The American Boy's Handy Book

by Daniel Carter Beard

  The first thing necessary in the construction of this very peculiar machine is a dry-goods box, large enough for a boy to sit inside of it without discomfort. The top must be firmly nailed on and the two sides taken off, thus leaving nothing but the top, bottom, and two ends of the box. The sides, each of which probably consists of two or three pieces of board, are to serve as doors, and therefore must be firmly fastened together by means of cleats or narrow strips of board nailed across them. One side of the box, which we shall call side A, must be very strong, and will probably require three cleats. The other side, B, which is in front when the apparatus is in use, must now be fastened to the box by a pair of hinges strong enough to sustain its weight. There should be a hook on it, to keep it shut when necessary.

  A shelf wide enough for a small-sized boy to sit upon must be attached to side A, and should be supported by iron braces. Strong leather straps will do if a blacksmith is not handy, but they must be very firmly fastened to the shelf and to the back door of the box, as we shall now call side A. As a small boy with a strong voice is to sit on this shelf, it would ruin the exhibition if the shelf were to break down, not to speak of the damage which might be done to the boy. Hence this back door must be fastened to the box by heavy gate or barn-door hinges.

  Two strong wooden bars or handles must now be secured to the bottom of the box, and should project far enough at the ends of the box to allow a boy to stand between them, at each end, when the box is to be lifted or carried.

  The rest of the necessary work is very easy. A crank, or turning handle (which will turn nothing), is to be fastened to one end of the box; and two holes—about two inches in diameter—are to be made, one in the front door and one in the top of the box. In each of these a tin or pasteboard horn is to be fastened—the one on top to be smaller than the other.

  Then on the inside of the box a round stick—a broom-stick will answer—is to be placed on two notched blocks fastened to the ends of the box, so that it can be easily taken out of its place by the small boy, and put back again, when occasion requires. A tomato-can may be stuck on the broom-handle, so that it will look like a tin cylinder containing something or other of importance. This round stick, with its cylinder, is only for show, but it should not be omitted.

  Nothing more is now necessary but a pair of wooden trestles, or horses, such as carpenters use, on which the box is to stand during the exhibition.

  Having explained how to make this novel phonograph, I have only to tell you how it is to be used. It is evident, from what I have said, that there is to be a small boy in that box, and the fact is that he is the most important part of the whole machine; for this is only a piece of fun, intended to excite curiosity and amusement in the audience, who may, perhaps, imagine that there is a small boy somewhere about the apparatus, but who cannot see where he is.

  The phunnygraph, which should stand in a room opening into that in which the audience is to assemble, or it may be behind a curtain, must be arranged in working order some minutes before the time fixed for the exhibition to commence.

  The way to arrange it is as follows: The back door of the box must be opened and the small boy seated on the shelf. The door is closed, the boy going into the box as it shuts. The front door is also shut. If the broom-handle and tomato-can are in the boy’s way, he can take them down and put them on one side.

  The Professor—who is to exhibit the workings of the machine, and who should be a boy able to speak fluently and freely before an audience—must now come out and announce that the exhibition is about to begin. He should see that the wooden horses are so placed that the box will rest properly upon them, and should make all the little preparations which may be necessary. Then, after a few words of introduction, he may call for his phunnygraph, and the box will be borne in by two boys.

  After the bearers have walked around the stage, so that both sides of the box may be seen by the audience, it must be placed on its trestles, or stands, with the front door toward the company.

  The Professor will then call attention to the fact that the persons present have seen each side of the box, and can see under and all around it, thus assuring themselves that it has no connection with anything outside of it, except the stands on which it rests. He will then proceed to open it, taking care to open the back door first. The small boy swings back with the door, which conceals him from the audience as it stands open. As soon as the Professor announces that he is about to open the box, the small boy must put the broom-stick in its place if he has taken it down. Then the Professor throws open the front door and shows that there is nothing in the box but the rod and cylinder, which seem to be attached to the crank. What machinery may be concealed in that little tin cylinder, he does not feel called upon to say.

