The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1885-04-15
DR.. Talmage on the Kinks.
Ee Makes Personal Observation aud
Speaks n Good Word for ahe "Grest
Evil.o

''The noise of the wheels over against
them" and "the noise of the rafting of the
wheels" were two texts which Mr.. Talmage
selected from the Old Testiment, last
Sunday at Brooklyn New York. In one
hoRse" he said, "are the wheels Of help and
in the other are the wheels of destruction.
The good or the bad wheels of this world
will determine its destiny, wheels of railway
trains, of printing presses, Of sewing ma
chimes, balance wheels, belt wheels, driving
Wheels, and now the wheel has been applied
to amusements. Are the roller skate wheels
OF help or wheels OF destruction? There are
plenty of grog shops where the owner, bv
the expenditure OF $l2 for alcohol, can make
a mixture thai he eau sell for 5000: plenty
of gates of he'll, and all of them open; but
of honest, heaithful amusement there ia a
scarcity. Seven o'clock In the evening finds
thousands OF men at home at boarding house
or hotel. How shall they spend the evening?
Go to prayer meetings, says one. Well that
will do for two evenings of the week and
for Sunday evening but what of the four
evenings left for secular purposes?
What our people want is some recreation
that will help body and mind, and will en-
able them to go to sleep at IL D. m. and
awake refreshed at a. m. That will make
them not merely splinters Of humanity, not
masculine and feminine apologies. People
are asking if the skating rinks are providing
this kind af amusement. You ask me il /
favor them. l answer, yes, with restrictions
without restrictions, no. Some of them have
exhilaratlng effects upon the body and mind,
giving health and strength, and afford in
nocent amusement. But there is "a much
difference between skating rinks as between
heaven and hell. Skating rink exercises.
NTH proper precautions, seems to me to be
the most healthy of all amusement. 1t
eclipses bat and ball, erOquet and lawn
tennis. 1t is good for the nerves, for the
muscles, and for the spirits. 1t has all the
advantages Of the gymnasium and the old
time skating on ice ponds, without the
dangers. II would be well if all our young
men took an hour day of this exercise. It
would be well II our American women who
decline to adopt the English habit of the
constitutional walk would turn their back
on their housekeeping, and. try for an hour
day this exhilarating sport. The great de-
mand of this country is for some honest
amusement for its women who are dying for
the nsed of it.
''There are possibilities for good In roller
skating, which l can see in no other amuse-
ment. Let there be an end to young ladies'
going alone to any place of amusement
And # man tips his hat sto lady whom
be does not know at a skating rink, let the
proprietor conduct him to the door aud as
slst him down stairs with all the momentum
necessary. Let the department of the par
lor be the department OF the skating rink,
1t is time that the people understood that
Irritation is damnation. Go back forty
years and think what was best for you then.
Alas for the man who makes amusement
depletion instead OF an augmentation"