White Oaks eagle. (White Oaks, N.M.) 189?-190?, 1897-07-08
SHE Is A HERCULES.
WONDERFUL FEATS OF A LITTLE
FlVE-YEAR-OLD GIRL.

Can Lift Moro Than Twice Her OwT
Weight without Apparent Effort
Father, a slxty-ycar-old Veteran. Thinks
the Spirit of a Giant Soldier Is In Her.
Up in the hills and health giving at
noSphere of Sullivan county lives vet
eran of the civil war named John II.
! Laird. He had rather more than full
! share Of southern hospitality shown to
| Union soldiers ut Libby and Anderson
/ vile prisons and when at the end Of
the war he left the army he was broken
i'll hoalth Snd to all appearances prema
/ turely agel.
/ He settled on a small farm in Sulli.
van county When he took the farm, it
was with the expectation Of speedily dy-
ing there. He had lost sight however,
of the facJ that nobody ever dies in Sui
Ivan county except by accident, and at
the end Of II years, when he found he
couldn't die, he did the next best thing
and got married.
If he hadn t, this story would never
! have been written, for there would then
have been no brown eyed rosy checked,
| dimple faced beautiful little Jessie
| Maud Laird TO throw thc whole Of Sui
livan county into u state of admiration
and wonder, us she is today dong.
1t was the fame Of 5-year-old Jessie
/ Maud that dragged a reporter over the
interminable hills to Hurd $ Settlement.
When he met the veteran, he took him
quite naturally for the grandfather Of
the infant prodigy. That he is the
child's father, although rapidly nearing
60, seems to lend an added interest to
the remarkable gift Of physical strength
possessed by the girl. A man apparent
~ wrecked i'll health by years of CON
dnemcnt III rebel prisons, who tries in
vain for 1 I years to die, who then mar
ries a woman 20 years younger than
himself and in the course Of the next 13
years becomes the father Of six children,
the last Ct which even i'll tender infancy
gives promise Of becoming & female san
dow or Samson, would seem to merit
some form Of recognition from Il graft
fled and grateful government.
This little girl who was years
old last December, weighs exactly 40
pounds. Her mother declares that she
has never had a sick day in her iife.
She began to go to school when she was
~ years old. The schoolhouse is
mile from the farmhouse, and Maud
walked both ways overy day.
1t was with great surprise that Farm
/ 4
porter. He has no idea of foisting the
little girl upon tho public as an infant
prodigy, and it was with some difficult
ty, increased by the bashfulness of lit
tie Miss Herculcs herself, that an eXhi-
bition Of her strength could be had. A
bribo Of unlimited candy finally induced
her to como out from behind the shelter
of her mother S chair-the mother, by
the way, being u cOmoly but uncom-
monty fragile looking woman-and ex-
hibit her muscle.
The old veteran, who couldn't CON
ceal the pride he felt in his interesting
flock Of youngsters, led the way toward
the barn, followed by tho six children.
Maud although she was barefooted,
walked more like the pupil of a dane
ing master than country girl of 5.
In the yard, near the entrance to the
barn, was Il coil or spool Of barbed wire
weighing G2 pounds.
Lift it, Cal, )" said tho farmer to his
Oldest boy The 1l-year-old lad laid
hold Of tho crosspins which stuck ont
ut the end Of the spool, and with big
tug, which visibly tightcncd the cords
III the calves of his bare legs, raised it a
few inches from the ground
"Now, Maud, " said the farmer, and
the littlo girl planted herself squarely
behind tho big spool, which reached up
to about midway between her knees and
her thighs. Without any perceptible ef
fort she raised the spool and held it up
for several seconds.
If there had bccn any reddcning Of
the face or putting out OF the veins the
spectacle would not have been an cdify
ing one. But there was nothing Of the
sort
Mr.. Laird then placed stones which
weighed 20 pounds on top Of the spool
l ttlltl dShtu Ihtutl W IIll tS'lll' llt 10
suit was precisely the same, and all evi-
donccs Of violent eXertion We're missing.
The combined weight Of the spool and
stones was two pounds more than dou-
ble the weight Of the little girl herself
The average man weighs perhaps 100
/ pounds, bat the man who can raise from
the ground and hold i'll the air 302
pounds Of dead weight is great way
above the average
II don't know how much Maud can
lift, " said her father, "but won't let
her try more than that
At this moment, however, the amaz-
! ing little Hercules threw her plump
arms around the legs of her eldest broth
en- and lifted him into the air, thus de
monstrating her ability at all events to
go as nigh i'll the lifting scale us Ss
= pounds.
: Farmer Laird has theory that the
+ spirit Of his father, who was q Scotch
man and sergeant in the English army
i. aud who was fam pd for his prodigious
! strength has entered into the grand
= daughter If that is 50, no British sol.
r dier ever assumed a lovelicr or moro at,
= tractive disguise New York World.
: D.c Thinp Iends tO Another.