Apparent Prosperity in the 19th Century

This article was published originally on May 25, 2007, and removed about one month later.

 It was the penultimate offering in a series of writing exercises related to unknown persons in vintage photographs.

The article is re-published here with minor editorial revisions and with most of the Comment thread.

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More than a hundred years ago, this man had a portrait photograph made at the Martin Brothers Studio in Logan, Ohio.  

Long after his death, this picture remains, without any identifying information or documentation.

For literary artists who must invent characters, here is an opportunity to practice skills of observation and imagination.

1.  What is his name?

2.  What is the occassion of the photograph?

3.  What work or profession is he pursuing?

4.  Who does he love?

5.  What kind of man is he? 

 6.  What happened to him?

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Melissa The Pirate Princess is still alive!, May 25, 2007

This is Schmueli Weinstein. He is about to take over as manager of his father's bookstore. He has not met his beshaert yet, but the people he is interested in his parents would not approve of. He managed the bookstore until his death at the age of 95.

Peter Wimsey, May 25, 2007

I am saddened by the unhappy love life of Schmueli.
It is tough when the parents are making the matches.

Melissa The Pirate Princess is still alive!, May 25, 2007

It was the way of the time.

elizabeth e., May 25, 2007

Karl Thomas Boldt at your service. I am in the hotel business. Recently I became an agent for William Astor managing his said properties in Philadelphia, Cinncinatti and Manhatten. Recently I married Mary Augusta Kehrer, a Philadelphia socialite. She is on the social registrar. Now that I am moving up in the world I have had to leave my past life in the dust and abandon my Prussian family....because my eyes are glued to becoming a man of importance in this new world.

Pat M., May 25, 2007

His name is Michael McAdams. He grew up in Logan and had fallen in love with Bridget Ivor.

Unfortunately he was poor and Bridget's family would not allow the marriage, so he vowed to travel to California to make his fortune, then return to Logan to marry his childhood sweetheart. Ten years ago, just before he left, he had gone to the photographer with Bridget to have his photograph taken. In that one his clothes were threadbare and his shoes were worn thin.

Now he has returned. He had had this photo taken and had it sent to Bridget. On the back he has written: "Darling Bridge. If you remember me, and you feel the same way you did ten years ago, please meet me here. I will be waiting."

I don't know if he waits there still.

J. 'Imp' Golden, May 25, 2007

He had this picture taken to please his mother, who held the purse strings.
After, he went gambling and whoring. He died a few years later, rife with veneral disease and failing liver, after having his throat slit by a mugger for a few dollars he'd just won. He left behind a relieved wife and two children, as well as a mother who only cared for him as a means to continue the family line.
No one really mourned his death, and his widow re-married as soon as was decent to a faithful man who happily stayed home at night with his family.

nathaniel s., May 25, 2007

1. What is his name?
Robert Norman

2. What is the occasion of the photograph?
House Completion
3. What work or profession is he pursuing?
His family is independently wealthy.
4. Who does he love?
He has been courting a rich girl he doesn't love
5. What kind of man is he?
Haughty but respectable
6. What happened to him?
Died of influenza at 60

Julie G., May 25, 2007

That's my grandfather! His family owned many hotels before they lost all their money in the great depression. He died an alcoholic before I was born.

Lydia O., May 25, 2007

His name is Robert Smith--it reflects nothing of his heritage, only of his parents' determination that they will be AMERICAN, as will their children. He manages a business building, handling rentals and accounts and doing all the maintenance work--it is more work than one man should do, but less, his father assures him, than he would have done in their tiny farm on the side of a mountain, had he been unfortunate enough to have been born there, and not in AMERICA. He is in love with the daughter of the man who took this picture, a delinquent tenant in his building. The man offered him a photo in exchange for the difference in the rent.

Robert, ever-precise with his employer's accounts, has determined he will pay the difference himself, and counts it a bonus that he can spend the time looking at Maris, who acts as her father's assistant. She's the one who pulled the rug up to cover her father's shabby chair.

