The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-22

A litter Of acute enjoyment went UP
from the crowd Of legation people on the
floor when they saw the Chinaman with
the skates on again.. They huddled at one
end OF the rink to give the Chinaman all
the room he'd need. They had no inten-
ton Of allowing him to knock them down
in sprawling around, and. anyhow, they
wanted to get together so as to enjoy the
fun more.
The instructor gave the man running
the big orchestrion a signal and the or
chestrion struck into a swinging Waldteufel
waltz.
Then tho Chinese secretary and the
instructor, holding each other by the hands
and facing each other at arms length,
shot into the middle Of the floor and began
TO execute an extremely graceful roller
skating waltz. The jaws of the watching
legation people fell, and they were struck
dumb at the sight. The Chinaman and his
instructor waltzed gayly about the immense
floor space for a few minutes, reversing at
will and doing all the other position ex-
changing stunts of the roller waltz, when,
with a mighty shove, the instructor pushed
OF the floor. The legation people, huddled
togetherto watch the fun that didn't event
uate, were amazed to note that the China
man was spinning all that long distance to
the centre Of the slippery floor on one skate,
while he held the other foot UP under the
shelter Of his robe.
Reaching the middle OF the floor, the
Chinaman brought the other foot to the
ground apd started to skate curlioues on
the toe wheels only OF his skates-as diff
cult a feat as any roller skater ever tries.
He got, away with it in great shape. Then
in mid,career, still on one skate, and pro-
PEELED himself backward in a huge circle
or the one skate, winding up by doing O
most perfect "split' on the heel wheels
only OF his skates. All the time the ex-
preston on his face was just such a one as
ness while engaged in picking wild flowers
Then, as a final stunt, the Chinaman raised
himself to the toe wheels of his skates
began to revolye slowly to the right, and in
eight seconds he was spinning around on
those toe wheels like an Indian whip top
making &c many revolutions to the minute
tina his features couldn't be distinguished.
The Chinese Ambassador, sitting up on a
high tier bench, looked smiling and h4ppy
while the members Of his official suite
glanced at one another n made low
toned, gurgling remarks.
The legation people huddled at the far
end OF the rink and looked chapfallen, but
when their first ,amazement was over they
showed that they were fair by surrounding
the Chinese secretary overwhelming
him with congratulations.
THE joke is on u.s." they all told him,
rather su~perfiuously.
For the remainder Of the morning session
the Chinese secretary skated around the
great rink arena with the prettiest girls Of
the legation crowd and taught them how
to do the more simple rollering stunts.
The Chinese secretary hasn't said a word
to any Of the legation people az to how, his
reversal OF form" came about, and most
OF them believe that he fooled them the
first time by pretending not to know how 10
skate, protesting to hold it impossible
for anybody to achieve the Chinaman's
roller skating proficiency in the space of a
month. They don't know ANYTHING about
practice a day for a month, and they aay
that he must have learned roller skating
In San Francisco, where he was stationed
here given. - -