Lost Leaders | Page 5

that old Lydian tradition which says that games of
chance were invented during a great famine. Men permitted themselves
to eat only every second day, and tried to forget their hunger in playing
at draughts and dice. That is clearly the invention of a southern people,
which never had occasion to wish it could become oblivious of the
weather, as too many of us would like to be in England. Such shivering
and indolent folks may be inclined to say that skating and curling and
wildfowl-shooting, and the other diversions which seduce the
able-bodied from the warm precincts of the cheerful fire, were only
contrived to enable us to forget the state of the thermometer. Whether
or not that was the purpose of the first northerner who fixed
sheep-bones beneath his feet, to course more smoothly over the frozen
sound, there can be no doubt that winter sports answer their presumed
purpose. They keep up that glow which only exercise in the open air
can give, and promote the health which shows itself in the complexion.
It is the young lady who interprets literally the Scotch invitation "come
into the fire," and who spoils the backs of library novels by holding
them too near the comfortable hearth, she it is who suffers from the
ignoble and unbecoming liberties that winter takes with the human
countenance. Happier and wiser is she who studies the always living
and popular Dutch roll rather than the Grecian bend, and who blooms
with continual health and good temper. Our changeful climate affords
so few opportunities of learning to skate, that it is really extraordinary
to find so much skill, and to see feats so difficult and graceful. In
Canada, where frost is a certainty, and where the covered "rinks" make
skating an indoor sport, it is not odd that great perfection should be
attained. But as fast as Canadians bring over a new figure or a new trick
it is picked up, and critics may dispute as to whether the bold and
dashing style of the English school of skaters is not preferable to the
careful and smooth, but somewhat pretty and niggling manner of the
colonists. Our skating stands to the Canadian fashion somewhat as

French does to English etching. We have the dash and the chic with
skates which Frenchmen show with the etching-needle, and the
Canadian, on the other hand, is apt to decline into the mere prettiness
which is the fault of English etchers.
Skating has been, within the last few years, a very progressive art.
There was a time when mere speed, and the grace of speed, satisfied
most amateurs. The ideal spot for skating in those days must have been
the lakes where Wordsworth used to listen to the echoes replying from
the cold and moonlit hills, or such a frozen river as that on which the
American skater was pursued by wolves. No doubt such scenes have
still their rare charm, and few expeditions are more attractive than a
moonlight exploration of a winding river. But it is seldom that our
frosts make such tours practicable, whereas almost every winter it is
possible to skate with safety, at least on shallow ponds, or on places
like the ice-bound floods at Oxford. Thus figure-skating, which needs
but a surface of a few yards to each performer, has come into fashion,
and it is hard to imagine any exercise more elegant, or one that requires
more nerve. The novice is theoretically aware that if he throws his body
into certain unfamiliar postures, which are explained to him, the laws
of gravitation and of the higher curves will cause him to complete a
certain figure. But how much courage and faith it requires to yield to
these laws and let the frame swing round subject to the immutable rules
of matter! The temptation to stop half-way is almost irresistible, and
then there occurs a complicated fall, which makes the petrified
spectator ask where may be the skater's body--"which are legs, and
which are arms?" Of all sports, skating has the best claim to adopt
Danton's motto, _Toujours de l'audace_--the audacity meant being that
of giving one's self up to the laws of motion, and not the vulgar quality
which carries its owner on to dangerous ice. Something may now be
learned of figure-skating on dry land, and the adventure may be
renewed of the mythical children who went sliding all on a summer day.
In this respect, skating has a great advantage over its rival, the "roaring
game" of curling. It would be poor fun to curl on asphalte, with stones
fixed on wheels, though the amusement is possible, and we recommend
the idea, which is not copyright, to enthusiastic curlers; and curlers are
almost always enthusiastic. It is pleasant to think