BEOKLES_S YOUNG CANADA, HOW IT RISKS LIFE AN D LIMB ON TH'E TOBOGGAN SLIDH. A WINTHER: SPORT THAT TAKES ONE'S BREA.TH AWAY, R f ; A "v: 2 i ; B, PAULINE, JOHNSON DESCRIBES ITS sk PJE.EASURES»A.N’D DANGERS. HAT is that constit- uent of youth inher- ent with us all that yields to this witchery of recklessness, that loves a -dash. of danger in our pleasure mak-; - ing? We see it in the child who wants to p lay “with ‘Lucifer wcngg because . it ' “is told by n se that - %they . are bad "and - will ‘bite: baby;” it bubbles out in the school boy, who skates so near to the big yawning airhole in the 1ice that the brittle substance splits beneath his feet . and he strides off just in time to save him- gself from a horrible death, or at- the least, a perilous ducking while he assures his comrades he ‘‘wasn’t scart,” “and tries the experiment again Just because ' the dangerous sport adds such intoxication to the otherwise unin- teresting, because undeniable security of his pastime and play hour. We see it ini:the man, whose friend coaxes him to drop ' that hazardous friendship with his now. Only to the aged whose life lies be- hind them does danger lose its spicy flavor, but to youth, and health, and warm young blood, oh! the irresistible fascination :of risk. and venture. To hold one’s . breath on the pinnacle of uncertainty, to feel one’s pulses bound with excitement, then freeze ,....‘ i A% ’rrv' 4;;’:4, RGO Y m‘, o - o f . % *‘y This; mdeed pleasure and: existence. essence of—tobogganing. Young Canada is wonderfully vigorous, - daringly reckless as far -as sport is con- cerned, but of all the wild, heedless pas- times in his long catalogue of physical ex- ercise, tobogganing is undoubtedly the most hazardous, ‘Many a gay young life has been dashed out at the foot of the treacherous slide, many a sturdy limb’ snapped asunder, many a glowing cheek cut and scarred for a life- time, but still the rollicking sport goes on, each robust gamester strong in the faith that theirs is the one charmed existence to which mishap is least likely to .occur. And after all there is little to fear if the “man at the helm’” knows the track and has confldence in his own steering, but he must be strong, keen-eyed and absolutely fear- less, or woe be to the passengers he essays to pilot down hill on the wings/of the wind; woe to his craft, and, direst of allvcalami- ties, woe to his reputa.tion as a tobogganist. But, like all true sportsmen, he is kKeenly alive to. the dangers of careless and tricky practices, One can always distinguish the reIia.ble veteran by the painsta.king fashion he has of seeing that the passengers’ coats, skirts and sashes are all well tucked under before the start, by his immutable law of never \permittmg ‘the craft to escape the touch of his hand or foot while the pas- sengers are mounting, and by his despotic command that they ‘‘hang on whatever happens’’—for fun is ended ‘and foolhardi- ness begins the instant some swashbuckler thinks it very clever to. go down hill back- wards or standing up, or to get a crowd aboard only to terrify them by letting the toboggan creep some feet toward the shute before he tears madly after it, pitches him- gelf on the scant:. space -left him “‘“‘aft,” while the craft swerves from side to side with his blundering antics and an accident is barely averted. But many a terrible spill have 1T is the essence: of life and This indeed is the old-time love,- who is another man’s wife | FOERG WEom o with Jthb horror of physlca.g extlnotlon.- had where no one was to| The cost of a toboggan runs from $3 up- ward, but a very neat one built of Indiana black hickory, - cushion laced firmly in place, may. be had for $7 or thereabouts. with a thick, handsome One can soon become an expert at runnin" the craft. You have but to pack your pas- sengers, fon,” and as close as sardines, leaving a foot’s space at the stern, upon which you drop one knee as you start the load, grip the side ropes with both hands, kneel high enough to admit of your chin just skimming the shoulder of the person directly in front of you, and ‘let her go’—using your free foot as a rudder, of which the slightest touch on the. track will bend your craft into obedience, but your foot must be ab- solutely free, swinging and moccasined, or command of your load is lost. : forward, all sitting “Turk fash- Of course if you are a lady, the fewer skirts worn the