Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1880-04-08
rAMous FHATs OF sTRENaTH.
sswse or the HenAarkabl Athletes Of An-
ctent and Modern Times.

ss=se or the Henaarkable Athletes Of An-
ofent and Modern Times.
Among the Greeks the successful ath-
lete was crowned with laurels and
loaded down with wealth and hon.
ora. When Egenetus, in the ninety
second Olympiad, triumphant in games,
entered Agrigentum, his native home,
he was attended by an escork of 800 cha
riots, each drawn by two white horses,
and followed by the populace, cheering
and waving banners. Milo six times
won the palm at both the Olympic and
Pythian games. He is said to have
run mile with four-year-old OK upon
his shoulders, and afterward killed the
animal with blow of his fist, and ate
the entire carcass in one day! So great
was his muscular power that he would
sometimes bind cord round his head
and break 1t by the swelling and pres
sure of the veins. An ordinary meal for
Milo was twenty pounds of meat, as
much bread, and fifteen pints of wine.
Polydamus, of Thessalia, was of prodig-
iouB strength and colossal height. and,
il is said, alone and without weapons,
killed an enormous and enraged lion.
One day (it is so recorded) he seized a
bull by one of its hind feet, and the ami
NAL escaped only by leaving the hoof in
the grasp of the athlete. The Roman
Emperor Maximinus was upward of
eight feet in height, and like Milo, of
Crotone, could squeeze to powder the
hardest stone with his fingers and break
the leg or jaw of horse by kick. His
wife's bracelet served him as ring, and
his every day meal was sixty pounds of
meat and an amphora of wine.
While aprisoner in Germany, Richard
|. accepted an invitation to a boxing
match with the son of his taller. He
received the first blow, which made him
stagger; but, recovering, with a blow
of the fist killed his antagonist on the
spot. Topham, who was born in Lon
don in ITO, was possessed of astonish-
ingstrength. His armpits, hollow in the
ease of ordinary men, were with him
full of muscles and tendons. He would
take bar of iron, with its two ends
held in his hands, place the middle of
the bar behind his neck, and then bend
the extremities by main force until they
met together, and bend back the iron
straight again. One night, perceiving
= watchman asleep in his box, he carried
both the man and his shell to great
distance, and deposited them on the wall
of Il churchyard. Owing to domestic
troubles, he committed suicide in the
prime of life. The famous Scanderberg,
King of Albania, who was born in l4l4,
was q man Of great stature. and his feats
in sword exercise have never been
equaled. On one occasion, with scimi-
tar, he struck his antagonist suc.l terri
BILE blow that its tremendous force
eleaved him to the waist. He is said to
have often cloven in two men who were
cladlin armor from head to foot. On one
occasion the brother and nephew of a
certain Ballaban, wLo had been con-
victed of cruelties toward the Alban-
ians, were brought 10 him, bound to-
gether. Transported with rage, he cut
them in two with one stroke OF his wea-
pom. Maurice, Count of Saxony, the
hero of Fontenoy, inherited the physical
vigor of his father. and was especially
noted for the surprising muscular power.
or grip" of his hands. On one occa-
sion, needing a corkscrew. he twisted a
long iron nail round into the required
shape with his fingers, and with this
extemporized implement opened a half
dozen bottles of wine. Another time,
when stopping at village blacksmith
shop to have his horse shod, he picked
up a number of new horseshoes, and
with his hands snapped them in two as
readily as If made OF glass. much to the
surprise and disgust of the smith.
Ifhistory is to be believed, Phayllus, OF
Crotona, could Jump distance of fifty
six feet. The exercise was practiced
at the Olympic games and formed part
OF the course of the Pentathlon. Strut,
an English authority on games and
amusements, speaks of a Yorkish jumper
named Ireland, whose powers were
something marvellous. He was six feet
high. and at the age of eighteen leaped.
without the aid of spring-board, over
nine horses ranged side by side. He
cleared a cord extended fourteen feet
from the ground with a bound, crushed
with his foot bladder suspended ut
height of sixteen feet, and on another
occasion lightly cleared large wagon
covered with an awning. Col. Iron
side, who lived in India early in this
century, relates that he met in his travels
an old white-haired man who with one
leap sprang over the back of an enor-
nous elephant fanked by six camels of
the largest breed. A curious French
work. published in Paris in I745, en-
titled THE Tracts Toward the History
of Wonders Performed at Fairs" men
6ons an Englishman, who at the fair of
st. Germain in l724, leaped over forty
people without touching one of them.
In our own day we are familiar with
many remarkable expositions of strength
and endurance. DIR. Winship, with the
aid of straps, lifted n weight of $500
pounds, and with the little finger of his
right hand cJuld raise his body con-
siderable distanca from the 0roa1ud