Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1889-03-25
a1omth' q Column.
Washington's Physical Training.

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oak-tree near his school. Some of
his friends had engaged champion
wrestler of the county to test their
strength in an impromptu ring. One
after another fell victim to the
champions skill, till, grown bold at
last, he strobe back and forth like one
of the giants of old-time romance,
daring the only boy who had not
wrestled with him either to put his
book down and come into the ring or
own himself afraid
This was more than the self-con-
tanned Washington could stand.
Quietly closing his book, he accepted
the challenge. Long after, when the
student under the oak-tree had be-
come the conqueror with whose hon
ored name the whole civilized world
resounded, the ex-champion told
what followed, "After fierce, short
struggle" he said, II felt myself
grasped and hurled upon the ground,
with a jar that shook the marrow of
my bones"
With the memory of these boyish
encounters IN mind. and with all his
sympathy for athletic exercise, think
what it must have been to Washing
ton, when COMMUNICATIVE Chief of
the Revolutionary Army, to come
upon a party of his young officers
amusing themselves at a game of
s'fves,'' and, in spite of his evident
enjoyment of the sport, to find them
too much overcome with awe to go
on playing. 1t was in vain that the
General encouraged them to resume
their sport so, at last, feeling that
greatness has it's drawbacks, he bow
ed, wished his officers good-day and
walked away.
AS a horseman, from beginning to
end of his vigorous life, Washington
had no peer Like all Virginian boys
he took to the saddle as duck takes
to water. Once astride his steed, it
was all but impossible to dislodge
him. From the day when as lad he
first rode to hounds after old Lord
Fairfax, of Greenway Court, across
the county named for that worthy
nobleman, he was a skilled and dash
ing fox hunter. In the army, when
on horseback, riding down the line,
cheered to the echo by the soldiers,
who believed, with a superstition
worthy of the ancients, that here was
a being born to lead them, he was
physically the most imposing figure
present. In person, Washington
showed in his maturity the fruits of
the lif etime he had given to what
athletes nowadays call ''training."
His habits, at all times, were those
exacted of screw" or "team" of
modern days, before the occasions
when those heroes appear in public,
to fill with despair or exultation the
bosoms of their friends. From the
Indians of the Shenandoah wilder
ness, among whom he spent weeks
during his first surveying tour, he
learned the swift, elastic tread that
distinguished him in walking. His
powers of endurance were worthy of
his extraordinary physical strength,
though it must be said he had few ill
nesses to test his constitution, and,
indeed, was rarely ailing. 1t may be
some consolation to aspirant heroes
of the future to hear, while upon
this topic, that Mrs. Washington
said it was we'll the general was so
rarely i'll, as she could never get him
to take his medicine
"Major Lawrence Lewis once ask
ed his uncle what was his height in
the prime of life says GUSTS. ''He
replied, In my best days, Lawrence,
/ stood six feet and two inches in
ordinary shoes OF his weight we
are an evidence, having heard him say
to Crawford, Governor of Canada in
1899, My weight, in my best days,
sir, never exceeded from two humid
red and ten, to twenty His form
was unique. Unlike most athletic
frames, which expand at the should
ers and gather in at the hips, the form
of Washington deviated from the
general rule, since it descended from
the shoulders to the hips in perpen-
dicular lines, the breadth of the trunk
being nearly as great at one end as at
the other. His limbs were long,
large, and sinewy he was what is
called straight-legged. His joints,
feet, and hands were large, and
could a cast have been made from his
right hand $50 far did its dimensions
exceed natures modeD it would have
been preserved in museums for ages
as the anatomical wonder of the
eighteenth century. Mrs. Burton
Harrison, IN st. Nicholas.
The London Figaro tells the fol-
lowing: The first recorded instance of |
that generosity of heart of which the
emperor of Austria has given such
striking proof lately, by ordering
that the money which his subjects
were prepared to spend on his jubilee
should be given to charities instead,
occurred when Francis Joseph was
only four years old. He was playing
with his toys one day-his birthday
in the castle of Schonbrunn, when he |
noticed that sentry was standing
on the lawn before the window. He /
Immediately asked his grandfather to
give him gold piece, and this being