By Dan Beard
Fig. 83.
From an old engraving made in 1779
New Woman on Stilts
According to the newspapers, walking on stilts is the very latest fashionable amusement of the "new woman " in London. If there is any truth in this statement, it is safe to say that it will not be long before you boys will be called upon to make stilts for your sisters.
There can be little doubt that the time is coming when a book written for boys will be the only one girls will read, or, rather, every book will be written for young people, and will be addressed to both boys and girls.
Just why girls should not walk on stilts or engage in any similar sport no one yet has given a satisfactory answer. Twenty-five years ago the boys used to make stilts with very low blocks for their sisters, and the girls seldom would use them, but insisted upon using their brothers' high-blocked stilts.
Tomato-Can Stilts
In the cities, where wood is scarce, it is quite pathetic to see the boys tramping around on old tomato-cans for stilts. The tomato-cans have strings tied to them in place of poles, and these strings are held by the hands.
Lath-Stilts
One bright boy, on Fourth Avenue, New York City, has a pair of stilts made of old laths, from the ruins of some dismantled house. Three laths nailed together form each stilt pole, and the blocks are made of a graduated lot of pieces of lath nailed together. Now, if a small boy in the tenement-house district can make himself a good, serviceable pair of stilts out of some old laths, there can be no doubt that the boys who read this book will be able to find material and tools to build themselves beautiful gadabouts.
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