Yeah, IIRC they're like little twisted up pieces of paper with a couple little rocks in them and some gunpowdery stuff. You throw them and when the land, it makes a little poppy snapping noise.
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If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination.
- Thomas De Quincey