Morning journal and courier., 1886-01-18
WHITNEY LAKE.

A Great Day at the Lake Saturday,
 Four Thousand Visitors and Two
 Thousand Skaters-Wealth. Beauty
 And Fashion Represented-Skatin as A Pastinae.
 Saturday last was great day at Whitney
 Lake. It was estimated by good judges that
 more than 5000 persons were skating to- gether in the afternoon on the lake below the bridge, and that more than 4,oe0 persons visited the lake during the day. During the whole afternoon the horse cars with extras were crowded and there was constant stream l of hacks and herdicssAnd other vehicles up
 and down Whitney avenue. It was surpris ing to see how so many people could skate on the lake, which seemed almost crowded, with so few cases of collision. 1t was cer- tainly an unparalleled sight to see this great throng, each one gliding and winding in among the rest and around them.
 Hockey was one of the great features of the day. Si3es were chosen as in football or base ball and great crowds of combatants
 strove with each other to drive the wooden block, which took the place of the ball, to one shore or the other. There were two of these sets of hockey players up and down the lake.
 There was also very unusual number of ladies on the lake and among them some very
 graceful skaters. Not few of them cut the outward roll. To the uninitiated it may be added that the outward roll is skating on the outward edge of the skate. The old-fashion- ed way of skating, and, indeed, the natural way, as every skater begins that way, is up on the inward edge of the skate. Every stroke is taken on that edge by the tyro. In the outward roll, or Dutch roll as it is some A.. 11aI L,7r1-1 icf fo1r fho outward edge. This is matter of acquire | ment and is said to be very difficult, and we can well believe so, as only comparatively a few skaters do it well. In skating the roll the skater leans over on the out
 ward edge of his skate, and the l greater the inclination the more the skill and the better it looks. Pretty nearly all the well known local skaters were on the lake. Lucius Futile, whose renown covers more than a score of years, was there, displaying quite as much ability and grace as in the days of his boyhood His spins at the end of the stroke of the cross roll back wards were certainly very neat perform ance Thomas G. Bennett of Winchester armory we noticed, who is always one of the best skaters the lake. His execution of the forward and backward rolls was perhaps the best one witnessed. B. F. Arvine cuts the backward cross roll and backward double cross or double Dutc very neatly. The double Dutch or double cross-roll diff fers only from the ordinary roll in that the skater makes one more complete turns or spins in every stroke. The figure thus made
 looks very much like the capital letter
 E in script with the middle loop very much enlarged. T. w. Mather of the Scientific school cut very elegant backward rolls and also executed the double cross very graceful ly. Justus s. Hotchkiss did the forward roll with good deal of skill. Two colored gen. tlemen near the eastern shore cut all sorts of figures the technical names of which we do not know and attracted admiring crowds. Hockey monopolized the center of the lake, while the fancy skaters tended toward hooks and corners along the shore.
 Among the skaters were Prof. Tracy Peck of Yale, Clarence Deming, Signal Sergeant Sherman, Maurice Kingsley, $. H. Pease, Attorney Joseph B. Morse, Attorney B. G.
 Beach, who cuts the forward cross very neat "; J. Parker Trow bridge, Attorney William
 Nichols, A. E. Kingsley, Monsieur Antonio
 Corronati, the we'll known French teacher; F.
 H. Howe, Edward Sargent, Joseph Vernon,
 Silas E. Burroughs, jr., J. P. Trowbridge,
 Robert Appleton, Willis H. Goodyear, Rev.
 Dr. Smyth; and among the ladies Miss
 Geraldine Lowe, the Misses Trowbridge,
 the Misses Sargent, Miss Addie Somers,
 Miss Virginia Osborn, the young ladies of
 Professor Whitney's family, Mrs. Bishop,
 Miss Louise Sands, Miss Emma Bray, Mrs.
 Enscoe.
 Anon gthe spectators were: Prof. F. D. Way
 land, Prof. J. T. Piatt, Rev, Dr. Kleeberg
 and Prof: William G. Sumner. No doubt
 many are reminded that some twenty years
 ago outdoor skating was the fashion here A large space at Hamilton Park used to be flooded on freezing nights for the benefit of the skating public, and everybody went who could stand upon skates. All lovers of this
 beautiful pastime will rejoice to see that out door skating is again in the fashion. Skat- inr i,o 4la cir ono 1oiyn iS r1n | doubt infinitely preferable to skating on 8
 narrow floor in a hot room and many an ob- I server will agree also that it is much more graceful than the performances on wheels.