The 1880s saw a short-lived craze for roller skating in America. Operators opened up skating rinks in most major cities, and boosters like Thomas Nicholson of Boston tried to stimulate the trade by publishing tips to help rink operators pull in business with contests, spectacles, and prizes. Here are two suggestions that one hopes, for the animals’ sake, were never actually tried.
Fox Drive
If a fox can be procured, this attraction can be made extremely exciting. Before the evening for the drive the fox should be turned loose in the rink, and run about by a half dozen boys, so that the fox may become accustomed to the place. If this is not done, it is possible he would become stupefied with fear on the night of the Drive, and refuse to run at all, and thus render the Drive a failure, and a matter of regret to the Manager. Woven wire should be stretched about the rink so that the fox can not get to the audience. When all ready, turn two young men into the enclosure, and then turn the fox loose. If they fail to catch the fox in two minutes, let two other contestants try It for same time, and if they fail, still two other; and if they fail, then let all six try it, and if they are unable to catch the fox, the Manager will have provided a great deal of amusement without the expense of paying for the stipulated prize.
Pig Chase
Select for this attraction a pig weighing about one hundred pounds, but not so fat as to render him clumsy. Chase him around the rink five or six times of evenings after the rink closes, so that he may become accustomed to the floor and the lights. On the night for the Catch have the pig clipped and greased, and then turn him in the rink. Only two young men should be allowed to attempt to catch him at a chase. It should be stipulated in the “Catch” that when one contestant has hold of the pig that the other must stand aside until he either gets the pig in the basket which should be provided for him, at the judges’ feet, or gets away. A chase should be timed to two minutes. If the young men fail in this time to catch the pig, then two others try, and if they fail, two others; and if the six fail, then let all try. The pig is to be caught and carried to the basket, and laid in, and not thrown in.
“This attraction is very amusing, and will no doubt call for repetitions,” Nicholson adds. How jolly.
From Nicholson’s roller skating rink book, containing over sixty choice and novel attractions with full instructions to rink managers, by Thomas Nicholson, published by Nicholson & Bro., Richmond, Indiana, 1886. Available online at the Internet Archive: Link.