RECEPTION OF THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPHS
Though I was out of England at the time, I was able, even in Australia,
to realize that the appearance of the first photographs in the _Strand
Magazine_ had caused very great interest. The press comments were as
a rule cautious but not unsympathetic. The old cry of "Fake!" was
less conspicuous than I had expected, but for some years the press
has been slowly widening its views upon psychic matters, and is not
so inclined as of old to attribute every new manifestation to fraud.
Some of the Yorkshire papers had made elaborate inquiries, and I am
told that photographers for a considerable radius from the house were
cross-questioned to find if they were accomplices. _Truth_, which
is obsessed by the idea that the whole spiritualistic movement and
everything connected with it is one huge, senseless conspiracy to
deceive, concocted by knaves and accepted by fools, had the usual
contemptuous and contemptible articles, which ended by a prayer to
Elsie that she should finish her fun and let the public know how
it really was done. The best of the critical attacks was in the
_Westminster Gazette_, who sent a special commissioner to unravel
the mystery, and published the result on January 12, 1921. By kind
permission I reproduce the article:
DO FAIRIES EXIST?
INVESTIGATION IN A YORKSHIRE VALLEY
COTTINGLEY'S MYSTERY
STORY OF THE GIRL WHO TOOK THE SNAPSHOT
The publication of photographs of fairies--or, to be more explicit,
one photograph of fairies and another of a gnome--playing round
children has aroused considerable interest, not only in Yorkshire,
where the beings are said to exist, but throughout the country.
The story, mysterious as it was when first told, became even more
enigmatical by reason of the fact that Sir A. Conan Doyle made use
of fictitious names in his narrative in the _Strand Magazine_ in
order, as he says, to prevent the lives of the people concerned being
interrupted by callers and correspondence. That he has failed to do. I
am afraid Sir Conan does not know Yorkshire people, particularly those
of the dales, because any attempt to hide identity immediately arouses
their suspicions, if it does not go so far as to condemn the writer
for his lack of frankness.
It is not surprising, therefore, that his story is accepted with
reserve. Each person to whom I spoke of the subject during my brief
sojourn in Yorkshire dismissed the matter curtly as being untrue. It
has been the principal topic of conversation for weeks, mainly because
identity had been discovered.
My mission to Yorkshire was to secure evidence, if possible, which
would prove or disprove the claim that fairies existed. I frankly
confess that I failed.
The particular fairyland is a picturesque little spot off the beaten
track, two or three miles from Bingley. Here is a small village called
Cottingley, almost hidden in a break in the upland, through which
tumbles a tiny stream, known as Cottingley Beck, on its way to the
Aire, less than a mile away. The "heroine" of Sir Conan Doyle's story
is Miss Elsie Wright,[1] who resides with her parents at 31 Lynwood
Terrace. The little stream runs past the back of the house, and the
photographs were taken not more than a hundred yards away. When Miss
Wright made the acquaintance of the fairies she was accompanied by her
cousin, Frances Griffiths, who resides at Dean Road, Scarborough.
One photograph, taken by Miss Wright in the summer of 1917, when she
was sixteen, shows her cousin, then a child of ten, with a group of
four fairies dancing in the air before her, and in the other, taken
some months afterwards, Elsie, seated on the grass, has a quaint
gnome dancing beside her.
There are certain facts which stand out clearly and which none of the
evidence I was able to obtain could shake. No other people have seen
the fairies, though everybody in the little village knew of their
alleged existence; when Elsie took the photograph she was unacquainted
with the use of a camera, and succeeded at the first attempt; the
girls did not invite a third person to see the wonderful visitors, and
no attempt was made to make the discovery public.
First I interviewed Mrs. Wright, who, without hesitation, narrated
the whole of the circumstances without adding any comment. The girls,
she said, would spend the whole of the day in the narrow valley, even
taking their lunch with them, though they were within a stone's throw
of the house. Elsie was not robust, and did not work during the summer
months, so that she could derive as much benefit as possible from
playing in the open. She had often talked about seeing the fairies,
but her parents considered it was nothing more than childish fancy,
and let it pass. Mr. Wright came into possession of a small camera in
1917, and one Saturday afternoon yielded to the persistent entreaties
of his daughter and allowed her to take it out. He placed one plate in
position, and explained to her how to take a "snap." The children went
away in high glee and returned in less than an hour, requesting Mr.
