Evening star., 1925-04-06
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

] The fine art of top spinning has
| gone into a decline. The other day !
watched a couple of small boys in
| dulge in all the motions incident to
| this glorious old sport of youth. They
thought they were spinning tops.
| But compared with the way the
small boys of my day used to spin
'em, the lads of this age no more
spin tops than a rabbit! 1t Is true
! they have a wooden article called a
top. wind a piece of string around
| 1t and make il land on it's point.
All this Is the mere mechanism of
| top spinning, however. There Is a
] great deal more to the art than just
making the top spin on its metal
end Even the girls could to that
| when i was a boy.
| Then we had top spinning that was
| top spinning.
| Compared with the spineless, So
called spinning of today, the spinning
| of yesteryear was an art ana a
science 1t was an art, because IT
evoked the poetry of motion, motion
so quiescent that it seemed verita-
BILE imitation of the spheres as they
choired together.
| The old top spinning was science
too, because it involved trajectory, an
almost correct calculation of distance
and placement, with Workmanship
that was precise and effective
The old top spinning not only call
ed for "in-spinning," but also an
"out-spinning," utterly unknown IN
| this effete day and age, when snali
| boys no longer know the ART anu
| science of spinning tops.
| Those terms, "in-spinnlng ana
''out-spinning," for instance, will need
some explanation in 1925, when poys
| fondly imagine they know how 10
spIn, but in reality know little ABOUT
| the art and nothing about the science
The former term applied to throw
| ing a. top into circle, IN oruer 10
| knock the opponents spinner out OF
| the ring. The latter was more COM
monty known as whipping.
Boys of today only use in-spin- :
ming" whereas in the old days the
| champion spinners indulged in out
| spinning in order to clinch their
| title TO supremacy
Nav | modestly state, at this point,
| that | was one of the champeehs :
Since top spinning was the only out
| door sport at which l ever shohe' !
recall my ability with top ana coro
| with especial veneration.
Believe it or not, I could whip a
ton for a block through the air with
| as much certainty as merely plugging
! It down into ring.
This "into-the-air" form of whip
ping was the favorite, there being
| several boys in my neighborhood VINO
could whip 'em farther than could,
and send 'em higher. To whip top
aloft as high as a three-story mousse
| was nothing unusual.
AS this whipping was done IN the
/ streets, a boy had to know how 10
| send the top in the right direction,
not only TO prevent it from landing
| on a roof, but also to be sure that
the whirling wood would not go
crashing into a window or hit some
| startled elder upon the old bean.
A favorite sport was to spin our way
! downtown. each boy seeing how few
| spins he could make the distance in. 1t
was essential, of course, that the top
| land on it's point, and not only that, IT
was necessary that 1t continue spin
| ming, after landing, for certain length
| of time.
This was, in effect, q sort of top golf.
! IF the whipper failed on a whip he had
| to go back and whip over again from the
point from where he had failed.
This game would be impossible today,
of course, with the growth of automo-
| bile traffic. 1t simply could not be done.
But in those days there were compare
lively few cars, and vehicular traffic was
! mild compared with the hustle Of wheels
now.