New-York tribune., 1910-09-11
CELLAR DOOR 4POTHEOSTC
Gigantic Industry That Has Been
Built on he Cra,1ng to Slide.

tending fires. 1t is his desire to slide down hill
If during those early years he finds cellar door
| banister, haymow or hillside of or slippery
grass and does not try its friction on his
trousers, then there is coed and painful rea-
son for his temperance ten times out of every
ten The female American. who at n tender
age makes herself as much like the male as she
can. follows his example in this matter and
slides whenever she dares to- rnineing her
mamma only when she is afraid
| And even in grown-up days when you see a
particularly fine mahogany stair rail sweeping
down from top to bottom of house, with q
| graceful, rounded of spiral at the end and not
a post obstruction anywhere-you know
what is the first thing you think of. And il YOU
were quite sure that nobody could possibly see
| you, and that you wouldn't fall of. and that
you could catch yourself at the end, and that
your stomach wouldn't get in the way and your
glasses would stay on-wel, of course you can't
| be sure Of any Of these things. Only if you
could, who knows what might happen?
That longing to "let her rip" to surrender
| yourself INTERESTINGLY to the force OF gravity,
goes very deep into your being. 1t is civilized
human nature crying out for contact with an
essential force crying to be set free if only for
an instant, from the paths of every day. hum
drum existence. The longing is none the less
| deep because it seems ridiculous. 1t is real.
| strong, primeval instinct Now. in any strong
| human desire there is a great deal of money for
the man who knows how to satisfy it and IS
willing to sell satisfaction at reasonable rates.
Hence the roller coaster. 1t stands in Scot
| land, in Coney Island in Brazil, in Yucatan
1t Is numbered in tens Of thousands, and mill
Ions ride in it every year It has made its in
ventors m1ionaires Yet they took only tho
| essence, the spiritual part Of the cellar door
from ;tc hC, al
| II. elaborated it, capitalized it and made it a
mint to coin the cellar door impulse into good
currency. The mint works grand scale.
The first roller coaster was 45O feet long ant
the highest drop on the line of ten feet.
The thrill was somewhat moro intense than that
to be gained from parlor rocking chair; 4 was
rather more like the sensation of working
wooden lawn swing To-day there is roller
coaster at Brighton Beach where the track is
116 feet high at one point, and there is drop
Of eshty-dve feet When the plunges down
that descent the passenger literally leaves his
seat for an instant, and as he sees Coney Island
leapins up to meet him he knows how hase~
ball feels when 400 batsman swings on i.
with the bases full.
That first roller coaster cost 81 500. The big
scenic railways at Coney Island to-day cost
about $4,000 each. The smaller ones such as
are shipped out to Rio de Janeiro or Yokohama
represent an investment of $4,000 each before
they have carried a passenger. 1t Is estimated
that 500, 100000 is invested in sliding amuse-
nnents OF one sort another in the United
States alone. More than half the population OF
the country lives within hours ride of one
or another OF them, for they are in a thousand
Of our cities. If the cellar door impulse is not
turned into hard dollars it is certainly not for
lack of the machinery to do it or of Willingness
to furnish the machinery. single firm, the
same which operated the first 'sWitchback' IN
1891 now has IS O0O.OO0 invested in the busI-
ness It's profits enormous.
In one season roller coaster frequently pays
for itself Earnings of less than 80 per cent for
d season are rare Two thousand dollars is a
good figure for j Sunday receipts The fare -
10 cents a ride. That means that twenty thou
sand thrills of cellar door satisfaction have been
minted into hard cash.
Go to Coney Island and see how natural the
| process is When you have felt the cushioned
seat plunge down from under you and have
careht YOUR breath to tide yourself over the big
drop that is coming, and have felt the car
charge up the next steep slope with q rear and
4 rush that is good hear, ard when you have
grown sJlpercilious at the easy motion with
which it takes the later undulatons, and then
have had the whole ride all over again, you viii
come out at the end and be quite ready to own