Excerpt from Spalding's Roller Skating Guide A number of reasons can be advanced for this remarkable condition of affairs. The wonderful increase in the population, the prosperous condition Of the country, which enables the aver age man or woman to indulge more frequently in the pursuit of refined pastimes and recreations, the superiority of the ball bearing skate over the old one, which greatly enhances the pleas ure of skating, making it a graceful accomplishment and enjoy able pastime rather than a laborious effort, and what is per haps more important than all is the fact that instead of barns and tumble - down buildings being converted into rinks, large, commodious and well-ventilated halls have been remodeled. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.