The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1880-04-22
Strong Men.

htilOIlY tHc oTcekS Tie SuCCcSSIQl 6tnlCtC
was crowned with laurcls and loaded with
wealth and honors. When Egenetrs, In
tho ninety-sccond Olympiad, triumphant
in the games, entered Agrigcntum, his
native home, he was attended by an escort
OF three hundred chariots, each drawn by
two white horses and followed by the
populacc, cheering and waving banners
Milo six times won the palm at both the
Olympic and Pythian games IIo is said
to have run mile with a four-ycar 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 it by the swelling and pressure of the
veins. An ordinary meal for Milo was
twenty pounds of meat, as much bread and
fifteen pinls of wine. Polydumus of Thcs-
salonia was of prodigious strength and
colossal height, and, it is said, alone aud
without weapons, he killed an enormous
and enragcd lion. One day, Git is so re-
corded) he seized bull by one of its hind
feet and the animal only escaped by lcav-
ing its hoof IN the grasp of the athlete.
The Roman Emperor A1aXimiaus was up
wards 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 horso By !: kick. HIS
wite's bracelet served him as a ring, and his
everyday meal was sixty ponds of meat
and all amphora of wine. Topham, who
was born in London in ITO, was possessed
of astonishing strength. His armplts, hol-
low in tho case OF ordinary men, were with
him full of muscles and tendons. He would
N ,aS. .f>fs l..
his hands, place the middle of the bar be-
hind the nap of his neck, and then bend
the extrenities by main force until they
met together, and bend back tho iron
straight again. One night, perceiving q
watchman asleep II his box, he carried
both the man and his shell to great dis
tancc, and deposited them Oh the wall of Il
church yard. Owing TO domestic troubles,
he committed suicide in the prime of life.
The famous Scanderberg, king of Albania,
WHO was born III l4l4, was man of great
stature and his feats III sword exercise has
never been cqualcd. On one OCCASION,
with scimitar, he struck his antagonist
such terrible blow that its tremendous
force clcaved him to'the waist. He Is said
to have often cloven in two men who were
clad in armor from head to foot. On one
occasion the brother and nephew of u Ger
| tam Ballaban, who had been convicted of
cruelties towards the Albanians, were
brought to him, bonnd together. Trans
ported with rage he cut them in two with
one stroke of his weapon. Maurice, Count
of Saxony, the hero of Fontcnoy, inherited
the physical vigor Of his father, and was
especially noted for the surprising muscu-
lar power or ''grip" of his hands. On one
occasion, needing cork-screw, he twisted
q long iron nail round into the required
shape with his fingers, and with this cA.
temporizcd implement opened half dozen
bottles OF wine. Another time, when
stopping at village blacksmith shop tc
have his horses shod, he picked up nun.
! scr CT new horse shoes and with his hands
snapped them in two as readily as it made
OF glass, mach to the surprise and disgust
OF the smith. If history is to DC believed
Phayllus of Crotena could jump distance
of fifty six feet. This exercise was prac
ticed at the Olympic games and formed
part of the course Of the Pcntathlon
Strut, an English authority on games ant
amuscments, speaks of Yorkjsh Jumper
named Ireland, whose powers were some
thing marvellous. He was six feet high
and at the age of eighteen years leaped
without the aid of a spring-board over nint
horses ranged side by side. lie cleared {
cord extended fourteen feet from thu
ground with bound crushed bladder
suspended at height of sixteen feet, ant
on another occasion lightly cleared large
Wagon covered with an awning. Colone
1ronside, who lived in India, early in this
century, relates that he met in his travels
an old, white-hcadcd nlan who with one
leap sprang over the back of an enormous
elephant tlanked by Blk camels of the
largest breed. A curious French work,
published in Paris in 1745, entitled "The
Tracts toward the History of Wonders Per.
formed at Fairs" mentions an Englishman,
who ut the fair Of St. Germain, in 1924,
leaped over forty people without touching
one of them. In our own day we are
familiar with many remarkable expositone
of strength and endurance. DR.. Wind
ship, with the aid of straps, lifted a weight
Of 3, 500 pounds, and with the little finger
OF. his right hand can raise his b ,dy a con.
siderable distance from tho ground.