Chapter X: The Wild West Show on a Table

CITY people, country people, young people, old people, busy people, idle people, all come flocking to the Wild West Show when it posts its gay pictures and spreads its fascinating white tents for the benefit of the public.

But did it ever occur to you that the show could come to you—that is, you might organize a show of your own and arrange things to suit yourself? If you want the Wild West Show first and a circus after you can have them. Should you prefer both shows at the same time they are yours, for you can make the entire affair—horses, riders, Indians, wild animals and tent. You may do even more—you can cause all the performers actually to move, and that by the mere turn of your wrist, because your show will be in reality the moving pictures of

=A Panorama=

Get a common old house-broom (Fig. 117) and saw the broom part off evenly from the handle at the dotted line A; then saw two pieces of equal length from the handle at dotted lines B and C, making each piece fourteen inches long. These we will call the rollers.

Find or make a wooden box about twelve inches high, eighteen inches wide and eight inches deep; carefully pry off one of the eighteen-inch sides and cut two round holes through the top of the box, one at each end, two inches from the front and one and one-fourth inch from the end; then turn the box over and cut corresponding holes through the bottom; reverse the box again, bringing the right side up (Fig. 118). The holes on the bottom must be exactly under those on the top and all four holes must be only large enough to allow the roller to slip in, and while in, to turn easily (see Fig. 119). Remove the rollers and nail a strip of wood two inches thick across each end of the bottom of the box (Fig. 120). Then hammer two strong staple-tacks on each roller two and one-half inches from the top, or smaller end, and on opposite sides of the stick; guide the tacks so they will incline very slightly upward while being hammered in (Fig. 121).

Fit an empty spool on one end of a piece of wood, one inch wide, three inches long and not less than one-fourth of an inch thick. Slide a large-headed screw in the hole of the spool until the screw rests on the block of wood; then screw it down tight, fastening the spool securely on the wood (Fig. 122); screw a second spool on another piece of wood of the same size as the first (Fig. 123, D and E). Fit the free end of the block of wood over the top of the roller and mark off the space on the block occupied by the end of the roller; with a gimlet bore a hole through the centre of this space, and also in the centre of the top of the roller; place the block of wood over the top of the roller, bringing one hole on top of the other, and fasten the roller and block together with a screw. In like manner screw the other block to the top of the second roller; these blocks and spools form the crank-handles for turning the rollers (Fig. 124).

Unscrew the blocks from the rollers and carefully remove the staple-tacks, in order that

=A Strip of Cloth=

may be tacked to the rollers and the rollers replaced in the box.

Purchase two yards of low-priced white cambric dress skirt lining; fold the cambric lengthwise into three equal divisions; then cut the folds apart, making three lengths each two yards long and about eight and one-fourth inches wide; sew the pieces together along the end edges, lapping one over the other that the seam may be as thin and flat as possible (Fig. 125). This will give you a strip almost six yards long for the panorama. Do not hem either the top or bottom. Allow a blank space of white cloth, sixteen and one-half inches long, at the beginning of the panorama; then commence

=Pasting Pictures=

on the strip. Colored newspaper pictures are best, because the paper is thin and easily pasted on the cambric. Almost all leading newspapers publish in their issues from time to time colored pictures of wild animals, rough riders, Indians and circus performers.

When you have a collection of the pictures you want, cut each one out neatly. When all are ready, sort them over, selecting the one you wish to come first on the panorama; then the second picture and so on. Have them all in order so you need waste no time hunting for a print while pasting the pictures on the cambric.

Make a good paste of flour and water, allowing it to boil well before using. A drop or two of oil of cloves mixed with the paste after it has cooked will keep it fresh a long time.

Select an attractive, comical picture for the first design on the panorama; but save the best and most startling picture for the very last.

You should arrange

=The Performers=

in your panorama in much the same way as a story is written or a play put on the stage. Always begin with something which will cause the audience to want to see more; then paste on various pictures, but toward the last lead up to the best and most exciting design; the last picture stands for the climax in a story or a play.

When placing the pictures on the strip of cambric, remember not to have them close together; keep them apart, allowing a little blank space between each successive object, so your audience will have an opportunity of enjoying every one of the performers and wild animals as it first appears peeping from behind the roll at one side of the tent, showing only its head, then coming in full view and passing slowly before them until it finally disappears around the roll at the other side (Fig. 123).

=When the Pictures Are All Pasted=

on the strip, turn over and crease down half an inch of cambric along the edge of the first end of the panorama; tack this end on one of the rollers. If the thickness of the top of your box is one-half an inch, tack the end of your panorama fully four and one-half inches below the top or smaller end of the stick. Should the thickness of the lid be one inch, the cambric strip must be tacked on still lower—about five inches from the top.

You cannot be too particular about having the edge of the cambric perfectly even and straight on the roller, so the strip will lie at a true right angle to the roller when laid out flat (Fig. 126).

Having tacked the cambric on, gradually roll it around the stick, keeping the strip running over, not under the stick, so the roller will stand behind the cambric; have the cloth perfectly even as it winds around and around. When the end of the cloth is reached, turn in one-half an inch of the end edge and tack the cambric to the second roller as you tacked the beginning on the first roller (Fig. 127).

Use the same precaution and wind in the same manner but in an opposite direction when rolling the cambric on the second stick. With a strong hammer strike the top or lid of the box along the edges from underneath until it loosens and can be removed; take it off and slide the rollers with the attached panorama into the holes on the bottom of the box (Fig. 123).

Replace the lid of the box, passing the top ends of the rollers through the holes, and nail the lid down to the sides of the box; then refit the staple-tacks in their respective places and see that they are in tight; restore the crank-handles on top of the rollers and rescrew them in position (Fig. 124). Now the panorama is ready to go into

=A Tent=

Cut a stiff piece of pasteboard box like the tent design (Fig. 128) with an opening to fit the strip of muslin, spanning the space between the two rollers; the edges of the opening must cover both top and bottom edges of the cambric. Cover the pasteboard with white muslin cut into four pieces—one piece for the top, one for the bottom and one for each side. Cut the bottom piece into a strip to fit, slashed on all edges (Fig. 129, A). Paste this on the tent (Fig. 128) first, turning the slashed portion over and fastening it on the back of the pasteboard; then fasten a curtain on each side (Fig. 130) and paste the top piece of the tent on last; scallop this along the bottom edge and paste it only along the two slanting slashed top lines; turn the slashes over on the wrong side of the pasteboard and paste. When dry, fit the tent over the front of the box and tack it firmly in place. Make three little flags of gay paper, paste on sticks and glue the sticks to the top peak and sides of the tent (Fig. 130); paste strips of paper over and across the flag handle to the pasteboard to hold the flag more securely on the tent (Fig. 131). Your show will then appear to be moving inside of a white circus tent.

Set the box upon a table with the entire panorama wound on the second roller, leaving only the blank portion of the cloth visible, and while the audience is seated in front, begin slowly turning the crank-handle of the first roller; at the same time telling in clear, well enunciated words all about your Wild West Show. Do not try to have your remarks sound as though learned from a book; that would be stiff and unnatural. Talk in an every-day way, exactly as though you were speaking only to your most intimate friend, and wanted to tell her all about the strange sights and queer people, and the funny bears who are not afraid of any man woman or child.

If you have been to a real Wild West Show, that will give you ideas, or if you have traveled way out West and seen the actual Wild West life it will be an inspiration for your show. Even to have read about the life with its daring riders, wild horses, buffaloes, hazardous stage coach drives, Indians and their war dances will be an immense help in aiding you to enter into the spirit of the show.