STEP up, ladies and gentlemen! Step up! Here you see the greatest wonder of the century! The X-rays, the X-rays! You can see right through your hand, through a board, through this thick city directory," and the "spieler" held up a thick volume to enforce his remarks.

It was at a county fair, and the voice of the "spieler" sounded loud above the steady hum of the voices around and the cries of the other men who were offering their wares near by.

I, a small boy, elbowed my way through the crowd and stood finally where I could see clearly.

"Step up, ladies and gentlemen! Step up! The wonder of the ages! Only ten cents a look! See through your hand! See through a book! See through a board! Only ten cents!"

A young man stepped up and handed the man ten cents, then stooped and looked into the eyepiece of the machine. The man pressed a button, and a little one-candle-power electric light with a green globe lighted up at the other end of the machine.

There were two tubes supported on pedestals at their middle, and one looked through the length of one tube into the end and through the length of the other, - or so it seemed.

"What do you see?" asked the man, so the crowd could hear.

"A greenish light," said the young fellow.

The man took up a piece of board and placed it between the tubes so that in order to see the lamp now, one must look through the board.

"What do you see now?" he shouted.

"Same old thing," was the answer.

"Look! Look!" shouted the man. "He sees through the board."

But my attention was riveted on the ma-chine, and now I understood. The "spieler" noticed my attention.

"Come on up, sonny," he said, waving his long hand my way and beckoning me on.

"Come on and see through this book," and he held it up again.

"Aw, no," I said. (I was only a small boy.) "Why, you do it with looking-gla- No, I guess I can see through that without paying ten cents."

"How's that?" asked the man, but in a subdued voice, and he was off his stand in a minute and by my side.

"Here you, sonny," he said, taking me by the shoulder. "You get out of this and right smart."

I "got," but I carried the secret of the machine with me, nevertheless. It was nothing but an arrangement of looking-glasses or mirrors, and in the drawings I have shown how you may very easily make one for yourself.

Cigar boxes may be had at any cigar store for the asking, so get five of these to start with, all the same size if possible, so as to simplify your fitting work.

Across the bottom of two of the boxes and in the middle, mark off two lines crosswise of the box and as far apart as the end of the adjoining box is wide. Then saw out the space between the lines and take out this piece of the box bottom.

One of these places is shown at a, where A joins B, Figure i, and the other at e, where D fits into the bottom of E.

The boxes B and D have the upper end knocked out entirely and at the other end have a piece of the side near the bottom taken out which is as wide as the end of the box C, which will fit into it. These places are shown at b and c, Figure i. C, of course, has both ends knocked out.

By fixing the boxes in this way, you can see that there will be a continuous passage from one to the other.

Open the cover of A and E, and inside, just over the hole into B, fix at an angle a piece of looking-glass which has been cut to the right size and shape. The best way is to fit a piece of pasteboard in place and have the glass cut from it.

Figure 2 shows how the glasses G are fastened in place with brads or tacks n.

Another mirror goes into the corner of B, below and opposite the hole into C, fastened also with tacks. The boxes D and E are fixed the same way. You can test the boxes as you go along by looking through them to see if you have the right angles to the glasses.

Cut two eye holes in the upper boxes A and E at 0 at each end,'Figure 3, round but not too large - say half an inch. Fasten the box covers down. Fasten the boxes together at the joints with glue, further strengthening the apparatus by. gluing strips of cloth or heavy paper over all the joints and cracks where light might get through.

As to the baseboard, it may be fastened to the bottom box, as in Figure 1, or above the bottom box, as in Figure 3. The latter way is better, as it hides some of the machine that gives away the working of it, but that necessitates cutting a hole in the board for the bottom part to fit into. When nailed in place, a curtain K of cloth will hide the lower box.

And now you can see by the dotted line in hand, or a board, or a directory, between the boxes A and E as in the picture at L, you can see right through it - or think you do.

Figure 3 that if you look in one end, pointing the machine toward the window or light, the eye will see in the line shown dotted, and if you put your

If you have not enough cigar boxes to make this large X-ray machine to look through with both eyes, you can easily make one out of a single cigar-box to look through with one eye, as shown in Figures 4 and 5.

Figure 4 shows the completed X-ray machine with a side - the cover of the box - folded down, and the dotted line through the box shows the travel of the boy's sight in looking through the machine. This is also shown in Figure 5.

As to directions, proceed as follows. Get a nice clean cigar box of the thin kind, - not too thin, but about two inches deep. Set this box on your bench with one of the long sides up and divide this side into three parts. Saw out the central part as deep as half the depth of the cigar box, as shown at 0 in this sketch. Next take some cigar-box wood and line this notch 0 so that the sides are continuous, as at G in Figure 4. This work you will have to do with the sides of the box removed, as in Figure 4.

Figure 1 shows the scheme in perspective with the side taken off, and also shows the well or gap in the side of the box which we have just made.

Next make the holes H H h h, seen in Figure 5. Only two are seen in Figure 4, the other two being hidden.

You can take a sharp bit and bore through from one end to be sure the holes are in line, or you can burn the holes through with a hot poker. The cut hole is better, but you will have to blacken the edges.

Now you can shut the lid, hold this up to the light, and look through all four holes in the box. If you put your hand in the notch 0 where the book is shown and then look, you can't see through, and you have not as yet an X-ray box.

The next step is to paint the inside of the box, lid and all, with shoeblacking or black paint without gloss. "Dead black" is what you want, and a ten-cent can will go a long way. This has to be put on the inside so there will be no reflections in the mirror of the inside of the box. Be sure too that all joints in the box are light-tight, like a camera.

The next step is to insert the mirrors. These you can cut from an old broken looking glass, if you have a ten-cent glass cutter, and they should be as wide as the inside of the box and just about square. Be careful not to scratch the glass, or it will show when you look through.

Mount the mirrors in place inside the box, as shown in Figure 5; they should be at 45-degree angles in the corners of the box, as shown, and are held in place as indicated in Figure 5.

You can test the angle of these mirrors as you fit them by shutting the lid of the box and looking through the hole at H. This will show you when they are all in place, if you look straight through, as by the dotted line, and out the further hole H, without looking through the holes h h at all.

At first fasten the glass loosely until you are sure of the angles, but when these are light. drive the tacks down as firmly as possible without straining the glass, so there will be no rattle nor distortion from changing angles.

Now you can shut the box up and nail down the lid, and after this is done paste paper strips over the joints and around the corners to keep light out. Then you can paint the whole outside as you wish.

The next thing is to hand it to your friends for use. You can show them how to look through their hands, or put a book or board in the notch between the sight holes, as in Figure 5. There is a lot of fun to be had with this toy.