until you have a herd of them. Paste the flat end of a stick to the buffalo’s leg and fasten a thread to the neck and hind legs, as shown by Fig. 288. With the stick you move the bison along, and with the string you make him throw up his head and hind legs in a most amusing and comical manner.
Fig. 295.
A Piece of White Muslin,
stretched taut, with no wrinkles, will make your stage, and a light behind it will throw the shadows of your puppets on the cloth. The stage should be surrounded with heavy curtains, to prevent the operators from being seen, and the light behind the stage from illuminating the room in front. A bicycle lamp or an ordinary candle will answer for the light. A sheet of smooth Manila paper makes a better stage than the white cloth; it may be tacked upon a frame, or the bottom edge be tacked to a kitchen table and the top to a rod, suspended from the ceiling. The table should be on the audience side of the screen, so that the showmen may have room to move their puppet-sticks along the inside edge of the table, and keep the puppets close to the screen of paper. By changing the cowboy’s hat to a soldier’s cap or helmet, and putting a sword or gun in his hand, you can make as many cavalrymen from this pattern as you desire to have in the show.
CHAPTER XXV.
HOW TO HAVE A PANORAMA SHOW.
After you have had a rollicking-circus in the attic, and a roaring Wild West show in the basement, you can explain to your parents that a panorama is a show of a “highly moral” and most genteel character, and you may persuade them to allow you to have a panorama party in the dining-room.