Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-02-01
BO6SuED RACING.
An Exhiiarating and Fascinating
Sport INDUCED In by Many.

| In an early day, some time after
1.-THE landing of the pilgrim fathers,
but before ones waistband. grew per-
Imanently great, there was a simple
loutdoor amusement known as "slidin
downhill" At that day sleds were
roughly of two kinds. high sleds for
girls and mollycoddles. who SAT- tren-
| ulousIy on the seat while some one
started them with a gentle push, and
| low sleds for boys who took the hill
with a run and flung themselves down
on the sled.
What genius first got the idea of
connecting two small sleds By a long
plank. history does not record. We
are told that bobsled is "a sled con-
eAstlng Of a body resting on two short
sleds called hobs. one behind the
other"
In it's early stages the bobsled was
still crude. Often it was made from
two old sleds and an ordinary board,
and the carpeting of the plank was re-
garded as bordering on the effeminate.
Even with these crude materials the
simple sport of "sleddin' downhill' be-
comes exciting and even dangerous.
The real refinement of the bobsled
has come in late years with the in
crease in the number of winter resorts
whose attraction is cold fresh air and
not warm fresh air. switzerland
makes a speciality of them, and in
Switzerland the bobsled Is a highly
developed speed machine.
No longer is old-fashioned foot and
rope steering gear in use. That did
we'll enough for the old timer. which
was well loaded with half a dozen
|venturesome boys and girls. The new
machines have steel hobs made for
that purpose. with a specially arranged
connecting board, which seats between
sixteen and twenty five, and it is
steered by a wheel like an automobile.
Even a searchlight has been added by
one builder eager for novelty.
Owing to the Inconsistency of the
weather in this country a majority of
people know very little of the POSSIBLE
tiles of the sport. It is not until one
get, over in Switzerland. in one of the
valleys of that mountainous land, that
one finds the sport Of coasting carried
to the highest point of perfection. Ii
is there in the valley with the poetical
name Engadine, at st. MoritZ that
coaSting becomes an art In this val
ley, its floor as high above the level or
the sea as the crest of Mount Wash
ington. where winter reignS for half
year and people go to regain health.
there is slide nearly a mile long
which has descent of $50 feet. At
some points in the course the sleds
travel at the rate of eighty miles an
hour. There is sport,
Skill has greatly reduced the time in
which the course can be covered. In
the early days the average speed was
about thirty miles AN hour. Recent
winners of the contest have averaged,
however, more than fifty miles. On
the straight run at the foot of the
course q speed Vereing on eighty miles
has been attained. The same Kind of
sport may be had with bobsledS. but
the single racing sled is the faSorite
fer coasting at ST. MoritZ. The sweep
of a bobsled loaded with several per-
sons around one OF the curves is an
exciting spectacle The man at the
helm, with eyes fixed ahead and mus
Giles at high tension, keeps the front
bob in its course. Those behind lean
toward the inside Of the curve, two or
three of them digging into tho snow
with sticks, which throw up the snow
behind like a cloud of dust. Like an
express train it sweeps around the
curve and is goue.-Exehange