Wright to develop the plate. While this was being done Elsie noticed
that the fairies were beginning to show, and exclaimed in an excited
tone to her cousin, "Oh, Frances, the fairies are on the plate!" The
second photograph was equally successful, and a few prints from each
plate were given to friends as curiosities about a year ago. They
evidently attracted little notice until one was shown to some of the
delegates at a Theosophical Congress in Harrogate last summer.
[Illustration: ELSIE SEATED ON THE BANK ON WHICH THE FAIRIES WERE
DANCING IN 1917 (PHOTO 1920)]
[Illustration: THE FALL OF WATER JUST ABOVE THE SITE OF LAST
PHOTOGRAPH]
[Illustration: C. FRANCES AND THE LEAPING FAIRY
Photograph taken by Elsie in August, 1920. "Cameo" camera. Distance. 3
ft. Time. 1/50th sec. This negative and two following (D and E) have
been as strictly examined as the earlier ones, and similarly disclose
no trace of being other than perfectly genuine photographs. Also they
proved to have been taken from the packet given them, each plate
having been privately marked unknown to the girls.]
Mrs. Wright certainly gave me the impression that she had no desire
to keep anything back, and answered my questions quite frankly. She
told me that Elsie had always been a truthful girl, and there were
neighbours who accepted the story of the fairies simply on the
strength of their knowledge of her. I asked about Elsie's career, and
her mother said that after she left school she worked a few months
for a photographer in Manningham Lane, Bradford, but did not care for
running errands most of the day. The only other work she did there was
"spotting." Neither occupation was likely to teach a fourteen-year-old
girl how to "fake" a plate. From there she went to a jeweller's shop,
but her stay there was not prolonged. For many months immediately
prior to taking the first photograph she was at home and did not
associate with anyone who possessed a camera.
At that time her father knew little of photography, "only what he had
picked up by dodging about with the camera," as he put it, and any
suggestion that he had faked the plate must be dismissed.
When he came home from the neighbouring mill, and was told the nature
of my errand, he said he was "fed up" with the whole business, and had
nothing else to tell. However, he detailed the story I had already
heard from his wife, agreeing in every particular, and Elsie's
account, given to me in Bradford, added nothing. Thus I had the
information from the three members of the family at different times,
and without variation. The parents confessed they had some difficulty
in accepting the photographs as genuine and even questioned the girls
as to how they faked them. The children persisted in their story, and
denied any act of dishonesty. Then they "let it go at that." Even now
their belief in the existence of the fairies is merely an acceptance
of the statements of their daughter and her cousin.
I ascertained that Elsie was described by her late schoolmaster as
being "dreamy," and her mother said that anything imaginative appealed
to her. As to whether she could have drawn the fairies when she was
sixteen I am doubtful. Lately she has taken up water-colour drawing,
and her work, which I carefully examined, does not reveal that ability
in a marked degree, though she possesses a remarkable knowledge of
colour for an untrained artist.
Sir A. Conan Doyle says that at first he was not convinced that the
fairies were not thought-forms conjured up by the imagination or
expectation of the seers. Mr. E. L. Gardner, a member of the Executive
Committee of the Theosophical Society, who made an investigation on
the spot and also interviewed all the members of the family, records
his opinion that the photographs are genuine.
Later in the day I went to Bradford, and at Sharpe's Christmas Card
Manufactory saw Miss Wright. She was working in an upper room, and at
first refused to see me, sending a message to the effect that she did
not desire to be interviewed. A second request was successful, and she
appeared at a small counter at the entrance to the works.
She is a tall, slim girl, with a wealth of auburn hair, through which
a narrow gold band, circling her head, was entwined.
Like her parents, she just said she had nothing to say about the
photographs, and, singularly enough, used the same expression as her
father and mother--"I am 'fed up' with the thing."
She gradually became communicative, and told me how she came to take
the first photograph.
Asked where the fairies came from, she replied that she did not know.
"Did you see them come?" I asked; and on receiving an affirmative
reply, suggested that she must have noticed where they came from.
