The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-05-30
wAsHlNeToN's STRENGTH.
Anecdotes Relating to the Physical Train
inn of Onr First President.

n Jdl0 SG1l1 CuEtGub III w cbollLs3 UOu .
old home neighborhood in Virginia re-
counts how once as a STRIPPING he sat
reading under the shade of an 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-
tained Washington could stand. Quiet
ly closing his book, he accepted the
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, 81 felt myself grasped
and hurled upon the ground, with
jar that shook the marrow of my
bones"
With the memory of these boyish en-
counters in mind, and with all his sym
pathy for athletic exercises. think what
it must have been to Washington,
when Commander-in-Ch of the Rev
olutionary army, to come upon a party
of his young officers amusing them
selves at a game of Gives" and, in
spite of his evident enjoyment of the
sport, to find them too much overcome
with awe togo 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 bowed, wished his Of
6cers good day, and walked away.
AS horse man, 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 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 ancicnts, 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 lifetime he had given
to what athletes nowadays call ''train.
ing" His habits, at all times, were
those exacted of a ''crew" or ''team'
of modern days, before the occasions
when those heroes appear in public, tt
fill with despair or exultation the
bosoms of their friends. From the In
dians of the Shenandoah wilderness
among whom he spent eeks during
his first surveying tour, he learned tht
swift, elastic tread that distinguished
him in walking. His powers of en-
durance were worthy of his extraordin
ary physical strength. though it mus
be said he had few illnesses to test hi
constitution, and, indeed, was rarel,
ailing. 1t may be some consolation t.
aspirant heroes of the future to hear
while upon this topic, that Mrs Wash
ington said it was well the General wa
so rarely i'll, as she could never ge
him to take his medicine!
'Major Lawrence Lewis once aske,
his uncle what was his height in tn
prime of life," says Custis. ''He re
piled: In my best days, Lawrence,
stood six feet and two inches in ordin
ary shoes OF his weight we are a
evidence, having heard him say t.
Crawford, Governor of Canada, i
1899: My weight, in my best days
sir, never exceeded from two hundre
and ten, to twenty His form wa
unique Unlike most athletic frames
which expand at the shoulders an
gather in at the hips, the form {
Washington deviated from the genera
rule, since it descended from th
shoulders to the hips in perpendicula
lines the breadth of the trunk bein
: nearly as great at the one end as &
the other. His limbs were long, large
and sinewy; he was what is calle
straight-legged. His joints, feet, an
hands were large, and could a ca!
have been made from his right han
$50 far did its dimensions exceed nj
, ture's model), it would have been pr
, served in museums for ages as tt
! anatomical wonder of the eighteent
, century" Mrs. Burton Harrison,
, st. Nicholas.
Why He Felt Downhearted.