Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1901-03-27
TOBOGGAN GONE OUT.
Once Popular Winter Sport No
 Longer in Favor.
The Runnerless sIeAs Are Seldom Seen Even OF the snow-Clad Hills of the NOrth-Dkcard-
 ed by Society.

sota and other far north states where
 they have hills and things that they
 can slide on when there is enough
 snow that the toboggan is a dead
 one!" The long fiat board with the
 turned-uP nose which used to fly
 down the steep frozen declvities with
 the speed of cannon ball will fly no
 more, at least for the present. It has
 been relegated to the walls of dens
 and clubrooms, where it sticks silent
 ly an alleged article of decoration of
 the relic pattern.
 Society went back on the toboggan,
 and when society goes back on bit
 of sporting goods the goods might as
 well hunt for its sarcophagus and
 crawl in and let society seal on the
 capstone. Time was when the erst-
 while toboggan was the warmest win
 ter favorite that ever cavorted among
 the frozen hills of the northern states,
 but it has gone the way of all other
 favorites that have reigned with too
 much popularity. But a few short
 years ago winter without the tObog-
 gan in the hilly country would have
 been like Fourth of July without
 fireworks. The season would have
 been nought but bitter patch of mel
 ancholy. In those days the young
 folks would have gone into spasms of
 indignation and vexation if they had
 been deprived of the privilege of to-
 bogganing. But now the toboggan
 has gone down the slide, and there is no evidence that it is going to come
 back up, says the Chicago Chronicle.
 few winters ago the toboggan furor that reigned in the parts where the sport had any show whatever at- tracted the attention of the entire country. The daily newspapers, the weeklies and the magazines displayed long, profusely illustrated articles on the sport, and the popular indulgence in it time and again and people who had no more prospect of ever seeing a toboggan than they have of seeing the north pole, talked of the runner less sleds and their awful flights with breathless interest. Stamped in the mind of every reader is the picture of the long snow and ice embank- ment, with torches down the sides and in the middle of the slide, the big to- began filled with boys and girls fly ing down the declivity at the rate of | mile a minute. When the reader | saw this time-honored old picture for the first time he always held his breath and ejaculated, in low, smoth- cred tones: My, isn't that just awful?" and at the same time he had a secret longing to be on the spot and try one whirl down the chute.
 It used to be said that it required long persuasion to induce the extreme ly timid to ever board a toboggan. but after they had once taken a trip they hungered for more of "the same" with greater avidity than anyone else on the hill. When the sport was at the height of its popularity in St. Paul and Minneapolis it was well worth a trip to the Gopher cities to see the amusement in full blast on a cold winters night. Everybody owned 3 toboggan or belonged to toboggan club. At night the frozen hills and snow and ice-cOvered embankments, built sometimes especially for the sport, were lighted up with great torches until they were as bright as lay, and swarming about on every hand were men and women, young md middle-aged, dressed in their fan ,astic red, white and blue blanket cos tunes and streaming from their reads were the long points of the 1nitted caps that were pulled down 'ver their ears like nightcaps.
 And the great slides prepared for he use of the toboggan meant a mile minute ride down a steep incline, very foot of which was fraught with 'eril. Many wild tumbles ensued. many ears and noses were frozen, and 'et the toboggan dropped in popu- arity with as sudden and hard a thud $ the roller skate. Just as in the ase of the roller skates, when the to- 'oggan was at its height, the sales nade by sporting houses were enor- nous, considering the size of the cit es- One firm alone in the city of St. 'aul sold in a few months in the eighborhood of s3,OOO worth of to- oggans. e The advent of the toboggan brought kis into high favor The first ones. lade of Norway pine, had a monopoly pr awhile, but American ingenuity nd inquiry speedily disposed of the e bsurdity of sending all the way to orway for skis. Some genius discov- red that Georgia pine was just as ood for the purpose, and that wood ! now used almost exclusively for [ le manufacture of skis in the Unit States. From the peculiar charac- 1T of the Georgia pine snow will not V 1here to it.