  After a few minutes for a general observation of the inside of the box, he closes it, being very careful to shut the front door first. Then the small boy takes down the broom-stick, puts it out of his way, and proceeds to make himself comfortable and ready for business.

  The Professor now begins to exhibit the phunnygraph by speaking into the horn at the top of the box. He generally commences with a short sentence, pronouncing each word loudly and clearly, so that every one can hear it. He gives the crank a few turns and calls upon the audience to be very quiet and listen, and then, in a very few moments, the same words that he used are repeated from the horn in the front of the box, the small boy within imitating, as nearly as possible, the voice and tone of the Professor.

  The exhibition may go on as long as the audience continues to be interested and amused. All sorts of things may be spoken into the box, which, after a few turns of the crank, will be repeated from the mouth-piece or horn in the front door. Various sounds may be reproduced by means of this machine, and an ingenious Professor and a smart small boy can make a deal of fun.

  A startling final effect may be produced if, after the Professor has crowed into the upper horn, the boy inside can manage, unperceived—say by means of a small sliding-panel—to throw out a live, strong-voiced rooster.

  But it must not be supposed that an exhibition of this kind will be successful without a good deal of careful preparation and several rehearsals. Every one should be perfectly familiar with his duty before a performance in front of an audience is attempted. The box doors should work perfectly, the small boy should be able to sit on his shelf in such a way that his head will never stick up when the back door is open, and he should practice putting up the broom-stick when the Professor announces that the box is to be opened. By the way, if the box is opened several times during the performance to oil the rod, or to do some little thing to the cylinder, it will help to excite the curiosity of some of the audience; but the Professor must not forget that the front door must never be open when the back door is shut. The boys who carry the box should also carefully practice their business, so as to set the box down properly on its supports, and to see that it is firmly placed. It may be necessary for one or both of them to sit on the front handles when the back door, with the boy on it, is swung back, so as to balance his weight and prevent an upset. But experiment will show whether this is necessary or not.

  As to the business of the Professor and the small boy, that, of course, must be carefully studied. It will not do to rely on inspiration for the funny things which must be said by the Professor, and imitated by the boy in the box. The Professor may bark like a dog, crow like a cock, or make any curious sound he pleases, provided he knows, from practise at rehearsal, that the small boy can imitate him.

  The cost of the box, hinges, braces, etc., will probably be between two and three dollars. If the box is painted, or covered with cheap muslin, it will look much more mysterious and scientific.

  CHAPTER XXXV.

  HOW TO MAKE PUPPETS AND A PUPPET-SHOW.

  THE puppet-show is certainly an old institution; and, for aught I know, the shadow-pantomime may be equally ancient. But the puppet-show here described originated, so far as I am aware, within our family circle,
having gradually evolved itself from a simple sheet of paper hung on the back of a chair, with a light placed on the seat of the chair behind the paper.

  The puppets (not the most graceful and artistic) originally were impaled upon broom straws, and by this means their shadows were made to jump and dance around in the most lively manner, to the intense delight of a juvenile audience. As these juveniles advanced in years and knowledge, they developed a certain facility with pencil and scissors; the rudimentary paper animals and fairies gradually assumed more possible forms; the chair-back was replaced by a wooden soap or candle-box with the bottom knocked out; and the sheet of paper gave way to a piece of white muslin. Thus, step by step, grew up the puppet-show, from which so much pleasure and amusement have been derived by the writer and his young friends that he now considers it not only a pleasure, but his duty, to tell his readers how to make one like it for themselves.

  The construction of properties and actors, and the manipulation of the puppets at an exhibition, are by no means the least of the fun. To start the readers fairly in their career of stage-managers, this chapter tells how to build the theatre, make the actors, and the next chapter gives an original adaptation of an old story, prepared especially for a puppet-show.

  How to Make the Stage.

