Year: 1877

The records of leafs of skill in skating


is unusually full. The famous Chevalier


de st. George, who was marvelOusly ex-


pert in all exercises of the body, was


able to sign his name on the ice with the


blade of his skate. A certain young


lady, it is said, accepted challenge to a


correspondence on the ice, and in few


minutes question and answer were


written down with an elegance unsur-


passed by handwriting upon glass with


diamoud. There was a Swede who was


able with one foot to design portraits on


the ice. Strut, in "Sports and Pastimes
of the People Of England" speaks of


four skalers WHO were able to dance a
minuet upon the ice with as much ele-
gance as if they had been walking on the


floor of ball room. and William Hone,
in his Every Day Book" speaking of
the skating on the Serpentine River,
says: "The elegance of skaters OH that
sheet of water is chiefly exhibited i'm
quadrilles, which some parties go through
with beauty scarcely imaginable by
those who have not seen graceful
skating" Mr.. Sam Weller, as we learn
from the veracious history in which Mr..
Pickwick figures so prominently, was an
adept at the beautiful feat of fancy
sliding known as "knocking at the
cObbler's door," which is achieved by
skimmirg over the ice on one foot and
occasionally giving double knock with
the other. Tracing the letters of the al
phabet on the ice has long been favorite
exercise, but with us, in these degenerate
days, the execution of the figure eight is
about the severest test of skill. In
Germany. particularly, there are many
graceful skaters, Baron de Brincken,
who was page to the King of Westphalia,
was able while moving over the ice at a
great pace to leap distance of two
or three hats placed one above the other,
or some of the little sledges which the
ladies use. Klopstock not only wrote
fiery lyrics in praise of the art of skating,
but was an expert at the exercise even
in his old age. "What !" the less active
among his c0untrymen would exclaim,
"the author of 'Mesian linger over
pleasures no longer suited to his age!"
When he and Goethe met the conversa-
tion for the most part was about skating,
and the latter is said to have found in
the exercise q relief from the tOrtures of
mind he suffered in consequence of the
breaking of the love link which had
existed between him and Frederick of
Sessenheim. With us it is within a
comparatively recent period that ladies
began to skate, but in the counties of
Northern Europe both sexes practice the
art. N Friesland most people skate
more than they walk, and skating races,
especially for women, are frequent in all
the towns. The course is always care
fully laid out, long strips of wood being
ranged in line to keep the competitors
separate, and as it is sometimes more
favorable to swift progress on the one
side of this demarcatiOn than on the
other, the skaters are required to change
sides every time they turn. The lists
are inclosed by ropes which run around
by the sides OF the canal, along which
there is always multitude of excited
spectators. The prizes are valuable, but
to obtain them it is necessary to win
from sixty to eighty races. AS matter
of course the races in which women alone
engage are more interesting than those
open only to men. First, there is the
honor of attaching the skates to the feet
of the fair contestants, and second, the
reward of kiss to the fortunate swain.
In these countries, if the women are not
as swift as the men, they are at least more
expert, and excel them in lightness and
beauty of style. "The races on the ice,"
says Palati, care the carnivals of the
Dutch; they are their fetes, their operas,
their designations. At thisseason, during
which many fashionable people in
different parts of the world are running
themselves in their extravaganza, the
only expense to which the Hollanders
are put is the cost of pair of skates,
and the outlay is called for only once or
twice during their lives"