Wholesale Photography.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 269, 5 January 1875, Page 7

Wholesale Photography.

A'few days sineo, Killinglv, Connecticut, had a baby-show., It came off in the ifDongregntiona] Church;, and •■, a writer in the Hartford Times describes the affair thus;: There were little babies and bur habiess —sweet ton&ufis and squally tongues— Tight babies and dark babies—b'ondes and brunettes. Anions (he letter was one of thi) Afiiean type, with a little round head like a bullet, and eves ditto. Thnre was a baby from Brooklvn. New York, and one from Providence. The handsomest baby of all, and the most riehly dressed, too. was a baby fro n Brooklyn. Connecticut, but its mother refused to e iter it on the list of prize contestants,"not wishing to put it on exhibition or to make a prize babv of it; Over fifty babies were entered on the list, and f rtv-one were present. Pour of the tifw died befrn* > the da" arrived. When thev were all collected, a i(holograph of the whole lot was taken in the arms of mothers and nurses, sitting on the front steps of the church; Rut the task of arranging forty-one babies to be photographed all at once proved rather formidable.. Fifteen or 'twenty at a time could be managed very comfortably'; but as fas'" as these were got into position. 15 or 20 others threw up their arms or heels juid squealed. Some doubled up fists and punched their mothers in the face. T volunteered to hold a small, lymphatic infant, which Tcept on its srood behaviour. i tried to get the little African, but it was otherwise enga:.re:l. The baby that sat iust behind me fastened both fists into mv hair and set up a lustvhowl, in concert with another on the left, who had for some time been sounding all the notes of the gamut. The indefatigible photographer kept np th° nNgrjng spirits of the. baby tenders, and his own too, procuring fresh plates as fast as one was spoiled by this restless mass of babies. At last it was announced that n passable picture was taken, and the babies adiourned to the inside of the church for refreshments and prizes. The'-e were three classes of babies, and a prize for .the handsomest of each class. The first class included those l>etween two and three years of age ) tho second those, between one and two ; and the third those under one year. There wore three judges for each cla^a—-

nine judges ia all. The child that drew' the first prize, a solid silver cup lined with gold, was a'bright I flue-eyed, little girl by" the irtmo of Mary Jane llallowell. The second prize—a ai'tver knife and fork, m\(\ S|)6ou —was drawn by a one-year-older, a little; French Ctrl Tinnied Exilder JarentMlive ill Kiliingly, her father following the brick-making business. Tlie third prize—a silver napkin ring—was drawn by a bright little Puna'tbaby named Ohamplain. Whether l>oy or girl f didn't learn. A baby judge doesn't occupy the most pleasant position in the world, if there ar-3 forty babies to judge von runs! inevitably, rile the feelings of 'thirty-nine; ■mothers, for each one thinks her own tin: handsomest, as eveiy crow thinks its own the whitest. " That baby got the prize !" said a woman, curling up the hair of a little dot of a thing. '•' That, biiby got the prize! Humph.; I know of a good'many handsomer than that one'!" And she gave a vigorous brush to each curl,jis to emphasize the fact that her baby waft .h.a : nrkoiner, prize or no prize.