better, and unless you are as fearlesg and sturdy limbed as La Can- adienne, you would be wiser to reserve more- Bpace” tor%eurselt if. you 1ntend to. steer ‘than the ' meager above mentioned foot. But you soon get accustomed to a short allowance of room, for some way or other there always seems ta be space enough for just one more on a toboggan, and then you dash down on the few Inches left you and away you go, caring little for the snow spluttering and whirling about your ears, as you plow through drifts, and scale the “pump’”’ with a flying leap, for most of the sliding in Ontario is done on snow, which, though spicy enough in itself, is not near- ly the fun which one can get out of it in the Lower Province, where they turn a hose on at the top of the shute until the entire track is veneered with a thin stream of water which congeals in ice almost in- stantly in an atmosphere that often drops to thirty degrees below zero, and over this crystal track I have bounded more than once at the rate of a mile in thirty seconds. Like all other winter sports, tobogganing is seen to perfection in Montreal. The slides are owned and managed by the re- spective snowghoe clubs, and each en- deavors to rival each in speed, accommoda- tion and hospitality. At carnival time the slides are a sight worth crossing the conti- nent to see. One fete I attended, the Mon- S IMerst SIS 3 X trea.l Club had a slide well- nigh perpendicu- lar, the decent of which came nearer mak- ing my hair stand on end than anything I ever experienced, for it is constructed by nature, and, like all her works, transcends the most cunning artifice of man. Down the long, ‘steep slopes of Mount Royal, that lifts its huge bulk behind the curious old French-Canadian city, the two gleaming tracks of ice look like silver wires sus- pended in midair, with a gray, cobwebby something, winding up alongside, which a nearer view reveals to be a staircase. This and a. few yards of particularly abrupt “shute” are the only artificial adjuncts re- quired to perfect the most precipitous slide in Canada. The double tracks are separated by a ridge of ice, a little above a foot in hight, so that two toboggans can with safety race each other, from start to finish, a distance of three-quarters of a mile, at the end of which you are quite willing to dismount, considering the fact that the atmosphere always tarries at zero or there- abouts, and your mad flight through such air leaves you as nearly frozen solid as humanity can be and yet live. . The first trip I took on this slide was a revelation to me as far as sport and speed are concerned. It was ‘opening night” in carnival week, and the blaze of light and color, from summit to base, were dazzling enough to be blinding, even a mile distant. At the top of the slide a gigantic cord-wood bonfire seemed to lick the very heavens with its flames,supplemented every three minutes with a burst of red, green and orange lime- lights., At intervals of every twenty feet along shute, dip and far level track were stretched lines of Chinese lanterns over- head, and between these rows of light stood seemingly frost-proof men, wielding Roman candles and rockets, and themselves cos- tumed in the regulation blanket suit, with brilliaxt sashes and stockings and torches aflame on their toques. - Throngs of merrymakers stairs and encirecled the bonfire, T THE DETROIT FREE | screwed intg the crossbars, and it has the advantage of being much .easier to ‘hang on to,”! as it glves slightly at every “jump and never jars the hands. ! me and mv toboggan,” and then with regret i crowded the crhatterine | a distinguished European nobleman. the teeth of a comb, and we sped along |} something like horizontally again. i “Look out, now, and hang on; we're. g0~ ing to jump the second dip!" Hardly had the words reached my ears before the toboggan leapt four feet' into| & the air, struck the track, flat as the pro-{ § verbial pancake, about fifteen feet beyond, and careened madly, wildly onward, slack- ing gently and reluctantly a half mile fur- ther on. The instant we stopped stalwart arms assisted us to scramble out of the way before the next toboggan came crash-| & ing down. I had not time to think of that | C48 headlong plunge, of my frozen brain, of : my hands strained. with their desperate clutch on the ropes. The big steerer hur- ried me into a warm, bright booth, where. girls with glowing cheeks and sparkling eyes were drinking hot, savory beef tea. They gave me a large bowlful, which 1 swallowed gladly while they told me a story | of an American who had taken hln flrat trip down the previous day, BN “I would not have missed that ride : '~~ £ TN a thousand dollars.',.he renfarked ‘to thé gallant young Montredler who! piloted him - “I'm glad you. llke it,”” laughed ‘the la ter, .