Letters of Lydia Maria Child, with a biographical introduction by John G. Whittier and an appendix by Wendell Phillips.

2.34 LETTERS.
talking over all the affairs of the universe. I don't
look into a German book, for there is nobody to
hear me "speak my pieces" now.
TO MRS. S. E. SEWALL.
June 11, 1875.
Finding Robert F. Wallcut very desirous of a photograph of me, and having none to give him, I went
to have some taken. A neighbor here told me
wonderful stories about a spirit-photograplher. So I
thought I would go to him to have my photograph
taken, and, without saying anything, see what would
happen. When he showed me the negative, I said,
"There is no other figure than my own on the plate."
"Did you wish for any other? " he asked. I thought
to myself, "So they don't come unless they are bargained for!" But I merely said, "If any departed
friends had been reflected on the plate, it would have
been gratifying, of course."
"It takes a longer time to procure the photographs
of spirits," he replied, "and therefore I charge as
much for six as I do for twelve of the common kind."
I told him I would like to have him try, on condition
that I neither took them, nor paid for them, unless
there came the likeness of somebody I had known.
He demurred, and said people must take their chance.
A young clerk in the establishment looked at me
twice and smiled very significantly during our conversation. The photographer seemed embarrassed
and impatient; but lie finally consented to my terms.
He took the second plate out and carried it into another room, where he remained three times as long as
he had done with the negative of my first photograph.
When he brought it to me, at last, there were two