Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1891 — FOR OUR LITTLE FOLKS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FOR OUR LITTLE FOLKS.

The Homesick Boomerang. Of all toys, says E. H. House, writing in Harper’s Young People, the boomerang Is, perhaps, the easiest to contrive. City boys, however, can hardly find a convenient space for throwing the full-sized article. No one who discharges a boomerang for the first time has the faintest notion as to where it will land. If let loose in a thoroughfare it may navigate

around a corner and take off the hat of an unsuspecting promenader. It may shoot into a carriage window. It may soar away over the houses. Worst of all—certainly most mortifying—it may come straight back upon the thrower, perhaps follow him with a persistence which seems almost to indicate a deliberate Intention, chase him about, no matter how nimbly he may try to escape, and finally may double him up with a thump in the stomach. But in the open suburban fields or in the broad country you may cast the crooked stick as often as you please. For trials within doors the most convenient substance is common carboard. Old visiting or playing sards will serve as well as anything. It may be as thin as you like, if your boomerang is small; but for larger sizes more solidity is required. Cut out pieces shaped like any of the models given, and you have your fantastic Australian weapon for use. You need not be very exact as to the form, nor is it requisite to trim the

edges; but you must see that the card is not bent and will lie flat on the table. For a beginning, No. lor No. 2 kind is the best. A boomerang with a sharp corner does its work more easily than one in which the curve is gradual or the angle obtuse, as in No. 8 and No. 4. The way to make it skim is to lay it upon a book, with one end projecting over the side. Hold the book up to a level with your eyes, and give the outlying edge of the card a smart rap with a small stick or a lead pen- , cil, taking care not to strike the flat i top, but only the side of the boomerang near the end. You can guide the stick or pencil by sliding it along the rim of the book as you strike. The missile will shoot forward five or six feet, and will then rise a little, turn in its course, and sail back to a place near that from which it was sent spinning. But the best way to become a good boomerang thrower is td practice throwing it, and skill will soon come.

Pastimes for City Boys. Another and more singular game has as its foundation an ash-barrel. Across the top of this is placed a board two or three inches in width which projects about the same distance over the rim of the barrel. On* one of these projecting ends a ball is balanced; the batsman then takes his bat and with all his strength -strikes the other end of the board. The ball flies up and away in a before-known direction, and the batsman, should it not be caught, attempts to run to a base and return before the ball can be fielded “home.” Interesting as we shall find this base-ball in its endless variations, and fascinating as are these miniature and expert players, we must not spend all our time With them. Look above you at the telegraph wires. Sooner or later they become the natural end of every kite flown in the street; and the tattered fragments with which the wires are adorned

bear witness that kite-flying Is a popular.pastime, even if disastrous to the kites. In this sport you may fairly claim superiority. Comparatively few of these boys know how to fly a kite; they never seem to be able to manage the tail. Kites -here can only be successfully flown from house tops and we will not leave our street for a visit to so dangerous a resort. Marbles we shall see, of every kind, “miggles” and “alleys,” “taws” and “agates.” Generally the games, are played in a ring, drawn with chalk, on the sidewalk, for holes are not made pr found here so easily as they are in your playground.—[Frank M. Chapman, in St. Nicholas.

POSITION IN THROWING PAPER BOOMERANG.