Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Publishes an Article
Paragraphs from the Article
Original Paragraph
"Some three years before, according to our information, the daughter and the niece of of [Mr. Arthur Wright], the former being sixteen and the other ten years of age, had taken the two photographs--the one in summer, the other in early autumn. The father was quite agnostic in the matter, but as his daughter claimed that she and her cousin when they were together continually saw fairies in the wood and had come to be on familiar and friendly terms with them, he entrusted her with one plate in his camera. The result was the picture of the dancing elves, which considerably amazed the father when he developed the film that evening."
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Paraphrased Paragraph
Three years ago, Mr. Wright's daughter and niece took two photographs. Mr. Wright did not believe in fairies, but he allowed the girls to use his camera after they claimed to be friendly with fairies in the woods. Mr. Wright was amazed when he developed his film and saw a picture of dancing elves.
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"The negatives were taken round to Kodak, Ltd., where two experts were unable to find any flaw, but refused to testify to the genuineness of them, in view of some possible trap."
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The film from the camera was taken to a film company called Kodak. Two experts at Kodak said that there was nothing wrong with the film. However, the experts did not believe that the photographs were picture of real fairies.
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"An amateur photographer of experience refused to accept them on the ground of the elaborate and Parisian coiffure of the little ladies."
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An experienced photographer did not believe that the fairies in the photographs were real because they had fancy, modern hairstyles from Paris.
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"Not that any would positively say that the photographs were faked, but two did claim that they could produce the same class of negative by studio work involving painted models."
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Nobody would say that the photographs were definitely fake. However, two people said that they could make fake pictures by taking photos of painted fairies that were not real.
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"No attempt appears ever to have been made by the family to make these photographs public...nor has there been any money payment in connection with them."
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The family did not try to publish these photographs. Nobody has paid the family for these photographs.
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"He laughs at the idea that any expert in England could deceive him with a faked photograph. 'These two negatives,' he says, 'are entirely genuine, open-air work, show movement in the fairy figures, and there is no trace whatever of studio work involving card or paper models, dark backgrounds, painted figures, etc. In my opinion, they are both straight untouched pictures.'"
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An experienced photographer named Mr. Snelling said that the photographs of the fairies were real. He said the photos were taken outside and showed the fairies moving. He did not believe that the photos were a trick.
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"There is one point of Mr. Gardner's investigation which should be mentioned. It had come to our knowledge that [Elsie] could draw...Mr. Gardner however tested her powers of drawing, and found that, while she could do landscapes cleverly, the fairy figures which she had attempted in imitation of those she had seen were uninspired, and bore no resemblance to those in the photograph."
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While investigating, we learned that the girl who took the photos could draw very well. She drew very realistic landscapes. However, her drawings of fairy were unrealistic and did not look like the fairies in the photographs.
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