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Show CITY FURNISHES GOOD SKATING FREE c, S ' 3 t S FUN AT LIBERTY AND CENTRAL PARKS ' - -1 - I NEW YEAR'S SKATING SCENE AT LIBERTY PARK. II I 1 1 ; v Si . : rjyjg rJjiy ,v ;fj jC r f - 1 Iff t ff ft - y L- . i - ; Bell Rings at 9 o'Clock as Warning That It Is Time to Go Home. EVER popular Liberty park made a New- Year 's Jay record yesterday. yes-terday. With it? usual features of attraction cither buried iu snow or close-housed from the cold, it developed a new charm. More than 500 persons, children and adults, disported themselves upon the glassy surface of the south half of the park lake. Freshly flooded and frozen hard, the surface was in the best possible pos-sible condition, for skating. Men who had not skated since the winter of 'S2 or thereabouts and girls who had never put on skates lashed the steed runners to their feet and participated par-ticipated in the sport. ' . City Commissioner Herman H. Green, head of the department of parks and pubiic property, was on t he lake shortly after breakfast, testing his feet as to their memory of skill acquired in boyhood, boy-hood, lie desisted shortly after noon lcn enough to go home for lunch. Then, not having suffered a bump sufficiently suf-ficiently severe to lessen his enthusiasm, he we lit back again for more of the sport, taking the family with him and undertaking the role of instructor. Ice Is Strong. The ten inches of ice proved quite equal in resistance to the many heavy blows of failing bodies that were calculated calcu-lated to fracture a less reinforced surface. sur-face. Though many a head was bumped, there were no serious accidents. Park hands are detailed to watch the milling crortd of skaters all the time to prevent risk of accidents from roughness. Tho work of clearing the snow from the surface of the ice before it could be flooded proved considerable of an undertaking. t was more than a day's work for a score of men, and the island is now piled high like an iceberg in the middle of the ice field. Only the south half of the lake has been cleared, but the work of removing tiic snow from the north half will be completed this week. Will Play Hockey. When the entire lake has been cleared and flooded, it is planned by S. R. Lnmbourne, superintendent of parks, that the one half shall be roped off for playing hockey. The other side will be devoted to the efforts of those learning to skate and to children who could not safely venture among tho speedy hockey plavcrs. Yet another municipal skating surface was afforded yesterday by the flooding of the central playground, Second South and Second East streets. The plan is to keep the ice in ns good shape as possible while the freezing weather lasts. But a short time is necessary nec-essary to renew the surfaces after a thin film of water has been flooded over the worn ice. Bell Rings at 9. At Liberty park, lights have been provided, pro-vided, so that skating by night is possible, pos-sible, aud the crowd lingered last night until the park bell reminded them that the fun was over for the one day. Superintendent Su-perintendent Ln m bourne says that to permit the sltating to continue after 9 o'clock at night would be to risk encouraging en-couraging tdiildren to remain so late p wnv from home as to worry parents. For "this reason, tho park bell is rung at 9 oYlock ns a signal that the lake must be cleared". To forefond possibility that some of the children mieht. remain so1 long upon the ice as to beeom chilled, a fire, was provided yesterday in the old mill, and those who found the outdoor temperature tempera-ture ton rigorous to endure for long at a time found a comfortable place to rest and net warm. The immediate popularity of the ice stretch and the mixed character of the crowd thnt patronized it yesterdav convinced con-vinced bnMi Commissioner Green and Superintendent Lambourne that the re-movH re-movH nf the snw from the ice surface hail been more than justified. |