Skating Rinks by Mrs. H. L. Hastings

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 1, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 13.

Skating Rinks.

By Mrs. H. L. Hastings

KEEP out of the skating rinks. I could mention a number of cities—four at least—where I have labored, and found the same sad lamentation from the lips of mothers and fathers, who would say to me, "I wish you would talk to my daughter;" "I wish you would talk to my boys; I have said all that I can to keep them from going to such places, but they will go."

I have heard from the lips of three physicians the statement that a large proportion of the girls from twelve to sixteen years old who attend these rinks have, as a result, blasted lives before them. Many a heart-broken mother would give all she ever possessed could she place her daughters and her sons where they were before they attended the rink. People may call skating rinks places of innocent amusement; and perhaps they might be made so, but they are not. I consider them, next to intemperance, the greatest curse of our land to the young.

I was at a home for the fallen the other day, and the matron told me that the skating rinks were the greatest curse to the city and to the young, and that the majority of young girls under her charge were girls who were once pure and good, but had been allowed to attend the rinks and now see their folly when it is too late. The following statement made by the chief of police of Coney Island, N. Y., is worth noticing:—

"My private books," says Captain McKane, "will substantiate the fact that nine out of ten of the girls between the ages of fourteen and sixteen arrested by my officers on the island late at night, during the past summer, have, upon private questioning by me, dated their fall from the time when they commenced to frequent skating rinks. This is no exaggeration. I used to think, when I read of clergymen denouncing the rinks for the immorality that was bred there, that the rinks were harmless, and that those gentlemen were inclined to sensationalism. Now, from the stories told me by these young girls right here in my private office, I can appreciate the truth of their remarks, and realize the danger that surrounds the young female in such resorts. I esteem this fact of such importance that I think it ought to be known."

Keep out of these death traps.—Mrs. H. L. Hastings, in Safeguard.