Morning journal and courier., 1880-11-25
Muscular Men.
Some Famous Feats of Strength

Some Famous Feats of Strength. Among the Greeks the successful athlete was crowned with laurels and loaded down with wealth and honors. When Egenetus, in l the ninety-second Olympiad, triumphant in games, entered Agrigentum, his native home 1 he was attended by an escort of three hun l dred chariots, each drawn by two white horses, and followed by the populace, cheer ing and waving banners. Milo six times won the palm at both the Olympic and Pvthian games He is said to have run mile with four-year old OK upon his shoulders, and afterward killed the animal with one blow of his fist, and ate the entire carcass in one dayi So great was his muscular power that he would bind cord round his head and break it by the swelling pressure of the veins. An ordinary meal for Milo was twenty pounds of
 meat, much bread, and fifteen pints of wine.
 Polydamus, of Thessalia, was of colossal height and prodigious strength, and, it is said, alone and without weapons, killed an enormous enraged lion. One day, it is re- corded, he seized bull by his hind feet, and the animal escaped only by leaving the hoof in the hand of the athlete.
 The Roman Emperor Maximus was upward of eight feet in height and, like Milo of Cro-
 tona, could squeeze to powder the hardest stone with his fingers and break the leg of a horse by kick. His wifes bracelet served
 him a ring, and his every day repast was sixty pounds of meat and amphora of wine. While prisoner in Germany, Richard l. accepted an invitation to boxing match with the son of his jailor. He received the first blow, which made him stagger but, recover ing, with blow of his fist he killed his an- tagonist on the spot. Topham, also an Eng
 lishman, born in ITO, was possessed of as-
 tonishing strength. His armpits, hollow in the case of ordinary men, were with him full of muscles and tendons. He would take
 bar of iron, with it's two ends held in his hands, place the middle of the bar behind his neck, and bend the extre mites by main force until they met together, and bend back the iron straight again. One night, seeing watchman asleep in his box he carried both the man and bis shell to great distance, and put them on the wall of churchyard. Ow- ing to domestic troubles, he committed sui eide in the prime of life.
 The famous Scanderberg, king of Albania. who was born in 1414, was man of great stature and his feats of sword exercise have never been equalled. On one occasion, with scimitar he struck his antagonist such blow that its force cleaved him to the waist He is said to have eleven in two men who were clad in armor from head to foot. On one occasion the brother and nephew of a certain Ballaban, who had been convicted of cruelties toward the Albanians, were brought 10 him bound together. Transported with rage, he cut them in two with one stroke of his weapon.
 
 Fontenoy, inherited the physical vigor of his father, and was especially noted for the sur :. prising muscular power, or grip of his hands. On one occasion. needing corkscrew, he twisted Q long iron nail round into the re- quired shape with his fingers and opened half a dozen bottles of wine with it. Another time, when stotr ss nllG,l 1sI.ot5 .o have his horse shod he picked up number of new horseshoes, and with his hand snapped them in two as readily as if made of glass, much to the disgust of the smith.
 If history is to be believed, Phatyllus of Crotona could jump Q distance of fifty-six feet The exercise was practiced at the Olym- pic games and formed part of the course of the Phentahlon. Strutt, an English author ity on games and amusements, speaks of a Yorkshire jumper, named Ireland, whose powers were marvellous. He was six feet high, and at the age of eighteen leaped with out the aid of a springboard, over nine horses ranged side by side He cleared cord extended fourteen feet from the ground with one bound, crushed with his foot blad der suspended at 0 height of sixteen feet; and on another occasion lightly cleared large wagon covered with an awning.
 Colonel Ironside, 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, pub l1Shed Tn Har1S In lIo0, enGlJleu me 1racIS Towards the History of Wonders Performed at Fairs,'' mentioned an Englishman, who. at the fair of St. Germain in 1724, leaped over forty people without touching one of them. In our own day we are familiar with many remarkable expositions of strength and endurance. Dr. Winship, with the aid of straps, lifted weight of 3,550 pounds, and with the little finger of his right hand could raise his body considerable distance from the ground.