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Show SKATING IN CHINA. Its Utility In Carrying on the Interna Trade of the Country. Skating is a business with the Chinaman China-man rather than a sport, for he con trives to turn frozen canals ipto conven lent highways for his merchandise, ns ' they do in Holland and Denmark. Passengers Pas-sengers aro carried in sledge chairs, pro-pellci pro-pellci by an active Celestial on skates, and there is no more enjoyable way of making a tour round the 17 miles of wall which encircles the ancient city of Peking than in a sledge of this description. descrip-tion. The canals afford facilities for locomotion loco-motion which aro not to be found in the dirty streets, crowded as they are with overworked humanity. It is not likely that the Celestials will ever astonish the world with a rival to our Smarts or trees, for they do not aim at great speed of progression, but they are nevertheless fairly qualified adepts in their way, and there have been some efforts made to introduce ice yachta out thero, which would indeed be h grand thing not only for sport, but for the transport of goods at a time whea all traffic is practically as a standstill, owing to the impassable condition of tha wretched causeways which do duty in China for highroads. There are over 70 miles of the Pei-Ho annually covered, with ice several feet thick, banls tg bank, extending from Tung-Cjia port of Peking, to the, 53" im atTaku,iut.V: -ull 0f the riv-4 riv-4 noble- .... ma . xuce course this would form for our fen skaters 1 It is not commonly known that th capital of China is icebound for five months out of the 12, or that the stolid looking Chinese could ever be graceful skaters, yet both these facta are well established. es-tablished. The Chinese use a very inferior infe-rior stylo of skate, of their own manufacturea manu-facturea mere chunk of wood arranged to tie on the shoe and shod with a rather rath-er broad strip of iron. There is no attempt at-tempt at elegance of design or at anything any-thing approaching a spring fastening, A pair of "Acmes, " when shown by thft writer to some native students in thf Chinese capital, produced unbounded astonishment as-tonishment and admiration by their neatness and strength. On the other hand, the very cheapness and simplicity of the common native made article tend to makb skating general. Pittsbnrg Dispatch. |