In the October 1892 issue of the "St. Louis & Canadian Photographer"
(Vol. 10, No. 10, page 412) appeared the following poem:
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      The Daguerreotype.
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You hev to holt it sidewise
  Fer to make the likeness show,
'Cuz it's sort up dim an' shifty
  Till you get it right--'bout so;
An' then the eyes winks at yeh,
  an' the mouth is cherry-ripe.
Law! it beats your new-style picters,
  This old digerrytype!

Thar's a blush acrost the dimples
  Thet burrows in the cheeks;
F'om out them clumps of ringlets
  Two little small ears peeks;
Thet brooch thet jines her neck-gear
  Is what they used to wear;
A big gold frame that sprawled around,
  A lock o'--some one's hair.

'twas took 'for we was married,
  Thet there--your ma an' me.
An' times I study on it,
  Why, 't fazes me to see
Thet fifty year ain't teched her
  A lick! She's jest the same
She was when Sudie Scriggens
  Took Boone C Curs's name.

The hair is mebby whiter
  'An it was in '41,
But her cheeks is just as pinky,
  An' her smiles ain't slacked up none.
I reckon--love--er somethin'
  Yerluminates her face,
Like the crimson velver linin'
  Warms up the picter case.

'S I say, these cyardboa'd portraits
  They make me sort uh tired,
A-grinnin' forf upon yeh
  Like their very lips was wired!
Give me the old digerrytype,
  Whar the face steals on yer sight.
Like a dream thet comes by nighttime
  When yer supper's actin' right..

--Eva Wilder McGlasson, in Harper's Weekly.

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Posted for your enjoyment.      Gary W. Ewer       
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10-10-96