The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-10-15
TRIALS OF STRENGTH.
Doctor Oswald Advocates tho Revival of
Olympic Festivals.
nj Observation-Disclosures

month; but with that single exception
the greatest puzzle of the financial universe
seems the question why some entcrprising
Yankee does not organize II syndicate for
the re-estublishment of the Olympic festi-
walls.
A roomy arena for the competitive eXer-
cises Of our champion wrestlers, runners
leapcrs and boxers would pay it's expenses
Ill the first season, and in thA course of u
few years it's popularity would turn the
surrounding country into Il camping
ground resembling the pilgrim bvouac of
Mecca. Olives do not flourish Oh our soil
but the rent of reserved seats and camp
tents would enable the managers to gild
the crowns of their victors; their prize Of
fers would set the athletes of every village
a-trainng and turn thousands of boy topers
into gymnasts; ward delegates would run
for something besides Office, and the col
lapse of railway trusts during the festival
week would not exhaust the limits of his
torical presidents, since the testimony OF
unimpcachuble witnesses oblige us TO he
licve that ut the approach of the Olympic
field days Grcci:n magistrates dismissed
political Offenders on parole, and the COM
manders of hostile armies patched up
truce for few weeks. The victors of the
lsthmian and Nemean games enjoyed the
privileges of Il modern archbishop
They were exempt from taxation be-
came the idols of their native towns and
were secured against the vcissitutcs of for
tune by n literally endowed annuity fund
EHenetus, IL humble citizen of Agrigcn-
tun, won three out of the five prizes of
the ninety-second Olympiad, and was at
once raised from poverty To opulence by
the presents which the enthusiasm of the
spectators poured upon him before he left
the arena On his return trip, instead of
being chased by Tennessee sheriff posses,
he WIS treated to series of ovatiOns His
arrival at his native city was attended by
procession of three hundred chariots
each drawn, like his own, by two white
horses.
Foreigners, including famous warriors,
and even kings, like Dionysius of SYRIA
cusc, competed for the prizes of Olympia,
and had perhaps reasons for envying such
victors ms Diagoras, the Rhodian, who had
been successful athlete in his Younger
days and was present when his two sons
won the entire pentathlon-i. e.. carried of
the five prizes contested by the champions
of all the Mediterranean coast lands.
When the boys upliftcd their father and
carried him through the arena the shouts
of the assembled multitude were heard in
the harbor of Patrae at a distance of
seven leagues, but Diagoras himself had
heard nothing on earth after the heraltl's
voice had proclaimed the names of the vic
tors, "the gods" as Pindar observes, ebay
ing granted that the happicst moment of
his life should he his last" Would n DO
lice commissioner have ventured to inn
peach that triumph in the name of the
Law and Order league?
The monk emperor Justinan used his
power for n purpose of that sort and inter
dicted nonreligiOus mass meetings of all
N hn taa of Z 1,c
were closed. But 200 hundred years after
the sham battles of the Spanish Moors at.
tracted spectators from far and near and
before long the cities of Christcndom re-
sounded with the din of tournaments
which were by no means limited to lance
practice, but often included wrestling
matches or miscellaneous trials of strength,
as at Ratisbon, where in 1898 IL schild-
knappc, or henchmnn, of II Suabian cavalier
defied all corners to touch him unarmed
and prevent him from doubling them up
into his large forage bag. Eight knights,
stout six footers some Of them, are said TO
have been successfully baggcd in that
way before the rustic Hercules at last me;
his match in the person of n gorilla listed
trooper.
Physical prowcss indeed often asserted
itself i'll unexpected places, and in Venice
Leonardo da Vinci occasionally astonishcd
his friends by jumping to the ceiling and
Knocking his feet against the bells OF Il glass
chandelier
The Andalusian bulls were ut first baited
with dogs but the kings Of Arason intro
duced trained swor,iSmen, and bull fight
ing then became Il national passion Sara
gossa, Malaga and Madrid Wed in the
splendor of their matanzas, and at The end
of the Fifteenth century all the larger
tow:;.i had bull rings of their own. Several
porvS tried to stop thee game, but as I'm
English historian remarks, their bulls
Jailed TO scare the matadors, and the clam
ors of the Spanish clergy Obliged Clement
VII to pass IL special ordinance lcgalizinc
bull fights on church festivals. Uecky's
History of Rationalism, vol i, p. 30S)
AT present no saint can hope TO rival the
popularity of Il successful mata,lor
French publisher, IIallcrman, made for
tune by chromotyping the portrait of the
torero Perez. Jose Maria Perez began his
career as e Carthagena canallon, or circus
sweeper. and in spite of his absolute habits
died the richest man of his native town.
His arrival in bull ring city produced IL
regular furore. Merchants closed their
shops and teachers their schools disguised
monks escaped from their converts and
mingled with the rabble TO enter the arena
uopcrceived; paupers pawned their last
coat to raise the requisite real
The chronicle Of the excitement proceed
ing the last Olympiad of New Orleans,
would likewise furnish suggestive con
tribution to the history of civilization, I'M
less the historian should prefer to record
the still more characteristic episode of
Aug. %, 1881, when IL Georgia mountaineer
captured wildcat and brought it to
Birmingham, Ala. The dignitaries of that
CITY assembled Mt the court hon sp and ra-
solved by accamation, first, to pit the