  Among the rubbish of the lumber-room, or attic, you can hardly fail to find an old frame of some kind—one formerly used for a picture or old-fashioned mirror would be just the thing. Should your attic contain no frames, very little skill with carpenters’ tools is required to manufacture a strong wooden stretcher. It need not be ornamental, but should be neat and tidy in appearance, and about two feet long by eighteen inches high.

  On the back of this tack a piece of white muslin, being careful to have it stretched perfectly tight, like a drum -head. The cloth should have no seams nor holes in it to mar the plain surface.

  A simple way to support the frame in an upright position is to make a pair of “shoes,” of triangular pieces of wood. In the top of each shoe a rectangular notch should be cut, deep enough to hold the frame firmly. Fig. 203 shows a wooden frame, and the manner in which the shoes should be made.

  The Scenery

  can be cut out of card-board. Very natural-looking trees may be made of sticks with bunches of pressed moss pasted upon the ends. Pressed maiden-hair fern makes splendid tropical foliage, and tissue or any other thin paper may be use for still water. Thin paper allows the light to pass partially through, and the shadow that the spectator sees is lighter than the silhouette scenery around, and hence has a sort of translucent, watery look. Scenery of all kinds should be placed flat against the cloth when when in use.

  And now that you have a general idea how the show is worked, I will confine my remarks for the present to the play in hand. It is a version of the old story of “Puss-in-Boots,” and there will be given here patterns for all the puppets necessary, although in the court scene you can introduce as many more as you like.

  The first scene is

  THE OLD MILL.

  This scene should be made of such a length that, with the bridge, it will just fit in the frame. Take the measurement of the inside of the frame. Then take a stiff piece of card-board of the requisite length, and with a pencil carefully copy the illustration (Fig. 204), omitting the wheel. Lay the card-board flat upon a pine board or old kitchen table, and with a sharp knife (the file-blade is the best) follow the lines you have drawn. Cut out the spaces where the water is marked, and paste tissue-paper in their place. Take another piece of card-board and cut out a wheel; in the centre of this cut a small square hole, through which push the end of a stick, as in Fig. 205. Drive a pin into the end of the stick, allowing it to protrude far enough to fit easily into a slot cut for that purpose in the bridge where it comes under the mill (see Fig. 204). The wheel can then be made to turn at pleasure by twirling between the fingers the stick to which the wheel is attached.

  Puss.

  To make puss, take a piece of tracing-paper and carefully trace with a soft pencil the outlines of the cat, from the illustration here given. Tack the four corners of the tracing reversed (that is, with the tracing under) on a piece of card-board. Any business card will answer for this purpose. Now, by going over the lines (which will show through the tracing-paper) with a hard pencil, you will find it will leave a sufficiently strong impression on the card to guide you in cutting out the puppet. Almost all puppets can be made in the same way. Puss as he first appears, the rabbit, rat, and bag, should be impaled upon the end of a broom-straw; but the remaining puppets should each have a stick or straw attached to one leg, or some other suitable place, just as the stick is pasted to the donkey’s leg as represented in Fig. 206.

  CORSANDO AND THE DONKEY

  are made of two separate pieces, as indicated in Fig. 206. The dotted line shows the continuation of the outline of the forward piece. Cut out the two pieces in accordance with the diagram, and then place the tail-piece over the head-piece, and at the point marked “knot,” make a pin-hole through both pieces of the puppet. Tie one end of a piece of heavy thread into a good hard knot; put the other end of the thread through the holes just made, draw the knotted end close up against the puppet, and then tie another knot upon the opposite side, snug against the card-board; cut off the remaining end of the thread. Having done this, tie a piece of fine thread to the point near the knee of Corsando, and fasten a stick to the foreleg of the donkey, as shown in Fig. 206. Paste a straw in one of Corsando’s hands for a whip, and two pieces of string in the other hand for a halter or bridle. By holding in one hand the stick attached to the leg of the donkey, and gently pulling the thread, marked “string” in the diagram, the donkey can be made to kick up in a most natural and mirth-provoking manner.

