The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1876-06-08
Wonderful Feats Of Barnaby, the En-.
glish Life Guardsman.

Fred Barnaby was educated at Harrow,
and thence proceeded to Germany, where,
under private tuition, he acquired unus-
ually perfect acquaintance with the
French, Italian and German languages.
and incidentally imbibed taste for gym
nastics. At sixteen he, the youngest OF
$50 candidates, passed his examination
for admission to the army, and at the
mature age of seventeen found himself
cornet in the Royal Horse Guards. At
this time his breast seems to have been
fired by the noble ambition to become the
strongest man in the world. He threw
himself into the pursuit ofmuscle with all
the ardOr since shown in other directions,
and the cup of his joy must have been
full when precise examination led to
the demonstration OF the fact that his arm
measured round the biceps exactly seven
teen inches. His plaything at Aldershot
was a dumb-bell weighing ITO pounds,
which he lifted straight out with one
hand, and there was standing bet OF elO
that no other man in the camp could per-
form the same feat. AT the rooms of the
London Fencing Club there is to this day
a dumb-bell weighing 100 pounds, and
Capt Barnaby is the only member who
can lift it above his head. There is a
story told of early barrack days which
pleasantly brings up "Reminiscences OF
the Tichborne trial. A horse dealer ar
rived at Windsor with pair of beautiful
little ponies which he had been COM
manded 10 show the Queen. Before ex.
hibiting them to her Majesty he took them
to the cavalry barracks for display to the
officers of the Guards. some of these, by
way of pleasant surprise, led the ponies
up stairs into Barnaby's room, where they
were much admired. But when the time
came to take leave an alarming difficulty
presented itself. The ponies, though they
had walked up stairs, could by no means
be induced to walk down again. The
officers were in a fix; the householder was
in despair; when young Barnaby settled
the matter by taking up the ponies, one
under each arm, and walking down stairs
deposited them in the barrack yard.
But Cornct Barnaby was as skillful as
he was strong. He was one of the best
amateur boxers Of the day, as Tom Pad
COCK, Nat Laugham and Bob Travers
could testify of their own well-earned ex-
perience. Moreover, he fenced as we'll as
he boxed, and the turn Of his wrist, which
never failed to disarm swordsman, was
known in more than one of the capitals
| OF Europe. Ten years ago everybody was
talking OF the wonderful feat OF the young
Guardsman, who undertook for small
wager to hop a quarter of mile, run a
quarter of mile, ride quarter OF mile,
row quarter of mile, and walk quar-:
ter of mile in a quarter of an hour, and
who covered the mile and quarter dis.
lance in ten minutes and twenty seconds
Fred Barnaby had, whilst barely cut OF
his teens, realized his boyish dream and
became the strongest man in the world
But he had also begun to pay the penalty
of success in the coin of wasted tissues
and failing health. When man finds
after anxious and varied experiments thai
waterloo is the only form of nourish.
ment his stomach will retain, he is driven
to the conviction that there is something
wrong, aud that he had better see the
doctor. The result of the young athletes
visit to the doctor was that he mournfully
laid down the dumb bells and the fo;ls
eschewed gymnastics, and took to travel