Morris tribune., 1881-03-03
FAMOUS MEN OF MUSCLE.
How Athletics Were Honored in the Brave
Days of Old.


Days of Old.
From Brenton's Monthly.
Among the Greeks the successful athlete
was crowned with laurels, and loaded down
with wealth and honors. When Egenetas,
in the ninety Olympiad, entered
Agrigentum, his native home, he was atten-
ded by an escort of 800 chariots, each drawn
by two white horses, and followed by the
populace, cheering and waving banners.
Milo six times won the palm ut both the
Olympia 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 the fist, and
ate the entire carcass in one day So great
was the muscular power that he would bind
cord around his neck and break it by the
swelling pressure of the veins. An ordin-
airy meal for Milo was twenty pounds of
meat, as much bread, and fifteen pints of
wine.
Polydamus, of Tuessana, was of colos-
sal 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 a bull by its hind feet,
and the animal escaped only by leaving the
hoof in the hand of the athlete.
The Roman Emperor Maximinus Was up
of Crotona, could squeeze to powder the
hardest stone with his fingers and break
the leg of horse with kick. His wifes
bracelet served him as a ring and his every
day repast was sixty pounds of meat and an
mphora 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 re-
covering, with a 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 a bar of iron,
with it's two ends held in his hands, place
the middle of the bar behind his neck, and
bend the extremities by main force until
they met together, and bend back the iron
straight again. One night, seeing the
Waterman asleep in his box, he carried the
man and his shell to a great distance, and
put them on the wall of a churchyard.
| Owing to domestic troubles he committed
suicide in the prime of life.
The famous Scandenberg, King of Alba
mia, who was born in 1414, was man Of
great stature, and his feats of sword exer-
| W.
casion, with his scimeter, he struck his
antagonist such blow that its force cleaved
| him to the waist. He is said to have clo-
ven 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 to the
Albanians were brought to him bound to-
gether. 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 surprising muscular power or grip" of
his hands. On one occasion, needing a
corkscrew, he twisted large iron nail
round in the required shape with his fin
gers, and opened half a dozen bottles of
wine with it. Another time, stopping at a
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 listery is to be believed, Phatylius, 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 Penthalon.
Stutt, an English authority on games and
amusements, speaks of Yorkshire 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
spring board, over nine horses ranged side
by side. He cleared cord extended four
teen feet from the ground with one bound,
crushed with his foot bladder suspended
at height of sixteen feet and on another
occasion lightly cleared large wagon COW
cred with an awning.
Col. Ironside, who lived in India early in
this century, related that he met in his trav-
els an old white haired man, who, with one
leap, sprang over~the back of an nourmous
elephant fanked by six camels of the largest
| breed.
A curious French work, published in
Paris in 1745, entitled, 1.-THE Tracts Toward
the History of Wonders P Performed at Fairs, "
mentioned an Englishman who, at the fair
of St. German, 1924, leaped over forty PEG.
pie without touching one Of them.