The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-02-04
Our Magic Lantern.
BY THE OFFICE BOY.

the afternoon, leans back in his chair,
peers over the top of his glasses, asks a
puzzling question, smiles benevolently
and tries to look as much as possible like
the portrait of Horace Greeley, we BOYS
tremble, for there is no telling when the
old gentleman will stop talking and let
us get away. Friday. when he came in,
first thing he asked was, How did you
get on, New Years eve, with the magic
lantern which your grandfather sent
you? ? AT first | thought of course he
knew all about it. But he did not
And when told him how we got over
our difficulties he said won't YOU write
it down for the Professors Chair"
Well, you see, grandfather was in
a hurry when he called in at Milligans
and bong hit our New Years present, and
so when it came to us, late on New Year
day, but ust in time for our children
party, we found it to be a capital lantern,
that made brilliant disc nearly cover
ing the sheet we quickly fixed on the
parlor wall. Mother forbade us to drive
any nails into the paper, but she lent us
the sheet, and Mr. O'Hara lent us six
laths, which we nailed together so as to
make three sides of a square, On this
we stretched the sheet and reared it up
against the wall. Yet, search as we
would among the shavings and crumpled
paper that packed the box, we could not
find any slides, and were obliged to con-
clude that grandfather in his hurry had
forgotten to buy them; but on going to
mother, as we always do when in trou-
BILE, she read part of his letter to her,
which said that he had sent no slides. on
purpose that we might learn to make
them for ourselves; and said he, in way
that Jennie-who is in the normal school
and considered not at all respectful:
" The toys which children make them
selves always please them best"
1t was very fortunate that Cousin Dan
happened in just then on a New Years
call, tor he helped us out of our trouble
at once. The lamp was already lit; but
the round disc on the sheet was edged
with colors. They may be very pretty
in a rainbow, but we don't want them
here, he said and Just by moving the
lamp a little forward and turning the
front tube, he succeeded in getting
broad, pure white circle that you could
see looked really fat Then he took a
piece Of glass, which he just scratched
with his diamond ring the size of a slide
and then snapped off. Taking a piece
of soap he smeared the glass on one side
and held it moment over the fame of a
candle, which quickly blackened it, With
the point of a knitting needle he scratched
1T for minute or two, pushed into the
side holder of the lantern, and as he took
his hand away from the nozzel-my if
there wasn't comic picture of me larger
than life, with the words Never give
upl' in white on black ground. When
they had done laughing at me-that is,
the others, but | am not used to writing
about these things, and the Professor can
straighten this out if he wants to-we
hunted the house for all the broken glass
there was and when Dan had discovered
an old bottle of photographers trans
parent varnish and "a glue pot, he sent
one of us out to get.so Canada balsam
and turpentine at the apothecary at the
corner. When he had come back Dan
coated some of the glass with the photo
graphers varnish, and then traced differ
ent funny pictures upon it, not cutting
through the glass, but copying them from
old papers by laying the glass upon them.
The outlines appeared on the screen
quite dark, because the light is SO much
scattered from the surface; then others of
the small pictures ne coated with the
Canada balsam and turpentine, mixed
half and half, when they became quite
transparent. He gave a coat of this mix
ture to some of the glass, and when it
was dry placed the vanished pictures on
it, face downward, when, Of course. they
stuck there, so that he could rub the
paper off at the back with his wetted
fingers and leave only the printers ink
sticking on the glass. These made capt.
tai pictures; and if we had not been in
such a hurry we could have colored and
made them even better than some of the
slides sold in the shops Dan had kept
two pieces Of glass, which he had sep
arated by three thin strips of wood at
each end and at the bottom, stuck on
by varnish, puttied up and secured by
thread around the outside. This. he
said, was his aquarium; and when he
caught spider and fly and put them
between the glasses and stuck it into the
lantern you had better believe there was
a circus In the end the spider got the
better of the fly and the heat got the bet
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