Skating Rink Nuisance

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · May 7, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 18.

Skating Rink Nuisance.

THIS is the name given to the latest mania, by a Boston minister, O. P. Gifford. We quote the following from the report of a sermon in the Boston Journal. The text was in 2 Tim. 3:4; “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.” He read from the Revised Version—“lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God.” A part of his remarks on pleasure, recreation, and the rink, is in the following words:—

“There is a sharp distinction between pleasure and recreation. Recreation is a means to an end; pleasure is an end in itself. Recreation re-creates; pleasure dissipates. The man who seeks pleasure ends like a squeezed sponge; there is nothing in him. The man who seeks recreation is like a full sponge, refilled with life. The line then is: the thing is pleasure when it is sought in aid of and for you. You see the men coming from the theater; they like that play because it suited them; they like that actor because he suited them. The thing is right or wrong according as it suited them. But one cannot be like them and be a lover of God at the same time. It must be either God or pleasure. That being the principle, I want to lay my finger on two institutions and give my reason why Christian people, decent people, ought to let them alone. The first is the skating rink, the latest craze. My first reason why we should not attend the rink is because it is a thing of pleasure solely. The shame of men and women giving their whole strength and power of being to living for fun. The skating rink to the man who runs it is simply a matter of dollars and cents. The man or the woman who goes to it has only the idea of going to get a certain amount of fun in a certain number of hours. My next objection is the physiological reason. Of dancing on skates or off, I should unhesitatingly choose the latter, for physiological reasons. Men and women are so delicately constituted that they cannot stand the unnatural strain and wrenching upon roller skates without physical harm. The dust that arises from the skating is breathed in, faster even than we ordinarily breathe, because the exertion is greater and therefore the breathing faster. Then comes pneumonia. The over-heating and the sudden change to cold brings on a cold and perhaps congestion. The next reason against the rink is the relation of the sexes. Within three months there have been four elopements traceable direct to the skating rink. It is time the Christian church put its foot upon this nuisance. The acquaintances of the rink are not acknowledged on the street or in the home, yet your boys and girls are allowed to associate with them.”