The social background of the skaters and charity races
Ron Couwenhoven provides for some races information about the participants with respect to their occupation, their ages and family circumstances, as far as possible. This is interesting because it gives us some idea who was participating in the championships. The information about a championship on 17 January 1838 is rather complete. There were 98 participants. He could find for 96 participants background information. Nearly 50% of the participants were workmen or servants in different branches, earning very little money. A third of the participants had some property like land or a boat however they were also not very rich, certainly not in the winter when there was no work for them. Finally there was a small group (10%) of middle class people. Most remarkable is that we don´t see people of higher status like lawyers, teachers, officials, local governors etc.. They were also skating as we will see later but not in these championships. They were the people who provided the money for these events. So it was mainly the workmen and the small land owners and boatmen who participated. Their age was as expected mainly between 20 and 40 years with some exceptions. The most were between 20 and 30 years old.
Charity and skating championships
After the French occupation there were many people were without work and were very poor in the Netherlands. Therefore a society for charity, “Maatschappij van Weldadigheid”, was created by a general Van den Bosch who thought that something had to be done. This society bought land to provide work to the unemployed. By conservative protestants this initiative was heavily criticized with the argument that “one should not interfere in the by God created ordering. The poor and people who needed aid were a part of the society so that the rich and well-to-do could show misericordia as proof of their love of one´s neighbors.
In Friesland there also was a lot of poverty. Ron Couwenhoven´s research showed that for example in Dokkum a fourth of the population needed aid in 1860 even though that winter was rather mild.
If the winter continued for a long time the reserves they had ended quickly and they had no money for heating, clothes and in the end also not for food. These people needed help to survive.
There was no social security at that time but fortunately the extreme point of view of the Protestants was not shared by all people. So there were some organizations that tried to give support to the poorest people: funds for the poor like mentioned above, charity activities of churches and activities of the local governments for the poor people. The elites in the cities also tried to help by organizing the skating championships. The prizes of the skating championships were a welcome income for the better skaters and often the profit made by the championships was also partially provided to the funds for the poor.
After the French occupation there were many people were without work and were very poor in the Netherlands. Therefore a society for charity, “Maatschappij van Weldadigheid”, was created by a general Van den Bosch who thought that something had to be done. This society bought land to provide work to the unemployed. By conservative protestants this initiative was heavily criticized with the argument that “one should not interfere in the by God created ordering. The poor and people who needed aid were a part of the society so that the rich and well-to-do could show misericordia as proof of their love of one´s neighbors.
In Friesland there also was a lot of poverty. Ron Couwenhoven´s research showed that for example in Dokkum a fourth of the population needed aid in 1860 even though that winter was rather mild.
If the winter continued for a long time the reserves they had ended quickly and they had no money for heating, clothes and in the end also not for food. These people needed help to survive.
There was no social security at that time but fortunately the extreme point of view of the Protestants was not shared by all people. So there were some organizations that tried to give support to the poorest people: funds for the poor like mentioned above, charity activities of churches and activities of the local governments for the poor people. The elites in the cities also tried to help by organizing the skating championships. The prizes of the skating championships were a welcome income for the better skaters and often the profit made by the championships was also partially provided to the funds for the poor.
Beacon and beans championships
Around the middle of the century a new approach to help the poor was introduced namely "racess for beacon and beans". In these championships all participant, no matter whether they were winning or losing, got some support in the form of food, beacon and/or beans, or clothes. For example in 1865 such a championship was organized where 64 as poor registered men and women participated. All these participants would get parts of a very fat pig while the winners received of course a bit more than the others. The organization of the championship offered the participants also a drink and a cake after the finish of the championships. That day ended in a big feast where people, to the surprise of the organizers, were singing well known folk songs without drinking any alcohol.
The end of the "beacon and beans races"
In 1890 the winter was very cold and long. In Leeuwarden a skating championship was organized for poor married workers. There were presents for all in form of food, clothes and peat for heating. In total 427 persons subscribed to participate in the races. Some of them were above 70 and there were even people above 80 years. There was a huge crowd coming to see the races. Many participants could not skate, they only came to receive the presents. This led to questionable situations. The people laughed a lot and the music played loudly if a person who could not skate tried to move to the end of the track. However this kind of amusement at the cost of other people could not be continued for a long time.
In other parts of the country complaints started to appear. There the organizations allowed that people who could not skate were substituted by real skaters. However, those areas had their own problems as we have described in the next story.
Also a local newspapers started to complain. For example one newspaper presented a cartoon to ridicule these “skating championships” which is shown at the side. The end of these activities came in 1896 after Douwe Kalma wrote. “ I cannot imagine a worse civic humiliation than the beacon and beans championship.”
Around the middle of the century a new approach to help the poor was introduced namely "racess for beacon and beans". In these championships all participant, no matter whether they were winning or losing, got some support in the form of food, beacon and/or beans, or clothes. For example in 1865 such a championship was organized where 64 as poor registered men and women participated. All these participants would get parts of a very fat pig while the winners received of course a bit more than the others. The organization of the championship offered the participants also a drink and a cake after the finish of the championships. That day ended in a big feast where people, to the surprise of the organizers, were singing well known folk songs without drinking any alcohol.
The end of the "beacon and beans races"
In 1890 the winter was very cold and long. In Leeuwarden a skating championship was organized for poor married workers. There were presents for all in form of food, clothes and peat for heating. In total 427 persons subscribed to participate in the races. Some of them were above 70 and there were even people above 80 years. There was a huge crowd coming to see the races. Many participants could not skate, they only came to receive the presents. This led to questionable situations. The people laughed a lot and the music played loudly if a person who could not skate tried to move to the end of the track. However this kind of amusement at the cost of other people could not be continued for a long time.
In other parts of the country complaints started to appear. There the organizations allowed that people who could not skate were substituted by real skaters. However, those areas had their own problems as we have described in the next story.
Also a local newspapers started to complain. For example one newspaper presented a cartoon to ridicule these “skating championships” which is shown at the side. The end of these activities came in 1896 after Douwe Kalma wrote. “ I cannot imagine a worse civic humiliation than the beacon and beans championship.”
After that year these races have not been organized anymore. This does not mean that the championships of short distances stopped. Races for money were still organized as I will show in a later section. Only this excess of supposed charity stopped. In fact the speed skating races of short distances still occur, now under the name “Korte baan webstrijden” (short distance races). One example is given below.
Interesting in the context of the skating scene in the 19th century is that the higher class at the end of the century started to organize races for themselves but in that case, of course, only for the honor of winning and not for the money.