The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-10-29
A GIRL WHO CHEWs WOOD.
Lillian Tobin, of Tenth Avenue, is a
Sampson in Petticoats--Her
Feats of Strength.

Feats of Strength.
At No. 283, Ten:h avenue, which is
between Twenty sixth and Twenty
seventh streets, a very pretty seventeen
year-old girl lives. Her name is Lillian
Tobin, and she dwells with her parents
and abides by their decisions in all things.
Miss Tobin, to the ordinary observer,
is not different from other girls of her
age. She may be the least bit better
formed, a triae mvre erect while walking,
and somewhat more confident in her COM
pertinent.
A Journal reporter learned, however,
that Miss Tobin was decidedly different
from other girls, so different, in fact, that
she verges upon the human phenomenon.
Mrs. Tobin was anxious that the Journal
should have a practical illustration of the
queerness of her daughter, and accordingly
extended an invitation for yesterday to
the Journal man, with the promise that
Lily would show off her various accom-
pliskments. When the reporter had
seated himself in the neatly-furnished
parlor, Mrs. Tobin explained that Lily
was blessed with an iron jaw, an iron
skull, and the muscular strength of John
L. Sullivan, William Muldoon and Samp-
son combined. She also mentioned that
Lily has wrestled with all the heavy
weight Tenth avenue beaux, and that not
one of them could hold his ewn against
her. Among her other accomplishments
she could chew wood and swing fifty
pound dumb bells tied to her hair with
alarming ease.
During the recital, the pretty subject
sat in a rocking-chair bluShing like a little
schoolgirl on receiving tlattering praise.
Lily is a semi-blonde or :chataque with
laughing blue eyes, dimpled cheeks, small
plump hands and a figure of ~undeniable
opulence.
Chew some wood, Lily" said her
mother.
Lily rose from her CHAIR as if she was
about to play on an imaginary piano.
Going into the kitchen she returned with
an ordinary bundle of kindling wood, and
selecting a good knotty piece began to
MUNICH it with the nonchalsnce of a So
ciety girl at work on a box of car nels.
The wood was undeniably hard and
tough, but Lily's teeth sank through it as
if it was so much putty.
Don't swallow it, Lily" cautioned the
mother, and, like the obedient child she
is, Lily relinquished a mouthful of we'll
masticated splinters, which looked as if
they had been pounded by a sledge-ham-
mer. In an explanatory way Mrs. Tobin
said:
owe don't let Lily eat very much, and
she will swallow anything. We don't
give her any meat because she gets too
strong. All we give her is homemade
bread, but she thrives so on that we are
all afraid of our lives when she gets mad.
Her father is a blacksmith, and is pretty
strong, but if he says anything Lily
doesn't like she picks him up and fires
him on the floor, and he has to STAY there
until she tells him he can get up. Her
three brothers never contradic1 her as
she can grab all three together and squeeze
them so that not a bit of breath is left in
their bodies"
Yes, | am strong" joined in Lily. II
measure forty-two inches around the b1st
and only eighteen inches around the
waist; That is with my oorsets on" she
added, with an exploratory smile.
SWING some iron in your teeth, Lily."
said her mother.
Lily caught up a fifty pound ~dumb-bell
to which she attached four ordinary Aot
irons which weighed seven pounds apiece
She fastened a stout rope to the SEVENTH
eight pounds of iron, and placing one end
of the rope between her teeth BEGAN
marching up and down the room with fhe
mass of iron dangling from her teeth.
II could carry three times as much as