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. 



