Page:The American Boy's Handy Book edition 1.djvu/347
to be exhibited
In winter-time, when a great part of a boy's fun must be found in-doors, it is a good thing to know how to get up amateur exhibitions of various kinds. In this way boys can have a good time while preparing the shows, and may also afford a great deal of pleasure to their companions and friends who make up the audiences.
One of the most entertaining parlor exhibitions which can be given at a moderate expense by a party of bright boys, accustomed to the use of carpenters' tools, is "The Boy's Own Phunnygraph," invented by the author, who once exhibited one at an amateur performance before an audience of five hundred people.
The first thing necessary in the construction of this very peculiar machine is a dry-goods box, large enough for a boy to sit inside of it without discomfort. The top must be firmly nailed on and the two sides taken off, thus leaving nothing but the top, bottom, and two ends of the box. The sides, each of which probably consists of two or three pieces of board, are to serve as doors, and therefore must be firmly fastened together by means of cleats or narrow strips of board nailed across them. One side of the box, which we shall call side A, must be