Letters: Dec. 29, 1930

Whence "Racket" Sirs:

Very fine and praiseworthy your insistence that ''racket" be kept a word undefiled by loose usage. But why not, while you were at it, tell the origin and specific applications of the word so that we can know how to use it properly. . . .

JACOB TINSMAN

Providence, R. I.

"Racket" seems to have come originally from the vaudeville world, where it connoted the form of entertainment in which a performer specialized. "His racket is mammy songs." "She's got a good racket —clog-dancing and trained poodles." From this it entered...