Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1881-01-27
FAMOUS MENOF MUSCLE.
How Athletes Were Honored in the
Brave Days ofOid.
From Brentano's Monthly

ItuW [AtNICLCS were k1OHOTCO III
Brave Days ofOid.
From Brentano's Monthly.l
D Among the Greeks the successful Athle,
was crowned with laurels and loaded dow
svith wealth and honors When Egeneta
Y in the ninety Olympiad, triumphal
/ in games, entered Agrigentnm, his nativ
t home he was attended by an escort Of 80
S chariots, each drawn by two white horses
E and followed by the populace, cheering an
+ waving banners.
r Milo six times won the palm at both tn
5 Olympic and Pythian games He is said t
l have run a mile with four-year old OK upo
his shoulders, and afterward killed the ami
: NAL with one blow of his fist, and ate the en-
| tire carcass in one day. So great was hi
, muscular power that he would bind {. corr
, around his head and break it by the swellin!
, pressure of the veins. An ordinary meal fo
Milo was twenty pounds of meat, as mucl
bread, and fifteen pints of wine.
POlydamus Of Thessalia was of colossa
height and prodigious strength, and, it is said
alone and without weapons, killed an enor
nous enraged lion. One day, it is recorded
he seized bull by its hind feet, and the ami
NAL escaped only by leaving the hoof in the
grasp of the athlete.
The Roman Emperor Maximinus was up
ward of eight feet in height, and, like Milo
OF CrOtOna, could squeeze to powder the hard
est stone with his fingers, and break the leg
of horse by q kick. His wife's bracelet
served him as q ring, and his everyday repast
was sixty pounds of meat and an amphOra of
wine.
| While a prisoner in Germany, Richard L.
| ,4al @o%. @D h0xy al,
with the son of his jailer. He received the
first blow, which made him stagger, but re-
covering, with blow of his fist he killed his
antagonist on the spot.
Topham, an Englishman, born in ITO, was
possessed of astonishing strength. His arm
pits, 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 bend the exs
tremities by main force until they met to-
gether, and bend back the iron straight again.
One night, seeing the watchman asleep in his
box, he carried the man and his shell TO a
great distance, and put them Oh the wall of
churchyard Owing to domestic troubles he
committed suicide 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 equaled On one occasion, with
his scimeter, he struck his antagonist such
blow that its force cleaved him to the waist.
He is said to have cloyen in two men who
were clad III armor from head to foot. On
one occasion the brother and nephew of
certain Ballaban, who had been convicted of
cruelties toward the Albanians, 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 Fon-
tenoy, inherited the physical vigor of his
father, and was especially noted for the sur
prlslng muscular power or grip of his hands
On one occasion, needing a cOrk-screw, he
twisted large iron nail round into the re-
CURED shape with his fingers, and opened
half dozen bottles of wine with it. Another
time, when stopping at blacksmith shop to
have his horse shod, he picked up number
Of horse shoes, and with his hands, 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
Irotona could jump distance of Sc feet.
The exercise was practiced at the Olympic
games, and formed part Of the course of the
oenthalOn.
Stutt, an English authority on games and
speaks of Yorkshire jumper
lamed Ireland, whose powers were marvellous.
He was six feet high, and at the age of 18
eaped, without the aid of springboard, over
line horses ranged side by side. He cleared :
cord extended fourteen feet from the ground
With one bound, crushed with his foot blad- .
Ter suspended at height of sixteen feet, and {
n another occasion lightly cleared large
wagon covered with an awning
Col. Ironside, who lived in India early in !.
his century, relates that he met in his V
ravels an old white-haired man, who, with >
ne leap sprang over the back of an enormous q q
lephant f1anked by six camels of the largest y y
reed. I
A curious French work, published in Paris, Z
1 1745 entitled "The Tracts Toward the Z
history of Wonders Performed at Fairs,n Il
lentioned an Englishman, who, at the Fair "
st. German, in 1874, leaped over forty peo- Il
lie without touching one of them "