| This was an essential toy for a young boy at the "Turn of the Century". He used it to have contests with his friends, to see who could shoot a spitball the fartherest, and he used it to shoot spitalls against the blackboard while the teacher had his or her back turned to the class. It was a very simple tool to use; anyone, but a girl could easily master it. The boy would tear a piece of paper off of something, such as a book page, stick it in his mouth and chew it a bit so that it got all wet with his saliva. Then he would take it out of his mouth with his fingers and roll it up into a tight little ball. While it was still wet, he would pop it into the end of the shooter and stick the end of the 'ramrod' portion of the shooter in behind it. He had to make sure that he did not stick the ramrod in too far to begin with. He'd aim the shooter at something (or someone) and give a quick push of the ramrod until it went the whole way in and the large portion of the handle came to a stop against the tube portion. The spitbal would be sent flying through the air, hit the object, and stick on it. |