Miss Wright hesitated, and laughingly answered, "I can't say." She was
equally at a loss to explain where they went after dancing near her,
and was embarrassed when I pressed for a fuller explanation. Two or
three questions went unanswered, and my suggestion that they must have
"simply vanished into the air" drew the monosyllabic reply, "Yes."
They did not speak to her, she said, nor did she speak to them.
When she had been with her cousin she had often seen them before. They
were only kiddies when they first saw them, she remarked, and did not
tell anybody.
"But," I went on, "it is natural to expect that a child, seeing
fairies for the first time, would tell its mother." Her answer was
to repeat that she did not tell anybody. The first occasion on which
fairies were seen, it transpired, was in 1915.
In reply to further questions, Miss Wright said she had seen them
since, and had photographed them, and the plates were in the
possession of Mr. Gardner. Even after several prints of the first lot
of fairies had been given to friends, she did not inform anybody that
she had seen them again. The fact that nobody else in the village
had seen them gave her no surprise. She firmly believed that she and
her cousin were the only persons who had been so fortunate, and was
equally convinced that nobody else would be. "If anybody else were
there," she said, "the fairies would not come out."
Further questions put with the object of eliciting a reason for that
statement were only answered with smiles and a final significant
remark, "You don't understand."
Miss Wright still believes in the existence of the fairies, and is
looking forward to seeing them again in the coming summer.
The fairies of Cottingley, as they appeared to the two girls, are
fine-weather elves, as Miss Wright said they appeared only when it
was bright and sunny; never when the weather was dull or wet.
The strangest part of the girl's story was her statement that in
their more recent appearances the fairies were more "transparent"
than in 1916 and 1917, when they were "rather hard." Then she added
the qualification, "You see, we were young then." This she did not
amplify, though pressed to do so.
The hitherto obscure village promises to be the scene of many
pilgrimages during the coming summer. There is an old saying in
Yorkshire: "Ah'll believe what Ah see," which is still maintained as a
valuable maxim.
The general tone of this article makes it clear that the Commissioner
would very naturally have been well pleased to effect a _coup_ by
showing up the whole concern. He was, however, a fair-minded and
intelligent man, and has easily exchanged the rôle of Counsel for the
Prosecution to that of a tolerant judge. It will be observed that
he brought out no new fact which had not already appeared in my
article, save the interesting point that this was absolutely the first
photograph which the children had ever taken in their lives. Is it
conceivable that under such circumstances they could have produced a
picture which was fraudulent and yet defied the examination of so many
experts? Granting the honesty of the father, which no one has ever
impugned, Elsie could only have done it by cut-out images, which must
have been of exquisite beauty, of many different models, fashioned and
kept without the knowledge of her parents, and capable of giving the
impression of motion when carefully examined by an expert. Surely this
is a large order!
In the _Westminster_ article it is clear that the writer has not had
much acquaintance with psychic research. His surprise that a young
girl should not know whence appearances come or whither they go,
when they are psychic forms materializing in her own peculiar aura,
does not seem reasonable. It is a familiar fact also that psychic
phenomena are always more active in warm sunny weather than in damp
or cold. Finally, the girl's remark that the shapes were getting more
diaphanous was a very suggestive one, for it is with childhood that
certain forms of mediumship are associated, and there is always the
tendency that, as the child becomes the woman, and as the mind becomes
more sophisticated and commonplace, the phase will pass. The refining
process can be observed in the second series of pictures, especially in
the little figure which is holding out the flower. We fear that it has
now completed itself, and that we shall have no more demonstrations of
fairy life from this particular source.
One line of attack upon the genuine character of the photographs was
the production of a fake, and the argument: "There, you see how good
that is, and yet it is an admitted fake. How can you be sure that yours
are not so also?" The fallacy of this reasoning lay in the fact that
these imitations were done by skilled performers, while the originals
were by untrained children. It is a repetition of the stale and rotten
argument by which the world has been befooled so long, that because
a conjurer under his own conditions can imitate certain effects,
therefore the effects themselves never existed.
It must be admitted that some of these attempts were very well done,
though none of them passed the scrutiny of Mr. Gardner or myself. The
best of them was by a lady photographer connected with the Bradford
Institute, Miss Ina Inman, whose production was so good that it caused
us for some weeks to regard it with an open mind. There was also a
weird but effective arrangement by Judge Docker, of Australia. In the
case of Miss Inman's elves, clever as they were, there was nothing
of the natural grace and freedom of movement which characterize the
wonderful Cottingley fairy group.
