El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-02-01

half mile backwards went to A Mason,
of Montreal in two minutes, Al seconds
fancy stunt attempted mostly by
professionals is jumping over barrels
Morris-WoOd, of New York, claims the
record for this by having cleared 10
barrels at one mighty jump
The open worlds championships for
1910 were held at Helsingfors, Finland,
and the winners were Russians and
Norwegians. The point trophy was
carried off by Strunnikow, a Russian
The European championships wei
held at Davos, Switzerland Being on
their own ice did not help the Swiss
to any appreciabIe extent The best
they got out Of the entire meeting was
r. WeibeTs third in the 5O0-metre. All
the other distance prizes were taken by
Norwegians. NJ. Sachow, a Swede, won
the figure skating honors. and Ger
man was second. A Hungarian was
third. CuriOusly enough, the Holland
ers, among the earliest users of skates.
if not their inventors, are not strong
in competition. They did not get a
place in the worlds or European cham
piOnships last year Their most nota-
bic feat in the records was the estab-
fishing OF a worlds record for 5000
metres by ]. J. Eden. He did this dis
tanee (three miles, 1896 yards) at
Hamar. Holland. in 1894 il eight min
utes, 81 and three-fifth seconds. The
Norweg ians hold all the other records
form 500 to 10000 metres
1t is interesting to compare the speed
Of skaters with runners At some dis.
tances they are faster than the flyers
on the cinder path, but in others they
are slower. Skaters do not get as good
start as runners, but when once under
way, they move faster. The American
running record for so yards is five and
two-fifths seconds; for skating six
seconds. For 100 yards the American
record on the cinders is nine and three
fffths seconds; on the ice, nine and
four-fifths seconds. After that the
skaters are under full sail and forge
ahead The American running mark
for quarter of a mile is n and one
fifth seconds on a straight away track,
but Leroy A See, the skater, has cover
ed the distance in nineteen and four
fifths seconds. The record for a mile
Is four minutes. 81 and two-fffths
seconds on the path and two minutes,
S6 seconds on the ice. At five miles
the skater is nearly twice as fast as
his rival
sF1rst Runners of Bone.
Skating IS said to have become
popular in Holland as a convenience in
travelling over the frozen canals in win
ter. and is still put to practical use
there. The sport first attracted gem
eral attention in England about the
time Samuel Pepys noted it in his di-
airy on December 1, 1862 He saw g.
crowd Of skaters on a lake in London.
Another Of the spectators on that oc-
casion was king Charles IL The first
runners are said to have been made of
bone Then came those of steel with
cuIving- points and wooden soIes.
the modern article with steel runners
and steel sole is a late DEVELOPMENT
and the old wooden Soles are still seen
OCCASIONALLY
Another modern DEVELOPMENT of the
skating principle is that Of using roll
ers on indoor floors. The mania for
this sport seems to occur in regular
periods and affects persons of all ages
and conditions. The craze now on. and
which is thought to be Declining. got
into full swing about five years ago
1t spread from this country TO Eng
land and the colonies Skating Kinks
were erected everywhere on the small
est provocatiOn- They are not expen-
sive to operate, ard many small for
tunes have been made by these enter
prisdng enough to grasp the phychologf-
cal moment Perhaps 20 city has