THE FLUSHING SKATING-POND--A DIGRESSION.
“Well,” said Weeville one day, during the ensuing winter, as he dropped
into my quiet office in the city, where I try to forget the charms and
allurements of the country, and devote myself to Coke, Blackstone, and
Kent, “we have finally put our skating-pond in good hands. Last year
there was much complaint because the snow was not cleared off, and the
best days in the season were wasted from this neglect; but now we shall
have no farther trouble. You know the ice-man, Willis, who supplies the
residents with ice--he has taken hold of it. His services were engaged
at considerable expense, because we all knew his long experience had
made him thoroughly acquainted with the subject. He has had to do with
ice ever since he was a boy; he has cut it, and packed it, and sold it,
and can make it freeze if there is any freeze in it. During the mildest
winters his supply has never failed; he is a remarkable man in that
line. We have a splendid pond, nicely fenced in, and much superior to
your Central Park affairs, where the boys jostle and upset you, or to
the petty concerns got up as rinks, and occupying half a city block,
where you can scarcely turn round. There is plenty of room on our lake,
and the company is select. You are fond of skating. Why don’t you make
up a party and run out some day? All the best people go there, and you
know how pretty our girls are in Flushing.”
I had come to the city quite early, not being entirely satisfied, in my
blind ignorance, that winters in the country, with snow or mud on the
ground, the thermometer clinging to zero, and the wind having full
sweep, were as pleasant as they are in New York, even when streets are
impassable and sidewalks slippery. Nevertheless, I am devotedly fond of
skating; not that I excel in the art; for, on the contrary, I can do
little more than the simplest steps, and generally return from every
expedition with bruised body and sore limbs. I keep on hoping that I
shall improve, and make the most of the fresh air and exercise, although
the fancy steps, and my efforts to disregard the simplest laws of
equilibrium, bring me to grief. It is pleasant to skate, and pleasant to
see others skate, especially of the female sex, with their cheeks aglow
and their eyes sparkling, and with their neat dresses and dainty feet.
On the Central Park the troublesome boys annoy me, and the private ponds
are so filled with superior artists that I am ashamed to appear on them;
skating is not only a fashionable recreation, but peculiarly a country
pastime, where ponds abound, not having been filled up to make city
lots; so I determined to take advantage of Weeville’s suggestion.
Moreover, I am fond of the best people; I like good society. It is
pleasant to mention that I met so and so, and imply that we are on
intimate terms. Of course, all are equals in this country, and my family
is exceedingly old, going back almost to the time of my grandfather. I
have a right to consideration, but still one feels better to be among
the best. Besides these two attractions, Weeville had intimated that the
young ladies of the neighborhood frequented that favored pond; this was
a still stronger inducement. Woman is pretty in every costume that
fashion adopts; she is angelic in high bonnets and divine in flat hats;
she is bewitching in tight skirts, and enrapturing in balloon crinoline;
she is entrancing in short robes, and overwhelming in long trains;
whether she wears feathers or ribbons, crape or colors, high necks or
low necks, she is charming; but in a skating costume, with her dress
high looped up, her red balmoral appearing below, and her dear little
feet--seeming smaller from being strapped to skates--peeping out from
under all, and occasionally exhibiting an ankle above, she becomes
tenfold more enchanting. The exercise and cold air are splendid artists
for painting her cheeks, and the swan is nowhere in comparison with her
grace of motion. No place so abounds in the beautiful of their sex as
Flushing. So I resolved that I would steal a day from pressing cares and
labors, and collect a few friends to visit the skating pond.
The house had been finished and closed, and had been given in Patrick’s
charge; some furniture had been left there, and it was merely necessary
to make a few arrangements to receive hospitably the guests who had been
invited. Weeville was to bring me word when the ice was solid, so that
we might start on the ensuing morning early. The thermometer was the
subject of much interest for some days. It went down finally, and staid
down resolutely; rumors circulated that the New York Rink was frozen,
and skating had commenced there; next the public conveyances bore
announcements that the opposition private pond was solid; and finally
the red ball went up, and thousands rushed to the Central Park. Our
party, too much on the _qui vive_ for the superior attractions of
Flushing to make engagements for any of those places, waited and waited
for Weeville. After the rest of the skating world had been enjoying
themselves for a week, he appeared at my office in a great state of
hilarity.
