HOW AN AUSTRALIAN SKATED.

Thames Star, Volume IIII, Issue 1720, 8 July 1874, Page 3

HOW AN AUSTRALIAN SKATED.

The Home News says:—"Eucalyptus," who.to judge by his, notn de plume and experiences, may be an Australian, sends the following to the Glasfow Herald:—l am now in bed. I aye been out skating: that accounts for it. ) Since the praises of skating have been dinned into my ears for the last three or four months, I deteimined, at the earliest opportunity to avail myself of that pleasure—with winged feet to clsave the frozen way. It came about thus :—I started with the very highest hopes and the best intentions ; but have returned broken in body and wounded in apiriiH-a wiser and a sorer $nan. A'kind friend obligingly laihed my feet firmly to a pair of skates, told me to observe how he did, and follow him. I observed. Having fulfilled the first part, ©f his instructions in so far as observation went* I now concluded to try the second part by attempting to follow him, and immediately sat down violently. Hitherto sitby no means dangerous proceeding ; but now I can assure anyone that it becomes very painful when done involuntarily, and is not unaccompanied by an amount of risk. Iwe s replaced on my feet, and made a second attempt to follow my friend. I now think that I know how the acrobats on the stage perform their featg pf tumbling. I threw the most "successful double somersault that has been seen this season, the difference be- ,• tween my feat and that of the acrobats being that I had neglected to have a soft mattress with me to drop on. A severe pain in the small of my back and stiffness of the neck now remind' me that it was. not safe to throw somersaults on the bare ice. I shall remember this in future. I was again placed in the upright position, and nothing daunted, essayed a third start. To this moment I can't make out why those skates bolted with me. I was carried at a tremendous pace ; 1 couldnt stop myself; the song of' The Cork Leg 'rushed madly through my brain ; and on coming to I felt a« if I had been in a severe railway collision, and found that I had brought down several ladies v (pieces of whom were strewn about) and an elderly gentleman who was looking on. However, after|this I felt that I could go, and now my progress wj^s assured. Then some person who was evilly disposed, hinted something about ' the figure of eight.' He did it, and urged me to try it. I tried it.' My legs scon became so much mixed up and tangled that I had to lurch vio-j lently vbn to the '\ ice, receiving a dis-: astrous blow on my occiput. Then my friends untied the knots in my legs. The last recollection I have of that day wasj being tenderly conveyed from the scene: in a cab. As I said above, lam now in bed wrapped up in one immense poultice. The two doctors who attend me say that there is a fracture of the clavicle, dislocation of the ulna, with fracture of the coronoid process, and that I must keep myself quiet, and that they fear from the ■ymptpms there may be fracture of the base. * These injuries are learnedly severe and very painful, and I would like you to publish this as a warning to any stranger who, in an unguarded moment may timorously attempt to skate; I shall never more go on the ice till I know how to skate."

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