The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1889-04-25
WAsHINcToN's PHYSICAL TRAINING.


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 had engaged champion wrest-
Ter of the county to test their strength
IN an impromptu ring. One after an
other 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 aud come
into the ring or own himself afraid!
This was more than the self-contain-
ed Washington could stand. Quietly
closing his book, he accepted the chal-
lenge. Long after, when the student
under the oak tree had become the
conqueror with whose honored name
the whole world resounded, the ex-
champion told what followed, "After a
fierce, short struggle he said, Il felt
myself grasped and hurled upon the
ground, with jar that shook the mar
row of my bones"
With the memory of these boyish en-
counters in mind, and with all his
n
what it must have been to Washington
when Commander-in-Chlef of the Revo-
lutionary Army, to come upon party
of his young officers amusing them
selves 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, feel
ing that greatness has its draw backs,
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 Virginian 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 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 a superstition worthy of the an
clients, 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 "crewn 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 In
dians of the Shenandoah wilderness,
among whom he spent weeks 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 extraordi-
nary physical strength, though it must
be said he had few illnesses to test his
constitution, and, indeed, was rarely
ailing. 1t may be some consolation to
aspiraut heroes of the future to hear,
while upon this 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 medicines!
Major Laurence Lewis once asked
his uncle what was his height in the
prime of life,n says Gusts. ''He re-
piled, In my best days, Laurence, 1
stood six feet and two inches in ordi-
nary shoes OF his weight we are an
evidence, having heard him say to
Crawford, Governor of Canada in 1893,
My weight, in my best days, sir, never
exceeded from two hundred and ten
to twenty. His form was unique. Un-
like most athletic frames, which ex-
pand 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
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 eigh-
teenth century. ."-lHJs. Burton Harri-
son i1s 81. Nicholas.