Hockey on Whitney Lake 1886
Whitney Lake
Great Day at the Lake Saturday Four Thousand Visitors and Two Thousand Skaters
Wealth, Beauty And Fashion Represented
Skating as A Pastime.
Saturday last was a great day at Whitney Lake. It was estimated by good judges that more than 2,000 persons were skating together in the afternoon oh the lake below the bridget and that more than 4,000 persons visited the lake during the day. During the whole afternoon the horse cars with extras were crowded and there was a constant stream of hacks and herdics and other vehicles up and down Whitney avenue. It was surprising to see how so many people could skate on the lake, which seemed almost crowded, with so few cases of collision. It was certainly an unparalleled sight to see this great throng, each one gliding and winding in among the rest and aronnd them.
Hockey was one of the great features of the day. Sides were chosen as in football or base ball and great crowds of combatants strove with each other to drive the wooden block, which took the place of the ball, to one shore or the other. There were two of these sets of hockey players up and down the lake.
There was also a very unusual number of ladies on the lake and among them some very graceful skaters. Not a few of them cut the outward roll. To the uninitiated it may be added that the outward roll is skating on the outward edge of the skate. The way of skating, and, indeed, the natural way, as every skater begins that way, is upon the inward edge of the skate. Every stroke is taken on that edge" by the tyro. In the outward roll, or Dutch roll as it is sometimes called, every stroke is taken on the outward edge. This is a matter of acquirement and is said to be very difficult, and we can well believe so, as only comparatively a few skaters do it well. In skating the roll the skater leans over on the outward edge of his skate, and the greater the inclination the more the skill and the better it looks. Pretty nearly all the well known local skaters were on the lake. Lucius Tuttle, whose renown covers more than a score of years, was there, displaying quite as much ability and grace as in the days of his boyhood. His spins at the end of the stroke of the cross roil backwards were certainly a very neat performance. Thomas G. Bennett of Winchester armory we noticed, who is always one of the best skaters on the lake. His execution of the forward and backward rolls was perhaps the best one witnessed. E. P. Arvine cuts the backward cross roll and backward double cross or double Dutch one very neatly. The double Dutch or double cross roll differs only from the ordinary roll in that the skater makes one or more complete turns or spins in every stroke. The figure thus made looks very much like the capital letter
E in script with the middle loop very much enlarged. T. W. Mather of the Scientific school cut very elegant backward rolls and also executed the double cross very gracefully. Justus S. Hotchkiss did the forward roll with a good deal of skill. Two colored gentlemen near the eastern shore cut all sorts of figures the technical names of which we do not know, and attracted admiring crowds. Hockey monopolized the center of the lake, while the fancy skaters tended toward nooks and corners along the shore.
Among the skaters were Prof. Tracy Peck of Yale, Clarence Demiug, Signal Sergeant Sherman, Maurice Kingsley, S. H. Pease, Attorney Joseph B. Morse, Attorney B. G. Beach, who cuts the forward cross very neatly; J. Parker Trowbridge, Attorney William Nichols, A. E. Kingsley, Monsieur Antonio Corronati, the well known French teacher; F.H. Howe, Edward Sargent, Joseph Vernon, Silas E. Burroughs, jr., J. P. Trowbridge, Robert Appleton, Willis H. Goodyear, Rev. Dr. Smyth; and among the ladies Miss Geraldine Lowe, the Misses Trowbridge, the Misses Sargent, Miss Addie Soniers, Miss Virginia Osborn, the young ladies of Professsor Whitney's family, Mrs. Bishop, Miss Louise Sands, Miss Emma Bray, Mrs. Enscoe.
Among the spectators were: Prof.F.E. Wayland, Prof. J. T. Piatt, Rev. Dr. Kleeberg and Prof: William G. Sumner. No doubt many are reminded that some twenty years ago outdoor skating was the fashion here. A large space at Hamilton Park used to be flooded on freezing nights for the benefit of the skating public, and everybody went who could stand upon skates. All lovers of this beautiful pastime will rejoice to see that outdoor skating is again in the fashion. Skating in the open air on a broad lake is no doubt infinitely preferable to skating on a narrow floor in a hot room and many an observer will agree also that it is much more graceful than the performances on wheels.
Morning journal and courier., January 18, 1886, Image 2
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015483/1886-01-18/ed-1/seq-2/
