screwed into the crossbars, and it has the}

the teeth of a comb.‘ and we sped along -advantage of being much easier to “hang .

something like horizontally again.

<llECKLES_S YOUNG CANADA.

. ..-,1-’-‘-_.*::-;..:--at--.,:--,,' ‘:ﬁ:r.:;::«.4‘’‘i$z-:1=xe-~-+m«.=». -.

I h A How rr LIFE AND LIMB! oN A ,1 WINTER_'SP0RT.V'1‘.HAT TAKES oNn's

in. PAULIl\lE;JOHl\lSON Dnsciuerzs rrs

‘ I‘ "5 , ”‘:5the?, horror of’ pliysicai. ext

* daringly reckless as far as sport is con-

ties, woe to his reputation as a tobogganist.

TI-IE ATOBOGGAN SLIDE.

e 1

assert: AWAY.

-, A

'l

, . PI_.BlASURES ~.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.o_f danger in our pleasure mak-.- ' 1.118? We see it inthe

1, ; childwhoswants Ito

or-uéirer

‘ he use. .it-

’ V “ “ié told’ ‘DY "n_ ' se‘ fh”é.'t‘”' “‘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 ice that the brittle substance splits beneath his feet

. and he strides off just in time to save him- self from a horrible death, or at the least, a perilous ducking while he assures his comrades he “wasn't s(:.art,” 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 inasthe man, whose friend coaxes him to drop -that hazardous friendship with his

old-time love, who is another man's wife ,

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

on to,'i‘as it gives slightly at every "jump" and never jars the hands. ‘ The cost of atoboggan runs from $3 up- ward, but a very neat one built of Indiana black hickory, with a thick, handsome cushion laced ﬁrmly in place, may be had for $7 or thereabouts. ~ One_ can soon: become an expert at running the craft. You have but to pack your pas- sengers, forward, all sitting “Turk fash- ion," and as close as sardines, leaving a foot’s spaceat 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 mvoccasined. 01‘ command of your load is lost. ’ ,Ofvcourse“h_if you are a lady, the fewer skirts‘: wornthe better, and unless you are as fearless‘ and sturdy limbed as La. Can- adienne, you would be wiser to reservemore» ‘spa.-ce-=-to I ’ rsel£.,.if you intend tosteer "than the rneager above mentioned ‘foot. But. you soon get accustomed to a short allowance of room, for some way or other there always seems to 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 “bump” 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 snow 'hoe 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-

Dulses-‘bound with excitement, then freeze

nent to see. One fete I attended, the Mon-

v—<.. .*r—w.

6

E; 1,5. ..,.._ H inotion. This; .indeed,. is the essence» of life and pleasure and existence. This indeed, is the essence of-—to_bogganing. . ,. ‘ Young Canada is wonderfully vigorous,

cerned, but of all the wild, heedless pas- times in his long catalogue of phi/'8iC3»1_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 conﬁdence 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 wingstof the wind; woe to his craft, and, direst of‘ al.l:>ca.1a.ml-

But, like all true sportsmen, he is keenly alive to the dangers of careless and tricky practices. One can always distinguish the reliable veteran by the painstaking 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 ‘~permitting_‘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 ha.ppens”—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- self 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

» —‘ " «’ . . ,,lIi$,lr ,',3:'§}1E:£_.’1_l;3( , _,,,A. A -A. -,

treal 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 alongsidetwhich 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-eachother, 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 brilliant sashes and stockings and torches afiame" on their toques.

2 Throngs of merrymakers crowded the

* {forever to his kin,gly....r_ hes,,t...

ing to jump the second dip!" Hardly had the words reachedmy’ ears before the toboggan leapt four feet ‘into

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 _stal_wart

ing down. I had not time to think of that 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 ‘I swallowed gladly while they told me a story

trip down the previous day. _ L , “I would not have,-.,missed’,thg,g».?r1;1g

,p.galrl.n .,, H J g m_:‘-E _ “No, thank you," replied the visitor, “I would not take that trip again for»_$10,000.’_' Nor would he, despite all coaxing, “for," said he, “I have a wife and children ’i 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 defies cold and danger, and intoxicates you into the state of pluck and fearlessness requisite to repeat the whirl- wind ride.

Many a time since that carnival night 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 I 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 smiledall night ‘above. us as we thronged the court of this king of winter sports. 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 me ard my tobngg.'.nn," and then with regret I remember that the mighty, rugged slide, with many of its fellows, has fallen into disuse the last few seasons, owing to that variable tyrant Fashion, who has recently smiled very openly onvtskating and snow- shoeing. But one never .knows the veerings of this weathercock, orhow soon the man- date will be issued that will cause young Canada to spring to its" feet, hailing with

,temporarily exiled ﬂ _ wild, inspirlting‘-77 atmo here that ‘c

\

E. PA LINE I ( Hun SN

A recently , copied win, The

ignorant belief in ther‘”dev‘eloprn‘ent .» of” a. lower form of anim ' life :"frd,n?1”""a.hair; of one of the vertebrate should’ still ﬂnd",ad-V vocates. For the utter-absurdity has been shown so many times that additional 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-soaked hair, is a para- sitic animal which passes the earlier stages of its existence in the bodies of insects, generally crickets, or grasshoppers. In time 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 shouldnot give credit to the stories of those more anx- ious to create or continue sensations than to settle a fact in natural history. Kalamazoo, Mich. MORRIS GIBBS.

THE N ATAL ~ NIGHT.

BY WM. B. cH1sHoLi5t.

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 thesleeping Bethlehem, =1 Behold as*if thy roof-tree, rent,-A ., ; ; Let down in one rare diadem The jewels of the flrmamenti

Airs 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’: Wliut She Did. The fair /young‘ Chicagoan’s hand had been sought, and to some extent found, by

spill have T h:‘::l where no one was to

stairs and eneircl.-Al ilm imp-Err-, clrn.ti:crin":r

-.».v.

n, «listinguishecl European nobleman. ,.,j.t.‘ '4 ‘:.._,1“, ,’ .\._

“Look out, now, and hang on; we’re.go-« “

the air, struck the track, ﬂat as -the pro- v

arms .assisted us to scramble out of ‘the way before the next toboggan came" crash-.

of an American who had takenﬁhisi first . a thousand dollai's,‘f_'« e_ renﬁtrked -to

ter, .i‘get vvarmeﬂd?-,,.:‘i1)vV; lnopwp‘ and -qve’11_’.c‘:~}A‘r..;;1}v;

L W-”.'.’_ ". _ ‘

-' The isla, °ﬂié.1'. ‘ment'-A -‘E dent. 0_ to the‘? casion the ri all Vi 3 by The the , 7,2; - tcomogg’ Of‘

But I never take a dash .

a glad and lusty, shout the ‘freturnaof this ' h 1-ch... and ’--of ‘the , ' -

vti A “

free es, ,"i'r'5m7_ he "" ‘Tfv'Yo‘r-It Th“ W V ‘ l_ "snakes evelopedcfrom "4

( airs ‘of hun1a,n‘.”being‘d;dg,‘1_1(1, o;herw‘_§,nl-. g * mals.‘ It is most. surpI‘i.$'”1.11_'§‘.-t.l1‘agt.igfthe;.old, ‘ "