pleasurable excitement and delightfully recreative features. It is
eminently a social sport, too, one suitable for the great majority ;
inasmuch as in every other recreation there is more or less isolation
from social intercourse during a game or a contest, while in skating
social enjoyment is a prominent characteristic. In fact, so much is
this the case, that the sociality of a popular skating lake has come to
be as proverbial as that of a New England Thanksgiving gathering.
Skating, too, when viewed in a sanitary light, is a sport meriting
public approval. Aside from its recreative objects, its advantages
to health are manifest, especially as regards the fair sex. One of its
prominent benefits is the constant open air exercise it yields, and
that, too, at a season when the atmosphere is mostly charged with
life-giving oxygen. In this special respect skating yields the most
beneficial results to young girls, who, as a class, are great sufferers
from the want of out-door recreation; their neglect of it being a
fertile cause of the delicate and sickly constitutions whicb are so
numerous among the wealthy class of metropolitan society. It may
be said with truth that two-thirds of the lives of the majority of our
wealthy city girls are passed in the poisonous atmosphere of furnace-
heated parlors, sitting-rooms and bed-rooms, with the result of that
prevention of the necessary inhalation of oxygen and exhalation of
carbon which is of such vital importance to the health of every
human being.
The essentials for the full enjoyment of skating are good ice on a
safe sheet of water, such as our park lakes provide ; a pair of model
American club skates — the best in the world ; low, flat-heeled skating
boots, fitting snugly to the foot and with soles thick enough to hold
the skate clamps, together with a warm, comfortable and appropriate
skating-dress and cap. In learning to skate you must bear in mind
the fact that, like learning any other special art, there is nothing
which will aid you so much as confidence in your ability to ultimately
accomplish what you are about to undertake. Confidence is especially
essential in learning the first elements of skating. In this respect it
is like learning to swim, the fear of falling while on your skates being
SPORTS AND "GAMES FOR LADIES.
103
similar in its deterring effects to the fear of sinking when first
attempting to swim in the water.
The first lesson in skating is to learn to walk on your skates.
When on skates you are balancing yourself on a very narrow edge,
and on an edge, too, which slips forward and backward very
readily, but not sideways. First, stand firmly on your skates; then
learn to slide forward with your right foot, while pushing yourself
with your left, thus :
orO
This is the first motion made. It is followed bj' the alternate use
of both feet as sliders and propellers, and as you advance in this you
learn to do the movement known as the " inside edge," which pro-
duces the following curves :
Page 60
Presented as published in 1883. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
pleasurable excitement and delightfully recreative features. It is eminently a social sport, too, one suitable for the great majority ; inasmuch as in every other recreation there is more or less isolation from social intercourse during a game or a contest, while in skating social enjoyment is a prominent characteristic. In fact, so much is this the case, that the sociality of a popular skating lake has come to be as proverbial as that of a New England Thanksgiving gathering. Skating, too, when viewed in a sanitary light, is a sport meriting public approval. Aside from its recreative objects, its advantages to health are manifest, especially as regards the fair sex. One of its prominent benefits is the constant open air exercise it yields, and that, too, at a season when the atmosphere is mostly charged with life-giving oxygen. In this special respect skating yields the most beneficial results to young girls, who, as a class, are great sufferers from the want of out-door recreation; their neglect of it being a fertile cause of the delicate and sickly constitutions which are so numerous among the wealthy class of metropolitan society. It may be said with truth that two-thirds of the lives of the majority of our wealthy city girls are passed in the poisonous atmosphere of furnaceheated parlors, sitting-rooms and bed-rooms, with the result of that prevention of the necessary inhalation of oxygen and exhalation of carbon which is of such vital importance to the health of every human being.
The essentials for the full enjoyment of skating are good ice on a safe sheet of water, such as our park lakes provide ; a pair of model American club skates — the best in the world ; low, flat-heeled skating boots, fitting snugly to the foot and with soles thick enough to hold the skate clamps, together with a warm, comfortable and appropriate skating-dress and cap. In learning to skate you must bear in mind the fact that, like learning any other special art, there is nothing which will aid you so much as confidence in your ability to ultimately accomplish what you are about to undertake. Confidence is especially essential in learning the first elements of skating. In this respect it is like learning to swim, the fear of falling while on your skates being
similar in its deterring effects to the fear of sinking when first attempting to swim in the water.
The first lesson in skating is to learn to walk on your skates. When on skates you are balancing yourself on a very narrow edge, and on an edge, too, which slips forward and backward very readily, but not sideways. First, stand firmly on your skates; then learn to slide forward with your right foot, while pushing yourself with your left, thus :
orO
This is the first motion made. It is followed by the alternate use of both feet as sliders and propellers, and as you advance in this you learn to do the movement known as the " inside edge," which produces the following curves :