The American Boy's Handy Book

by Daniel Carter Beard

  How to Make a Camera for Drawing.

  This instrument necessitates an outlay of from fifty cents to a dollar and a half for a lens; unless the reader is fortunate enough to already possess a double convex lens, or what is known among boys as a “burning-glass.” A small mirror or piece of looking-glass, a small pane of common window glass, and an old soap or candle box, or some pine lumber of which to make a box, is all the material required.

  Let the box be about eighteen inches long, nine inches deep, and twelve inches wide; fasten the lens in a hole cut for that purpose at one end of the box. A piece of looking-glass must be fixed at an angle of forty-five degrees at the opposite end of the box. The angle may be obtained in this manner: if from where the top of the glass rests against the end board, it measures nine inches to the bottom of the box, then the bottom of the glass should be nine inches from the end of the box.

  Grind the surface of one side of the window-pane glass by rubbing it upon a flat stone or sand-paper. Make a lid to the top of the box, as shown in the illustration, and under the lid fasten the ground glass. Paint or blacken the inside of the box, and adjust the parts by experiment, so that when the lens is turned toward any object, that object will be immediately reflected upon the piece of ground glass. No great difficulty need be anticipated by any one in the adjustment of the parts of a camera obscura, as it can be easily arrived at by trial.

  If a piece of drawing-paper be placed over the ground glass, and the lens turned toward some object, that object will be reflected upon the glass and shown through the paper in all its natural colors, strong enough to be accurately traced and reproduced.

  In this manner considerable amusement and instruction can be derived from a home-made camera obscura.

  If one of these instruments be taken into a darkened room, and the lens allowed to point out through the window, everything that passes the house will be reflected upon the ground glass, making a sort of moving, colored, puppet show.

  Winter.

  CHAPTER XXVII.

  SNOWBALL WARFARE.

  How to Build Snow-Forts—How to Make Shields and Ammunition Sleds.

  COLD gray clouds have long since usurped the heavens and driven away the white, fleecy summer cumulus; the latter, like the birds, have gone to more congenial climes. For several weeks past heavy overcoats have been in demand.

  The rowing season has closed; the baseball bats and lawn tennis rackets are stowed away, and the college boys have settled down to study and in-door gymnasium practice.

  In the cities the car and stage drivers swing their arms about and beat their muffled chests in a vain effort to start the blood to circulating in their benumbed fingers. Each passenger, as he reads the morning paper, exhales two streams of mist from his nostrils. The horses puff larger streams of steam and wear chest protectors. Everybody appears unhappy except the school-boy. The latter’s cheeks glow with more than usual color and his eyes sparkle as if with inward merriment, for he knows the signs, and the dull, leaden sky to him is only a promise of a big snow storm and “lots of fun.” The frost king has arrived and introduced jolly old Winter. Every boy knows that no season of the year can boast of more healthy out-door games, brimful of fun and excitement, than winter, and that there is no sport among winter games more exciting and amusing than snowball warfare. The interest and fun of the game is greatly enhanced if there be a fort to capture or defend.

  How to Build the Fort.

  All the boys must join in building the fort, selecting the highest point of the play-grounds, or, if the grounds be level, the corner of a wall or fence. Supposing the top of a mound has been selected as the place where the works are to be built, the first thing to do is to make out the plan of the foundation. The dimensions depend upon the number of boys. A circle twelve feet in diameter, or a square with sides of ten feet, will make a fort that will accommodate a company of ten boys. It is better to have the fort too small than too large. The chief engineer must set his men to rolling large snowballs; the smaller boys can commence them and the larger ones take the balls in hand when they have gained in size and become too heavy for the younger boys.

  Make these balls of snow as large and dense as possible; then roll them in place upon the lines traced out for the foundation. We will suppose it to be a square. In this case, care must be taken to have the corners of the square opposite the most probable approach of the enemy. This will leave the smallest point possible exposed to the attack, and the inmates of the fort can, without crowding each other, take good aim at the foe. After the four sides of the square are covered by large snowballs, as in Fig. 164, all hands must pack the snow about the bottom and fill up each crack and crevice until a solid wall is formed. Then with spades and shovels the walls should be trimmed down to a perpendicular on the inside, but slanting upon the outside, as shown in Fig. 165. The top of the wall may be two feet broad and the base four feet. When the wall is finished, prepare a mound of snow in the centre of the square for the flag-staff. This mound will be very useful as a reserve supply in case the ammunition gives out. A quantity of snowballs should next be piled up, inside the walls, at the four corners. This done, the fort is ready for its defenders, and it only remains to equip the attacking force.

  The building of a fort generally uses up all the snow around it, making it necessary for the besieging party to carry their ammunition with them upon sleds made for that purpose.

  The construction of these sleds is very simple, the materials and tools necessary consisting of a flour-barrel, a saw, a hatchet, some shingle nails and an old pine board.

