Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1885-03-25

from an editorial in last Sundays
Minneapolis Tribune. The writer
seems to have numerous excellent
ideas regarding the popular but yet
much abused skating rink: "When the
clerical antagonists of the rink go as
far as to say that skating is an I'M
healthy and unnatural form Of physi-
cal exercise, that skating in time with
good music is subtly destructive of
the soul, that it Is per sc sinful
abominatIon for young men and
women to skate together, and that
Kinks are deadly traps of Satan into
which none may safely enter, they
are mistaken. They simply offend
and antagonize self-respecting young
people. They lose all their vantage
ground as moral guides and teachers
by their unwisdom. Skating is fine
exercise. Skating to music is exhil-
arating and delightful. Young ladies
| commit no more improperly in skat-
| ing with their friends of the opposite
sex than in talking with them at
q church sociable. The rink is not
only permissible, but a beneficial in
stitution in its proper place: Young
folks ought to have amusements, and
it will not be easy to find any form of
pleasure-t taking which has so much
in it's favor and so little against it, as
skating. Furthermore, it is foolish to
| ignore Iacts. Almost all young people
do skato moro VI less, believe IL to bo
proper and right, and are sustained by
the conscience and good sense of the
community.
But while the attack on skating it.
self may easily be repealed, it will not
be SO easy to deny that the Kinks furn-
ish occasion for much that is wrong
and deplorable.
Skating rink manners need much
improvement. x
The theory that all people on the
floor of rink at given time consti-
tute social gathering is utterly
vicious, and the careful observer will
| soon see how much harm proceeds
from it. Kinks are not proper places
for making aquaintanapces, Young
women attending party at the home
of friend may safely assume that
the fact of attendance sufficiently
guarantees responsibility, and may
permit herself to be introduced freely
to everybody. But at rink no young
lady who has self-respect, good taste,
and knowledge OF the usages of good
society will SLOW introductions unless
accompanied by unqmistakable creden
| tials. =
Somebody would make a hit by
publishing book on skating rink
etiquette. The Kinks are bound to
stay, and to be patronized; and it is
high time that their frequenters
should learn the proprieties. The
cardinal principal of the book should
be that the manners of the sidewalk
and the fair ground and the hotel par
lor, and not those of the social assem-
blage, furnish the proper analogy for
the rink. Rink-goers should take
their company with them, and not
make it on the floor. If this general
rule, simple as it is, were obeyed, it
would do q hundred times more for
good morals than all the sermons that
have been preached against the
amusement of roller skating.
Good society has another duty to
perform with respect to the Kinks, and
that is to frown down or laugh down
about nineteen-twentieths of the
ridiculous races, ''masquerades" and
fancy dress" monstrosities which the |
proprietors are forever announcing
with the hope Of augmenting their
receipts. Most of these performances
are stupidity deyoid both of wit and of
ingenuity. They simply interfere
with the proper use of the floor by
people who want to skate but whose
good breeding does not permit their
joining in promiscuous routs. Parents
will find it a pretty safe family rule to
"cut' the attraction and to patron-
ize the Kinks on "off" nights when
plain skating is in order and the al
legged "fancy dress" Is out of sight.
Thousands of young people are to
be found at the Kinks every night. The
manners and morals of this amuse-
ment are, therefore, we'll worthy the
discussion of the pulpit and the press.
The sooner it Is taught that skating
in itselfis not Objectionable, but that
excessive and Incorporate skating,
with strangers, and par
ticipation in certain catch-penny "en-
tertainments" at the Kinks are vulgar
and Objectionable, the better it will be
for the morals of the rising genera
ton. After all, it 10 the code of ETH
4uette and good society and not the
moral code which needs expounding
md enforcing III this matter.