Maris and her father departed in the night shortly after this picture was taken. Robert never married, and died at 73 while trying to fix a recalcitrant furnace in one of the many buildings he owned.

esther s., May 25, 2007

This is Fortune Mussollino. He is the great grandson of Gavino Mussollino and the founder of the greater Mussollino marble company in Milan, Italy. His grandfather has asked him to have a photograph taken to hang in the new headquarters of their new factory in New York. He will working alongside his father and grandfather until he can take over the reins to run the show on his own here in the United States. Hi is in love with the beautiful and petite little Maria who lives in Venice.
Fortune is a family man who respects his family and tradition and knows that he must stay in American for how ever long it takes for him to have the company running for the family but just how long will he have to be without his little Maria is what worries him. He fears that she will tire of waiting for him and at last marry the shoe maker from his old neighborhood.
After five back breaking years of working at the factory, he is at last ready to take over the factory on his own and can at last return to Italy for Maria. Sadly, Maria has married Fulvio Pastore, the shoemaker and is happily married to him so Fortune is left without the love of his life. He later meets another young Italian lady and marries and lives happily ever after.

Peter Wimsey, May 25, 2007

These are delightful glimpses of an imagined life.

Thanks to elizabeth, Pat, j. Golden, nathaniel, Jules, Lydia, and esther.

Arlene H., May 25, 2007

Elliot P. James is 35 years old. He loves Clarissa, his little sister's governess. He is having this photograph taken for her. He has no profession. He is a man of leisure. His one aim in life is to make love to Clarissa. As this can never happen, he becomes sad and angry. Eventually he dynamites his father's bank (he comes from a family of bankers) and dies.

Peter Wimsey, May 25, 2007

That's an explosive story, Arlene.

Dawn "Texaspoet", May 25, 2007

The gentleman's name is Samuel Markum. He is a doctor, and had this photo taken for the inside cover of his book, "Modern Methods For Treating Consumption." He is a man of great compassion and often treats needy patients without pay, which explains his rather shabby surroundings.

He met the love of his life, Elizabeth, while treating her for small pox. She survived, but was disfigured by the disease, and could not have children. She spent their married life as his nurse and best friend, passing away at the age of 60. He thought she was as beautiful at 60 as she had been the day they met.

He passed one year to-the-day later, quietly in his sleep.

Peter Wimsey, May 25, 2007

That is a tender and loving story, Dawn.

Thanks.

Dame Ruth, Chief Executive Elitist D., May 25, 2007

That's Frederick "Steady Freddy" Bledsoe. He had aspirations to become a model for the Sears Roebuck catalogue, and had this photograph taken by his secret lover, Bruce Snapper, to submit to the catalog authorities. Unfortunately, they rejected him on the grounds of shoddy tie knotting and he was forced to return to his position as foreman of the Springfield Shoelace and Eyelet Factory. He remained in the closet until he died of Unmitigated Boredom at age 53.

Ron B., May 25, 2007

It is a picture of Stanley Martin, the younges of the Martin brothers and one of the studio owners. It was taken prior to the studio's opening and once sat in a window aong with his brothers. Stanley was married to his high school sweetheart, Claire and they had three children. Stanley was the only brother to suvive the great influenza outbreak and he eventually sold the studio and retired in Logan.

Peter Wimsey, May 25, 2007

Those stuffy closets will do it every time, Dame Ruth. (Is Jeff reading this?)

Your story is, perhaps, the most plausible, Ron.

The great influenza outbreak of 1918 took a lot of young adults.

Amelie B., May 25, 2007

DB 10!

Amelie B., May 25, 2007

DB 10!

Peter Wimsey, May 25, 2007

Thank You, Amelie.
In honor of Triple Points Week, are you giving double comments, too?

Very thoughtful! :-)

Martin Mandeville, May 26, 2007

His name Hiram Ironstone, and his father lost all his money in the Panic of '83 and then disappeared. His mother went back to her family in Rhode Island.
He's determined to make something of himself, and just bought some stock in Standard Oil. He's cool to other people, and hasn't had any close friends except Levi Shoemaker who was the stable boy at the old mansion.


I like these old pictures, Peter Wimsey.

Peter Wimsey, May 26, 2007

Thank You, Martin.

You did not say what happened to Hiram, or to levi.

♬Dannielle S., May 27, 2007

Oh, Peter! I'm so glad you published another one of these photo challenges. I'm leaving a comment so I'll be able to find my way back here later. It's almost 1am here, now, though, so it's time to log-out from websites and consciousness in general.

Peter Wimsey, May 27, 2007

You need your rest, Dannielle, but i look forward to your "life story."

Martin Mandeville, Jun 8, 2007

Mr. Wimsey, I took advantage of a sympathetic medium and contacted the person directly.

He and Levi opened a bycycle shop which was very successful. As the new automobiles became more common, the bycycle shop gradually became a garge.

By 1910, he could live off of his dividends from the Standard Oil stock he purchased in Cleveland in 1885.