Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1897-03-19
REAL TOBOGGANfNG.
Something That Takes skill and
Courage.
london Globe.)

feet wide covered win snow or Ice
The speed attainable Is said TO be from
seventy TO eighty miles per hour and
the toboggan used is the Canadian" of
thin ASH boards turned up in front. 1t is
perfectly safe and easy In the Alps,
things are altogether different, and a
notable sport has been evolved in the
last few years. 1t may easily be con
ceived that the mere rush downhill, even
al eighty miles an hour, is apt TO pail.
Englishmen wint"ring at DaVos sought
for something more than that Tney
sought TO exercise hand and eye, muscle
and brain. skill and nerve a true sport,
i'm fact. Ready to hand were the de-
spised "schnttn." the ungainly Swiss
hand sled and the post road winding
and doubling down TO Holsters. To coast
down this road, sitting upon the
"schlittli" was good fun. The sharp
turns allowed frequent opportunities FOR
involuntary dives down the snowy slopes
on the outside edge, and the ruts ana
other inequalities required careful
manoeuvrlng. while the frequent sleigh
added a pleasing source Of danger.
Now. Peter Minsch, the Davos postman,
dragged his mail up this same road each
day. and naturally, coasted down,
come an expert tobogganer-for the term
was now applied TO the 'schlittli' rider
and was skilled I'm the idOsyncrasies OF
H., road. The late J. a. Symonds and
others. seeing this and also that other
natives and visitors were good riders,
conceived the happy notion OF an inter-
national race on that road. Accordingly,
on February y. 1888, the frst race was
slid. and the evolution Of tObogganing
was two miles less 100 yards, with a
fan Of $50 feet Mlnsch tied with an
Australian visitor, but in the next years
race won outright. as he has done once
or twice since one small improvement
,vas soon introduced into this road
racing in the substitution of hand-steer-
ing by means Of iron-tpped pegs, Tor the
old foot-steering.
The winter Of 1Ss4-'Sj saw the first
building Of the Cresta run at st. MoritZ
and after that changes were quickly IN
troduced. There Is no road Ike the KOS
ters at st. Moritz. so from the beginning
its runs have been artificial. The earlier
ones are only important as experiments. II
had been found on them that very sharp
| s-"corners'-could be ridden If
/ banked with snow ION the same principle
as a cycle track. But the tOboggan
runners soon cut the banks TO pieces,
] and icing was resorted to. Soon the
whole surface of the run was iced, and
| fast. smooth travelling. with accurate
steering, became possible. SO the nrst
Cresta run was iced and crooked" and
was altogether a devilish invention. As
Davos had taken the dgnified title of
international for its race. it was laugh
ingly suggested that the Cresta race
should be called the Grand National"
And so il was, and is. Davosers carried
off the championship for the first tnree
| years. but after that the Engadiners
| found themselves and have never since
lost the pride OF place The 1887 Cresta
race saw an important innovation, which
was laughed at, but which conquered
finally. One Of the competitors rode head
first. He failed TO gain place, but next
/ year the Dawes race was won by head
| first rider, who rode an America ma
chine. lower. longer and heavier than the
Swiss Its superiority and his position
were so manifest that all the St. Mortz
| men rode Americas I'm the following year.
| A head-frst rider again won, and since
| then the prone Is the only position for
| fast riders. In this style of riding steel
| "rakes" are screwed on the toe Of the
| boot-sole, with projecting serrated edges,
for the purposes of steering and braking.
/ a steel skeleton" toboggan appeared in
I fotS, anu CdIIttu Oh iOl Olly the GidHb
/ National" but the international also,
| thus proving its superiority on road and
| path, so to speak A steel skeleton" Is
somewhat like an America" with a steel
/ framework in lieu of wooden sides. 1t is
five inches high, twelve inches wide, and
| its length should equal the distance from
| the riders chin TO his knee. All good
riders now ride this type OF toboggan.
| Thus, in a few years, the sitting gave
way TO the headforemOst position and
the antique Swiss coaster" TO the mod
ern steel skeleton.
But while the machine was being evoly-
ed and the rider fitting himself TO it, the
crooked artificial run was being perfected.
Its course has now become most devious
and desperate. II twists and turns, de-
scribes semicrcles and SIS, goes downhill
and up. or on occasion, keeps level IL
has leaps" and corners" banks" and
"straights." The Cresta is the highest
and most startling development in this
style of thing. and Mr.. EgmOnt Hake well
calls il "the steeplechase course of the to-
bogganing world" Its total length is
hree-quarters of mile, from a point
above ST. Moritz TO the fields of Cresta,
600 feet below Twelve skilled laborers,
with some amateur help. take six weeks
to construct It, w. IL. Bulpett, president
OF the ST. MoritZ Tobogganing Club, su-
perintendlug The course is marked out
with stakes before the snow falls. One
foot OF snow permits OF a start. -Four
men arm-in-arm tramp over the projected
course several times. Then snow-shoyels
are used TO MI up inequalities and TO
bank the curves and corners" The
whole is finally iced, and reminds one OF
the winding crystal staircase OF fairyland.
The method of racisg Is against time.
since only one tobcsgan can with safety
be ON the run al once. Three courses are
ridden by each man. the fastest aggre-
gate winning. In 1875 the winners aggre-
gate WAS 3 minutes 81 2-5 seconds, ana the
Fastest single course Il As Seconds. In
lSqs this single course record was cut by
two-dfths of a second, II / remember
rightly. This speed is about forty miles
on hour and does not nearly equal that
On tho straight "sides" OF America. Stiu
:, ms, he remembered that the crooked
RIM Is designedly beset with ingenious
a,eicnIties lessening speed. and only to
h., overcome by nerve aud skill TO ride
- g 10 do a greater thing than TO ride
.,ra,ght course however fast. Ii calls
49, NAV all those attributes OF high
o 1or 70 and physical proves which hardy
races admire, and from being a child's
same tobogganing in the Alps has become
. mans sport. And at ST. Moritz. on the
"Cresta." they play 1t best.