Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-24
TAKING OFF THE FAT.
Training Hefty New Yorkers Undergo
to Get Rid of a Surplus.
A BIG DAYS WORK In FLANNELS.
How the Man Who Won a Worlds Prize for
Physical Perfection
SETS A RAPID PACE ON FIRR ISLAND
roornrsroxprxcr OF rHr DrsrArcB.i

gest men in the drygoods district is Clar-
ence L Collins, of Whiting & Collins, of
Worth street. he has just returned to the
city after an arduous course of fat reduction
at the hands of John NJ. Latin, who proved
himself so nearly match for Sullivan on
November 10, 1885. and who once took at a
Worlds Fair a prize for the nearest ex-
hibited approximation to perfect physique
Mr.. Collins, who is feet 2 in height and
weighs, after training, 212 pounds, has had
an immediate successor at this private
training school in the person of Senator
John c. Jacobs. of Brooklyn. Many New
York business and professional men take a
private course of training of this sort every
summer. William MuIdoon is said to have
trained good many men who are not prize
fighters and detest fighting. When Latin
trains his pupils the utmost secrecy is
observed. It is only by accident that the
following facIs about the selfimposed
regimen to which many prominent New
Yofkers have submitted have been obtained
by the writer.
A DAYS WORK.
Just before the rays of the sun gilded the
eastern horizon, after the wont of the G. p.
r. James horseman, two fishermen might
have been seen slowly vending their way
from hotel across Fire Island beach to the
sea. They were after bluefsh and had
hardly gotten into their boat before two
other figures quietly left the house and
struck briskly out across the sands to the
surf.
Heavy flannel shirts eneased their mas
sive figures; neither of the two was less than
6 feet 2 inches in height and the muscles of
their lively legs played through knicker-
bockers and wooden stockings. They seemed
intent on escaping observation and covered
the half mile to the beach in about five min
utes The fishermen were the only other
human beings in sight They watched the
two broEn-faeed giants with more curiosity
than the fish showed just then regarding the
bait.
A TASTE OF THE SEA.
The two big men removed every encum-
beriDg vestment and plunged through the
breakers into the sea. They did not remain
in the water a minute, however, and in less
time than it takes to tell the tale were out
on the sand again, each rubbing the other
dry with q rough towel. In minute more
they struck out in a jog-trot along the
smooth beach, and had soon put mile
between themselves and their clothes. Into
the surf they again plunged, breasting the
waves, swimming, diving and duckiHg each
other like pair of schoolboys.
Five minutes more and they were again
on the now warm sand, rubbing each other
brisklv down Withstand, plain, pure sandi
Even the sand seemed not to f'take the am-
bition out" of them. They faced about
toward their clothes and their swinging jog
trot soon brought them back to the point
from which they had started. There they
l1ol
hand in the breakers, regular skylarki By
this time the bluefshermen are wondering
what they have struck. The big men
emerge, rub each other down again with
coarse crash and dress.
BITE OF BREAKFAST.
Then they start back to the hotel at
brisk walk. The fishermen lose sight of
them regretfully, for Latin and his pupil,
Mr.. Collins, are such active, big brown
''boys' that the fishermen enioy having
surprised them at their mysterious athletic
ceremonies. Follow them to the house.
They arrive with a glow in their eve, bit
of red under the brown of the cheek, but not
the least bit blown. They eat light
breakfast, chops or steak, eggs, toast and
coffee, and then sit out on the porch and
take matters easily for an hour or two.
When the second hour has expired, and it
is O'Clock, quick as clockwork the easy
restfulneSs vanishes from the scene and the
men go up to their rooms and appear five
minutes Afterward in boating clothes. No
time is lost in getting into boat, after
which the bluefshermen see the athletes
strip themselves to the waist, and, each tax
ing up his big oar, away they pull in the
morning sunshine in the face of cracking
easterly breeze, until six miles have been
measured of, and the oars move as quickly
as ever.
A ROW OF TWELVE MILES.
Every fiber alive with the warmth of their
work, every pore open to the air, the two
oarsmen stop the boat, pull on heavy
''sweaters" and row without loss of time or
diminution of speed back six miles to their
starting point. When they disembark there
not only isn't dry stitch on them, but they
actually lard" the sand as they walk
quickly back toward the house Once in
their rooms they sponge their bodies with
tepid water, and sally gayly out again
through the morning groups of lazy, list
less, pleasure-seekers or idlers for a mile
swim in Great South Bay.
A mile swim may be nothing for A pro-
fessional swimmer to boast OF. But it is a
good deal more than most amateurs not in
training care to attempt. There is nothing
in the way of exercise that so quickly tests
a mans wind as swimming. The athletes,
who seem to be making a day of it, return
without delay to their quarters and rub each
other down. By this time they have appe-
tites as robust as their forms, and they get
into loose flannel clothes and sit down to
dinner prepared to do ample justice to it.
TWO HOURS OF EASE.
After observing q mornings work" Of
this kind not only the blue-fshermen, but
the summer resort visitors, fall a wondering
what in the name of Hercules the big men
are going to find to do after dinnerl So they
watch with considerable interest the two
hour interval of perfect rest which follows
the midday meal. The Herculeses smoke,
loll in a hammock or in easy chairs, write
letters, read novels and the newspapers.
They are evidently not undergoing an INTEL
lectual regimen. But in just two hours they
are hard at it again on an upper balcony, on
which their apartments open, swinging In
dian clubs as if their further existence de-
pended on it, not laboriously or with any
appearance or effort, however, but precisely,
easily and accurately.
Before the visitors below have ceased to
admire the grace with which the big men
swing their wooden playthIngs, the athletes
have set them away in a corner and without
moment OF apparent interlude have donned
the gloves and ara punching away at each
others jaw and rattling each others bread
baskets and tapping each others worries
CLEVER WITH THE GLOVES.
This pleasing performance, with Latin
rs q participant, would attract a crowd of
spectators anywhere, for he is conceded 70
be the cleverest big man in the country.
some say not even barring Sullivan himself.
But the sparrers soon retreat to the privacy