“Ready at last,” he shouted. “Willis wanted the ice to be solid; a
careful man, that; no accidents while he is in charge. But last night
fixed it. The ice is at least six inches thick, and to-morrow the whole
town will be on hand. Nothing like starting right; put some one with
brains at the head, and you are sure to go straight; twenty years’
experience does not pass for nothing. I suppose you have been impatient,
but remember we have no life-saving machines, and it is better to be on
the sure side, if it is a little slower. Come in the early train
to-morrow.”
There was great excitement in warning and collecting our forces, and we
did not get off as early as we hoped; but having at last managed to
cross the river and reach the train--except a few couples that were left
behind--we were soon at the Flushing dépôt.
Instead of having wagons ready to carry the party at once to the pond,
as he had promised, Weeville received us alone. His usual hilarity was
wanting, his air was sad, his manner disconsolate. As we crowded around
him, he said slowly, “There is no skating.”
“Ridiculous,” was the answer, in a chorus of astonished voices; “there
must be skating.”
“Yes,” said our precise associate, “I have a recording thermometer, and
last night the mercury fell to fifteen.”
“Your man is a little too cautious,” I said; “there is such a thing as
erring on the right side.”
“Oh!” said the ladies, “if that’s all, we are not afraid; are we,
Mr.----?” each turning to her particular companion with a look that
induced the latter to engage unanimously to answer for their safety.
“But there is no ice,” again said Weeville, with a manner of most
deplorable abasement.
“Now, how can that be?” demanded our precise man again; “water freezes
at thirty-two.”
“Why,” burst forth the female chorus, “the Central Park has been frozen
these two days.”
“Well, Mr. Weeville,” I then commenced, growing incensed at his
stupidity, “if there was no ice, why did you tell me last evening that
it was six inches thick?”
“So it was,” he replied, still more drearily.
“Then, in Heaven’s name, what has become of it?”
“Willis cut it all yesterday, and put it in his ice-houses,” was the
final reply. If he had fired a pistol among the party, my friend could
not have surprised them more. “He says he wanted it to freeze smoother;
but the pond is ruined for the season, as the little pieces and lumps
that have broken off will remain, and destroy the surface.”
“What a shame!” cried the ladies. “The scoundrel!” growled the men.
“Well, what can we do?” asked the former. “Let us go home,” replied the
latter. Vain were my imploring requests that they would at least visit
my country seat--in company I speak of it as my country “place” or
“seat”--that they might warm themselves after their journey, and satisfy
the cravings of hunger and thirst. “All aboard!” yelled the conductor,
for the Flushing trains make immediate return trips, like ferry-boats.
My companions clambered up the steps and into the seats, and, in a
moment more, were being whirled back to the city. I did not accompany
them, but remained with Weeville, who, though far from lively, was
probably a more pleasant associate for me just then.
In fact, on the question of skating the city seems to possess certain
advantages. In the country snow keeps falling at odd and inconvenient
times, and there are no enthusiastic individuals to shovel it off.
Hardly does the thermometer go down into the twenties, and succeed in
congealing the surface and raising the expectations of the devotees of
the “ringing steel,” ere the clouds cover the sky, snow-flakes make
their appearance, and settle down with some inches of soft
impassability, winding up, probably, with a rain or “freeze,” that
leaves the entire surface of every pond an uninviting expanse of “humps
and bumps,” that bid defiance equally to high art and unskilled
blundering. The ice-shaving machines, the snow-sweepers and the like,
are confined to the metropolitan limits; and, although there is plenty
of ice in the country, it is often hard to get at, even if there is not
an “ice-man” to carry it away for other uses than skating.