Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1909-01-22
NEWS FROM
WASHINGTON

Ever since the command from the
While House went forth that army
and navy officers would be required
TO undergo a mild physical endur.
ance test there have been muffled
protests. AS a usual thing army
and navy men over forty years old
do not keep themselves in training
and it is suspected that a majority of
them after a horseback ride Of ten or
fifteen miles would experience COZ
siderable fatigue and soreness. The
test required by the President was
horseback ride of ninety miles in
three consecutive days, a pretty
severe test for soft men OF middle
age, the majority of them weighing
perhaps two hundred poundsP The
man weighing that much is proba-
bly, not in good health and has spent
too many years since he was thirty
in sedentary eating and drinking.
he is too heavy for an ordinary horse
and extraordinary horses are hard to
find. A rider in practice has an in
durated seat aud can eisily ride 80
miles day not only for three con
.secutive days but fer ten or thirty.
Well, the grosus and the protests
Of the captains, colonels and majors
came to ths ear of the Presidei
and he determined to show them
what the Commander in Chief Of the
Army and Navy could do and to
that end one day this week he got
up between three aud four o'clock in
the morning mounted his horse and
with three companions rode to War.
reDton, Virginia where lie ate lunch.
con and, after rest of half an hour.
rode back to the White house arriv
ing about eight O'Clock at night hav-
ing covered in the round trip dis
tance of ninety eight miles in other
words, having ridden in one day
eight miles more than he has re
quired regular army and navy off.
GERS to rids in three days. The
President weighs two hundred
pounds but he is hard and tough rs
nails. He has been riding constantly
for years probably about eighteen
miles a day and was of course in
training. There can be DO doubt but
that there is too much effeminacy
and sofIness among the officers both |
If the army and of the navy. MIR. |
Roosevelt doubtless remembers the |
striking example of General Shafter
who was in command of the Cuban |
army sent in midsummer to Cuba.
The immensely stout old General |
weighed probably three hundred |
and fifty pounds but in the way of
baggage he was like three hundred |
3 d fifty ton millstone around the
neck of an army. His headquarters
were miles in the rear of the army |
and there on a couch groaning with
govt he sweltered in the humid |
tropical July climate.
The lives and the treasure lost to
The country thru promotion by SEMI
,rity of unfit man will never be
known. The only road TO physical
fitness is thru exercise and abstem.
lousness. There can be no sufficient
exercise without abstemiousness.
Rockfeller's doctor has just predict
I'd that the multi millionaire will |
livs to be a hundred years old be-
cause as he says, che takes a great
Teal Of exercise in open air and a.
ways leaves the table hungry. OF
course the doctors prophesy is not
proved but it may be assumed that
Rockefeller has about as good a ply |
sician and as wise as money will buy |
and this hint and suggestion in the |
way of preventive medicine is one |
that every reader may note and
profit by without paying the bill |
that Mr.. R, ckfeller doubtless pays
his doctor.