Connecticut western news., 1907-02-21
"SL|DING THE SHOOT"
DUGAN's RIDE ON A TOB0GGAN
He tells his Friend Clancy About it. Definition of a Toboggan Slide-A Toboggan 'Has a Sleigh Skinned to Deathn-n Great Clancyr

Toboggan "Has Sleigh Skinned to Death''-"'Tis Great, Clancy"
 Correspondence of THE NEws)
 'I say, Clancy" remarked big Bill Dugan, ''I took an outing yesterday"
 What's an outing?"
 "'Tis losiu' half days pay and startin' out wid de family fer 8 joyful time and wonderin' what's ahead O ye, til 'tis behind ye.'
 "'Twas cold comfort ye found, Dugan.'
 "Sure, that's what was I was lookin fer.''
 'Where was it ye wint?"
 "We wint fer ride OF that goboggan shlide the ould woman and the childer he'd been chewin' the rag about. Sure twas neally crazy they drove me with their talk about it.'
 Did ye ride on the thing?'
 "Sure did, what d ye t'ink I sphent me hard coin fer. squint at the land schape?''
 w 1ibo pO o S7OpoSSe1h 1ihO, Dugan, I never seen one O the things?"
 's'Tis wooden side hill poked up in the air on the top of a lot of big sthicks. Yez go into the little house at the top and yez git yer goboggan which is some thing the color of boardin' house pan cake, about as thick and tough as I remember some O them I have tried to drive me fangs into before now. Iris o'the thing curls over like the tail on .Rafferty's pug. It has sleigh skinned to death when 1t comes to ridin' down hill becuz if yez fall off you've only about a quarter of an inch to drop and yez won't notice the jar much. The felly at the top of the shlide puts the go- boggan on trap dure that Hops up and down like the box on coal cart and me is one thing I don't like about -shlidin the goboggan shoot. 'Tis the shape.yez have, to git into. I've tied meself up like it before but 'twuz good while dSO HI blO CdI AaAA dA1Cl l lhd p&b O quart or two of green apples under me vest. Yez shut shut yersef up. like one O them accordeons and when yez are shlidin' down the shute yez must have a care fer if the goboggan makes a mis- step, yer knees will poke the face off ye.
 With the goboggan a sittin' on the thrap dure, the man behind tells yez to load up, and after ye plant yerselves on the thing yez wonder how yez will start. Yez don't wonder long. All at once the thing tips np behind and if yez are in the stern of the goboggan yez thinks yez will be, down on the rest of the family in minute, but in less time than m a tell ing 1t to ye, Clancy, yez have weighed anchor and the thing is a goin' down the pike more'n a. thousand miles minute. wuz to circus once, Clancy, where they shot man, out of cannon and he wint part way across the state of Con- niticut before he lit, and when got into that trough knew just how he felt, only he had mt the speed of wheelbar- ry alongside the way we slid Did ye ever loose yer breath, Clancy2 I lost mine 8 year ago when heerd Mulcahey had voted the Prohibition tiket, but when yez git on the goboggan yez not only loose yer breath, but yez feel yez will loose everything else but yer reputation, If yez have one, and yez resolve to lead a better life if yez ever git out of it alive.
 But yez don't have much time for thought The first thing yez knows yez strikes curve and ye feel tis all over with ye and ye shuts yer eyes and hope yer light will go out all of sudden, so ye won't finger and be care fer yer rela- l tives before yez go to the evergreen shore. Then yez strike another curve | on the other side, and while yer tryin' to make up yer mind what to think, yez are past it. Then yez strike a jounce that gives ye heave in the air and if ye ain't careful when ye come down yell light on cross stick in a way that'n | make ye ate yer grub off the clock shelf the next day.
 Then the strenuous part of it is all | over, Clancy, and yez slide abont half mile on the snow on the finest roadbed | on the continent. jest to quiet yer nerves, and pretty soon ye come to stop.''
 "Do yez have to walk back, Dugan ?'
 Sure, yez walk back; did ye think they send hack out there fer ye? By the time yez have climbed up to the top yez are ready fer another ride, and yez keep it up till yez have an appetite like a hired man and are that tired yez don't git over it for week. Iris great, Clancy. Yez ought to try it once."
 Pittsield landlords are talking of in-