  How to Make an Ammunition Sled.

  To make the sled, begin by knocking the barrel apart, being careful not to split the head-boards, as they will be needed afterward. Pick out the four best staves, as nearly alike in breadth and curve as can be found, and saw two or three of the other staves in halves. Take two of the four staves first selected and nail the half staves across, as shown in Fig. 166. These must be nailed upon the convex, or outside, of the staves; this will be found impossible unless there is something solid under the point where the nail is to be driven, otherwise the spring of the stave, when struck, will throw the nail out, and your fingers will probably receive the blow from the hammer. To avoid this, place a block, or anything that is firm, under the point where the nail is to be driven, and there will then be found no difficulty in driving the nails home. When this is done you will have the top of your sled as shown in Fig. 166; on this you will need a box or bed to hold the snowballs; this you can make of two pieces of pine board and two staves, thus: Take a board about the same width as, or a little wider than, a barrel-stave; saw off two pieces equal in length to the width of the sled; set them upon their edges, reversing the top of the sled; place it across the two boards and nail it on securely. Then take two staves and nail them on for side boards, and you have the top portion of your sled finished.

  The two staves remaining of the four first selected are for runners. Fit on first one and then the other to the staves of the top. Nail-holes will probably be found near the ends of the staves where the nails were that held the barrel-head in; through these drive nails to fasten your runners; to do this you must rest them upon some support, as was done before; this will hold your sled together, but to make it stronger take four wedge-shaped blocks of wood and slide them in between the runners and the top, as shown in Fig. 167, and nail these firmly in place from above and below.

  If all this has been properly done, you now have made a sled which it will be almost impossible to break; and, with a rope to pull by, one boy can haul snowballs enough for a dozen companions.

  How to Make the Shield.

  The shield is made from the head of a barrel. Lay the barrel-head upon some level surface, so that nails can be driven in without trouble.

  From a strip of board half inch thick and two and one-half inches wide saw off two pieces long enough to fasten the parts of the barrel-head together, as you see them in Fig. 168. Fasten these strips
on firmly with shingle nails.

  Lay your left arm upon the shield, as shown, mark a place for the arm-strap just in front of elbow, and another for the strap for the hand. From an old trunk-strap, or suitable piece of leather, cut two strips and nail them on your shield at points marked, being careful that the arm-strap is not too tight, as it should be loose enough for the arm to slip in and out with ease. This done, you have a shield behind which you may defy an army of unprotected boys.

  Rules of the Game.

  The rules of warfare governing a snowball battle are as follows:

  Two commanders, or captains, must be elected. If the forces engaged be very large, each captain may appoint one or two assistants, or lieutenants. These officers, after being elected and appointed, are to give all orders, and should be promptly obeyed by their respective commands. The captains decide, by lot, the choice of position.

  In choosing sides, the captain who is commander of the fort has first choice, then the two captains name a boy, alternately, until two-thirds of the boys have been chosen. The defenders of the fort then retire to their stronghold, leaving the boys unchosen to join the attacking army, it being supposed that one-third behind fortifications are equal to two-thirds outside.

  Only the attacking party is allowed shields and ammunition sleds.

  At least thirty yards from the fort a camp must be established by the outsiders or attacking army, and stakes driven at the four corners to locate the camp. Imaginary lines from stake to stake mark its limits.

  Each party will have its national colors, in addition to which the attacking party has a battle-flag which it carries with it in the assault.

  The defenders of the fort must see to it that all damages to the fortifications are promptly repaired.

  Any soldier from the fort who shall be carried off within the limits of the camp becomes a prisoner of war, and cannot leave the camp until rescued by his own comrades.

  Any one of the attacking force pulled into the fort becomes a prisoner of war, and must remain in the fort until it is captured.

  Prisoners of war cannot be made to fight against their own side, but they may be employed in making snowballs or repairing damages to fortifications.

  Any deserter recaptured must suffer the penalty of having his face washed with snow, and being made to work with the prisoners of war.

  When the outsiders, or attacking army, can replace the enemy’s colors with their battle-flag, the fort is captured and the battle is won by the attacking party; all fighting must then immediately cease.

  But if, in a sally, or, by any means, the soldiers of the fort can take the colors of the opposite party from the camp and bring them inside their fortifications, they have not only successfully defended their fort, but have defeated the attacking army; and this ends the battle, with double honors to the brave defenders.

  No water-soaked or icy snow-balls are allowed. No honorable boy uses them, and any one caught in the ungentlemanly act of throwing such “soakers” should be forever ruled out of the game.

  No blows are allowed to be struck by the hand, or by anything but the regulation snowball, and, of course, no kicking is permitted.

  The following sketch of a snow battle in which the author took part when a boy, will give an idea of the excitement and interest of the game:

  A Snow Battle.