Among the more remarkable comments in the press was one from Mr. George
A. Wade in the London _Evening News_ of December 8, 1920. It told of a
curious sequence of events in Yorkshire, and ran as follows:
"Are there real fairies in the land to-day? The question has been
raised by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and there have been submitted
photographs which purport to be those of actual 'little people.'
"Experiences which have come within my own knowledge may help to throw
a little light on this question as to whether there are real fairies,
actual elves and gnomes, yet to be met with in the dales of Yorkshire,
where the photographs are asserted to have been taken.
"Whilst spending a day last year with my friend, Mr. Halliwell
Sutcliffe, the well-known novelist, who lives in that district,
he told me, to my intense surprise, that he personally knew a
schoolmaster not far from his home who had again and again insisted
that he had seen, talked with, and had played with real fairies in
some meadows not far away! The novelist mentioned this to me as an
actual curious fact, for which he, himself, had no explanation. But he
said that the man was one whose education, personality, and character
made him worthy of credence--a man not likely to harbour a delusion or
to wish to deceive others.
"Whilst in the same district I was informed by a man whom I knew to be
thoroughly reliable that a young lady living in Skipton had mentioned
to him more than once that she often went up to ---- (a spot in the
dales the name of which he gave) to 'play and dance with the fairies!'
When he expressed astonishment at the statement she repeated it, and
averred that it was really true!
"In chatting about the matter with my friend, Mr. William Riley,
the author of _Windyridge_, _Netherleigh_, and _Jerry and Ben_, a
writer who knows the Yorkshire moors and dales intimately, Mr. Riley
asserted that though he had never seen actual fairies there, yet he
knew several trustworthy moorland people whose belief in them was
unshakable and who persisted against all contradiction that they
themselves had many times seen pixies at certain favoured spots in
Upper Airedale and Wharfedale.
"When some time later an article of mine anent these things was
published in a Yorkshire newspaper, there came a letter from a
lady at a distance who stated that the account confirmed a strange
experience which she had when on holiday in the same dale up above
Skipton.
"She stated that one evening, when walking alone on the higher portion
of a slope of the hills, to her intense astonishment she saw in a
meadow close below her fairies and sprites playing and dancing in
large numbers. She imagined that she must be dreaming, or under some
hallucination, so she pinched herself and rubbed her eyes to make sure
that she was really awake. Convinced of this, she looked again, and
still unmistakably saw the 'little people.' She gave a full account of
how they played, of the long time she watched them, and how at length
they vanished. Without a doubt she was convinced of the truth of her
statement.
"What can we make of it all? My own mind is open, but it is difficult
to believe that so many persons, unknown to one another, should have
conspired to state what is false. It is a remarkable coincidence, if
nothing more, that the girls in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's account, the
schoolmaster mentioned by Mr. Sutcliffe, the young woman who came
from Skipton, and the lady who wrote to the Yorkshire newspaper should
all put the spot where the fairies are to be seen almost within a mile
or two of one another.
"Are there real fairies to be met with there?"
The most severe attack upon the fairy pictures seems to have been
that of Major Hall-Edwards, the famous authority upon radium, in the
_Birmingham Weekly Post_. He said:
"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle takes it for granted that these photographs
are real photographs of fairies, notwithstanding the fact that no
evidence has so far been put forward to show exactly how they were
produced. Anyone who has studied the extraordinary effects which have
from time to time been obtained by cinema operators must be aware that
it is possible, given time and opportunity, to produce by means of
faked photographs almost anything that can be imagined.
"It is well to point out that the elder of the two girls has been
described by her mother as a most imaginative child, who has been
in the habit of drawing fairies for years, and who for a time was
apprenticed to a firm of photographers. In addition to this she has
access to some of the most beautiful dales and valleys, where the
imagination of a young person is easily quickened.
"One of the pictures represents the younger child leaning on her
elbow upon a bank, while a number of fairies are shown dancing around
her. The child does not look at the fairies, but is posing for the
photograph in the ordinary way. The reason given for her apparent
disinterestedness in the frolicsome elves is that she is used to the
fairies, and was merely interested in the camera.
