When
business grew dull in one neighborhood, he moved to another. He was the
true Bohemian of his trade--the gypsy of early photography.
The forward wheels of this one were gone, and its front end was propped
up level on a short piece of timber; but otherwise the "saloon" looked
as if the "artist" might at that moment be developing a plate inside.
On closer inspection, however, we saw that weeds had sprung up beneath
and about it, and I guessed that the wagon had been standing there for
at least a month or two; and on peeping in at the little end door we saw
that birds or squirrels had been in and out of the place. All that we
could make of it was that the photographer, whoever he was, had come
there, left his "saloon" and gone away--with the forward wheels.
We gathered a load of herbs and drove home again, much puzzled by our
discovery. The story of the "daguerreotype saloon" at Dresser's Lonesome
soon spread abroad, but no one was able to furnish a clue to its
history. Of course all manner of rumors began to circulate; some people
declared that the owner of the "saloon" must be a naturalist who had
journeyed up there to take pictures of wild animal life; others thought
that the photographer had lost his way and perished in the woods.
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