CHINESE SHADOWS.
While upon the subject of optical wonders, we
should hardly be forgiven if we did not give a description
of the amusement known as Chinese shadows, or
Fantocini. In the winter time it is difficult to pass
through any of the large thoroughfares of London after
nightfall, without seeing a crowd admiring the popular
fantocini farces of the "Broken Bridge," or "Billy
Button;" and although these dramatic exhibitions are
not always free from vulgarity, they are received with
vociferous applause by at least the younger portion of
the audience.
The apparatus for the exhibition of the fantocini is generally very simple. The screen on which they are shown is generally made of calico rendered semi-transparent with copal varnish, and the figures are cut out of cardboard. Frames containing landscapes and scenes of different kinds are also provided, which are cut out in the same material. The dramatis personæ are generally made with moveable limbs, which they throw about in the most unanatomical manner, and the showman is often endowed with ventriloquial talents of no mean order. This amusement is to be found in all parts of the world, from the Strand and Tottenham Court Road London, to the streets of Algiers and Java. A graphic writer in the Magasin Pittoresque gives a pleasant de-
