The Sunday tatler and Jersey City express. (Jersey City, N.J.) 1883-1886, 1885-01-04
FUN AT THE SKATING RINK.
An EYENING FIFTH THE FELLOWS
WHO SKATE ON WHEELS.

The roller skating Kinks are probably The
most popular of our places Of evening
amusement. AL the Kinks are crowded
nightly. The complexion of the attend
ance at the roller skating Kinks is generally
above the average. In fact, in many in
stances considerable sprinkling Of the
elite society people are to be found enjoy
ing themselves for an evening with this
style Of amusement. 1t is source Of
pleasure to see graceful lady skater, or to
see children vieing each to excel the other
IN speed and skill, but to see males, who,
SO far as age counts, are men in every sense
OF the word young men, men in middle
age, and even old men, entering into it with.
it seems, more arior and zest than the
women and children, one sympathizes with
the remorseful exclamation of the old-time
observer, "What fools these mortals betn
For the purpose of seeing some Of these in
teresting characters the TATTLEs represent
alive stopped into the Coney Island & nix
at Caledonia Park last evening. The in-
terror OF the place was gaily decorated with
Chinese lanters and curios in profusion.
AS usual, it was crowded. Just after the
reporter had arrived Mr.. Somers, the man
ager, stepped up and ordered gentlemanly
fellow to leave the hall as his absence was
preferable to his presence. A little inquiry
developed the fact that the young man had
come in one evening recently, and not only
Haunted, but partook of the contents Of a
flask of whiskey while on skates. He was
put out, and although he was perfectly sober
last night, and certainly had every appear
ance of belonging to one of the first families,
the manager would not allow him to remain
in the place and he was elected. Two of
the most noticeable attendants at this rink
are DR.. Hunt and his son Fife, who
divide their time SO that while one is
writing prescriptions or consulting
patient, the other is trying his patience
with skate on. The doctor himself is an
average skater. lie rolls around trying to
engage the attention of some pretty girl,
and finally succeeds in capturing one whose
only possible claim to distinction would be
that she cannot skate as good as the doctor
himself.
"There goes Fife, now, said the guide,
as 2S-year-old, 5 feet 5. 210pounder, came
cautiously by. "Oh, Effie's dandy -if you
don't care what you sayl
Notwithstanding he has been practising
steadily for some time (about three or four
weeks) he can scarcely more than propel
himself without falling Said one party
tonight, sEffie skates as if spawned" and
indeed it did seem 81, After the game of
football was over this conglomeration OF
flesh and femininity said to the TArTLER:
sThats outrageous! I'd just like to see
the ball go right through a window" The
reporter ventured to say that the ball was
not hard enough to do that, but Effie APP
parently differed, as he hobbled off, saying
he guessed 50, soon to be lost in the crowd
of merry skaters.
s'There's the Lothario of the rink, Billy
Pearson, tho Newark avenue printer"
The man pointed out is q blonde, and can
probably ssmash" the girls more successful
ly than any other fellow in the rink He is
quite up in the art of rolling around on
wheels.
Another man who might be much more
proftably engaged was man named
Clarke, by profession an engineer. Mr.. Clarke
resides on Oakland avenue, and is an Odd
Fellow. Indeed he is an odd fellow in
every sense of the term. He is very sell
dom seen with lady, and, when alone,
sings himself around as if he was on pair
of Peck & Snyder's Ice Kings on smooth
sheet of water half mile square. Mr.
Clarke is nightly attendant.
Freebooter Shrope's son Harry is also
familiar figure at this rink, and Mr.. Bowen,
clerk at Coverings drug store, seems to be
welded to the place. Both these gentlemen
should shave off their boards, so as to give
them as youthful an appearance as possi-
BILE.
John Brown is gentleman who claims
to be ineal descendant of the great John
Brown of sour apple tree fame. He is an
other of the faithful attendants at the
rink ssSee him, there he goes!" said the
gentleman with the reporter. s'That's
him with blue paper cap like the children
get at parties. He has different colored
one every night He's into every race, al
though he never won one. He thinks he's
skater, but any fifteen year old here can
beat him. See himl I'll bet two to one
he don't get place in that race, and he
didn't. Mr.. Brown is about SO. His chief
aim is to make himself conspicuous He's
forever trying to attract attention. There
are numerous other men who can't distin-
gnish themselves any other way, and have
to content themselves by being sEig things
on wheels: but the above illustrations suf-
fee to show the trnth of the expression
quoted hsreinbsfore, "What fools these
mortals be"
The carnival at the Park Roller Skating
Rink, on the evenings of Monday and
Tuesday lest. was great SUGGEST, both as
regards the number Of people present and
the elegance of their costumes. There
were eight prizes given. Mrs. d. o. Dim
mick and Mr.. Gil Totten carried off those
for the most elegant costumes, q diamond
ring, & Id headed cane Mrs. G. H0 brook
and Miss Greenwood each took q pair of
nickle club skates for wearing the most
ccmlcal costumes, and j. Cone, jr., and Joe
A. Neil did likewise Mamie Gerardin and
Bruce Vandervort took prizes for original
costumes. There was general complaint
over the apparent favortlsm of the judges,
one of whom was the husband of the lady
who received the first prize.
The following are some of the guests and
| their costumes Mrs. D. O. Dimmick wore
black velvet trimmed with swansdown,
Mrs. HolbrOOk wore crazy work silk
| dress, Mamie Gerardin wore white satin
Mother Hubbard. Miss Carrie Leib wore an
elegant canary satin trimmed with swans
down and embroidered in silk, Miss ureen-
wood wore white Swiss covered with
silver stars, Miss Earle was dressed as Red
Riding Hood, the Misses Chauncy were
dressed respectively in pale blue and pink
satins, Miss G. SoDer wore q blue satin
trimmed with point lace, aud Miss Piimiey
wore q cream colored nuns yelling trimmed
| with lace. Mr.. Gil Totten was dressed as
q charioteer, ]. O'Neil as Oscar Wilde, J,
Cone, IT.. as fat man, Mr.. Holt as prince
L. Foster as Hebrew traveller, III. Webster
as Uncle Sam, Mr. Mead as q clown. n
| Ecker as tramp, w. Wells as q happy
darkey from the south, Mr.. Ed Purcell
was IN full dress, Mr.. w. A. Marie as |
gentleman of leisure, and Mr.. B. Yande
wort as dude darkey, not only presented
good makeup, but initiated the sontherz