u pay twenty
cents for each ticket, admitting you to the grounds and one ride each on
the chute. Just as you go in you hear a roaring, rattling sound, and a
boat comes rushing down the slide into the lake in front of you. You see
the boat leap forty feet at a jump over the surface of the water, like
some ocean demon, until it finally quiets down and allows itself to be
paddled easily up to the bank. As the people in the boat are helped out
by several of the fifty attendants dressed in sailor suits, you expect
them to cry out some expression of disapproval, for you certainly heard
them shouting out in a frightened manner as they rode down the chute.
But no.

"Wasn't it perfectly splendid?" says one woman.

"It beats tobogganing!" exclaims another.

"Let's do it again!" says a small boy.

A little reassured, you move around with the crowd towards the entrance
to the slide, and, after giving your tickets to the gateman, you all get
into little cars--similar to those in use at Niagara Falls running down
to the whirlpool rapids--attached to endless chains, which drag you up
to the top of the chute as slowly as the boats in the other part go
rapidly. As you get a little more than half-way up, a boatload of people
rattles by within ten feet of you, and you wonder again whether you will
have the courage to make the first trial.

Once up, you follow the others around to the other side of the chute,
where boats are sent down every fifteen seconds. You glance down the
slide. It looks very long, and the water, which the steersman says is
only three feet deep, seems very far away and very deep. At last, with a
sudden gulp of courage, you jump in, holding tight to the railings as
the guard bids you. You see little streams of water bubbling up and
trickling down every few inches or so along the slide, and 'way below
the big pool of water looks yawningly upward. The boat-despatcher has
his hand on the lever which holds the boat back. And now that is
turned.

"Hold fast, ladies and gentlemen. Hats under the seat! Now, then, you're
off!"

[Illustration: THE "CHUTE."]

[Illustration: THE FIRST JUMP.]

Quickly the boat rattles into the incline. A fraction of a second, and
you are rushing along so fast that you almost scream. A second or two
more, and you are going at the rate of seventy-four miles an hour. You
have lost your breath, but the fresh air that rushes into your lungs
gives you a delicious sensation. You feel as if yo