Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1881-01-08


often meet with theaters where there
is no wind machine. A sufficiently
good one, however, is easily produced.
A common child's hoop is obtained, and
sheet of heavy brown paper is pasted
upon it after the manner of circus
riders balloon. A handful of bird
shot is placed upon the paper. The
''machine" is canted from one side to
the other. and the shot rolls around the
paper. producing fairly good rain
effect.
Wind is an item that is very useful in
frightening the effect of stage storms.
1t is often dispensed with in theaters
where strict attention is not paid to de-
tails, but not without n loss of "real-
ISM" II has, moreover, a great inilu-
ence over the feelings of spectators.
The blind Louise in the " Two Orphans"
is much more pitied when the audience
can hear the pitiless blast that makes
her SILVER. Hence in every large
theater the wind machine plays an i'm
pOrtant part. 1t is not stationary
apparatus. but can be moved to any
quarter of the compass from which it is
desired that wind should blow. In the
last act of "Ours," every time the door
of the hut opens snow flies in and a
shrek of wind is heard. The wind ma
chine in that instance is placed just out
side the door: and the property man
works it while his assistant amuses HIM
self by trying to throw his paper snow
down Lord Shendryn' back. The wind
machine is constructed in this manner.
A heavy frame is made, in which is set
a cylinder provided with paddles and
resembling very much the stern-wheels
seen on Ohio River tow-boats. Across
the top of this cylinder is stretched as
tightly as possible a piece of heavy
gros-grain silk. This silk remains sta
tiOnary while the wheel is turned by a
crank. The rapid passage of the pad
dies across the surface OF the silk pro-
duces the noise of wind. Often trav-
cling companies are in theaters
where there is no wind machine.
Then the property man groans
audibly, and proceeds to do what, in
theatrical parlance is called taking"
the wind. He selects heavy piece of
gas hose, called by stage gas-men
''fexible," and, finding a quiet corner
where there is sufficient space to swing
cat without danger - to the cat-he
whirls it around his head with the great
est possible rapidity. This method pro-
duces very satisfactory results-tO ev-
ery one but the property man. He is a
long-sufiering person; but the extrac-
ton OF wind from FLEXIBLE" causes
him to find life tedious.
Every one has heard the startling
crash that is produced when the hero
kicks the william through a fOur-inch
oaken door, One would think that not
only the door but the villain must be
completely shattered. This noise is
produced by the crash machine, one of
the Oldest implements of imitation still
used on the stage. 1t is similar to the
wind machine in construction. A wheel
with paddles set at an angle of about
forty-five degrees to the radii is the
main part OF the machine. Upon the
top of the wheel one end of q stout
piece of wood is pressed down by fast
ening the other end TO portion of the
framework. When the wheel is turned,
the Stats passing under the stationary
piece produce a rafting crash. The
principle of the machine is illustrated
by the small boy who runs stick along
a paling fence and is gratified by intro
ducing into the world an additional
morsel of hubbub.
There is nothing that can be so well
cOunterfeited on the stage as moonlight
scenery. And yet there is nothing
which requires more work. The artist
begins the task by painting moon
light scene. In daylight such a scene
is a CHASTITY sight. 1t is done in cold
grays and greens, in which Prussian
blue and burnt lumber play an impOr-
tant part; and the lights are put
in with white slightly tinged with en-
erald green. The strong moonlight of
the foreground is produced BY cal !