Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1897-08-15
NOW CONES THE !. A. 8.
The League Of American Stiltsmn, and
They Spend Their Time on Stills.
Can Easily Race a Bicycle-The
Stills Are Made Of Hardwood,
With the Steps Clamped On and
Communicative be the Rage
This Autumn.

If you happen to wheel past sum
merFesidence and note in the distanc
a group of very tall young men ant
women walking very rapidly, with 81
animated expression of countenance
do not think that you have discovered
a group Of Amazons or colony of gi
ants and giantesses out of freak mu
scum for a weeks vacation. Oh, no
You are merely looking at a party O
young people enjoying the latest out
door sensation-stilt-walk
Stilt-walking was a pastime in the
days of Queen Elizabeth, and had she
and Mary Queen of Scots been the du-
tiful cousins they should have been
doubtless they would have gone silt
walking together, while their admir-
ers, the Lords, of Leicester and Essex
rode to hounds or sped the falcon.
Stilt-walking was also sport much
later, when English girls learned it in
their boarding-school athletics and
employed stills for their early rambles,
hunting the four-leaf clover from that
lofty height.
This is about the first year, however,
when you could go into your favorite
sporting goods store and say, Show
me a pair of stills" You can do it
this year in great many localities, for
stilt-walking is as yet something novel.
The girls of Beverly and all around
Boston are walking them, and you see
stilt-girls back in the country where
there is no bay nor river for their
amusement.
The stills that are commonly used
are homemade ones-or, perhaps, it is
better to say they are carpenter made
ones. 1t is pretty hard thing to
make a pair of stills yourself unless
you have studied carpentry in one of
the trade schools or are a member of
an evening class in amateur carpentry.
The proper material for a pair of
stills is hard wood-the harder the
better. The wood must also be light.
There are strong pieces of cedar and
there are straight lengths of pear and
crab-apple that are very fine. The
crab-apple stills are the ones that are
used in the White Mountains by the
young ladies who go there for a
months run among the hills. They
say the crab-apple has Spring" and is
light.
But in the selection of the kind Of
wood it is best to consult the carpen-
ter, for he will see knot or flaw, a
curve or a split when others would
the wood good enough; and
in stills the main thing is evenness
and strength. A slight warp will be as
as a knock-knee, and if the
stills dry unevenly the walker feels as
though the affection of a pair CT bow
legs were suddenly thrust upon her.
The steps should be securely nailed
on with wire nails. Afterwards little
fATaerver- metallic decorations of saPea
The writer saw a very pretty St.
Louis girl summering in little resort
ON the Ohio river, get horrible tum-
HE off a pair of elegantly finished
stills. They were made of solid ma
hogany, strong and durable past all
auction. They were little heavy
but for long-distance walking they
would outdo any other. 1t is easier 10
keep your balance on a heavy pair OIL
stills than it is on a heavy bicycle,
though you can't go quite as fast.
The steps in these stills were cut III
the side. all from one solid strip OF ma
hogany.