Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/57

 Popular Science Monthly

��41

��Prince, the Only Ice- Skating Bear in the World

PRINCE, the Skating Bear, is not a left-ov^er from last year's skating craze. He skated in his native Russia long before society ever heard of the "figure eight" and the "flying Dutchman." To b exact, Prince has been skating fo the past five years, most of tha time on roller-skates. He came to New York this winter to show the skat- ing multitudes how a Russian brown bear can skate gracefully — and fall down gracefully, too. That is something no human can do.

In the "Who's Who Among Bears" Prince is listed as the only ice-skating bear in the world. He wears a number seven shoe, laced in front, if you please. His skates are double-runners and are securely fastened to the shoes. When Prince skates he straightens up on his hind legs and then strikes off in a leisurely manner, increasing his speed as he pro- gresses. His owners have to watch him carefully to see that he does not overheat himself.

But by far the most remarkable thing about Prince is his faculty of "feeling a fall coming on," according to his owners. When Prince feels himself about to hit the ice or the ice to hit him he bends his back in about the same position in which he is shown in the pho- tograph, and

then simply sits /^^_^ down

���Prince wears a number seven regulation ice- skating shoe attached to double-runner skates

��A Maternity Hospital's Method of Identifying Infants

A MODIFICATION of the Bertillon system has been adopted by a Chicago maternity hospital for identifying its tiny charges. Before the infant is an hour old a footprint record is taken, the mode of procedure being smear the little foot with rinters' ink and press it against a sheet of white paper. The ink is then removed from the foot with absorbent cotton saturated with alcohol or benzine. In another and cleaner method recently adopted for the same purpose, cold cream is em- ployed instead of printers' ink. The impression is made in grease on the white paper and sprinkled with pow- dered charcoal to bring it out clearly. The record is then filed away in an en- velope with the other data of the case.

���A freak bicycle which enables the rider to kick his way along. He kicked a half mile in less than a minute

��Riding a Bicycle on Your Stomach — One Way of Getting There

WHY ride a bicycle the usual way when you can lie down on it and kick yourself along just as you kick the covers off the bed each morning? After you ride a dozen miles or more your stomach may get sore, but that shouldn't bother you. Just think how foolish you are making all the other bicycle riders look?

G. A. Phillips, of Chicago, III., made a whole grandstand full of spectators look enviously at him when he dem- onstrated to them at the Newark, N. J., Velodrome how easy it was to sprawl over his built-to-order bicycle and wheel himself around the track.

He covered a half mile un- paced in fifty-nine and two- fifths seconds, which isn't so bad when you take into con- sideration all the comfort he enjoyed during his travel.

�� �