The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1908-08-22
TO SWIM CHANNEL
Samuel Mahoney Believes His
System of Training
Will Enable Him to Cross From
Dover to Calais.

When the White star liner Republic
sailed from Boston recently it carried
among a hopeful party of swimming
enthusiasts Samuel Mahoney. who is
OIL his way across to try his strength
on a swim across the English channel
There is no better place in the world
to test the endurance Of a swimmer
than this channel The water is cold
weather changeable. Ever since SWIM
ming was first classed with sports, men
have tried this long swim. Thus far
their efforts have resulted only in fail
ure. The man who successfully swims
the English Channel must possess end
less endurance. strong. we'll balanced
brain and unsuitable courage. Strange
as it may seem, statistics of the vari-
Gus attempts show that the brain Of
jority of cases before the muscles re-
fused to work Men have become tenn
porarily insane and were compelled to
undergo days Of careful treatment be-
fore their mental balance could be re-
stored. One swimmer was literally
frightened out of the water by the
blackness of the night together with
a heavy fog that settled over him like
a pail Other swimmers fail because Of
insufficient strength
1t is the opinion Of those who know
Mahoney that he, If any one living can,
will swim across the English Channel
and not exhaust his great strength in
doing so. Mahoney undoubtedly pos
sesses all the qualifications necessary.
DN Sargent of Harvard university, who
has examined Mahcney. says he Is the
only perfectly developed man who ever
came under his observation. The first,
question asked Mahoney, and the nat
ural one, too. was: How did you OBJ
tain such magnificent development? q"
WELL said Mahoney. IF I should tell
You, you probably would think l was
romancing. but it has taken seven
years Of careful exercising to bring
me where am. Seven years ago I
was a little old man with bald head
and gray whiskers. What was the
reason? Rheumatism and doctors. For
IA 10 i,, ho1 ,,3$I, ,t,e
fever and took medicine. I finally de-
cided to be my own DOCTOR What
did you do to get well?" "The frs.
thing / did was to fall out of bed and
crawl over to the beach, about quar-
ter of a mile from my house, and take
A sun bath. That was the longest jour
neg ever took. From that on i'm
proved When I was able 1 began to
exercise. MY ambition then was health
and nothing else counted. In my opin-
ion a mans first duty is to be strong
and healthy" Where did you get your
system Of exercising?" Where did
get it? Out of my head. It did not
come all at once, you can bet on that:
but finally accomplished what I set
out to and that was to get an exercise
for every muscle in my body. After
the set was complete practiced faith
fully from that day to this. have al
since was a boy. but began to swim
regularly when I was getting back my
health. for found I could swim when
could not walk. You see the buoy
ancy Of the water took the weight off
my sick legs.
Now. about this Channel swim. I
believe can do it. have trained care
fully for year and beside I have
studied the record of every attempt to
swim it that could find. and in my
training have tried to overcome every
thing that made the other man fail.
You know the human body will water
soak just like a piece of wood. and
when that happens you are done. You
see what tan I have? Well. it is
really tan. I have tanned my hide un-
til 1t is as tough as leather. Water
won't get through very easily. OIL
course. shalt use grease to fill up TIL,
pores and keep the water out. and right
there is where l shall gain a point, for
shall use a combination of vegetable
oils that will absorb the waste matter
of the body and not clog up the pores"
TOO fat" said the big fellow, "wc!l.
/ ,guess not. That fat is blanket to
keep me warm. Don't you know that
all warm blooded animals that live in
the water are rolled up in blanket Of
fat? And as l am going to, play fish
put on the fat. But don't fool your
self into thinking this fat weakens me
any. for it doesn't. A swimmer can't
have buNchy muscles. that hind would