"The picture in question could be 'faked' in two ways. Either the
little figures of the fairies were stuck upon a cardboard, cut out and
placed close to the sitter, when, of course, she would not be able
to see them, and the whole photograph produced on a marked plate; or
the original photograph, without 'fairies,' may have had stuck on it
the figures of fairies cut from some publication. This would then be
rephotographed, and, if well done, no photographer could swear that
the second negative was not the original one.
"Major Hall-Edwards went on to remark that great weight had been
placed upon the fact that the fairies in the photograph had
transparent wings, but that a tricky photographer could very easily
reproduce such an effect.
"'It is quite possible,' he observed, 'to cut off the transparent
wings of insects and paste them on a picture of fairies. It is easy
to add the transparent wings of large flies and so arrange them that
portions of the photograph can be viewed through the wings and thus
obtain a very realistic effect.'
"It has been pointed out that although the 'fairies' are represented
as if they were dancing--in fact they are definitely stated to be
dancing--there is no evidence of movement in the photographs. An
explanation of this has been given by the photographer herself, who
has told us that the movements of the fairies are exceedingly slow
and might be compared to the retarded-movement films shown in the
cinemas. This proves that the young lady possesses a very considerable
knowledge of photography.
"Millions of photographs have been taken by operators of different
ages--children and grown-ups--of country scenes and places which, we
have been taught, are the habitats of nymphs and elves; yet until
the arrival upon the scene of these two wonderful children the image
of a fairy has never been produced on a photographic plate. On the
evidence I have no hesitation in saying that these photographs could
have been 'faked.' I criticize the attitude of those who declared
there is something supernatural in the circumstances attending the
taking of these pictures because, as a medical man, I believe that
the inculcation of such absurd ideas into the minds of children will
result in later life in manifestations of nervous disorder and mental
disturbances. Surely young children can be brought up to appreciate
the beauties of Nature without their imagination being filled with
exaggerated, if picturesque, nonsense and misplaced sentiment."
[Illustration: D. FAIRY OFFERING POSY OF HARE-BELLS TO ELSIE
The fairy is standing almost still, poised on the bush leaves. The
wings are shot with yellow, and upper part of dress is very pale pink.]
[Illustration: E. FAIRIES AND THEIR SUN-BATH
This contains a feature that was quite unknown to the girls. The sheath
or cocoon appearing in the midst of the grasses had never been seen
by them before, and they had no idea what it was. Fairy lovers and
observers describe it as a magnetic bath, woven very quickly by the
fairies, and used after dull weather and in the autumn especially.]
To this Mr. Gardner answered:
"Major Hall-Edwards says 'no evidence has been put forward to show
how they were produced.' The least a would-be critic should do is
surely to read the report of the case. Sir A. Conan Doyle is asserted
to have taken it 'for granted that these photographs are real and
genuine.' It would be difficult to misrepresent the case more
completely. The negatives and contact prints were submitted to the
most searching tests known to photographic science by experts, many
of whom were frankly sceptical. They emerged as being unquestionably
single-exposure plates and, further, as bearing no evidence whatever
in themselves of any trace of the innumerable faking devices known.
This did not clear them entirely, for, as I have always remarked in
my description of the investigation, it is held possible by employing
highly artistic and skilled processes to produce similar negatives.
Personally, I should very much like to see this attempted seriously.
The few that have been done, though very much better than the crude
examples Major Hall-Edwards submits, break down hopelessly on simple
analysis.
"The case resolved itself at an early stage into the examination of
the personal element and the motive for faked work. It was this that
occupied us so strenuously, for we fully realized the imperative
need of overwhelmingly satisfying proof of personal integrity before
accepting the photographs as genuine. This was carried through, and
its thoroughness may be estimated by the fact that, notwithstanding
the searching nature of the investigation that has followed the
publication of the village, names, etc., nothing even modifies my
first report. I need hardly point out that the strength of the case
lies in its amazing simplicity and the integrity of the family
concerned. It is on the photographic plus the personal evidence that
the case stands.
