Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-01-18
THE CITY.


SAA4AM$e a
Coming across suburban pond the
other day, in our rounds, where a large
party of ladies and gentleman and boys
we're hilariously engaged in the grand
winter amusement of skating, we soiourn-
ed for time to witness the sport. A
friend OF ours seeing the great interest we
took in the exercise drew nigh and offered
rs his 'slides" with the request that we
should join in and take a turn while he
| rested. He asked if we could skate and
We answered that having never tried we
didn't know; he insisted and we felt in
| clined; by his aid we soon had on the in
| struments and found ourself all set for a
| slide; getting all balanced we struck out
with our left foot in a northernly direction;
about that same time our right foot emil
| grated southwardly, and the balance of our
establishment piled itself down on the
end of our nose; Jim, our friend, said that
first movement was a mastery stroke
and that we would make a fine skat-
| er, with but a little practice; this
| encouraged us; We tied our nose up in
handkerchief and arose to vertical posi-
| ton again; got sight on a tree ahead, and
made bold push in the direction; there
must have been a misunderstanding with
| our legs on this heat, however, as one
started forward and the other flew back
| ward; this was ten strike; we lit on top
OF our head, and our legs few through the
air like sky-rockets; looked up,aud saw a
| canopy full Of stars, and thought for min
ute or two that it was night; soon recov
cred portion of our senses and found that
most of our scLp-lock had been torn off
on this round; Jim said that second move
ment was equal to the best fifth he ever
saw; we gazed at him moment. but he
looked honest, and we felt encouraged at
our progress; the third session our legs
visited seyera! localities in less than a sec
ond, and we took seat. 1t was the hard
est of seats, and when we struck it our
first impression was that our teeth all
jumped out and the top of our head few
off; such was not the case, however, and
Jim declared that two or three more trials
would take us through the tough part, af-
ter which We could glide away like thing
of life;all set once more, we scraped off to the
left, sharply, and the other leg worked up
to support in fine manner; a push with
the left leg, and the right came up with a
strong brace, and behold we were going
forward with sails flying; Jim cheered. and
10Y "OAe H~oe Jul anu De-
witchingly remarked, bravo now, that
compliment from a dashing, black-eyed girl
was elixyr to our heart, but fatal TO that
heart we took our eyes off our business
and looked eagerly toward the charitable
beauty, and the next instant we COM
menced series of convulsive irregularities
which terminated in a total wreck; we
struck upon every elevation of our body,
bruised every joint, skinned our knees and
elbows, tore of the buttons from our vest.
the brim off our hat and actually collapsed
a hue. In the course of half an hour,
however, we ''come till again and got
things frightened up once more; we only
had but one ambition left for this world.
though, and that was to maui that rascallv
Jim, which we vowed we would do. should
it be the last official oct of our life but be
has kept out Of our sight. We have since
been to the surgeon and had several repairs
made, drank bottle of mucilage and are
using vigorous hair restOrer, and Richard
hopes to be himself again in few weeks
but the first man, woman or child that SAYS
''skate" to us again, they had better send
out their cards for fashionable funeral,
that's all.