ay upset things temporarily.
Photogravure making is based upon a foundation of small details, that
must be looked after with the utmost care, and the neglect of any one
of which means failure at the end. So it may be surmised that at times
the operator has trouble of his own.

Every maker of plates, no matter which process he uses, has his
individual ways of doing things, so that except in a general way no
two processes are operated alike. This gives an individuality to each
man's work, and an expert can easily tell one from another. For
high-class illustrations, no other photographic process can compare
with photogravure, and no doubt it will be many years before anything
will be found to excel or even equal it. Much experimenting has been
done with other methods, but the results have always been inferior,
and I think it is safe to predict that the photogravure will always be
popular.

Etchings, mezzotints, and steel engravings are still occasionally used
in the illustration of fine books, and brief descriptions of how they
are made will be of interest.

An etching is usually made on a copper plate. The plate being covered
with a thin coating of wax, the artist works on it with an etching
point, sketching his subject on the plate in fine lines as he would in
making a pen-and-ink drawing, but cutting his lines through to the
copper. The plate is then "walled in" with a high rim of wax, forming
a sort of tray of the plate. Into this tray is poured a diluted
solution of nitric acid, which etches, or "bites," into the uncovered
lines on the plate. Some artists give a plate a short "bite," as the
etching is called, for the light lines, then cover these portions of
the plate with wax and give the plate successive "bites," stopping out
each part as it gains its required depth. Others remove the coating
and "prove" the plate by taking a print from it after each
"bite,"--each of these prints being known as a "state of the plate"
and showing what is still required to be done. In the work of an
etcher like Whistler the impressions of the "first state," "second
state," etc., are of considerable interest, as they show the progress
of the man's work, but, except as an object of interest or as a
curiosity, these prints can have no real value as they are unfinished
work, simply showing the various stages in the making of a work of
art.

A mezzotint is also usually made on a copper plate. A texture, or
groundwork, is worked on th