New Ideas for American Boys; The Jack of All TradesBeard, Daniel Carter
General
New Ideas for American Boys; The Jack of All Trades
Beard, Daniel Carter
Amusements; Sports
(Fig. 287) shows how the body is joined; the dotted line indicates
where the portion of the fore part of the body laps under the hind
part. In Fig. 287 the legs are not jointed as in Fig. 286. In drawing
your pattern for this puppet make two fields of squares: one for the
fore part and one for the hind part of the Indian and horse; and in
Fig. 288 make three fields of squares, one for the hind legs, one for
the body and one for the head. Both of the last diagrams are drawn on
one field to save space; but you can easily understand how to reproduce
them. For instance, in Fig. 287 make a field of squares from 0 to 18
for the fore part; make another field of squares from 12 to 34 for the
hind quarters.
[Illustration: FIGS. 291-294.]
Make five or six duplicates of the Indian horseman; make as many
duplicates of the dancing Indians as may be required for your
war-dance; do the same with
The Buffalo,
until you have a herd of them. Paste the flat end of a stick to the
buffalo’s leg and fasten a thread to the neck and hind legs, as shown
by Fig. 288. With the stick you move the bison along, and with the
string you make him throw up his head and hind legs in a most amusing
and comical manner.
[Illustration: FIG. 295.]
A Piece of White Muslin,
stretched taut, with no wrinkles, will make your stage, and a light
behind it will throw the shadows of your puppets on the cloth.
The stage should be surrounded with heavy curtains, to prevent the
operators from being seen, and the light behind the stage from
illuminating the room in front. A bicycle lamp or an ordinary candle
will answer for the light. A sheet of smooth Manila paper makes a
better stage than the white cloth; it may be tacked upon a frame,
or the bottom edge be tacked to a kitchen table and the top to a
rod, suspended from the ceiling. The table should be on the audience
side of the screen, so that the showmen may have room to move their
puppet-sticks along the inside edge of the table, and keep the puppets
close to the screen of paper. By changing the cowboy’s hat to a
soldier’s cap or helmet, and putting a sword or gun in his hand, you
can make as many cavalrymen from this pattern as you desire to have in
the show.
CHAPTER XXV.
HOW TO HAVE A PANORAMA SHOW.
After you have had a rollicking-circus in the attic, and a roaring
Wild West show in the basement, you can explain to your parents that
a panorama is a show of a “highly moral” and most genteel character,
and you may persuade them to allow you to have a panorama party in the
dining-room.
A Good Panorama
is always a thing worth looking at, yet I promise you that there is
more real enjoyment in making a panorama and exhibiting it, than there
is in looking at twenty professional exhibitions.
The Subject
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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