The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-08
ANCIENT ATHLETES WERE NOT 50 GREAT Feats Are Often Duplicated
 in Modern Times SOME GIANTS OF OLD Peter the Great Was Regarded as Strongest Man in His Empire.
 Emperor Maximianus'
 Strength
SOME GIANTS OF OLD

The feats performed by some Of the dn- | cient atheletes are referred to by min formed persons as far beyond modern achievements But when closely examined and stripped of their traditional trim mings they are generally found to be cutie creditable and sometimes compara- lively commonplace.
 Take for instance the story of Milo. Milo was the most famous athlete of ancient times and his most specta cular stunt iNas to take on his back 4-year-old heiter and to carry it around the stadium. The animal may have weighed anywhere from 400 to 800 pounds. The distance 1t was carried was exactly 22o yards. or Gne- eighth of mile.
 There is no good reason for doubling the story, nor for growing excited over 1t either The porters of Constantinople often make long journeys bearing on their shoulders a weight of eco pounds. But Il is further told of Milo that after carrying the heifer around the stadium he killed 1t with a single blow of his fist. If it Is assumed that the fist was bare the story
 Is rather steep. But he probably wore
 the cestus, bulky affair not unlike the
 boxing glove and extending nearly to the
 elbow, and heavily weighted with lead.
 Armed with such weapon any good
 heavyweight pugilist like Sharkey, Jef-
 fries or Jack Johnson would have little
 difficulty in staying a COW with single
 blow.
 Then there is the well known story of Leander, who swan the Hellespont with
 the praiseworthy object of passing an hour in the presence of his sweetheart. Now the body of water known in anclsat
 times as the Iellespont is in these days called the Straits of Dardanelles, and he distance across Is rather less than q mile. Compared with such 8 swim as that of
 Captain Webb across the Straits of Dover,
 distance of 21 miles. Leanders perform ance seems not only credible, but insgnih- cant.
 Among the notable athletes of modern times perhaps the most remarkable was | Ernest Monson, a sailor in the British | navy. On a certain occasion, finding nini- | self penniless in London and knowing that
 he must reach his ship at Portsmouth by I roll call or be shot as a deserter the next morning, he ran the entire distance be- | tween the two cities starting at in the
  | 6 the next morning That is to say he cov- erede the entire distance of 69 miles in | less than 10 hours His next run was from l London to Liverpool distance of POO | miles, which he covered in exactly 8 1 hours.
 | A still more remarkable pedestrian feat was his famous run. from Paris to Mos- | COW, a distance which in those days was | 1760 miles. Menson started from the Place l 6e a exactly 'clOpIx | on the morning of June II, 1881. and ar- 1 rived at the kremlin, in Moscow, at 10 l oclock, June 20, having made the journey | in about 3S0 hours. Menson never walked l but went on dog trot, gait similar to l that of Rowell. the famous pedestrian of I 20 years ago. This gait, the dog trot, CT | fox trot as it is called, is employed by all native runners
 | Menson was also peculiar as to eating and sleeping. On his journey he ate noth- l ing except occasionally a little fruit or Il l cracker, but would drink much water | His rest was taken in q standing position, usually leaning against wall or a tree l After 10 or 15 minutes of this rest he | would awaken and go on apparently as l fresh ever.
 | On one occasion during a long run he went up as usual and leaned against n | tree to rest. His seconds and attendants | standing about had noticed nothing mus ual in his manner or appearance. Ten l minutes passed, 15, 90. The watchers went | closer and found that Menson was dead one of the most remarkable feats of strength on record is the platform Eft | made by Patrick Mccarthy of St. Louis | The platform was loaded with stones, end Mccarthy, standing under It. lifted with | arms, legs and back, harness style. The | weight of the platform and stones was | 6370 pounds, or over three tons. l A. Cutter of Louisville, Ky, once placed | his little finger in q strap suspended from | the ceiling, and from hanging thus at
 arms length, drew his body up to the chin | six times in succession. With one hand on
 horizontal bar he drew his body up six
 times without pause. For drawing the | body up, chinning the bar as they say in | the gymnasiums the palm goes to Arthur Mumford, who in 1888. at Cambridge. | Mass chnned the bar g times without | pause.
 | Curiousy enough a large percentage of | the notably strong men of history have l been of royal blood. One of the earliest of | these royal athletes was Maxmius. 1 called Maximanus Hercules because of
 his great strength. Maximianus was the son of a peasant and man of enormous | physique He became common soldier | and was finally made Emperor by his fcl- low soldiers during stormy period of | Roman history.
 | Maximianus's strength was prodigious. | It was said that on foot he could run down a fox; that he could lift three men with one hand, and that by gripping she | wheel of chariot with one finger he could resist the pull of three horses. Like
 most men of great physical strength Max | imianus was heavy eater. History rec ords that his daily allowance was 10 | pounds of meat and IS bottles of wine. Augustus the Strong of SaXony was an-
 other of those royal Samsons. He would | often seize two of his courtiers graspng | one with his right hand and another with | his left, holding them up at his arm s | length and playfully twirling them aboat. | On one occasion the horse ridden by enc | of his attendants became ballly and Tc- | fused to budge. After some minutes of coaxing the King dismounted, placed his | Hercuean shoulders under the horses chest, grasping it by the foreegs, 0n l | calmly walked away with both horse and rider. This remarkable performance was witnessed by a number of courtiers and attendants.
 great physical as well as mental power His years of work as blacksmith and sn,p carpenter had so developed naturally
 powerful physique that he was supposed to be the strongest man in Russia. ,fhe
 story is told that certain blacksmith in
 little country town had boasted that he
 was the only blacksmith in the world who
 could lift his own anvil.
 The Emperor. hearing of the black smiths boast. disguised himself as work