2-982-653 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Magic Lantern - drawn by H. G. Hine, 1858. '"What fun! He has got hold of the Chinaman by his pigtail!"...a chorus of joyous laughter burst from fifty young spectators, dimly visible in the almost total darkness of the room in which that elderly spectacled gentleman who styles himself Professor of Natural Philosophy is exhibiting the wonders of his magic lantern...when a merry Christmas party of both sexes are assembled under some hospitable roof, and Professor Smiley and his lantern are specially engaged for the evening...the merits of this popular instrument can be property appreciated...the Professor has taken his post behind the green-covered table, and is busily engaged preparing his apparatus - trimming his lamp and arranging his boxes of slides...the lights are extinguished, and, after a few preliminary flickers and false starts, a broad disc of light falls on the white surface of the cloth on the wall. The hum of approval swells into a burst of applause, when, with a jerk, a jolly Jack Tar appears on the scene...Our friend Jack, anxious to possess a real live Chinaman, has made fast to Commissioner Yeh's pigtail, by which he means to tow him alongside, to the appropriate music of "Yo, heave ho!".' From the Christmas supplement to the "Illustrated London News", 1858.