The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-01-13
the effect of the hammer is as nothing. The
heavier the anvil the less the blow is felt.
EF-EopTc IN. c.-rr-r-,, l.-,,--.--.

NNO AeALIo VI AnOtlhs AOpnaIn exhibited
some surprising feats of real and extraor-
binary strength in London. He was five
feet ten inches high and about 81 wears of
age when he began performing, and was
entirely ignorant of any method Of making
ms strength appear more surprising. Among
his feats was rolling up a very strong and
large pewter plate between his fingers. first
rubbing the latter with cool ashes. Next.
he would lay seven or eight short, strong
pieces OF tobacco pipe across his first and
thlrd ringers, and break them all by the
strength of his middle finger. He broke
the bowl of a strong tobacco pipe placed
between his first and third fingers BY press
Ing his fingers together sidewise. Having
thrust another similar bowl under his
glrdle, his legs being bent, he broke it to
pieces by the tendons of his hands without
altering the bending of his legs. He lifted
with his teeth, and held in horizontal po-
sltlon for a considerable time, a table six
feet long with half hundred weight hang
ing at the end Of it, the feet of toe table
resting against his knees Again, holding
in his right hand an iron kitchen poker
three feet long and three inches round, he
struck 1t upon his bare left arm, between
the elbow and the wrist, till he bent the
poker nearly to a right angle. Taking d
similar poker and holding the ends of it in
his hands, the middle across the back of his
neck, he brought both ends of it before him,
and then pulled it almost straight again.
This last feat was the most difficult, because
the muscles which separate the arms hori-
zontaIly from each other are not 80 strong
as those which bring them together.
He broke rope about two inches in cir
conference, which was partly wound about
cylinder four inches in diameter having
fastened the other end of it to straps that
went over his shoulder. He lifted a rolling
stone of about 800 pounds weight with his
hands only standing in a frame above it
and taking hold of frame fastened to it.
Scientific men of the period, rating the
strength of the weakest man at 125 pounds,
and the strength of a strong man
at 400 pounds, fixed Topham's
strength at double the latter fgure-S00
pounds. The mans weight was about 300
pounds. Topham met with a serious mis-
fortune at last through his ignorance of the
tricks of the trade. He undertook to imi-
tate the feat of the German Samson of
pulling against horses. Seating himself on
the ground, with his feet against two stir
rups, by the great weight of his body he
succeeded in pulling against single horse,
but in attempting to pull against two of
them he was lifted out of his place, and one
of his knees was shattered against the stir
rups so as to deprive him of most of the
strength of one of his legs.
STRENGTH IN FACT AND FICTION.
1t is said that the porters of Constantine
pie will carry burdens of six hundred and
nine hundred pounds weight with ease.
Feats of strength have always, whether in
real life or in fiction, great attraction and
interest for the human mind; and one of
the most strikingly sensational scenes in
any novel is that in Victor Hugo's lies
Miserables," where Jean Vatican lifts the
weight of wagon under which a man is
being crushed to death.
Washington possessed great strength and
was a noted athlete, especially in leaplng.
Perhaps it is not as well known that the
late Gen. George B. Mcclellan possessed
also unusual strength, remarkable, particu-
larly, for man who, though compact,
wiry, and well built, was rather under size.
Gen. Mcclellan could bend a big old
fashioned copper cent double between his
thumb and forefinger. Standing on table
he could lift a man weighing 100 pounds
from the floor by his coat collar and hold
him at arms length, and it is related of him
from the best authority that on one occa-
sion when riding a powerful charger in
battle, the horse got maddened with excite
ment and undertook to run away with him,
when the general stopped him still in his
tracks by the terrible pressure which he ex-
erted on the animals ribs by simply pressing
against them with his knees.
One of the oldest-and at the same time
most markable-exhibition of mechan-
ical strength and dexterity is that of sup
porting pyramids. 1t is described by the
Roman poet Claulian, and has been known
in Europe ever since. The celebrated
Egyptian traveller, Belzoni, before he began
his career as an explorer in Egypt, per-
formed this feat in various parts of Great
Britain. After all, one of the most ex-
traordinary feats Of this nature seeming to
be an exercise of strength, and which is
really nothing of the sort, is that in which
a heavy man is raised from the floor with
the greatest facility by several persons
placing each one or two fingers under him.
The way this is done is as follows: The
heaviest person in the party lies down, say
upon two chairs, his legs being supported
by one and his head by the other. Four
persons-one at each leg, and one at each
shoulder-then lift the body, and they find
the dead weight to be very great, from the
difficulty which they find III supporting
him. Now let the four persons take hold
of his body as before, responding to two sig
mails, to be given by the person to be lifted,
by clapping his hands, At the first signal
he himself and the four lifters begin to draw
a long and full breath, and when the inha-
lation is completed the second signal is
given for raising the person from the chair.
To his own surprise and that of his bearers,
he rises with the greatest facility as he were
no heavier than a feather. When one of the
bearers performs his part lily by making
the inhalation out of time, the part of the
body which he tries to lift is left, as it were,
behind This is trick easily tried and very
amusing.
ELECTROMAGNETIC STRONG GIRLS.
A few years ago a great deal of excite
ment was created by the exhibition of a
Young Georgia girl alleged to be electro
magnetic or otherwise specially gifted, who
did some remarkable feats5 Of apparent
strength. This young woman inaugurated
an epidemic of Georgia girls, who frolicked
over the country doing all manner of Curl
Gus feats and tricks of strength, pulling
average sized young dudes and Washers
around the stage, sitting on chairs, abso-
lutely diScomfiting all efforts to lift them,
ETC., dd ldusedm. At length Pennsylvania
broke out with similar disorder, the prin-
cipal instance being Miss Flora Coyle, a
pretty young girl of Is, who went to the
public school in Pittsburg, and who called"
the Georgia girls every time. This young
woman would twist stick two feet long
held by a stout young man, brought up
from the audience, quite out OF hls hands,
no matter how much effort he might make
to keep hold of it. She did not clasp the
stick, but held the palms of her hands
against the ends. Two young men, weigh
ing 100 and 178 pounds respectively, essayed
to hold an ordinary chair down to the floor,
but the little miss, by placing the palms OF
her hands against the chair, forced them all