Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-04-26

some of the business which they or
dinarily control through cartmen dis
charging loads Of -four themselves at
bakeries at a cut rate. They have
ways Of discouraging competition of
this sort which are quite effective.
In one case they seized driver who
had been doing this on quiet
street and thrust him into a sack with
few pounds of flour in 1t and shook
him up until he was all but blinded
and choked with the flour.
Then they threw the sack by the
1t was a bag of old bones he could
have. They also helped him to heave
| 1t into his cart on top Of a heap of
broken bottles, and when the victims
screams started the junkman running,
they skipped too, and left the poor
devil in his painful position until a
policeman drifted. that way.
The strong men who make a spe-
cialty Of -four and grain get from two
to eight cents a sack according to the
stairs they have to climb. On good
days one of them will carry 100 sacks,
or about $4,000 pounds, and his pay
will be from 81 to $3.50. One Of the
strongest of the strong, NJ. Mollier, is
famous for carrying 100 sacks before
lunch and 100 after 1t.
Once he undertook to carry alone
seventy sacks up a very steep stair
case to second story loft He did 1t
in three hours. With an ordinary 100
sack afternoon, he earned 40 francs or
$S that day. His average load per
day is from $4,000 to 10000 kilos, or
2S, 900 to $4,000 pounds.
Hippolyte Glairon- Rappez, known as
Father Glairon, the dean Of the -four
group of strong men, Is go years old.
He was born in Savoy-all the strong
men come from either Savoy or Au-
vergne-and he worked for twenty
nine years. In that time he bore upon
his shoulders about 352,000,000 pounds.
When he entered on his career, 1t may
be remarked, he was regarded as a
consumptive.
Glairon had an uncle who was also
strong man. He was feet 6 inches
tall, and he often carried two sacks OF
-four at one time up a flight Of stairs
"a weight Of 700 pounds or there
abouts.
1t is tradition Of the guild that one
day a comrade coming n-stairs
barred his way in jest, whereupon he
seized the man by the waistband with
one hand, loaded him on top Of the
| flour bags and finished his trip to the
top of the flight This Hercules saved
his money and bought wine shop.
He grew rich and carried money
about. A band of the marauders who
| have infested the streets Of Paris from
time immemorial lay in wait for him
one night to rob him. He began by
hurting five of them into the Seine;
then seizing a sixth by the heels he
used him as a club to beat off the
others.
The strong men have festivities OF
their own at which they do stunts. Al
the Paris Corbell track in March, 1895
they had a walking match Of 80 kilo-
metres, or about twenty miles. The
contestants carried a sack weighing 50
kilos, or about 110.
1t was won by strong man named
Labasse, who covered the distance In
ten hours. At the Chamos de Mars
some years later seventy-five contest
ants entered in a match to carry 22C
pounds sixty miles on a measured
track. The contest lasted more than
seventy-two hours.
Only two finished. Last October al
the market there was a contest in car
rying a crate weighing 61O pounds 100
yards. 1t was won by member Of the
poultry group named Vingneau.