The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-12-15
4 1OBOGGAN DECLINE.
The Curious Athletic Craze Of the
e, Canadians Comes to Sud-
den End
A Return to Quieter and More
Rational Amusenents in the
Dominion.
Heavy Furs and Sumberless Coats of
Wonderful! Designs VIII No Longer
BE Necessity.

MONTREAL. Disc 13.-There is n tide in
the sports of men as we'll as IN their affairs,
and at present the winter sports of Canada
have reached very low ebb. It is not too
much to say that this year will witness their
extinction for q time. Not single tobog
gan slide will be open in Montreal, where
formerly there were Six public and any
number of private Ones A determined eff
fort was made to keep the sport alive. but
its defenders were fighting against odds too
heavy for them.
Snowshoeins has gone, too. and only
few arden: members will toll through the
snow where a few years ago there were clubs
including practically the whole community.
Not many regret this revulsion Of feeling
any more than the extinction of roller skat-
ing, through similar causes, and the causes
are not far to seek. 1t is probable that to
boQ0aning, snowshoe!ng, and the Other
things known as winter sports will remain
showed under for q time, and If they do re-
vive, it will be UPON a rational basis and
not as the craze that has afflicted this coun-
try for ten years past.
Canadian winter sports as understood |
outside of this country had an origin ten
wears ago. The magazines were filled with
DESCRIPTIONS of what lurpOrted to be Ca !
madam days''-that ia, days only fit for +!
bears and wolves to be out Of their dens.
Pictures were added of human beings
swathed III flannel, wearing snowshoes and
touues about their ordinary avocatlOns. |
Palaces of ice were built, and visitors as
we'll as Canadians were persuaded that tins
was the normal state of affairs. The mid
summer tourist considered 1t the proper
thing to go to the photographer and borrow
blanket suit literally besprlnkled with
salt, in which he arrayed himself and had
his picture taken TO be sent abroad and
represent that the mocking words of Vol
taire were true. and that Canada really was
composed OF "Quelques arpens de neige.'
Canadians themselves caught the lnfec
ton, and in spite of the evidence the ther-
mometer afforded continued TO wear
heavy furs and numberess coats OF wonder
fcl design. Every body was athletic.
Everybody tramped miles over the snow
and contracted an assortment OF colds that
were the death Of q good many. Delicate
girls-for not all Canadian girls are OF the
blanket-coated type one sees in pictures
would walk over two miles to the ren-
devious and help to drag 4 tobcggan. Dy
this time everybody knows that 4 toboggan
slide is an arrangement half mile long or
rather half a mile high, and that the top is
reached by series OF steps that seem in
terminabie. Up these steps the girls would
greatest number of climbs in one evening
The record used to be nineteen times
which means nine miles and a half of stairs.
Some could accomplish the feat and were
the better for it, but many fell by the way.
Girls to whom run up stairs meant palpi-
tation, sho:tness of breath, and faintness
would under the excitement toll up these
miles of STEPS and be rewarded by what an
American called ''whIz," and then repeat
the toiling process. incumbered with heavy
skirts bedragGed with snow. The doctors
confess now that when the craze was at its
height their offices was thronged with girls
MS pallid as those annmic housemaids one
secs in the hospital wards. and that the
cause OF tho disease was this same i'll both
cases. namely going up stairs
In addition to tha outdoor physical eNer
else, the EVENING would Usually end up with
bonnet hop III Il sitting clubhouse,
succeed by walk home i'll the cold night,
for to drive was not ''uth.etlc.' This "ath-
leticism" excluded all forms &c indoor EN-
ployment. The concert i!Hi.s were neg
lected, lectures were uuhearG of, and even
social entertainments gave way to tobog
gan parties. HE RS, from an Gssoeia-
tion on equal terms with mel. in their
sports, lost taste for anything else.
Gradually the people btGaa to see that
they were deCelvHg themse!ve, that they
were not in earnest. that there was nothing
TO be III earnest nbuut. anu the collapse
CHluc dlttI we ldSs tHiIlNdl. IL WAS Idll-
ure. Men would iIot leave their business to
man the living arch, AID az the WIGS egAl
party drove through il dix! not '.spring into
life" TO any extent. he rai.roatis and ho.
tells made money, and that was the end OF
1t. Last winter carriers were hired to q i've
to the slides and boys to Jag UP the tobos-
gans, but this winter there are no slides to
drive to ana the Singing tobogGan" will
get rest. excepting 70. those whose tastes
for any reasonable amusement have been
overlain BY this passion.
Another reason for the downfall of winter
sports WAS the crusade undertaken against
them by the Roman Catholic church. The
faithful were distinctly forbidden to attend
the slides under the usual penalties on the
ground of impropriety, if not of immortality.
OF course, the non Catholic members re
sented this rs a charge against themselves
and their sisters" but the church was in
flexible.
In these ways Canadians learned that
their climate was changing; that it was re-
moving further from the north pole. or that
some occult planetary influence rendered i,
no longer necessary that they should incun.-
Der themselves with useless garments. sc
that this winter Canadians Will be founo
going about clothed in their right minds .