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As most people like me who think they know a thing or two about the history of newspaper comics know, The Yellow Kid is widely regarded as the very first comic strip character, though this fact has been debated. He was created by Richard F. Outcault, who also created Buster Brown. The Kid originally appeared in a comic feature called Hogan's Alley published in Joseph Pulitzer's New York World newspaper. In 1896, however, Outcault was hired by W.R. Hearst to draw for his newspaper, the New York Journal. Due to the way ownership of comic characters worked in those days, the name of the feature in the Journal had to be changed from Hogan's Alley to McFadden's Row Of Flats. Hogan's Alley would continue to run in the World, drawn by George Luks, meaning there were two Yellow Kids running around in two different papers drawn by two different people.
This particular Yellow Kid was drawn by Richard Outcault, and seems to be having no trouble on his ice skates, unlike some of the other people in this comic. The thing I love about Yellow Kid comics is the number of things that you can see happening all at the same time, and the jokes hidden all around the image. There's all the people failing to skate, a tent in the background with "Ice Cream To Let," the kid skating while holding onto a goat that's skating, some sledding mishaps, a man being chased by a bear, and of course the sign on the front of Dempsey's Saloon that says "come in and get a skate," that suggests some kind of slang usage of "skate" that I'm not aware of (unless it really does just mean ice skates). I am a bit worried about the kids building a fire right on the ice next to the "danger" sign, though.