The Arizona champion., 1885-11-07
HEALTHY RECREATION.

try ever had national game that ha created and maintained such an ab sorbing interest fos so long time a. base ball, and it Is safe to say that nc other game has ever been brought to such scientific perfection. On the seaboard yachting has grown to be a recreation on which millions of dollars have been expended and the hardy pluck ot American manhood devel, oped, until the name of "mistress oi the seas" has been almost wrested from the little island which has borne the proud tiIle for so long. A few years ago the bicycle craze set in and be. came almost nuisance, as it was a mode of locomotion that we'll behaved quadrupeds didn't understand, and many team came to grief. For the last few summers lawn tennis has been such a rage that no country residence of any pretentions could dispense with tennis court. Nor is this pro pensity confined to outdoor amuse- ments. A few years ago the spelling school craze ragged from one end of the land 10 the other, thorough mental epidemic. Even in theatrical repre- sentations the tastes of the people seem to run in grooves. Tragedy and the classic plays gave way to melo
 drama; then the sensational became popular, to be succeeded by comic opera and burlesque, with a plentiful lack of wardrobe on the part of the female performers, and now the light est of comedy is the only thing that will draw paying houses, and very light some. of it is, too. A number of other instances could be cited, but the latest and probably the most pop, ular recreation that has ever come to the front is the roller skating craze, and 1t will become more general pastime than it Is now.
 Roller skating has much to reccom- mend It as the most sensible craze that has ever laid hold of the Ameri. can people. BIse ball and yachting can only be indulged ir by men, at limited periods ot the year and with local advantages. Lawn tennis is a summer game. Bicycling is an exer, else more particularly for boys and the other amusements spoken of are entirely mental, without any physical advantages. But roller skating can be enjoyed at all seasons of the year. Every village from Mline to the Gold. en Gate can have a skating rink, and both sexes can equally enjoy the ad
 vantage5 10 be derived from this healthy, invigorating pastime. But 1t is to the American girl that the skat- ing rink will prove the greatest bene- fit. It will be conceded by all that the women ot this country take toe little exercise, part icular!y the resi-, dents of large cities They are brought up like hot house plants, ve. ry delicate and pretty, but when they arrive a; supposed age of maturity they are no more fit for the duties of complete womanly life than the hot house flower is to stand the snows and frost of a Northern winter, all from the want of the physical development which can only be gained by health ful muscular exercise. Roller skating brings all the muscles of the body in. to play and particularly those limbs which mos, girls seem to think were only made to stand upon and not for the purpose of locomotion. Half an hour on the rollers every day will cure dyspepsia quicker than any drug in the pharmacopeia and bring bright. erroses to the cheeks than all the nos. trums ever invented. There are oth. CT modes of exercise which are equally good, but none other that can be as easily eni oyed at all times and under all conditions of weather.
 Some ultra-purists in morals have contended that the indiscriminate as- sociation of the sexes in the skating rink is full of danger to the weaker sex, and loud mouthed preachers have hurled anathemas at the rink and its surroundings as an atmosphere oI moral poison. This is the veries' nonsense. The world IS full of temp, tations, but. that there are any special perils associated with roller skating, has yet to be learned, and if there were, strength to resist temptation is better than hiding from It. "rhs innocence that walks biindly on amid earthly suares and pitfalls IS an uncer' tain possession; bat the innocence that recognizes evil and turns from il