The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-04-20

1t was so palpably showoffish. he
seemed 50 manifestly out for n pur-
nose of making a hit And he was 50
Internally cock-sure and perky in MS
moves. Now. far be it from us 10 say
50 right out aloud, but it must be re-
corded hat. as the swirling crowd re-
yarded tina. perky young man engaged
in showing 'em how to skate oacA-
wards, the general wish, the genera
hope. seemed TO be that hed-Weii,
they didn't actually want him 70
break his neck or anything Ike that
bur they certainly seemed 10 be root
ing for il thar he'd-er-well. tha'
something would happen 10 slightly
decrease his artificial chest expansion
And they all took TO watching ann as
they swirled by. in a fascinated sort
Of way. with this perfectly human
thought yelling up in their beings
1t happened.
Something went wrong with the top
lofty N man in his moment OF
pride, and busy as he was wheiihs
backward on one foot-whang. he. De-
gan TO pull ut the intangible air IKE a
fiddler crab caught in a hand net anu
.-ker thud. down he went. he SAT
down with about nine times the 1orce
even of Il grouchy representative VINO
is mad because he's failed 10 eaten
the speakers eye. 1t is Il sad thing 10
rebate that the ker-thud he MADE
seemed to be actual music in the ears
of the whirling throng. They just
gurgled out their happiness. IneV
just painted out their gl~oatfulness
They just laughed in the meanest way
you eve. heard. And they all laughed
out loud and together, derisivelS,
hootingly, with a ribald note in the
laughter.
The young man picked himself up,
his face aiame, and. with a weak
facid. wholly undeceiving grin on his
features. Careful tab has been kept
on his moves since that fternoon
The rink attaches report that he hasn't
tried to shom 'em even a little bit
since that experience, but state that
he Just skates around the huge bull
ring in the ordinary way, like the or
binary skaters. In more ways than
one the roller skate is a great leveler.
There is little or no gloating over
the downfall of the becomingly mod
est SktlGE. vi NOuISS, Al Yin
your immediate vicinity, when you top
pie and begin to wipe the moor WIN
your sprng suit, are bounr TO crease
their features into smirks when they
see you thus laid low. But. then, all
of these little matters are
in the long run. You get your cha1ce
to smirk when you see b others fail.
And so it evenS up sooner or later.
If YOU catch some fellow laughing real
ENJOYABLE over your discontinue when
you fall down, all you'll have the
to follow him around for a certain
length of time before you'll have the
keen get-back joy Of peeking leerlngiy
into his face when he, too, is a mere
indiscriminate tangle of arms and legs
However most of us good skaters
that is to say, the ok who really
know how to roller skate we'll, are
rarely responsible themselves for the
falls that come their way. They ma
themselves pocketed in behind Wobbly
beginners, or reckless ones. who were
predestined and preordained at the
birth of the world to do falling down
ju folks way at roller skating Kinks.
II takes a keen and Shrewd eye 10
size I'D these natural-bOrn fallers just
1T the psychic juncture when they're
due to fall. Some skaters possess this
clairyoyance, but most of 'em dou't.
When YOU find yourself in behind a
pair of giggling young women, one
U fwhom is making her first try at 1t,
and, clutching her pal as if she Were
in the act of drowning, webbing "a
long as if she were on nine foot stills
-- =, +Ia 81 aud annr0nriafQ mo-
ment for you to tap your forehead
sagely and murmur unto yourself, i
am giving uh-wy from heah," and
take a long slant to port or to star
board, as the case may be, for II you
don't you may find yourself the top
factor in a notifying huddle within
a very short space OF N
It's the wise roller who a the
'hunch.' where danger turks. We know
Il man who spent four afternoons try
ing Intellectually to keep out Of the way
Of one of the secretaries OF the Chln-
csc embassy in Washington. The Sec
retarv of the Chinese embassy was
lust learning, and lie had a danger
signal out as big as a dirigible balloon,
and this man that we are speaking OF
saw the signal and tried to avoid it
But it seemed to be his fate to find
himself in behind that Chinese ambas-
sadorial secretary every little while,
hard as he tried to duck away. Some
sort of invisible magnet seemed to
draw him in behind that man from the
kingdom of flowers.
The result was inevitable. 1t occur
red when the bell changed for all hand;
to reverse and go the other way OF
the track. They don't have reversing
in China may, be. Anyhow. the him
csc secretary couldn't see that revers
ing thing a little bit, and, for the
purpose of registering his most EN-
phatic protest against it, he went down
with a bump that must assuredy have
made him require the services OF q
dentist the next day. The man wht
had been trying Intellectually to dodge
the Chinaman for days was righ'
behind him of course, and then Their
ND h