406 



RECREATION. 



vigorous rubbing, but there is great danger 

 of taking the film off with the varnish. 

 Sometimes the varnish may have been 

 omitted, but even then I find the collodion 

 film so fragile they will not stand re- 

 peated applications of any color which has 

 to be diluted with water. What you need 

 then is the oil colors which are finely 

 ground for lantern slide painting. They 

 come in small tubes with a bottle of special 

 varnish, and are cheaper in the long run 

 than any other coloring material. One 

 disadvantage these have as compared with 

 the colors previously mentioned is the 

 tendency to show the marks of the brush, 

 but that can be overcome by dabbing 

 cither with the tip of the finger or with a 

 small dabber made with a piece of old kid. 

 glove stretched over a little ball of cotton 

 wool. There are good and bad points 

 about each of the different coloring out- 

 fits mentioned, but if you want to get the 

 best results with your slides you would 

 better get them all and use as occasion 

 requires. 



The skillful slide maker always wants to 

 own a good lantern, and here again, if you 

 invest in one, you need not despair of see- 

 ing your money back and more if you go 

 about it in the right way. Watch for a 

 man who has been pursuaded that "an easy 

 and lucrative occupation is the giving of 

 stereopticon entertainments through the 

 small towns and villages of your State," 

 and after he has tried it for- a month 

 or 2 you can usually buy his outfit at 

 a comparatively low figure. You need not 

 go to the expense of a double lantern, 

 either, unless you are using vision pic- 

 tures, which, of course, can not be pro- 

 duced without one. If you have a single 

 lantern, don't use a panorama carrier, 

 which shows one view sliding on and an- 

 other one sliding off the screen at the same 

 time. That is altogether too crude. 

 There are several different carriers to be 

 obtained now which change the pictures 

 just about as neatly as dissolving with a 

 double lantern. My own experience has 

 been that the majority of people in an 

 sverage audience neither know nor care 

 how the slides are projected or changed 

 provided it is done in a manner which does 

 not offend the eye. They could not tell 

 after an entertainment is over whether 

 a single or double lantern was used, but 

 what they will remember is whether 

 your pictures were worth looking at or 

 not. And now suppose you have learned 

 to make color slides and have be- 

 come the proud possessor of a good 

 lantern. The next thing is how to turn 

 it to profitable account. I presume you 

 are connected more or less with some 

 church. If not, you ought to be. Let 

 them know you are willing to furnish a 

 gratuitous exhibition for the benefit of the 



Sunday school library or some equally de- 

 serving object. Call it an evening of "Il- 

 lustrated Song and Story." You will find 

 plenty of talent around the church to fur- 

 nish the necessary singers, readers and re- 

 citers. You will have to buy or hire the 

 slides for songs and stories, but inter- 

 spersed with those you can exhibit a 

 number of slides of your own make, copies 

 of famous paintings, cats, kittens, dogs, 

 etc., and last, but by no means least, a 

 good collection of local views. These, 

 more particularly if well colored, never fail 

 to arouse the enthusiasm of your audience. 

 Do not give a haphazard show, with a slide 

 turned upside down occasionally by way 

 of variety. There are too many people do- 

 ing that kind of thing already. _ Prepare 

 your programme as carefully ancl carry it 

 out as faithfully as if you were getting $25 

 for the engagement, because this is your 

 advertisement. If you make this a success 

 people will talk about it to their friends, 

 and you will have no difficulty in securing 

 engagements elsewhere, for which you will 

 be paid. Be sure you have a good light. 

 Better stick to the old, reliable oxy-hydro- 

 gen lime light than be worried with either 

 saturators or acetylene gas. Use a long 

 focus lens. If you have some one on the 

 platform to give a brief description of the 

 views that require it your best place with 

 the lantern is right at the back of the hall, 

 but if you have to do this talking yourself 

 you would better be about two-thirds the 

 length of the room from the screen. Don't 

 have an assistant. Two men at a lantern, 

 one feeding slides in and the other taking 

 them out, looks too ridiculous. As to the 

 slides illustrating songs and stories which I 

 said above you would have to buy or hire, 

 there again is scope for your ingenuity if 

 you care to exercise it. Get a good stand- 

 ard song, for instance; not a ditty of the 

 day which will be worn out in a month. 

 Study the various points, hunt up your 

 models, and see if you can not do as well 

 as some of the illustrators whose work is 

 offered for sale. If you buy the slides you 

 would better get them plain. Good col- 

 ored slides are expensive, and you ought 

 tc be able to do better painting yourself 

 than you will get on the cheap sets. 



The above advice is based on my own 

 actual experience. Naturally, I am not 

 anxious to invite competition in the city 

 in which I live, but there seems to me 

 no reason why the success which has at- 

 tended my efforts here could not be dupli- 

 cated by an enterprising amateur in the 

 large cities of this or any other State. 



DEVELOPING PAPERS. 



G. A. CONRADI. 



During the past 3 months I have been 

 shown a large number of photographs 

 made on developing papers of various 



