Now while I have used the words entertainment and divertisement, both of which mean about the same thing and that is amusement, and while you should always strive to make your talks as light and recreational as you can you do not need to stick to frothy subjects altogether but instead you should alternate them with scientific demonstrations. In this way you will not only please and develop good fellowship in the family, but you will instruct the members of it at the same time.
Finally, don’t make your divertisements too long. Better by all means make each one only 15 or 20 minutes long and have everybody in high good humor and saying that it was all too short, than to give them an hour and have everybody gappy and bored half-to-death.
Cartoons While You Wait.
—This is a good feature to start off your season’s divertisements with. Make a substantial easel on which to set a large drawing board as shown in [Fig. 116], or you can fasten the paper to a wall with thumb tacks if you live in a home and not in a residence.
Get a dozen sheets of good white print paper—you can buy a quire (24 sheets) 24 × 36 inches for 25 cents—and tack ¹⁄₂ a dozen sheets to your drawing board or the wall. Also buy a stick of black marking crayon,[117] which is better than chalk or charcoal for it makes a heavy black line that will not smut, blur or rub off.
[117] You can buy a marking crayon at a hardware or stationery store.
Fig. 116. how an easel is made
Drawing the Cartoons.
—Start in with your crayon in hand and explain that what you propose to do is to show the principles upon which free-hand drawing is based. Then make a simple line drawing of the boxer reaching for the maxillary of his invisible opponent as shown in [Fig. 42], over in the chapter called Drawing Simply Explained, and then draw the horse galloping home on the three-quarter stretch.