The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1889-04-17
WASHINGTONS PHYSIQUE.
TRAINING MADE THE REVOLU-
TIoNARY HERO AN ATHLETE.
A "Reminiscences of His Boyish Prov
ess-His Clear-cut, Sinewy Frame
Was an Anatomical Marvel.

ess-His Clear-cut, Sinewy Frame
Was an Anatomical Marvel.
A tale still current in Washingtons
old home nelghborhood 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 q champion wrestler of the
county to test their strength in an i'm.
promptu ring. One after another fell a
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-contained
Washington could stand Quietly closing
his book, he accepted the challenge.
Long after, when the student under the
oak tree had become the conqueror with
whose honored 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 q 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 Chief of the Revolution.
ary Army, to come upon a party of his
young officers amusing themselves at a
game of Gives" and, in spite of his
evident enjoyment of the sport, to find
them too much overcome with awe to
m rN1o f,,x yaf hot fho
General encouraged them TO resume their
sport; so, at last, feeling that greatness
has its drawbacks, he bowed, wished
his officers good day, and walked away.
As horseman, from beginning to end
of his vigorous life, Washington had no
peer. Like all Virginiau boys, he took
to the saddle as a 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
dashing fox-hunter In the army, when on
horseback, riding down the line, cheered
to the echo by the soldiers, who believed,
with superstition worthy of the ancents,
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 athletics
nowadays call "training." His habits,
at all times, were those eXacted of
''crew" or "team" of modern days, be.
fore the occasions when those heroes ap.
pear in public, to fill with despair or
exultation the bosoms of their friends.
From the Indians of the Shenandoah
wilderness, among whom he spent weeks
during his first surveying tour, he learned
the swift, elastic step tread that dis
tinguished him in walking. His powers
of endurance were worthy of his extra
ordinary physical strength, though it
must be said he had few illnesses to test
his constitution, and, indeed, was rarely
aillng. 1t may be some consolation to
aspirant heroes Of the future to hear,
while upon tkis topic, that Mrs. Wash
ington said it was we'll the General was
so rarely i'll, as she could never get him
to take his medicine
"NIa or Laurence Lewis once asked his
uncle what was his height in the prime
of life, ," says Custis 'He replied: in
my best DAYS, Laurence, | stood six feet
tNp luNllSo III OlulutIJ SuOGss VI LIE
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 hundred
and ten, to twenty His form was
unique. Unlike most athletic forms,
which expand at the shoulders 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 perpendicular lines, the
breadth of the trunk being nearly as
great at the one end as at the other.
His limbs we're long, large and slnewy;
he was what is called straight legged.
His joints, feet and hands were large,
and could cast have been made from his
right hand $50 far did its dimensions
exceed natures model, it would have
been preserved in museums for ages as
the anatomical wonder of the eighteenth
century. ."-S'. Nicholas.