The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1892-01-14
FOR YOUTHFUL READERS j.

FOR YOUTHFUL READERS /, ID
INSTRUCTIVE ANDa USEFUL,
" READING FOR THEYoUNG.
Something About Skates and
Skating--A Iouchtng Scene
From Russian Polo Game
--The Size Of Alligators.
Something About skates and
Skating.
There is no more graceful and
healthful exercise than skating. A
skillful skater makes one almost look
for the wings that the ancients fixed
to the ankles OF Mercury, Perseus and
Minerva. In one thing can the birds
be rivaled by humans,
"A they sweep,
On sounding skates a thousand different
ways,
In circling poses swift as the wind along,
sings Thompson.
The boy who has never learned to
skate has lost q pleasure that is dear
to boys heart, but there are few who
have not tried skating, however limit
cd the streams, pond or icy place for
practice may have been.
Skates are very old; hun
dreds, nay, perhaps thousands
OF years before this crisp win
ter, skating was a merry sport.
Perhaps too many in this age OF in
vention think that more ideas are
new than really are so. Ii we remem-
Der that every thing we see around us
grew up, then we can begin the inquiry
about skates that came before the
keen edged "club," with all the ardor
OF historians. 1t is certain that skates
would be of no use in the tropics; we
must look for their home in the land
of long winters, of crusty snow and
slow, ice-bound rivers.
We would not envy the boy of long
ago, as he bound the shin bones Of
some animal to his feet and went
through kind of sprawling gy mnastics
that was the skating of the period.
In Iceland skates are called islegglr,
''ice bones," the shin bones of sheep.
If sheep shin-bones were the first
skates, then the boy who lived before
iron or bronze were known, back in
the stone and bone age, could enjoy
himself with this CHEEKY sport. The
boys of London in the 10Th century,
Fitz Stephen tells US, in winter bind
under their feet a pair of shin-bones,
take In their hands poles shod with
iron, which at times they strike
against the ice and are thus carried
along with the rapidlty of a bird on
the wing or bolt discharged from a
crossbow. Thegenerous Holland boy,
Hans Brinker, was forced to go back
to the primitive way, when he
had given his skates to a.
poor friend and had forgotten his
chances in the race for the "silver
skates .-
It is thought that skates came into
use in Northern Europe, perhaps in
Holland, where it is cold and there is
plenty of smooth water, because
where the rivers are swift there is no
skating. The wooden skates with
iron runners curling up into a wonder
full spiral terminated with a brass
acorn at the point, were introduced
into England from theLow Countries.
Cosby Pepys, in hi; diary OF Dec. 1,
1861, records, '"To my Lord Sand
wich's, to Mr.. Moore and then
over to the Parke, where first in my
life, it being great frost, did see peo-
pie sliding with their skates, which is
very pretty art.''
The Scotch have the reputation of
being good skaters both in the 'fen,"
or straight swift skating, and the
Clancy" skating Our country has
the champion, I think, at present.
A Touching Scene From a Russian
Polo Game.
A pathetic story of brute pity is
told in the following extract from the
letter of a visitor in Russia,to a friend,
describing game of polo:
Horse and rider still lay motionless.
Was it possible that the shock could
have killed them both? The man lay
just as he had been sitting, turned to
one side in readiness to strike the
ball; so that, while his feet were still
in the stirrups' hishead and shoulders
had fallen backward on the ground,
At this death-like stiffness a. shud-
der passed through all the vast as
sembly; and in the carriage next to
us alady fell suddenly back against
the cushions, fainting. Then two or
three officers sprang forward to
see what had happened. while
the players leaped from their
| horses to assist their fall
en- comrade. Never have I seen sight
OF higher intelligence in a brute than
was then exhibited by that little Cos
sack pony. @
AS two or three OF the officers,
STOPPING, took him by the head to
raise him, he looked up at them with
pleading, pathetic eyes, as though en-