Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1891 — FUN ON A STRING. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FUN ON A STRING.

Fantastic and Comical Kites— Ho«r to Make and Hy Them. For the proper construction of a kite that will really soar, straight, smooth lath, abont three-eighths of an inch thick and one and a half broad and some cane—willow or bamboo are needed; also strong, fine twine, and whatever the kite is to be clothed with —paper, cloth, cambric, or silk. The “lady-bug” kite is not difficult to make. After the frame is made and covered with white paper, the head, the edges, and the little three-cornered piece between the wings are to be painted black, the neck in red stripes, the wings with brown veinings, and the under wings with light gray. The attennse can be cut out of brown paper or card and gummed on. Then you will have an enormous lady-bug, which, when properly fitted with a kite-tail’ will “fly away” at a fine rate.

For the kite-tail, a long, slender cord, knotted every four inches into nooses, will be necessary. Slip through each noose-knot a donbie strip of paper four or five inches long. The tail should be about five times as long as the kite, for a kite three feet long, and proportionately longer as the kite is made larger, so that a kite six feet tall, which some ambitious youth may like to build, will need a tail some eighty feet long. Of course the higher the kite is to be flown the longer the tail needs to be. The frame for the “lady-bug” kite is also adapted to the “old woman” kite. Cover the frame with white paper, and paint in green, red, yellow, and skyblue, the figure of a good-natured old dame.. Leave the apron, face, and stockings white, paint the dress green, the hair red, and touch up the features with black and yellow. It really seems

a shame to send the old lady up aloft in windy weather, when she might catch rheumatism or toothache, but youth is inexorable, and away she goes. “Miss Highflyer,” now. looks as if she might enjoy the breezy trip. The frame for this kite is not difficult to make. The cross-sticks should be securely fastened together with fine wire, and a strip of cane or bamboo bent to make an outline for the skirt, the ends being securely tied together with strong twine and fastened so they join the ends of the cross-pieces. The head is a circle of wire attached by cords to the frame, and the remainder of the frame is outlined by cords. After the frame is covered with paper, the woman’s figure is painted as illustrated, or dressed in fashionable style with bits of brown striped calico and silk. These can be sewed on, remembering to fasten, them only to the edge of the frame.

LADY-BUG KITE AND FRAME.

MISS HIGHFLYER KITE AND FRAME.