The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1898-03-24
MARIONETTE SHOWS.


ing entertainments, especially for club
of boys or girls like the chapters of our
Open Window club, is a marionette
show. It is one of the oldest of amuse-
ments, and yet it is always new and
funny. And for an ''open meeting" at
which admission is charged there is
nothing more attractive. Directions are
here given for making a marionette
show, and any club of boys and girls
will find it inexpensive and not at all
difficult, and with little practice it
can be made most laughable. Using the
characters of Red Riding Hood, the old
grandmother, the wolf and the woods
man, the whole play of "Red Riding
Hood" may be given, the characters
dancing through the play in the greatest
glee Besides that, other little plays
with clowns, dancing darkles, funny
policemen and other characters may be
given. The main fun in a marionette
show is the cute way in which the odd
" dressed characters are made to hop
about After once making the dummy
men and animals an imaginative boy
can work up any number of odd shows
for them.
The first and most important thing is
to make the dummies. All that is neces
sary for this work is a sharp jackknife,
some bits of pine and box of screw
eyes, The dummy shown in the picture
{A) will give you an idea about the
working of all the dummies. AS you
will see, there are ten parts, all OF
which are very simply made, except the
head. That will have to be whitfield out
of some very soft wood.
Screw eyes are used to fasten the
parts together. Screw one of these eyes
in, say, the shoulder, then, with pair
of pliers open the ring of another screw
enough to allow it to slip into the screw
eve already fixed, then close it again,
and the two will be secured together.
Next insert the second screw into the
top joint of arm, and so on with the
other arm and legs. Fix the neck into
the body in the same manner. The face
must, of course, be painted according to
the character it is supposed to represent,
with water or oil color or chalk.
The wig may be made of a piece of
dyed sleeps wool or of raveled worsted
or rope end or a regular dolls wig may
be used. The picture A shows the figure
The strings which cause the dummy to
| dance are of dark carpet thread. One
strand should be placed into each side
of the head, about where the top of the
| ear comes. A small tack nearly driven
in will give support to fasten the
| thread to. The lines from each side of
| the head are known as the life lines,
| their real purpose being to support the
| figure, which must be fastened to a
| piece of wood (1). Bore hole with
a thin piece of wire made redhot
| through the center of the palm of each
hand, next make a knot at the end of a
| length of thread and pass it through the
| hole made in the hand until the knot
reaches the underneath part of hand,
| and then fasten the other end of the
| thread on to stick CD. Drive tack into
each of the upper joints of legs just
above the knees, fasten threads on to
these and the other end on to stick (2).
The dummy is now complete except
| for dressing, according to the character
| which it is to represent. The girls can
| make all sorts of odd costumes of silk
| calico or satin-for ballet dancers, bicy-
Gle girls, clowns, acrobats-not forget
ting that harlequins and eastern charac-
tiers like Blue Beard need plenty of
spangles, gold and silver lace and tinsel
paper. The gaudier the costume can be
made the better.
| Make the costumes so that they are
left open at the back, both jackets and
breeches; they can then be pulled on to
the figure and carefully tackled on at the
back. for it is very seldom you require
to show the backs of figures. A fair aver
age height for the figures for a perform
ance is about to 10 inches.
The dummy, now being complete. you
take the stick CD in your left hand,
palm uppermost, and the stick (2) in
your right hand, palm downward. By
moving the left hand backward or for
ward, and giving kind of seesaw mo-
ton to your right hand, the dummy
will have the effect of walking; also
with the right hand fingers you can
manipulate the threads connected with
the arms Of the figures. With little
practice you will soon be able to make
the dummies do many things which
will greatly please you and very much
astonish your audience.
With dark background the threads,
which are run out through the cloth OF
the costume with a needle, will show
very little, if at all, and this makes the
dancing of the dummies all the more as
tonishing.
Of animals you can have your choice,
as they are all worked on much the
same principle. A bull, which may also
be used as a horse or goat, or for tina,
matter, for almost any other animal by