Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1886-02-11
T0B0GGANING SPORT.
A GLANCE AT THE HISTORY OF
THE SLED OF THE INDIANS.
Altered and Made to Slide Faster and
Faster Until a Too Dangerous Speed
was Got-The Growth of the
Sport In this Country.

Faster Until a Too Dangerous Speed
was Got-The Growth of the
Sport In this Country.
Lo, the poor lnjun, was the designer
of the toboggan which is now giving SC
much pleasure to the pale faces. The
redskins of Canada have always used
them, and are making use of them to-
day. The semi-civilized ones on the
Canadian reservations frolic with them
almost exactly as do the wholly civilized
young dandies Of both sexes; but the
wilder red men who tramp the snow.
carpetcd forests of British America look
upon the toboggan as we do upon wa.
gon, and not at ell as toy.
If wild Indian, say one of those who
was the first to use toboggar, could see
the joy of the stalwart youth who is per.
mitted to press his chin on the yielding
shoulder of pretty girl, while she leans
back upon him and murmers that she al
ways feels something like mild shock
from a magnetic battery when she is on
II toboggan, the Indian would marvel at
the changed use of that simple vehicle
which he had been obliged to drag so
often and so wcarily over mile upon mile
of snow, carrying the carcass of deer
or bear or bison into camp, transporting
the hides of his tent or wounded brave
on the fiat smooth board over trackless
wastes of snow, upon which he moved
slowly with broad, net-like snow shoes
to buoy him on top Of the white mantle
Of snow.
To understand how simple thing this
sort of sled was originally it is necessary
to imagine double thickness of birch
bark rolled over in front to mount un.
/ cvennesses in the snow and held together
with stitches or knots of deer gut The
toboggan then was nothing but thin
board, on which heavy loads could be
dragged over the snow The white youths
who learned to slide down hill on these
toys used the toboggans just as they got
them from the Indians, and to this day
mo3t OF the toboggans in use in Montreal
and Quebec and Ottawa are made by the
Indians on Canadian reservations, and
very rudely made at that, but with a
lightncss no Yankee or white Canuck
has been able to impart to the imitation
toboggans. These Indian toboggans cost
all the way from 81 to $3.50, according
to their size and strength. They will
not stand long wear, or tear or much
abusive treatment.
The first improvement the white man
made was to cushion the flying boards,
and he did this for the same reason that
he has built gorgeous churches, palatial
residences and most of the other beauti-
full and costly and comfortable things in
this world-tO please the ladies. The
next improvement was with view to in
creasng the speed of the sleds, and that
interested the Canada ladies as much as
! the men, for in Canada the sisters race
in snow shoes with the brothers, tobog-
gan with them, skate all around them
and dance them into the ball room seats,
exhausted The Indian toboggan attain
ed no higher speed than forty miles an
hour. Any New York State boys sled
that had polished runners could beat an
Indian toboggan out of sight The
trouble was that too much friction was
developed by the sliding of so broad and
flat surface over the ice and snow.
Therefore, some genius invented the idea
of making new toboggans of number of
narrow boards, alternately thick and
thin, the thick ones being twice as thick
as the others, and all being level on top,
so as bring about an irregular or uneven
contact with the snow az sled runners
do. This sent the rate of speed up to
about fifty miles an hour.
Fifty miles an hour was too slow fol
the white man in days when railroad
trains make a mile a minute and iceboats
go even faster. Therefore toboggan
built like the above was devised of q
number of ships like what carpenters
call moulding. This sled offers only five
slender ridges for contact with the ice
and when it was tried it was found tC
skim the hills like aswallow. The speed
of this style was not tested, but it beat
everything on ice except the iceboats,
and leaped into favor. These ribbed
sleds are made both in Saratoga and
Montreal. In the former place some
genius hit upon the idea of mailing stee
bands along the ridges as runners arc
affixed to the frames of slcighs. The eff
feet was startling, This improvement
was found to make the toboggans danger
Gus instead of pleasant toys, and the usC
of them has been forbidden on the Sara
toga slides. The flight of one of them
timed by one of the gentlemen in Sarato.
ga, was estimated to be at the rate of be
tween seventy and eighty miles an hour.
/ As to the American Game of Poker.
1t is an interesting TACT that Amerie;