DIABOLO.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2069, 21 December 1907, Page 2 (Supplement)

DIABOLO.

WHAT THE CRAZY GAME REALLY IS. If diabolo is becoming as -great a craze -at the “Daily Mail” alleges, it says little for.the intelligence of the English public (says a London correspondent). For diabolo is a feebler game than ping-pong, and grown men and women might well feel ashamed of their infatuation for a. game of which the “world’s champion” is a French boy of twelve and the “English champion” a boy of thirteen. No doubt It is an- excellent game for eliil---ren, but once mechanical precision has been acquired tbe game ceases to be interesting, and can easily become as nauseating as club-swinging or cradle-cannons. I doubt very much, however, whether the -game has taken the hold on the public that the papers -assert. The “boonx” has .been cleverlv engineered, with tbe result that- stocks of diabolo apparatus which some months ago lay <lust-coyered, unsaleable. on the retail dealer’s shelves, are now all disposed of and a brisk demand for more has heen created. Bui I am still looking for the city cloiks business men and ladies who, according to tlio “.Daily Mail,” play diabolo in the street- and think and udk of little else. My own impress on of diabolo is that it will die even more suddenly than its predecessor, p:ngffong. ‘ . , . . The game consists of spinning a ■reel or spool on a chord fastened at each end to a stick, which is held in the hand. To start tho spool, you place it oil the ground, pass the cord round it, and then move the latter so that- the spool lies within an ilicll or so of the riglit-fiand stick, the left hand being held high. A sharp upward movement of the .right stick, will then give the spool an initial spin, which must he maintained by a -regular rise and- fall of the right hand, assisted by a slight and similar movement- of tlie left. When tho knack of spinning lias -been -acquired, tho player has to learn to jerk the spool up into the air and catch it again on the cord when it descends, 1 lie art of catching a- descending spool is ill holding one’s cord taut and pointing one stick, at an angle, so that the spool strikes the cord just below it If this is done properly, it will be foimd that the spool will glide easily down the cord, and may -be checked by bringing tho sticks together. An expert diabolist can throw the spool again and again for a-n hour at a time, and the world’?) record is 6000 throws, accomplished by a little twelve-year-old- French player abovementioned. What earthly interest there cu« be n throwing a reel into the air and catalog it again six thousand- times is something bevon-d tlis writer s comprehension. There is money in good “diabolo sing” however, while the craze is at its height, and the Jjrcusn bov champion has been engaged to appear at a London music-nil! next week. Air Walter -Gibbons, the proprietor of twelve of London s chin music-halls, is reported as ssyflig R| G other dav: “A handsome salary a waits the diaholhsfc who can do a really interesting perform mce. As soon as one is forthcoming who rail evolve a ten or fifteen minutes’ show, I-re-senting a variety of clever tricks wHi the cord and spool, I will undertake to outage* him fox* the whole or my circuit at a high-salary.”