The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1885-09-18
TIE MAGIC LANTERN.

Our town is getting to be full of lee
surers. Mr.. Travers says that the.
spread al over the country, just ik'
cholera, and that when one lecture
comes to q town, another is liable Il
break out at any time.
The Inst lecturer that we had hap
pened a week ago. He was a magic
lantern one, and they are not so bad a
, other kinds. He had nlagic-lantern pic
lures of Europe and Washington ant
other towns, and he showed them on
big white sheet, and talked about them
made lot Of magie-lantern pictures
when l had my camera, and some o.
them were real good. The lectures
came to our house to spend the night
and the afternoon before the lecture h.
went out To walk, and left the door oil
his room open.
Tom was at my house that afternoon,
and rs we We're going upstairs We saw q
tremendous lot of magic-lantern pic
lures lying piled up on the lecturer S
table. Most of the pictures were houses
anu mountains, but some of them Were
people, and then there were lot of real
funny ones. such as a man falling over
q pig, and big goat knocking boy
over Tom and had "A very nice time
looking at them, and we were very care
ful TO put them back on the piles Just in
1.-THE same way that the lecturer had put
them. Only once in a while Tom would
forget just where picture belonged,
and we had to put it in the wrong place.
This was what made all the trouble, and
If any one was to blame for il, Tom
WIS the one.
We didn't tell the lecturer that we
had looked at his pictures. for that
might have troubled him, and we ought
never to give trouble TO people that are
older than We are. Tom and l went to
the lecture, and so did almost every
body else in town, and when the lee
turer began to speak you would have
said that he was ono of the incest men
YOU ever saw, he looked 50 pleased.
The trouble began when. after having
showed US lot of pictures, he said
The next picture, ladies and gentle
men, IS portrait Of Her Gracious Ma
iesty, Queen Victoria. Now it hap
pened that the next picture was a large
cat with dozen kittens, and somebody
said: "Hsw! hsw. is that the Queen?h
The lecturer knew he had mac, mis-
take, but he pretended it was all right,
and said that the cat belonged TO his lit
tie girl, and its name was really Queen
Victoria
The next pictures were mostly right,
though what the lecturer said would
be picture of a steamboat on
the Rhine turned out TO be
man on bicycle, and what he
called view of the battle OF Waterloo
was boy being knocked over BIZ
goat After awhile he asked al his
German friends present-but | don't
believe he knew single one of them
to admire beautiful portrait of that
hero and patriot Prince Bismarck. and
when the portrait appeared on the shee:
it was 4 picture Of u pig running away
from fat butcher. You should have
heard the lecturers German friends
howl, and believe they would have
thrown something at him besides heavy
German words If he hadn't begged
their pardon and said 1t was al.
u mistake, and he feared that some evil
minded person had wickediy mixed up
his pictures
Well. the Germans stonpcd sewing
things after awhile. ard the Lecture.
went on. His pictures got worse and
worse. His lovely view of Venice, as
he called it, was picture of her,l OF
buffaloes. and what he told us would be
picture of a wedding in Egypt was n
cat and dog fighting and IN old
woman betting them with 3 cluh. This
made him nervous, and he kept putting |
pictures into the magic lantern upside |
down. and making the King of Greece
and the Queen of Italy stand on their |
heads. and asking the people 10 excuse
any mistakes, and wishing he could pu.
his hands on the evil-mindcd persons |
who had meddled with his pictures. Fl
nally he told the people that he would |
show them the picture of two innocent |
and lovely children. Tom bit me in
the side with his elbow when the lee
turer said this, and whispered to me:
BE all ready 10 run l didn't have
the least idea what he meant till / saw
the picture. | never was more aston
ished in my life, for it was picture |
had made of Mr.. Travers and Sue sit
ting on the sofa and holding each 9TH
er's hands 1t had got mixed up In
some way with the lecturers own pict-
ures, and believe Tom had something
to do with it, though he won't own up.
Tom and went out as soon as we
saw the picture, but we could hear the
people laugh and yell when we were
half mile away. / heard aftcrwarl
that the lecturer didn't show any more
pictures. and that he jumped out of tho
back window, with Mr. Travers close
after him. Anyway, he never came
back to our house. Mr.. Travcrs, when
be found that l really hadn't put tina
picture of him and Sue among the others,
!orgave me. but Sue says she never win.
think Tom ought to own up. and il
Mr. Travers catches him think he will.
Jimmy BroSya." ia Harper's Toung