(1) The first and least expensive way is to cut a dozen or twenty pictures out of magazines, arrange them according to your route and build up your talk around them. As you describe each place pass the pictures, which should be mounted on cardboard, in turn to each person present.
(2) A better way is to get a set of stereographs of the trip or the country you are to talk on and a stereoscope[124] and pass the picture showing the view and the instrument to each person present.
[124] A stereoscope and the stereograms can be bought from Underwood and Underwood, 417 Fifth Ave., New York, or Sears, Roebuck and Co., Chicago, Ill.
Each stereograph, as the picture is called, is formed of two pictures of the same scene made from slightly different viewpoints and when the observer looks through the lenses at them they blend into one image when the scene stands out wonderfully clear and apparently in three dimensions. The only drawback of the stereoscope as an aid to a travel talk is that only one person can look at a picture at a time.
(3) A far better plan than either of the above schemes is to make a reflectoscope[125] as [described] in the chapter called Some Kinks in Photography. You can show any kind of a picture in a reflectoscope if it is not larger than 3×5 inches but picture postcards are especially good to use for a travelogue or a talk of any kind and they show up nicely when thrown on a screen with a reflectoscope.
[125] You can buy one of the Bausch and Lomb Optical Company, Rochester, New York, and you can get post-card views for it of the Post-Card Store, 946 Broadway, New York.
(4) Finally either make, or better, if you can afford it, buy, a magic lantern[126] that will take the regular full size lantern slides, namely, 3¹⁄₄ × 4¹⁄₄ inches square. Sets of lantern slides[127] for travelogues or talks on any subject can be rented cheaply and in these days of cheap electricity you can throw a picture on the screen so big and bright and real that your offering is bound to be a success.
[126] For magic lanterns and slides address the Charles Beseler Co., 131 East 23rd Street, New York.
[127] Sets of lantern slides can be rented of the Charles Beseler Co., 131 East 23rd Street, New York City.