"Into part of the criticism advanced by Major Hall-Edwards it will
be kinder, perhaps, not to enter. Seriously to suggest that a
visit to a cinema show and the use of an apt illustration implies
'a very considerable knowledge of photography' is on a par with the
supposition that to be employed as an errand girl and help in a shop
indicates a high degree of skill in that profession! We are not quite
so credulous as that, nor were we able to believe that two children,
alone and unaided, could produce in half an hour a faked photograph of
the type of 'Alice and the Fairies.'"
In addition to this criticism by Major Hall-Edwards there came an
attack in _John o' London_ from the distinguished writer Mr. Maurice
Hewlett, who raises some objections which were answered in Mr.
Gardner's subsequent reply. Mr. Hewlett's contention was as follows:
"The stage which Sir A. Conan Doyle has reached at present is one
of belief in the genuineness of what one may call the Carpenter
photographs, which showed the other day to the readers of the _Strand
Magazine_ two ordinary girls in familiar intercourse with winged
beings, as near as I can judge, about eighteen inches high. If he
believes in the photographs two inferences can be made, so to speak,
to stand up: one, that he must believe also in the existence of the
beings; two, that a mechanical operation, where human agency has done
nothing but prepare a plate, focus an object, press a button, and
print a picture, has rendered visible something which is not otherwise
visible to the common naked eye. That is really all Sir Arthur has to
tell us. He believes the photographs to be genuine. The rest follows.
But why does he believe it? Because the young ladies tell him that
they are genuine. Alas!
"Sir Arthur cannot, he tells us, go into Yorkshire himself to
cross-examine the young ladies, even if he wishes to cross-examine
them, which does not appear. However, he sends in his place a friend,
Mr. E. L. Gardner, also of hospitable mind, with settled opinions
upon theosophy and kindred subjects, but deficient, it would seem, in
logical faculty. Mr. Gardner has himself photographed in the place
where the young ladies photographed each other, or thereabouts. No
winged beings circled about him, and one wonders why Mr. Gardner (_a_)
was photographed, (_b_) reproduced the photograph in the _Strand
Magazine_.
"The only answer I can find is suggested to me by the appearance
of the Virgin and Child to certain shepherds in a peach-orchard at
Verona. The shepherds told their parish priest that the Virgin Mary
had indeed appeared to them on a moonlit night, had accepted a bowl
of milk from them, had then picked a peach from one of the trees and
eaten it. The priest visited the spot in their company, and in due
course picked up a peach-stone. That settled it. Obviously the Madonna
had been really there, for here was the peach-stone to prove it.
"I am driven to the conclusion that Mr. Gardner had himself
photographed on a particular spot in order to prove the genuineness
of former photographs taken there. The argument would run: The
photographs were taken on a certain spot; but I have been myself
photographed on that spot; therefore the photographs were genuine.
There is a fallacy lurking, but it is a hospitable fallacy; and
luckily it doesn't very much matter.
"The line to take about a question of the sort is undoubtedly that
of least resistance. Which is the harder of belief, the faking of
a photograph or the objective existence of winged beings eighteen
inches high? Undoubtedly, to a plain man, the latter; but assume the
former. If such beings exist, if they are occasionally visible, and
if a camera is capable of revealing to all the world what is hidden
from most people in it, we are not yet able to say that the Carpenter
photographs are photographs of such beings. For we, observe, have not
seen such beings. True: but we have all seen photographs of beings in
rapid motion--horses racing, greyhounds coursing a hare, men running
over a field, and so on. We have seen pictures of these things, and we
have seen photographs of them; and the odd thing is that never, never
by any chance does the photograph of a running object in the least
resemble a picture of it.
"The horse, dog, or man, in fact, in the photograph does not look to
be in motion at all. And rightly so, because in the instant of being
photographed _it was not in motion_. So infinitely rapid is the action
of light on the plate that it is possible to isolate a fraction of
time in a rapid flight and to record it. Directly you combine a series
of photographs in sequence, and set them moving, you have a semblance
of motion exactly like that which you have in a picture.
"Now, the beings circling round a girl's head and shoulders in the
Carpenter photograph are in _picture flight_, and not in photographic
flight. That is certain. They are in the approved pictorial, or
plastic, convention of dancing. They are not well rendered by any
means. They are stiff compared with, let us say, the whirling gnomes
on the outside wrapper of _Punch_. They have very little of the wild,
irresponsible vagary of a butterfly. But they are an attempt to render
an aerial dance--pretty enough in a small way. The photographs are too
small to enable me to decide whether they are painted on cardboard or
modelled in the round; _but the figures are not moving_.
