While putting up this talk I would be holding in my hands the neat little box with its internal mirror, and now I would place it to my eye.
“I will ask some gentleman back of me to do something. With the aid of this instrument I will tell him what he did. Somebody behind me, please do something.
“Ah, there is a gentleman raising his right hand. He now lowers it and raises his left. He now closes his first two fingers, and is laughing.
“There on his right is another gentleman who is raising his hat. He is putting it on again.”
I would go on like this for perhaps five minutes, the actions of the persons behind me increasing in interest and complexity; then I would continue:
“Now, gentlemen, this little instrument, as you may imagine, can be used in a great many different ways besides seeing through the back of your head.
“You might wish to follow some one without being seen. If the object of your chase should turn a block ahead, you would not have to follow. You could simply stand on the corner, hold your little box back at an angle of about twenty degrees—in this manner—and it would bring every object on that street to your eyes.
“If you are suspicious of your best girl, and want to watch the other fellow while he calls on her, don’t sneak up to the house and peep through the window. Take your little Look-Back, place this end to the keyhole and your eye at the other and the entire surroundings will be disclosed.
“The little box which you see in my hands has within it such a combination of lenses and glasses, all arranged in such a scientific way, that they throw a picture of objects to the center of the box, where they are exposed to the eye.
“If you want to watch an eclipse you can do so with this little Look-Back; and if you want to sight the smallest thing at the longest distance, there you have it. And, by the way, if you want to gaze on the smiling countenance of your best girl without using the keyhole, or being seen, just place yourself directly under her window, use this little instrument, and I don’t care if she lives forty stories high you can spot her every time.