Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1885-04-23

Extent 81 the skating Craze
ia the Metropolis.
Some Edifging General Statistics and Notes
About Roller Skating.

the city use roller skates. There are
little Kinks over stables. In the rear Of
candy stores and in dingy Easements.
Four or i've places on the Bowery have
been cleaned out and fitted up as roller
skating Kinks for the soda waterdrink-
ing. cigarette destroying youth Of the
city.
The advocates of roller skating say
that there is not q rink in the city
where intoxicants are to be had for
love or money. Pool rooms are going
into bankruptcy all along the avenues,
for their former patrons have taken
up roller skating as a cheaper and
more profitable pastime than showing
around ivory balls for drinks or cigars.
Even in the rotunda of the big white
marble Court House children spin
around on skates to che delight of the
gray-haired lawyers and judges who
are in no hurry to leave the building
at the close of the days labors.
There are more than five hundred
manufacturers of roller skates in the
United States" said q Nassau street
dealer, "and they sell at the very least
thirty or forty thousand pairs of skates
a week. Taking fifty workmen as the
average number employed altogether
in each mandatory, it seems that
100000 men arc engaged in making
skates. God knows how many are
selling them. There are about $4,000
Kinks in the United States, believe.
With an average of six persons at
tached to each rink you have 10000
people conducting the pastime itself.
Add to this the manufacturers and
you have $4,000 men making their
living out Of roller skates. This will
give a faint idea of how many skaters
there are in the country. Why, man,
there must be millions Of them. /
shouldn't wonder il it yet became an
issue in national politics. The factory
where the most successful skates are
made turns out 1000 day, and u
away behind the orders. There are
some kinds which sell for thirty cents
pair, for sidewalk use, and they
range in price from that up to So.
You can imagine what New York has
to face when I tell you that we are
just three years behind Boston in
roller skating. It is in its infancy here"
The manager of one of the finest
Kinks in the city said that ne believed
the passion for skating was increasing
very rapidly, as beginners were pour
ing in by hundreds.
"The big Kinks scoop in altogether in
this city about $500 day, he said,
''and for that sum at least 10000 peo-
pie get chance to exercise and amuse
themselves. You must remember that
skating cultivates energetic habits Of
the body, for If you attempt to be lazy
in rink you are likely to be knocked
down. The average skater covers a
little more than eight miles an hour.
The pool room proprietors are wild
with anger. At first they distributed
our complimentary tickets among their
patrons. Tie result is that their
places are bowling Wilderness"
a Herald reporter looked into the
beginners room in one Of tie big Kinks.
About twenty young men and girls
were looping about like lame ducks.
They bumped against each other.
crawled along the ratings and rico
cheted against the walls A bright
eyed youth in blue and brass watched
the scene with mild contempt in his
eye. The reporter turned out into the
great hall, where thousand people
swirled and eddied and roared around
the door 10 the music Of brass band.
Al tall, slim young person, who wore
kid gloves and canary coIored trousers
Of close clinging design, announced to
/ his friends that he was daisy on Ice
skates. and that he would show them
what he could do for the first time on
roller skates.