The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1889-03-30
wAsHINGToN's STRENGTH.
anecdotes Relating to tho Physical Train
ing of Our First President.

=
Ing of Our First President.
A tale still current in Washington's
old home neighborhood in Virginia re-
counts how once as STRIPPING he sat
reading under the shade of an oak-tree
near his school. Some of his friends
mad engaged champion wrestler of
the county to test their strength in an
lmpromptu ring. One after another
Tell a victim to the champions skill,
tll, 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-
tained Washington could stand. Quiet
ly closing his book, he accepted tho
challenge. Long after, when the STU
dent under the oak-tree had become
the cOnqueror with whose honored
name the whole civilized world re-
sounded, the ex-champion told what
followed: AFTER fierce, short strug-
gle," 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 en-
counters in mind, and with all his SYM
patty for athletic exercises, think what
must have been to Washington,
when Commander-in-C Chief of the Rev.
Slutionary army, to come upon a party
Of his young officers amusing them
selves at game of Gives" and, in
i spite of his evident enjoyment of the
Sport to find them too much overcome
withawe to- go on playing. 1t was in
vain that the General encouraged
them to resume their sport; so, at
last, ceiling that greatness has its
draw lacks, he bowed, wished his Of
ficersgood day, and walked away.
As horse man, from beginning to
end ofhis vigorous life, Washington
had nj peer. Like all Firginian boys,
he TOOK to the saddle as Il duck takes
to watr. Once astride his steed, it
4 was al but impossible to dislodge him.
From the day when as lad he
first RIDE to hounds after old Lord
Fairfax, of Greenway Court, across
the county named for that worthy
nOblenan. he was q 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 being born to lead them,
he was physically the most
imposing figure present. In person,
Washington showed in his maturity
the fruits of the lifetime he had given
to what athletes nowadays call train,
ing" His habits, at all times, were
| those eXacted of ''crew" or team
OF modern days, before the occasions
when those heroes appear in public, tc
fill with despair or eXultation the
bosoms of their friends. From the III
dams of the Shenandoah wilderness
among whom he spent W eeks during
his first surveying tour, he learned the
swift, elastic tread that distinguished
him in walking. His powers of en-
durance were worthy of his extraordin
airy physical strength. though it mus
be said he had few illnesses to test his
constitution, and, indeed, was rarely
ailing. 1t may be some consolation tc
aspirant heroes of the future to hear
while upon this topic, that Mrs Wash.
ington said it was well the General was
so rarely i'll, as she could never gel
him to take his medicine!
! major Lawrence Lewis once asked
his uncle what was his height in the
prime of life," says Gusts. HE re
piled: In my best days, Lawrence,
stood six feet and two inches in ordin.
airy shoes OF his weight we are al
evidence, having heard him say to
Crawford, Governor of Canada, in
1899: My weight. in my best days
sir, never exceeded from two hundred
and ten, to twenty His form was
unique. Unlike most athletic frames
which expand at the shoulders and
gather in at the hips, the form o.
Washington deviated from tho genera
rule, since it descended from the
shoulders to the hips in perpendicular
lines the breadth of the trunk being
nearly as great at the one end Us a
the dher. His limbs were long, largo
and sinewy; he was what is called
straght-legged. His joints. feet, and
hams were large, and could cas-
have been made from his right hand
ESQ ar did it's Dimensions exceed ma
turss modeD, it would havo been pre-
seryed in museums for ages as the
anatomical wonder of the eighteenth
century" Mrs. Burton Harrison, il
St. Nicholas.
i
LII