Show I ON THE ROLLERS I SKATERS FURNISHED AMUSEMENT AMUSE-MENT FOR THE ONLOOKERS Men of Varying Degrees at Build Got Together on the Floor nnd Great Was the Fall Thereof It wns on the evening ot tine reincarnation rein-carnation of Bleating In New Yorlc and there was n goodly crowd awaiting the coming of the first skater Tho great wide polished floor looked like u Roman arena and tho stillness preeed jng the arrival of the skittera suggested cd the days of the gladiators when people waited for the wild boasts who were to do battle with their human antagonists Suddenly u band broke forth with a ragtime air In n moment n man appeared from tin skate room In tho south end ot the bulldlngjust ns tho wild beast cane forth In the stadium feeling his way carefully along the floor mud limiting little uncertain un-certain circles hops nnd skips and finally making a dash straight across tho shining floor to the mlddlo of the arena Once In the renter of tho room and finding that ho could hold his balance bal-ance and Htlll navigate as In thin days of old when skates had their last innIng inn-Ing the Individual struck out to see how many times ho could encircle the track In a minute Ho had the floor all to himself and was adding a figure eight to hit Itinerary now ami then for the edification of tho nudlonco whon n second Individual with skates on shot Into tho ring The first skater was wide about the girth with short fat legs and an Iso ta Q I A 4 AI 1 U U t lb 11i It Was a Headon Collision Sled spot with just a fringe of shrub oory around whore his hat should rest Hie second skater was long nod thin with legs like fence rails Ills face was adorned with a tuft ot whiskers hat stuck straight out In front like a owcatcher i The little fat man was coming down the hall on ono foot with tho other poised gracefully at least ho thought 50 and gently swinging around for a wide turn at the end of the building All would have been well had the gaunt one followed or oven partly pursued pur-sued u straight course on his way But some hidden devil In one of hIs skates scorned to drive him about In the course of tho oncoming fat many I They met forcefully In the south end of the building The crowd rose to Us feet and looked on In breathless awe It was a headon collision and two goats In a butting match could not have more successfully Jammed their countenances Into shape for surgical aid When the four legs four arms two faces and two wriggling bodies had ceased to gyrate and the wreck settled to tho floor all wan still for a moment Then slowly and painfully there rose from the ruins a long thin beskated leg then another and finally tho thin man with the cowcatcher adornment on his countenance managed man-aged to regain his knees nnd back away His Van Dyke was bent up tit a Junction with his nose which hart been artistically bent down until It couldnt go any further without leaving leav-ing home His optics might hava flashed fire If they could have opened but tho fat mans bald pate bad landed land-ed first on one side and then on the other In tho great smash and thus shut out the light But the long fellow fel-low scrambled along on hIs knees feeling for tho side wall until bo wn picked up by the attendants and dragged Into the first aid department All tho while the little fat man was lying peacefully on his back unconscious uncon-scious of the fact that hoone time proud champion skater of Clover Leaf county Minnhad met the enemy and was theirs As the attendants lifted him to his feet mill skated him out of the arena he came to and feebly waved goodby to the audience who wore now being entertained by a series of wrecks little and bigwhIch were occurring with greater frequency as the skaters Increased In number |