Faldoni, parts 2824 - 2827

 2824. Now look at our cathedrals for example. Hardly a person has ever stood in front of one of those things without asking the same time honored question, “How many years did it take to build it. And if it took a hundred years, that is what we like, the notion that somebody years ago may have been in a rush and got the thing done in ten years would be a true disappointment.”

 2825. But out cathedrals are put together with one dressed stone at a time, piling them up like tinker toys year after year until it is finished, but the Hindu temples are carved right out of a solid mountain of rock. So one might ask, “If our cathedrals were carved out of one solid mountain, and took a thousand years instead of a hundred years, would they therefor be ten times better.”

 2826. So it is with these photographs.  If only it took them months and months to manufacture them, then it would be a fair competition. Let us say that after they snap the picture with that machine of theirs, they had to take it in a laboratory and work on every tiny square centimeter with little specialized tools and chemicals for hours and hours.

2827. If that were the case I could have some respect for their photographs, but as it is they can produce a portrait of six people, an entire family, and they can charge hardly five bob and sixpence including the frame. Why if I had to do a commission like a set of six people including a father and mother and four children in a bucolic setting with their pet dogs, every one dressed up in their Sunday best, why just the dog along would add fifty pounds to the price, and a studded collar another ten pounds.