From The Birmingham Age Herald, October 12, 1913.
He mounts a piece of stovepipe to a soap box turned on end,
And then to take a picture he will seriously pretend;
His coat’s the cloth for focussing which covers up his head,
And where he lacks a shutter there’s an old tin plate instead.
He sets his little sister in a broken wicker chair,
And chooses her position with the most excessive care;
“Look pleasant, please,” he orders, then he fools with his “machine”
And tells her that the picture will be the best yet seen.
He photographs each blessed thing that he can get to sit,
And plays at taking pictures till you think he’ll never quit;
Each dog and cat within a mile has many times been done,
And though he shows no pictures, still it doesn’t spoil his fun.
But since he seems determined to become a photo-man,
We will help his young ambition in whatever way we can.
And so on his next birthday we will purchase for his sake
A proper kind of camera that will real pictures take.