  The Royal Coach.

  When you make the king and princess in their coach, by cutting out the king separately and fastening the lower end of his body to the coach in the manner described for joining the two parts of the donkey, the king can in this manner be made to sit upright, or to fall forward and look out in the attitude shown by Fig. 207, which explains the construction perfectly, A and B being two small blocks pasted on to the card-board for the king’s arm or body to rest on. Fig. 208 shows the first horse of the royal coach; the second horse is a duplicate of the first, minus the rider. Fasten the horses and coach together by pasting a long flat stick extending across from horse to horse, and to the coach, where the traces would be.

  Carabas.

  Fig. 209 shows Carabas in a bathing suit.

  Fig. 210 shows the same gentleman in court dress.

  How to Work the Puppets.

  To make puss carry the bag, the operator will have to use both hands, holding in one hand the stick attached to puss, and in the other the straw attached to the bag. Then, by keeping the bag close against pussy’s paws, it will appear to the audience as if he were holding the bag. In the same manner he is made to carry the dead rabbit to the king. When the rabbit seems to hop into the bag, he in reality hops behind it, and then drops below the stage.

  The operator must remember never to allow his hands to pass between the light and the cloth, as the shadow of an immense hand upon the cloth would ruin the whole effect. All the puppets for each scene should be carefully selected before the curtain rises, and so placed that the operator can at once lay his hand upon the one wanted. There must be no talking behind the scenes, and the puppets should be kept moving in as life-like a manner as possible while their speeches are being read for them. Several rehearsals are necessary to make the show pass off successfully.

  Stage Effects.

  One would naturally suppose that with only a candle and a cloth screen for a stage, and some puppets cut out of card or pasteboard for actors, that the stage effects would be very limited, and consequently the plays stiff and uninteresting; this is, however, not true; any of the familiar old fairy tales may, with a little alteration, be arranged for a puppet-show and put upon the stage in such a manner as to amuse and inte
rest an audience of young and old people. Jointed puppets, by the aid of movable lights, sticks, and strings, may be made to go through the most surprising contortions and manœuvres.

  Boys that have a talent for drawing will find an unlimited amount of amusement in drawing and cutting out the puppets; but for those boys who have neither a talent nor a taste for the use of the pencil, original puppets are necessarily out of the question. All the characters of any play can be made by selecting appropriate figures of animals and men from illustrated books and papers, and enlarging or reducing them after the manner described in Chapter XXVI., page 201. In this manner the puppets given in this chapter may be enlarged to almost any required proportions.

  At a Sunday-school entertainment, given in Brooklyn last winter, the following play of “Puss-in-Boots” was produced by pasteboard actors a foot high, to the great delight of a large and enthusiastic audience of mixed young and old folks.

  How to Make a Magical Dance.

  Have one or two jointed figures appear and commence to dance, and while they are capering around, let another light be brought in; immediately there will be two figures for every one that first appeared upon the scene. Each light casts a shadow, and the shadows are all that is visible to the audience, so to them the puppets appear to fall into doubles in the most unaccountable manner. If the puppets are kept stationary, and the two lights moved backward and forward, the puppets will appear to move around, pass and repass each other; thus, with two or three lights moving behind the screen, two or three puppets can be transformed into a crowd that will be in constant motion.

  How to Make a Sea Scene.

  Cut two duplicate pieces of pasteboard in the form of waves (see Fig. 211). Let each piece be a little longer than the frame of the puppet-show stage. When the light throws the shadow of one of these pieces of pasteboard upon the muslin screen, it looks like a simple row of scallops; but when the two pieces are moved backward and forward, it gives motion to the shadows, and they have the appearance of rolling waves; a pasteboard ship rocking upon the waves will add to the effect. A lighthouse can be cut out of pasteboard and placed upon a pasteboard rock at one side; thunder may be imitated by rolling croquet balls over the top of a wooden table, and lightning represented by small flashes of gunpowder.