Evening star., 1915-03-30
SPINS TOPS To SLEEP
AS HE DID BACK HOME
Silk Hated Individual Has Fine
Time With Boys on the
Sidewalk.
Scorns New-Fangled Toys and Shows
Lads How to Make
EN- Sing Right.

The little woman in the black skirt.
who sells candy, tape. ink, pens, paper.
false faces, jackstones, pickles, Valen-
tines, base balls, masks. skate oil, ten
for cent alI-day suckers and thou
sand other items of stock for the con-
sumption Of the first to fifth grade
population, leaned over her counter
and said:
well, sir! What do you want?"
II want a top
The woman almost gasped but d1dn t.
She had sold upwards of ten thousand
tops in her time, but this was the first
instance of a man in a silk hat and
frock coat coming into her place, so
little that it would hardly hold the
three sets of twins from down the
street. She had never sold top TO
anybody over twelve years old, and
and eights. including the kind the girl
ba bies spin. Boys never spin the
girl-baby kind. under pain of losing
caste
The little woman didn't gasp; she
merely blinked, and said:
Yes, sir; what kind
Wanted Regular Hummer.
why, want a regular hummer One
made of the hardest wood you've got,
with a wooden plug in one end that
can whittIe off, and cast iron plug
in the spinner end. Something that
will sing when it spins hard. and go
to sleep if l slam it down hard
enough
Well" she began. again. We've got
the ball-bearing kind, and the walk
away and the girl top and the spring
point and the
The man in the silken topper inter-
rupted:
Madam" he said, solemnly, Il want
u top. Not an automobile. Ba1l-bear-
ing top, Whoever heard of one. LOOK
here. / want top One cent. top.
Not a machine
Yes. sir Here is ball-bearing
top
The man took it in his hands and
saw that sure enough it was ball
bearing top. When you throw 1t down
1t spins OH ball bearing.
The prospective purchaser of tops
had panied and curious expression III
his face:
Too Much Luxury.
oh, generation of limousines and
artificiality. Rome fell after it had
permitted itself too much luxury. They
didn't have anything like this thirty
years ago Why. when ! was boy
Here's spring cushion top
He took it from the little woman. She
said that no matter at what angle the
point touched the street the spring
in the top brought the whirling thing
upright SO that the top would spin
even under the most careless and un-
skillful handling.
Take it away Show me u real top"
Here's the waskaway top"
This one had Il rounded mob for the
point SO that it galloped all over the
street when You spun it. 1t was well
named "walkaway," but it didn't bring
back thirty lost years of top spinning
- mere fad" said the man to him
self
Here's the little penny tops" said
the woman.
And with that the customer grabbed
it, as if it were a precious thing, and
almost burst it with squeezing.
Little penny tops iudeed.' said he
That's the sort of top this nation was
built on. Little penny top, Give me
ten of them. I'd take all you've got.
but | hate a MONOPOLY.
Spins the Top.
Now outside three little raggedy boys
were playing and they hardly knew
what 10 make of it when man who
| looked like one Of the sort who drives
you off the grass and yells at you to
get out of the way, stopped, wound up
a penny top and whizzed it down with
a slam on the sidewalk:
"Aye-yi-yi" he yelled. She spins,
She spins, Look at it,
He was emphasizing yells with wild
and frantic gestures. SO that every one
in half block knew that something &
| was going on. The little woman in
the store Just knew she had sold a
pocket full Of penny tops to a wild
man. and she hoped he'd move on be-
fore he broke her show window.
| But the little penny top of the early
| sos spun and spun and spun 1t
sang a high wooden tenor in a minor
| key as II shrieked: See me spin. See
me spin. See me spin"
| Round and round II circled. gradually
| lessening the angle of it's axis until at
| last il stood upright. spinning like
mad. and not toppling to one side or
another.
Goes to Sleep.
| IF she goes to sleep I'll buy you all
the tops you want" yelled the excited
silk hat person to the group of rag
gedy boys who had drifted along to see
/ the fun.
| She's asleep now. Mister" suggested
| a bold little boy, and sure enough the