SKATES IN WAR.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 17983, 29 January 1924, Page 11

SKATES IN WAR.

HEALTHY, THOUGH DANGEROUS, EXERCISE. On the Continent skates have, proved their use in war-time, both for actual fighting-—a£J when a. Dutch army on skates thrust the French back across the Scheldt—and as a means of rapid communication. After the Battle o* Jena states a correspondent _ot tho "Manchester Guardian," Napoleon gent an urgent despatch to Marshal ALortier directing bim to seize tho ilansoatic towns. Th© officer charged with this despatch found himself near the mouth of the Elbe, at a point ■where it ivoa seven and a half miles from bank to bank. The> river was coated with newly-frozen ioe, so there wiaa na crossing by boat, while to traTel by way of the nearest bridge would ha.ve necessitated a detour of twenty miles. To save time the officer determined to citato across, and though the icq was too thin to bear a man walking ho skimnied along at such a pace that he reached tho opposite bank safely. During tho great frost of 186E) threo companies of .Lincolnshire volunteers «asombled on the Witham, below tho Stamp End Lock, carrying their packs and rifles. After going through various ©volutions they formed fours and skat- | ed down the roer U» Boston, keeping j Step as perfectly as if on land. Yet j less than half a century earlier we find j a London paper describing skating as dangerous and those who indulged ia it as heroes. "The Observer" of 29th I>ecembor, 1813, reports that '"'almost every sheet of water in the neighbourhood of the Metropolis is covered with ice. On Saturday tho healthy and graceful, although dangerous, exc-rciso of skating- became very general. Tho Serpentine River in. Hyd© Park, the i canals in St. James's and the Green! Parks, Rosamond's Pond, apd- every other suitable place have been attended | by steel-shod heroes. . . . Crowds ] collected on terra firm a, to watch tho | motley groups, and amongst those we noticed eever.nl persons of tho hi ghost Utasr 1 1