Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-28
THE MEN OF MUSCLE.
Modern Samsons Are Nothing Like
the Ideally Perfect Man.
NONE ARE DEVELOPED NORMALLY.
Astonishing Feats of Cyr, the Greatest
LITTER in the World.
THE RECENT CONTESTS IN LONDON

Who is the strongest man in the world7
There are at least dozen before public
notice to-day who claim to be that man, and
each performs certain feats of strength which
would seem to warrant his right to that title.
1t is difficult to determine, however, which
one of the lot is superior in physical
strength, because, invariably, each is able to
perform some particular feat which another
cannot.
The Samsons of modern times are men
who have been naturally endowed with
great muscles and enormous strength, but
who have increased and added to both BY
constant training and practice. Attention
is given particularly to their strongest
muscles, and these eventually become abb
normally developed. Other muscles are
neglected, so that few of the "strong men,
OF to-day are physically we'll proportioned.
CYR, THE GIANT LITTER.
Undoubtedly the most remarkable of all
the strong men is Louis Cyr, of Quebec. He
is only q years OF age, but he weighs 323
pounds. The tape showed his physical
dimensions to be as follows: Height 5 feet,
1011 inches; chest (infated), 5S inches;
waist, 4S inches; biceps, 2117 inches; thigh,
% inches; calf, "a inches; neck, % inches.
| Cyr scarcely knows his own strength. He
lifted dunbbell, weighing 265 pounds,
with one hand from the ground to the shoul-
der, and then slowly pushed 1t up from the
| shoulder to arms length, using only the
one hand. There is probably not another
man in ths world who could do this. An
| other time ne tied pair of bells together,
which weighed 440 pounds, attached string
three feet long, and then lifted this great
| weight from the ground with one finger
His greatest display of strength was made
about year ago in Montreal. On a small
platform weighing 140 pounds were placed
seven dUmbbells, weighing 789 pounds, a
barrel of flour and seven heavy men. Cyr
put his giant arms around the platform and
lifted the lot. The aggregate weight was
1928 pounds. In another way he lifted
| 1856 pounds of pig iron at Berthirville,
| Can, on October 1, 1883. The iron was
placed on plank, which rested on trestle.
| Cyr got under the plank, and pushing up
with his back, arms and legs, raised the
weight clear OF the treste. No other man
in the world mas been able to approach this
performance.
A PITTsBURGER's STRENGTH.
Charles P. Blatt, who was born in Pitts
burg, is another strong man. His arm is
| larger than SullIvan'S. His lower limbs.
however, are deficient, and consequently he
is far from weli-formed man, Judged BY
the standard of perfect physical proportions.
He is naturally gifted with strength. His
principal feat of strength is that of pulling
apart horseshoes.
Prof. Robert j. Roberts, the body builder
now connected with the gymnasium of the
Young Mems Christian Association Of
Boston is the best proportionately developed
man in the country. 1t is his hobby, so to
speak, to train and cultivate every one of
the muscles of the body and on each side.
There is but slight difference in the strength
of one arm, leg or side in his anatomy,
something that is rarely found in an athlete.
Few men can be found to-day who can show
such a splendid set of back muscles. Com
pared with men who do startling feats Of
strength, he is not ''strong" man, vet, in
TACT, all around, he is really stronger than
most of them. Heavy dumbbell work and
heavy weight lifting he condemns in the
strongest terms.
| CONTESTS IN LONDON.
Samson recently set all London agog over
feats of strength. He is rather SMALL
sized man, and appears to weigh not more
than 140 pounds. After time other strong
men appeared on the scene, and one of them
accepted Samson's challenge to bet R100
against nothing that the feats of his pupil,
young German called Cyclops, after the
strong one-eyed creature of mythology could
not be done by any other person. The ac-
ceptor was powerful young fellow named
Herr Eugen Sandow, who hailed from Ko-
nigsberg. Cyclops put up 250-pound ball
with his right hand above his head and then
slowly lowered his arm until the enormous
weight was held at right angles to his body.
Sandow did this. Then Cyclops raised
bell, said to weigh 800 pounds, above his
head with his right hand, stopped and lifted
5O-pound bell with his left, which he put
up in the air three times. Sandow did the
same, but did better by putting up the 90
pound bell seven times. Each man also
lifted with one finger a stone weighing 800
pounds. Sandow was given the $500, and
then Samson, the master, offered him auoth-
er $500 il he could accomplish his feats.
The rival strong men met on another
evening, and Samson was vanquished. Sam
son bent piece Of steam piping over his
breast, strightened it back over the muscles
of his arm, bent it once around his leg, and
then broke 1t In two. All these were accom-
plished by Sandow. A bracelet made from
an iron chain was put on Samson's arm, and
he snapped it by contracting his biceps.
Sandow put one on his left and two on his
right and broke them all in the same way.
sANDow DEFEATS SAMSON.
Then he took the lead. He tossed up
bar bell weighing $50 pounds and caught it
on his arms as it came down. Then he
threw it up again, caught and balanced it
in his right hand, lay down on his back and
raised himself, with the weight, to his feet
again. Samson could not do that, and so
forfeited e10O. Sandow parted steel chain
which was said to resist strain of 40, 600
pounds, by one powerful blow of bis fist in
the center. Maxine Dantes, strong man
of Arizona, does a similar trick of breaking
in two piece OF wood 8 feet long and inehes
wide and thick, placed across two chains,
and Bostonians have seen Sebastian Miller
break cobblestones with a single blow of his
fist at the Howard Athenaum.
The measurements of the arms and chests
of some of these mighty men may be of in
lerest. They are given in the following
table:
Biceps Chest
| Age, Inches. Inches,