New Ideas for American Boys; The Jack of All Trades

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

of the pictures must be your first thought. In their selection you have the widest possible range of choice, from the “Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” to Roosevelt with the Rough Riders in Cuba, or from “The Pilgrim’s Progress” to “Jack the Giant-killer,” or “Mother Goose.”

To those who have acquired the happy art of expressing their ideas with pencil and brush, the painting of an original panorama need not be explained; but the great majority of boys are unable to make pictures, either with pencil or with brush, and for them there remains still another method, which for beginners is equally, if not more effective.

With Paste-pot and Shears,

any boy, of ordinary ability, may make pictures galore by cutting the figures and even the backgrounds from illustrated papers, grouping and arranging them to suit himself, and pasting them neatly upon a long, strong strip or ribbon of paper, suited to winding and unrolling by means of two cylinders or rollers, as shown in Fig. 296.

Select Your Topic

first, then write out the number of illustrations you wish to make to tell the story; then hunt for a background here, a foreground there, and houses and people wherever they may be found. Paste the background on your strip of paper first, then the foreground, and next add the necessary number of people, vehicles, animals, and other objects.

Colored Figures,

upon a white background, will be found to be most effective. Giants may be made by taking large-sized prints of men, clipping off their heads and replacing the latter with heads of smaller men. Dwarfs may be made by using the small prints of men, and substituting big heads for the ones originally belonging to the figures.

Fig. 296 shows

The Works of the Panorama,

naked and unadorned. But the machinery should be concealed, and for this purpose make a box, similar to the one shown in Fig. 297, which is called the stage. It is simply a narrow box, as shown in Fig. 298, with drapery arranged from the outer edges to a small frame at the rear. Fig. 297 is the front of the finished stage; Fig. 298 is the rear of same, denuded of its drapery.

Hiding in the cellar, basement, attic, or woodshed, of almost every house, are a lot of packing-cases, but if from any cause these boxes should be absent from their accustomed places, you must go to your grocer for the material for your stage.

Build a Narrow Box,

of about the proportions of Fig. 298, and make a frame of four sticks for the back of the box; notch the cross-sticks (Fig. 299) so that they will fit flush, or even, with the inside surface of the two long pieces (Fig. 300).

Cut Some Dark Red Canton Flannel

into four pieces, to fit the four sides of your stage frame; plait the ends, and tack each plait as the drapery is tacked to the frame, as shown in Fig. 300.

After all four pieces of drapery are plaited and tacked fast, nail the frame to the back of the stage, as it is shown in Fig. 298; then, one piece at a time, spread the edges of the cloth over the front edges of the box of the stage and tack them there, as in Fig. 297. This will give you a dark-colored stage frame with a small opening at the back end for the panorama to slide by, as the crank of the roller is turned by the showman behind the curtain.

Curtains must be arranged to hang down on each side of the stage and be pinned together above and below it.

The Stage

should rest upon a table, and be lighted by a row of small Christmas-tree candles, or common candles cut off and made short.

Whatever lights are used, care should be taken to place them so that there will be no danger from fire.

Of course it is not absolutely necessary to use candles for

Footlights.

Any sort of light which will illuminate the panorama without obstructing the view of the audience, will answer the purpose; but it is absolutely necessary to have no other lights burning in the room while the panorama is being exhibited. All the light must be centred upon the pictures.

Fig. 301 shows

How the Panorama Box

is built. There are two holes bored through the top board and through the upper bottom board, but not through the lower bottom board. A glance at the diagram will show you that there are two bottom boards, fitting closely together.

Before putting the panorama box together bore holes in the top board, at equal distances from the ends, and as near the front edge as you can conveniently bore them without danger of splitting the board. These holes are for the rollers, and should be of sufficient size to allow the rollers to revolve with little friction. In case you have no bit or auger which will make large holes, Fig. 302 shows how the difficulty may be overcome with a small bit, gimlet, or red-hot poker, by boring a number of small holes in a circle and then breaking out the centre-piece of wood; smoothing the inside with a sharp knife. In order that the holes in the bottom board shall be directly under those in the top, nail the bottom board to the top board with three wire nails, driving them in only just far enough to hold the boards together while the holes are being bored, as shown in Fig. 303. Since the

Top Board

fits over the side-pieces, and the bottom boards fit between the side-pieces, it is evident that the bottom boards are shorter than the top board by just the width of the two side-pieces. Be careful to allow for this width at the ends, when you nail the boards together, as shown in Fig. 303.

After the holes are bored through the two boards, nail the top board and bottom boards in place, as shown in Fig. 301.

You must, of course, put the bottom board with the holes in it, on top of the bottom board without the holes. This will give two sockets, in which to rest and turn the ends of the rollers.

Make the Rollers of Broomsticks,

if you can secure nothing better, but if you can find some old window-shade rollers they will probably be an improvement on the broomsticks, as they have metal sockets in which they will turn with much less friction than in the wooden ones described above.

The rollers should both be of sufficient length to allow a convenient amount of stick to protrude from the top of the box, as is shown in Fig. 296.

A Crank or Windlass

handle, of some kind, is necessary to turn the rollers, and Figs. 304 to 311 show how such handles may be made.

If you wish a comic panorama you have at your disposal a vast amount of material. The gorgeously-colored comic prints of to-day lend themselves readily to the process of picture-making with paste-pot and shears, and all sorts of funny combinations can be produced, which will delight the audience, and, best of all, furnish indoor amusement and work for the reader when the weather is so boisterous, wet, and sloppy that there is no chance of fun out-of-doors, and there are many such days, between January and May, each year.

When all is done, paint some

Big Show-Bills,

to hang in the hallway, to be read and admired by the guests. Set the frame stage upon a small table, with the panorama box close against it; over the frame a small piece of dark cloth may be thrown, to be removed when the show begins.

The candles may be set upon a narrow strip of board, in front of the stage, and if you drive nails in groups of three, along the board, you will discover that the nails will hold the candles secure, as shown in the arrangement of the footlights in Fig. 312.

In front of each candle set

A Square Piece of Tin

bent to a curve, and with the concave side next to the candle, to act as a reflector, and the convex side next to the audience. The outsides should be painted dark red, to match the frame and conceal the light.

At the appointed time

Turn Out All the Lights

in the room, light the footlights, and remove the cloth from the box, displaying the first scene.

One boy should stand in front, as lecturer, and explain the different pictures, and another boy stand behind the curtain, winding up the paper as directed by the lecturer. The audience will have a good time, in proportion to the fun the lecturer puts in his talk, and all will enjoy the show to

THE END.