This lantern slide is one of a beautiful set glasses, produced by Gebrüder Bing, Nürnberg (G.B.N. Bavaria). Decalcomania, Germany, ca 1895. The slides are numbered at the left from 1 up to and including 12 and have the trade mark 'G.B.N.' at the right. All glasses have four round pictures each, surrounded by opaque black grounds. Size 22 x 7-cm, no cover glass, red paper edge.




This story could have been told by a lanternist from ages ago, during one of his magic lantern shows.

Text: Webmaster Henc R.A. de Roo

The day is still young, but at the stork’s nest the family is very busy. ‘Come on, darling,’ father Stork quacks to his wife, ‘there’s work to be done. I have quite a lot of orders for little children today. Look, our neighbour made an early start. So it’s high time for us to leave.’

They spread their wings and after a while they land at the little-children-pond, just a few hundred metres from their nest. The water there is full of babies, sitting on the great leaves of a water lily and waiting until they come in for their turn. Some of them are still tiny and weak; they may stay sitting there for some time. Some others are already a little taller. They stretch their little arms out to the storks, for they have been bobbing up and down on the water long enough and now they are longing for a daddy and a mamma.

Father Stork watches them carefully and makes his choice. ‘You,’ he quacks to a little boy, ‘You go to the Jones family. Mamma Jones has the same beautiful colour hair as you have, and you,’ he quacks to a little girl, ‘We’ll take you to the Smith family. They ask for nothing better than a girl with such pretty blue eyes like yours.’

The children chosen mount the big birds as quick as they can. They’re very happy because they will go to their dad and mom at last. ‘Hold us tight, kids, ‘mother Stork quacks warning, ‘We’ll have quite a way to fly.’ Of course the children do what the storks are asking. They don’t want to fall from the back of the storks on the way, for when that happens they will probably never reach their parents.

After flying nearly an hour they arrive over the town. Both storks know exactly where they have to be. Father Stork flies straight to the house of the Smith family and drops the girl carefully through the chimney. He waits a moment before continuing his flight. Down, in the house, he hears the excited voice of a woman. ‘Oh dear,’ the woman cheers, ‘Come quickly. We have got a baby!’ Everybody is glad and happy. So are the storks. They fly back to their nest to take a short break. Their work for today has not yet been finished, since there are still a lot of daddies and mammas waiting for a baby.