The room may be decorated with festoons of drab yarn cobwebs, presided over with great spiders cut from black and yellow flannel, or imitation insects from toy stores.
Invitations to the gentlemen should read, “Please wear a black mask.” Those to the ladies, “Please come as a ghost.”
Receiving Guests. As the guests arrive, they may be greeted by one or two huge ghosts nine feet high in a conspicuous place. A small goblin may be concealed behind the flowing draperies of this ponderous apparition, swinging the ghostly figure slowly forward to salute each approaching guest. When the guests arrive they are met at the door by a ghost, and when the last one has arrived, they are all ushered into this weird place. As the guests go into this room, they should be blindfolded, and have presented to them an old glove filled with wet bran and chilled on ice. There may be also a piece of wet fur and a prickly pin ball in the hands of a ghost with instructions to quietly touch with these uncanny objects, the hands or faces of other guests. At the sound of a muffled gong, the party is conducted to a chamber of horrors. As each one enters this place, a huge paper bag may be burst over his head and a far-away voice be heard sounding through a garden hose.
Running water splashing over a cow-bell tied to a faucet will give the sound of rushing water and also keep the bell tolling dismally. Newspapers cut into strips and nailed to the cross-beams dangle about the heads of the victims, and a hidden electric fan sets the papers in motion and adds damp breezes to the charm of this pleasant region. The bandages are now removed and alcohol and salt fires furnish a dim light and give the party a ghastly appearance. Great care should always be taken in doing this. Some of the sights to be seen are described in the following sections.
The Heads of Bluebeard’s Wives. This effect is easily produced. A rod is extended horizontally across the rear of the room, about six feet from the floor; from this a sheet is hung, the bottom reaching and tacked to the floor to keep it flat like a white wall. Young ladies standing at intervals behind the sheet protrude their heads through perpendicular slits cut at the proper height to suit the stature of each lady; the upper part of the slit is fastened closely around the throat by a pin at the back of the neck. A strip of red flannel is fastened around the throat where the neck comes in contact with the sheet, and a few splashes of carmine on the sheet below each head produce the appearance of blood. The hair of each is gathered up and fastened to the rod above by a piece of ribbon. The face of each is powdered, and the eyes, with a dash of lead-color under them, are kept closed. At a little distance off the effect is startlingly real.
The Severed Head. This always causes a sensation and should not be suddenly exposed to the nervous, but the operation is not so terrible as might be imagined.
A large table, covered with a cloth sufficiently long to reach to the floor all around and completely hide all beneath, is placed in the centre of the room. A boy or girl with soft, silky hair, being selected to represent the head, must lie upon his back under the table, entirely concealed, excepting that portion of his face above the bridge of his nose. The rest is under the table-cloth.
His hair must now be carefully combed down, to represent whiskers, and a face must be marked upon the cheeks and forehead; the false eyebrows, nose and mouth, with moustache, must be strongly marked with black, and the real eyebrows covered with a little powder or flour. The face should also be powdered to a death-like pallor, and the effect is very startling.
The horror of this illusion may be intensified by having a subdued light in the room in which the exhibition has been arranged.
Ghost Stories. The party can now return to a suitable place for games. If the parlor is a small one, each one is expected to tell a ghost story.