AN AUSTRALIAN AND HIS SKATING. (From the Home News.) I

Waikato Times, Volume V, Issue 307, 2 May 1874, Page 2

AN AUSTRALIAN AND HIS SKATING. (From the Home News.) I

" Eucalyptus," who> to judge by hii iu>m de pltttne ai experiences, may be an Australian, sends the following the Glasgow Herald :—: — lam now in bed. I hare been out skating ; that accour for it.. Since the praise* of bkatmg ha< • been dinned m my curs for the last three or four months, I determined, tlte earliest opportunity to avail myself of that pleasure with winged feet to cleave the frozen way. It came abo thus : — I started with the very highest hopes and the b( intentions ; but have returned broken in body and wound in spirit — a wiser and a sorer man. A kind friend obliging lashed my feot firmly to a pair of ikates, told me to obier how he did, and follow him. I observed. He sailed aw swan like over the loch. Having fulfilled the first part his instructions in so far as observation went, I now cc eluded th« second part by attempting to follow him, ai immediately sat down violently. Hitherto sitting down h always appeared to me a by no means dangerous proceedin] but now I cau assure anyone that it becomes very painl when done involuntarily, and is not unaccompanied bj certain amount of risk. I was replaced on my feet, a made a second attempt to follow my friend. I now thinl know how the acrobats on the stage perform their feats tumbling. I threw the most successful double somersai that has been seen this season, the difference between t feat and that of the aorobati being that I bad neglected have a soft mattress with me to drop on. A severe pain I the small of my back and stiffness of the neck now remJ me that it was not safe to throw somersaults on the bare W I shall remember this in future. I was again placed in t upright position, and, nothing daunted, essayed a thi start. To this moment I can't make out why those ska boited with me. I was carried away at a tremendous pao I coutdn'fc stop myself ; the song of ' The Cork Leg ' rush madly through my brain j and on coming to I felt as ii had been in a severe railway collision, and found that I h brought down several ladies (pieces of whom were stre* about) and on tlderly gentleman who was looking on. Ho erer, after this I felt that I could go, and now my piogn was assured- Then some person who was evilly disposi hinted something about? ' the figure of eight.' He did and urged me to try it. I tried it. My legs soon becal so much mixed up and tangled that I had to lurch violent on to the ice, receiving a disastrous blow- on my occipl Then my friends united the knots in my legs-. The last collection I have of that day was being tenderly convey from the secno in a cab. As I' laid above, Kam now in b wrapped'up in one immense poultice. The two doctors w attend me say that there is a fracture of the clavicle, dis cation of the ulna, ' with fracture of the coronoid proa and that I must keep my* elf very quiet, and they fear fr the symptoms there may be fraotures of the base. Th injuries are learnedly levere and Tery painful, and I wo like you to publish this- as-* warning to any stranger w in an unguarded moment may timorously attempt to ska D shall never more go on the ice till I 4I 4 know how to.skati