The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-01-13
MUSCULAR STRENGTH.
What Strong Men Have Done to Amuse
Ancients and Moderns.
prom the Nelo York Herald

The recent presence in New York in the
different shows of two so-called "strong
men" ::and one very strong young girl who
chews wood, and the fact that modern
Samson" appeared of late in London.
creating quite sensation, brings the gen.
eral subject of strong men into public no
tice. and some historical facts with regard TO
this class of freaks will not be found
uninteresting.
Without going back so far as the original
Samson, who in later days has found so ad-
mirable an impersonator in Signor Salvini,
the pages of history record quite number
of personages remarkable for their muscular
strength. The whole matter of human
strength in its relation to the human BODY
is very curious. The construction of
human beings is externally more delicate
than that of any of the quadruped kind.
Man, however, is extremely muscular, and
is, perhaps, for his size, stronger
than any other animal. Comparing
with him, for instance, the strength
of the lion we have a false idea of the
strength of the latter, owing to its claws.
But there is another way of comparing the
strength of man with that of other animals
viz, by the weights which either can
carry. IL u odlQ ny bCltullSbS IuaL u man
of great muscular power, by distributing
weights in such a manner that every part
of his body bears its share, can thus raise a
weight of 1000 pounds. At this rate a
horse, which is about seven times our bulk,
ought to be able to raise weight of 14,0OO
pounds if its strength were in the same pro-
portion; but, as matter of fact, a horse
will not carry upon its back above a weight
Of a few hundred pounds. Another curious
fact is that runners by profession in the
east have been known to outstrip horses. or
at least to hold their speed for a longer
period: for while, after both have contin-
ued to proceed for several days, the horse
will be quite tired, the man will be fresher
than in the beginning. These runners are
said to travel as much as 100 miles in four
teen hours. Hottentots are said to have
outstripped lions in the chase, and savages
hunting the elk would tire it down and
take it.
THERE WERE GIANTS IN THOSE DAYS.
Many stories have been told of the
strength of certain characters among the
ancients. OF this number one was of
Roman tribune who went by the name of
the Second Achilles, who is said to have
killed at different times 800 of the enemy,
and who, when treacherously set upon by
twenty-five of his countrymen, although
then past his s1xtieth year, killed fourteen of
them before he was slain. Milo of Crotona
is said to have lifted an OK weighing 1000
pounds and when he stood upright num-
Der of men could not force him out of his
place. Pliny tells of one, Athanatus, who
walked across the stage loaded with a
breast-plate weighing 500 pounds, and bus
bins of the same weight But of all the men
Of prodigious strength of whom we have
any account in history, Maximin, the
Emperor of Rome, is to be reckoned
the foremost. He was by birth Thracian
aud a simple herdsman. He was nearly
nine feet in hight, and said to be the best
prOportioned man in the empire. He used
the bracelet of his wife as a ring for his
thumb. In the theater, in the presence of
all the citizens, he overthrow twelve of the
strongest men in wrestling and outstripped
two of the swiftest horses in running all in
one day. He could draw q loaded chariot
which two strong horses could not move.
He could break horses jaw with a blow
of his fist. and his ribs with kick. This
giant gradually rose through all the grada-
lions of Office until he came to be emperor.
He reigned for some years, hated by every
body, but so feared on account Of his
brutality and his physical strength that no
one dared to put him to death. He conspired
against Alexander Severus and caused him
to be murdered in his tent He also put to
death q Roman senator with 1000 other
persons for an alleged conspiracy.
Finally the soldiers mutinied and killed him
A. d. 238.
Fumus, a native of Seleucia, who was
executed by the Emperor Aurelian for
espousing the cause of Zenobia, was cele-
brated for his strength. 1t is said that he
could suffer iron to be forged upon an anvil
which was placed upon his breast This he
did by lying on his back, resting his feet
and shoulders against some support thus
forming an arch with his body.
SOME FEATs OF STRENGTH AND CUNNING.
In 1913 there lived in Lancashire, Eng
land, man by the name of John Middle
ton, who was remarkable for the largeness
of his stature aud for his remarkable
strength. His hand was seventeen inches
long, and his hight nine feet three inches.
A story is told of an English miner in the
eighteenth century, whose finger being
caught in chain at the bottom of a mine,
by keeping it forcibly bent, he supported,
by that means, the whole weight of his
body $50 pounds until he was drawn
up to the surface. a hight Of 600
feet. About the year 1903 a native Of Kent,
England, by the name of Joyce, exhibited
such feats of strength in London that he
received the name Of the second Samson.
His own personal strength was very great,
but he also discovered various positions of
the body in which men, even of common
strength, could perform very surprising
feats. He drew against horses and raised
tremendous weights, and exhibited himself
successfully for eight or ten years, but his
methods were eventually discovered, and
many individuals of ordinary strength
exhibited a number of his principal per-
formances.
A German named Van Eckeberg trav-
eled through Europe in the early part of the
eighteenth century under the appellation of
Samson" which then, as now. was a ia
vorite name for strong men, This man was
of middle size and of ordinary strength,
but by certain methods and devices he was
able to perform the most extraordinary
leafs. For instance, sitting upon an in
chned board, with his feet a little higher
than his hips, the latter being placed upon
ar upright board, well secured, q strong
glrdle with an iron ring in front was placed
around his loins; to this ring a rope
was fastened; the rope passed be-
tween his legs through a hole in the upright
board, against which his feet were braced,
and several men OF two horses pulling on
the rope were unable to draw him out Of
his place. Again, he fastened a rope to q
high post, having passed it through an iron
eye fixed in the side of the post lower down,
and secured it to his girdle; he then planted
MS feet against the post near the iron eye,
with his legs contracted, and suddenly
stretching out his legs broke the rope and
tell backward on a feather bed. He would
lie on the ground while a stone of huge