To Catch a Sunbeam - Victorian Reality through the Magic Lantern

The Magic Lantern slide shows were a popular form of entertainment in the halls during the late nineteenth century. Usually the image projected by the magic lantern illustrated a song, joke or story, but sentiment was what the customers wanted. The popular writers used the Victorians love of sentiment to bring home to the audience in the halls the appaling slum conditions in which the poor were living in every large area of Britain. This book is complied from the lantern slide shows produced by the Victorian Charities and temperance societies to illustrate such social evils as alcohol, gambling and the neglect of children...