"One other point, which may be called a small one--but in a matter
of the sort no point is a small one. I regard it as a certainty, as
the other plainly is. If the dancing figures had been dancing beings,
really there, the child in the photograph would have been looking at
them, not at the camera. I know children.
"And knowing children, and knowing that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has
legs, I decide that the Miss Carpenters have pulled one of them.
Meantime I suggest to him that epochs are born, not made."
To which Mr. Gardner replied in the following issue:
"I could have wished that Mr. Maurice Hewlett's somewhat playful
criticism of the genuineness of the photographs of fairies appearing
in the _Strand Magazine_ Christmas number had been more clearly
defined. The only serious point raised is the difference between
photographic and pictorial representation of motion--Mr. Hewlett
maintaining that the latter is in evidence in the photographs.
"With regard to the separate photographs of the sites, surely the
reason for their inclusion is obvious. Photographic experts had
stated that though the two negatives revealed no trace of any faking
process (such as double exposure, painted figures on enlargements
rephotographed, set-up models in card or other material), still
it could not be held to be impossible to obtain the same class of
result by very clever studio work. Also, certain points that needed
elucidation were the haze above and at the side of the child's
head, and the blurred appearance of the waterfall as compared with
the clarity of the figures, etc. An inspection of the spots and
photographs of their surroundings was surely the only way to clear up
some of these. As a matter of fact, the waterfall proved to be about
twenty feet behind the child, and hence out of focus, and some large
rocks at the same distance in the rear, at the side of the fall, were
found to be the cause of the haziness. The separate photographs,
of which only one is published of each place, confirm entirely the
genuineness of the sites--not the genuineness of the fairies.
"In commenting on the photography of a moving object, Mr. Hewlett
makes the astonishing statement that at the instant of being
photographed _it is not in motion_ (Mr. H.'s italics). I wonder when
it is, and what would happen if a camera was exposed then! Of course
the moving object is in motion during exposure, no matter whether the
time be a fiftieth or a millionth part of a second, though Mr. Hewlett
is by no means the only one to fall into this error. And each of the
fairy figures in the negative discloses signs of movement. This was
one of the first points determined.
"I admit at once, of course, that this does not meet the criticism
that the fairies display much more grace in action than is to be found
in the ordinary snapshot of a moving horse or man. But if we are here
dealing with fairies whose bodies must be presumed to be of a purely
ethereal and plastic nature, and not with skeleton-framed mammals at
all, is it such a very illogical mind that accepts the exquisite grace
therein found as a natural quality that is never absent? In view of
the overwhelming evidence of genuineness now in hand this seems to be
the truth.
"With regard to the last query raised--the child looking at the
camera instead of at the fairies--Alice was entirely unsophisticated
respecting the proper photographic attitude. For her, cameras were
much more novel than fairies, and never before had she seen one used
so close to her. Strange to us as it may seem, at the moment it
interested her the most. Apropos, would a faker, clever enough to
produce such a photograph, commit the elementary blunder of not posing
his subject?"
Among other interesting and weighty opinions, which were in general
agreement with our contentions, was one by Mr. H. A. Staddon of
Goodmayes, a gentleman who had made a particular hobby of fakes in
photography. His report is too long and too technical for inclusion,
but, under the various headings of composition, dress, development,
density, lighting, poise, texture, plate, atmosphere, focus, halation,
he goes very completely into the evidence, coming to the final
conclusion that when tried by all these tests the chances are not less
than 80 per cent. in favour of authenticity.
It may be added that in the course of exhibiting these photographs
(in the interests of the Theosophical bodies with which Mr. Gardner
is connected), it has sometimes occurred that the plates have been
enormously magnified upon the screen. In one instance, at Wakefield,
the powerful lantern used threw an exceptionally large picture on
a huge sheet. The operator, a very intelligent man who had taken
a sceptical attitude, was entirely converted to the truth of the
photographs, for, as he pointed out, such an enlargement would show the
least trace of a scissors irregularity or of any artificial detail,
and would make it absurd to suppose that a dummy figure could remain
undetected. The lines were always beautifully fine and unbroken.