
ments were made by Mr. Jackson. He
was asked how long he had been engaged -
gaged in photography.
"Since 1868 , or over thirty years , "
said he. "I came out of the army with
a roving spirit and in 18G6-7 visited the
Pacific coast. I came to Los Angeles
and there purchased a lot of ponies ,
which I sold on my way back East.
This trip caused mo to decide to take
up landscape photography as a business ,
as it seemed to offer an opportunity for
gratifying my desire to rove about and
it was a work I knew that I would
enjoy ns I had dabbled in it a little. So
I took up the work and was soon en
gaged upon the photography of the sceii-
ery along the then now and first trans
continental railway , the Union Pacific.
This was my first great work , and my
last was for the trans-Siberian railway ,
in which I made photographs from Eur-
oponn Russia to the Pacific coast for
this big road. "
"You were with Hayden on his United
States geological surveywere you not ? "
"Yes ! For ten years I tramped over
the country doing work for the govern
ment upon this survey and in it I visited
nearly every state and territory west of
the Rockies. This wns , of course , in
the ago of the old collodiau plate , or wet
process photography , where it was
necessary to set up a tent and get out
a chemical laboratory before a picture
could bo made. To pack around the
material and make four dozen large
negatives was no small task. In this
work there was no beaten path to fol
low , no guide to show the way , and we
pushed forward as best we could. In
summer the heat wo experienced while
visiting the cliff dwellings and the
pueblos of Arizona and New Mexico
was almost intolerable. But wo got
some good photographs and ninny of the
plates are now in possession of the gov
ernment. "
"Besides this scenery along the trans-
Siberian railway , you have done other
foreign work have- you not ? "
"Yes , I circled the globe in 1894-5 and
6 , spending over a year and a half in
the undertaking and got many pictures ;
but my most serious work has been in
this country , particularly in the West
and notably among the mountains of
Colorado. I have , however , visited
nearly every state and territory in the
Union and have photographed exten
sively in a number of them. Florida
has been pretty well done and the Yo-
scmito valley. "While I have done con
siderable work in California , much re
mains to be taken , and during the pres
ent visit wo expect to got a pretty com
plete series of southern California
views. "
"What do you consider your greatest
achievement in photography ? "
"This would bo hard to state definitely
as I can hardly call any one picture the
most successful unless it bo gauged by
the way the public hns received it. I
think that from this point of view the
picture of the Mount of the Holy Cross
is the greatest one I have taken. This
was taken twenty-five years ago , while
upon the geological survey , and it was
at this time that the location of the
mountain was fixed. There had been
rumors afloat of the great cross upon
the mountain and a number of different
parties had been searching for it. I was
with a party of the Hayden survey going
in the reported direction of the moun
tain ; wo met a detachment of Wheeler's
topographical survey and they told mo
that it would bo useless to go on , as
they had searched all that region , but
we pressed on. That night v/o wore
caught by darkness about 1,500 feet
above timber line without overcoats or
blankets , and spent the night huddled
together under the shelter of rocks.
The next forenoon as we passed over n
high peak the cross rose before us in all
its grandeur not over 1,000 feet away.
Wo had no water to prepare our plates
for this was the time of the wet pro
cess and had to wait until nearly noon
for the sun to melt enough snow for
water to do the work. But it was
worth thn while. While wo were there
the other searching party came up over
the summit of the Mount of the Holy
Cross from behind. Comparatively few
people have seen this cross. Although
it is pointed out from the trains , it is
really not visible from any point upon
the railroad. Then , too , it is only when
there is just the right quantity of snow
to fill the crevasses and no more that ,
the cross is perfectly formed. "
"Of your foreign pictures what do
you consider the best ? "
"Taken as a whole I think that the
scries of the temples of India are the
best. You will remember that Harper's
magazine published a large number of
these in 1895-G. I had made a definite
arrangement with the Harpers before
going , to supply these pictures and they
paid me enough for them to cover the
cost of the trip and I reserved the nega
tives and all rights save for the repro
duction of the pictures in the magazine.
The most artistic picture I have , my
friends say , is of a Maori girl at the
spring in New Zealand. I don't know
why it is so , except that the girl struck
a most pensive attitude as she seated
herself upon the stones , and everything
seemed to bo just right to give the most
artistic effect. I am. sorry that I have
not a copy of this picture with me. "
"How many pictures have you taken
since you began thirty years ago ? "
"I have never kept count , but must
have taken an average of over 1,000 a
year ; sometimes not so many and some
times as many as 5,000 or 0,000 a year ,
as when I was abroad. I have taken at
least 50,000 altogether. These have all
been landscapes , with occasional figure
pieces to show typical people of various
countries. I have never done portrait
work. "
"Have you the negatives still ? "
"Tho government has some , some
were not kept and about 20,000 of them
were turned over to the Detroit Photo
graphic Co. in exchange for stock. I
am a stockholder in the company. "
"What effect has making photography
so easy and simple to do , by means of.
