Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1898-12-18
CHRISTMAS TINE IN
THE WORLD or SPORT.


How Lovers OF Winter flames Arc Spending
the holiday season Indoors and Out,
Copyright. 1881
The Christmas mondays are eagerly
seized upon by many people who are
too busy, as a rule, to take much time
for recreation, as an opportunity Tor
spending a few days of enjoyment In
the pursuit of their favOrite sports.
Many are the parties starting OF
about this time for few days in our
northern woods or the forests OF
Canada after deer. Camping out in the
snow clad wilds, they wait for hours
for a chance to shoot the shy creatures
as they come along their accustomed
run ways. But who cares for cold and
/ discomfort, feet with no feeling and
hands that can hardly pull trigger
compared with the supreme JOY OF
sighting the antlered quarry and bring
ing down your first deer?
/ Others are bound farther south to
| lure the elusive wild turkey from his
cover with cunning imitation OF the
call of his mate SO that he may grace
the festive holiday board in lieu of his
domestic brother of the barnyard.
Still others are after geese, ducks,
marshes and reedy spots where they
congregate and feed.
What greater pleasure can there be
on clear, crisp morning at this time
of year than a run with the hounds
over hill and dale, through hedge and
timber, on the back of a sturdy hunter
who enjoys the chase as much as his
rider? The baying OF the dogs, as they
! drive poor reynard, doubling and turn
i.-g, from cover to cover, is sweeter
Z music in the ears of many man, aye,
and many a woman, too, than the
grandest concert ever heard. To be in
at the death, to present. the brush to
the only girl in all the world" who
CALAMITY rode beside you, faltering at
no ditch or fence, however high and
broad, to jog quietly back with her to
your hosts country place, there to
partake of tho jolly hunt lunch-what
finer or more healthy way to spend
Christmas morning was ever devised
or dreamed?
Now is the season of two Of the most
exciting pastimes of winter months
ice yachting and skating. Any one who
has ever experienced the keen delight
of a sail on one of these swift iceboats
will ever after declare there can be no
/ better way of spending Christmas day
than in thus Swimming the frozen sur
face of some lake or river. Now you
speed faster than the propelling breeze,
with Boreas at your back, leaving the
fast flying express train on the parallel
shore to recede with angry puffs, then
across to the opposite bank, with run
ner high in air. holding fast with hands
and eyelids.
Suddenly some one yells that there is
fssure in the ice ahead. No time TO
turn. 1t is several feet broad and-but,
like a bird, she has cleared it. Again
you hold fast with grim determination
as she ligf IS on the opposite bank and
is off once more like bird on the wing.
No wonder the devotees Of ice yachting
are such enthusiasts!
The headquarters of the ice yachts
men in the east are on the Hudson and
Shrewsbury rivers, and everything is
IVY in a hustle for another seasons
sport. The annual races for the cham
ponship are very exciting, and lots of
fun md excitement yearly attend them.
But not every one can afford an ice
yacht nor is the necessary large sheet
Of frozen surface found everywhere
Nearly everybody, however, in the
northern States can find lake, pond or
canal wherein to skate. Christmas day
will find thousands upon thousands cut
ting the inner and outer edge, making
graDevines and figure Fights and doing
other stunts, surrounded by admiring
circles, while others, like the ubiquitous
small boy, are just managing to git
thar" in any old way.
IN, 2
group of Scotsmen, wearing glengarrys
and armed with brooms, franticaliy
sweeping the ice in front of the skim
ming "stanes," intensely interested in
game of curling.
The hardy athletes OF the numerous
athletic clubs nearly always make 1t
point to have a cross country run on
Christmas day. Though careering over
frozen meadows and through snow
laden hedges and bitches, clad in flimSy
running costumes, may not appeal to
every one, yet the runners enjoy the
sport, and it certainly is a great pro-
moter of vigorous appetite and con-
stitutiOn.
But there are many who care naught
for these athletic exercises ahoat and
afield and yet find lots of sport and
amusement. The clubs and gymnas-
iums are full of enthusiastic devotees
of basket ball, bowling and other in
door games. In many places indoor
base ball has come to be & recognized
sport, full of rules end science and
with a regular schedule of champion
ship events. ELBERT WOOD.
:af.- ha,I r.