The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1881-02-02
Muscular Men.

--O~OS' W ANAA A<1~hSte11 VIZ
ninety-second Olympiad, triumph
ant in games, entered Agrigentum,
his native home, he was attended by
an escort of three hundred 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 Pythian games. He
is said to have run mile with a
four-year-old OK upon his shoulders,
and afterwards killed the animal
with one blow of his fist, and ate the
entire carcass in one day So great
was his muscular power that he
would bind cord around 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 15 pints
of wine.
Polydamus, of Thrssalio, was of
collosal height and prodigious
strength, and, it is said, alone and |
without weapons, killed an enor-
nous and enraged lion. One day, it |
is recorded, he seized a bull by its
hind feet, and the animal escaped |
only by leavingth hoof in the grasp
Of the athlete.
The Roman Emperor Maximinus
was upward of eight feet in height,
and, like Milo, of Crotona, could |
squeeze to powder the hardest stone
with his fingers and break the leg Of
horse by kick. His wife's brace
let served him as a ring, and his ev-
eryday repast was sixty pounds of
meat and an amphora of wine.
While a prisoner in Germany,
Richard l accepted an invitation to
a boxing match with the son Of his
ijailer.
He received the first blow which
made him stagger, but recovering,
with blow of his fist he killed his
antagonist ON the spot.
Topham, also an Englishman,
born in 1710, 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
its two ends held in his hands, place
the middle of the bar behind his
neck, and then bend the extremi-
ties by main force until they met
together, and bend back the iron
straight again.
One night, seeing a watchman
asleep in his box, he carried both the
man and his shell to a great dis
tanee, and put them ON the wall
of a churchyard Owing to domes-
tic tryubles, he committed suicide
in the prime of life.
The famous Sunderberg, King of
Albania, who was born in 1414, was
a man of great stature. and his feats
of sword exercise have never been
equalled. On one occasion, with a
scimeter, he struck his antagonist
such a blow that its force cleaved
him to the waist. He is said to
have cloven in twain two men who
were clad in armor from head to
fsot. On one occasion the brother
and nephew of certain Ballaban,
who had been convicted of crualties
toward the Albians, were brought to
him bound together. Transported
with rage, he cut them in two with
one stroke of his weapon.
Maurice, Count Of Saxony, the
hero of Fontenoy, inherited the
physical vigor of his father, and
was especially noted for the surpris-
ing muscular power, or grip" of
his hands: On one occasion, need
ing a corkscrew, he twisted a long
iron nail round into the required
shape with his fingers and opened
half dozen bottles of wine with it.
Another time, when stopping at a
blacksmith shop to have his horse
shod, he picked up number of
new horse-shoes, and with his hands
broke them IN two as readily as i'll
made of glass, much to the disgust
of the smith.
Ifhistory it to be believed, Pharyl-
lus, of Grotona, could jump a dis
tance of fifty-six feet The exercise
was practiced at the Olympic Games, |,
and formed part of the course of the
Pentathlon. Strut, an English
author on games and amusements,
speaks ola Yorkish jumper named
Ireland, whose powers were marvel
Gus. He was six feet high, and at
the age Of eighteen leaped, without
the aid of a springing-board, over
nine horses ranged side bv side
He cleared cord extending four
teen feet from the ground with one
bound, crushed with his foot a
bladder suspended at height of
sixteen feet; and on another occa-
sion he lightly cleared a large wag-
on 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 n
leap sprang over the back of an
enormous elephant hanked by six l
camels of the largest breed. Acuri-
Gus French work published in {
Paris in 1745, entitled 'The Tracks s
Towards the History of Wonders '
Performed at Fairs" mentioned an c
Englishman, who at 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
feats of strength and endurance. e
DR.. Windship, with the aid of straps
lifted weight of $500 pounds, and 9
with the little finger of his right {
hand could raise his body a con-
siderable distance from the ground. |
While a man was dashinp with