THE BALANCING PIN.
This amusing feat I first saw performed in our little district school-house, many years ago.
One morning, while the teacher was busy with his class at the blackboard, one of the boys drew an old clay pipe-stem from his pocket, and producing a small green gooseberry and a pin from some other part of his clothing, gave us boys to understand that he was about to perform some wonderful trick with them. We were of course all attention, and as the teacher’s back remained turned toward us, he proceeded to astonish us with his remarkable feat. He first stuck the pin through the gooseberry, and then let it fall, point downward, into one end of the pipe-stem; then, placing the other end to his mouth, and holding his head thrown well over backward, he blew into the opening, and the gooseberry and pin arose quite clear of the tube, and began dancing and balancing above it in a very funny way. How long it would have continued its gyrations I cannot tell, probably until his breath gave out, but just then a little boy in the front row made some exclamation, and straightway the teacher’s head came around, the pipe-stem, pin, and gooseberry went on a voyage of discovery out of the school-house window, and the boy got a thrashing for his pains. But the feat was often performed by us all after that, and some years later, when a second generation of boys were having over again the tricks and sports their older brothers had outgrown, I saw the same principle applied under more favorable conditions. Instead of the straight pipe-stem, which necessitated throwing the head over backward, to insure its perpendicular position, a tube bent at a right angle near one end was used, and the balancing of the pin could be much more easily watched by the performer. Instead of the gooseberry, a currant, pea, or any light, round fruit can be substituted, and a small glass tube may take the place of the pipe-stem.
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