¢'get warmed *up now a.nd we'll try. i} again.” .4 - ‘F"' ‘“‘No, thank you," replied the visitor, “ry would not take that trip again for $10,000.” Nor would he, despite all coaxing, *‘for,” said he, “I have a wife and chlldren in Baltimore—and they need me.” On the return tramp I thought of the Chinaman, who, when asked what he thought of tobogganing, said: “It’'s just swir-r-r!'—walkee backee milee.” But that same walk back is what puts the life into you, that warms every particle of your body to blood heat, that sends young life and vigor bounding through your veins in a ‘way that defles cold and danger, and intoxicates you into the state of pluck and, fearlessness requisite to repeat the whirl- | of Cgisl wind ride. is: aks Many a time since that carnival night mitt have I steered my own toboggan, down less precipitous steeps, perhaps, but none the less dangerous; many a time on the track- less old hill up here in Ontario have 1 cleared a half-buried tree stump by a cou- ple of inches and a touch of my moccasined toe, that has swerved my craft aside in the nick of time; many a night have I been one of a gay young crew, packing the snow together at the foot of the hill just to make a “big bump” over which our tobog- gan would leap like a stag, then fly on its runaway course, and many the cold west- ern moon that has smiled all night "above us as we thronged the court of this king of winter sports. But I never take a dash down-hill without a peculiar homesickness to see old Mount Royal lifting its royal crest against the night, and to hear some chivalrous, dark-eyed French Canadian asking if ‘“Mademoiselle will only honor o PR e, }{: R 3 P LN k Wh TS T B B ST PN the ri ; all Vig by th(t“ The Rk the g \comngiy '*3““’5 w,_ A-Qg‘" 5,; g’ ‘gf.‘g}‘h _v I remember that the mighty, rugged slide, Gt sy xSt i .z with many of its fellows, has fallen into disuse the last few seasons, owing to that variable tyrant Fashian, who has recently smiled very openly on jskating and snow- shoeing. But one never:knows the veerings of this weathercock, or how soon the man- date will be issued thet will cause young Canada to spring to it§§ feet, hailing with | @ a glad and lusty shoutf the return: of this ; temporarily exiled monfarch, and ' ot ‘the \1 wild inspiriting. atmos)here tha.t c 1ng‘s 'orever to his kinglv T hgs. ‘wfi l :}0% s M terly Absurg h lcle was ‘recently copled in The | o | ss, ‘frdom Jthe New! York | 1.8 : ‘snakes eveloped from | 9 hairs of human”beingd and other ani-| mals. It is most. surpriglnq; that the old s ignorant belief ‘in thg" deva}opment of " a lower form of animal life ‘from a hair of one of the vertebrates should still find ad- vocates. For the utter absurdity has been shown so many times that addltlonal com- ment is hardly called for. The common hair-worm, which gets its name from the ridiculous notion that it re- sults from a water-gsoaked hair, is a para- sitic animal which passes the earlier stages of its existence in the bodles of insects, generally crickets or grasshoppers. In time | €2 the thread-like creature reaches a length of ten times that of its diseased supporter. It escapes from its early home in the in- sect’s body, after the grasshopper falls into the pool of water or mud-puddle, and there lays its eggs and dies. The life history of the hair-worm has been carefully studied by reliable observers, and we should not give credit to the stories of those more anx- ious to create or continue sensations than to settle a fact in na.ural history. - Kalamazoo, Mich. MORRIS GIBBS, THE NATAL NIGHT. BY WM, B. CHISHOLM, Stars of the still Judean sky, That watch-above the holy place; Behold a brighter star on high That droops to kiss an Infant’s face. Inn of the sleeping Bethlehem, Behold as'if thy roof-tree, rent,: . - Let down in one rare diadem The jewels of the firmament! Alrs of the wintry midnight, hush; Hark to the sound of angel wings! Ye bearded Magi, swifter rush ' To greet the lowly King of Kings! That’'s What She Did. The fair - young