  It was a year when the Indian summer had been prolonged into the winter. Christmas had come and gone and a new year begun, but not one flake of snow had fallen on the river bank or neighboring hills.

  Such was the condition of things one January morning in a Kentucky town upon the banks of the Ohio River, where myself and some sixty other boys were gathered in a little frame school-house.

  We had about made up our minds that old Jack Frost was a humbug, and winter a myth; but when the bell tapped for recess, the first boy out gave a shout which passed from mouth to mouth until it became a universal cheer as we reached the play-grounds, for floating airily down from a dull, leaden, gray sky came hundreds of white snow-flakes!

  Winter had come! Jack Frost was no longer a humbug! Before the bell again recalled us to our study the ground was whitened with snow, and the school divided into two opposing armies. That night was a busy one—all hands set to work manufacturing ammunition sleds and shields for the coming battle. It was my fortune to be chosen as one of the garrison of the fort. There was not a boy late next morning—in fact, when the teachers arrived to open the school, they found all the scholars upon the play-grounds, rolling huge snowballs. All night the snow had continued to fall, and it was now quite deep. When we went out at noon a beautifully modelled fort of snowy whiteness stood ready for us, and from a mound in the centre floated the battle-flag.

  Our company took their places inside the fortifications.

  We could see the enemy gathered around their captain at their camp some two hundred yards distant, their ammunition sleds loaded with well-made snowballs. The lieutenant bore their battle-flag.

  Our teachers showed their interest by standing shivering with wet feet in the deep snow to watch the battle. At a blast from a tin horn on rushed the foe! They separated and came in two divisions, approaching us from the left and right.

  “Now, boys,” cried our captain, “be careful not to throw a ball until they are within range.”

  Then, calling the pluckiest among us, a flaxen-haired country boy, to his side, he whispered a word or two and pointed to the flag in the enemy’s camp. The boy, who had been nicknamed “Daddy” on account of his old-looking face, slipped quietly over the rear wall of the fort, dodged behind a snow-drift and then behind a fence, and was lost to sight. Forward marched the enemy, their battle-flag borne in advance of the party to the right. Their captain was at the head of the division to the left.

  Having engaged our attention on the two flanks, where we stood ready to receive them, as they neared us, by a quick and well-executed manœuvre, rushing obliquely toward each other, the two divisions unexpectedly joined, and advanced, shield to shield, with the ammunition sleds in the rear. It was in vain we pelted them with snowballs; on they came, encouraged by a cheer from the teachers and some spectators who by this time had gathered near the school-house.

  Three times had our noble captain been tumbled from his perch upon the mound in the centre of the fort, when another burst of applause from the spectators announced some new development, and as we looked, we could see “Daddy” with the colors of the enemy’s camp in his arms, his tow hair flying in the wind as he ran for dear life.

  In an instant the line of the enemy was all in confusion; some ran to head off “Daddy,” while others in their excitement stood and shouted. It was our turn now, and we pelted their broken ranks with snow until they looked like animated snow-men. Another shout, and we looked around to find our captain down and the hands of one of the besieging party almost upon our flag. It was the work of a second to pitch the intruder upon his back outside the fort. Then came the tug of war. A rush was made to capture our standard, several of our boys were pulled out of the fort and taken prisoners, and the capture of the fort seemed inevitable. Again and again a number of the enemy, among whom was their color-bearer, gained the top of our breastworks, and again and again were they tumbled off amid a shower of snowballs that forced them to retire to gain breath and clear their eyes from the snow. Once their lieutenant, with the red-bordered battle-flag, had actually succeeded in reaching the mound upon which stood our colors, when a combined attack that nearly resulted in his being made prisoner drove him from the fort to gather strength for another rush. “Daddy” was now a prisoner, and the recaptured flag again floated over the enemy’s camp, when the school-bell called us, fresh and glowing with exercise and healthful excitement, to our lessons. The battle was left undecided, but our fort was soon captured by a force stronger than any our companions were able to bring against it, for a warm south wind sprang up from the lowlands down the river, and our fortification quickly yielded to its insidious attack, a
nd the snow campaign was over.

  How to Bind a Prisoner Without a Cord.

  A gentleman who was much interested in the foregoing description of snowball warfare sends a sketch of the manner he and his playmates used to bind their prisoners taken in snow battles. The captive was taken to a post or smooth-trunked sapling and compelled to put his arms and legs around it as if he were about to climb. The right leg crossed the left leg, and the toe of the right shoe was pushed behind the post or tree trunk in the position shown by the illustration. After taking this position the prisoner was gently pushed down into a sitting position. It is next to impossible for a person so fixed to arise without help. The toe of the left shoe binds the right leg; the toe of the right shoe binds the post, and the arms can be only used to hold on by. When a friend reaches the captive he takes him by the arms and lifts him up. As soon as the prisoner assumes an upright position he can free himself without difficulty.