THE TWIRLING CARD. 



261 



ends, and spinning the cards rapidly by means of the 

 strings, the impressions of the two pictures would be com- 

 bined in the eye, on account of the image produced by one 

 not fading from the mind before the other came to join it. 

 One of the pairs of pictures which the boys thus made con- 

 sisted of a man on one side brandishing a stick, and on the 

 other side a pig running away. Thus, when the card was 

 twirled, you saw one picture consisting of a man driving a 



Pig- 



The boys made these pictures by cutting out the figures 

 in black paper, and then pasting them upon the cards. The 

 figures were not very well shaped, but Flippy said that 

 that was no matter; they were just as funny for all that. 



Sometimes they drew the pictures with pen and ink, and 

 sometimes they painted them in colors. One which they 

 drew consisted of an empty cage on one side, and a bird, 

 which they painted of a bright blue, on the other. When 

 the card was twirled the bird was seen in the cage. 



The scientific name for this contrivance is the Thauma- 

 trope. 



THE THAUMATEOPE. 



