Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-10-03
Athletes OF HISTORY.
Remarkable Men Conspicuous for
Strength.
GREAT RUNNERS and GREAT LIFTERS
But After All the Big Boasts Of the An
clients Were Not Unreasonable, For
Modern Times Have Produced Men
Who Have Equalled or Excelled
Most of Their Feats of Strength.

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Most of Their Feats of Strength.
The feats performed by some of the
ancient athletes are referred to by
uninformed persons as far beyond
modern achievements. But wher
closely examined and stripped of theil
traditional trimmings they are gener'
ally found to be quite credible and
sometimes comparatively common
place.
Take for instance the story of Milo
Milo was the most famous athlete ol
ancient times, and his most spectac'
ular stunt was to take on his back
four-year- -old heifer and to carry Il
around the stadium. The animal may
have weighed anywhere from 400 tc
800 pounds. The distance it was car
ried was exactly 220 yards, or one
eighth of a mile.
There is no good reason for doubt
ing the story nor for growing excited
over it either. The porters at Con
stantinople often make long journey:
bearing on their shoulders a weight
of 600 pounds. But 1t is further tolc
of Milo that after carrying the heifel
around to the stadium he killed Il
with a single blow of his fist. If 1t Is
| assumed that the fist was bare the
story is rather steep. But he prob
ably wore the cestus, a bulky affail
not unlike the boxing glove and ex'
tending nearly to the elbow, anc
heavily weighted with lead. Armed
with such a weapon any good heavy
weight pugilist like Sharkey, Jeffries
or Jack johnson would have little diff
ficulty in Staying a COW with a single
blow.
Then there is the well-known story
Of Leander, who swan the Hellespon,
with the praiseworthy object Of pass
ing an hour in the presence Of his
sweetheart. Now, the body Of water
known in ancient times as the Helles'
pont is in these days called the straits
of Dardanelles, and the distance
across it rather less than mile. Com
pared with such a swim as that OF
Captain Webb across the straits OF
Dover, a distance Of twenty-one
miles, Leander's performance seems
not only credible, but insignificant.
Among the notable athletes OF mod
ern times perhaps the most remark
able was Ernest Menson, sailor ir
| the British navy. On a certain occa-
.;on him Salf pannileSS in Lon
don and knowing that he must reach
his ship at Portsmouth by roll call
or be shot as deSerter the mex,
morning, he ran the entire distance
between the two cities, starting a,
eight in the evening and arriving al
his destination by six the next morn
ing. That is to say, he covered the
entire distance Of siXty-nine miles In
less than ten hours. His next run
was from London to Liverpool, dis
tance of 200 miles. which he covered
in exactly thirty-three hours.
A still more remarkable pedestrian
feat was his famous run from Paris
to Moscow, a distance which in those
days was 1,760 miles. Menson start
ed from the Place de Vendome, In
Paris, at exactly ten o'clock on the
morning of June II, 1881, and arriv-
ed at the Kremlin, in Moscow, at ten
o'clock, June 25, having made the
journey in about $50 hours. Menson
never walked, but went on a dog trot
gait similar to that Of Rowell, the
famous pedestrian Of twenty years
ago. This gait, the dog trot, or 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 nothing except occasionally a
little fruit or a cracker, but would
drink much water His rest was TAX
en- in a standing position, usually
leaning against a wall or a tree. Az
ter ten or fifteen minutes of this rest
he would awaken and go on appar-
emily as fresh as ever.
On one occasion during a long run
he went up as usual and leaned
against a tree to rest. His seconds
and attendants standing about had
noticed nothing unusual in his man.
ner or appearance. Ten minutes pass
ed. fifteen, thirty. The watchers went
closer and found that Menson was
dead.
one of the most remarkable feats
of strength on record is the platform
lift made by Patrick Mccarthy, of st.
Louis The platform was loaded with
stones, and Mccarthy, standing un-
der it, lifted with arms, legs and
back, harness style. The weight of
the platform and stones was 6,37O
pounds, or over three tons!
A. Cutter, of Louisville, KY, once
placed his little finger in a strap sus-
pended 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 a hor-
izonital bar he drew his body up six
times without pause. For drawing
the body up, Ginning the bar. as
they say in the gymnasiums, the palm
goes to Arthur Mumford, who in
1888, at Cambridge, Mass, chinned
the bar thirty-nine times without
pause.
Curiously enough, a large percent
age of the notably strong men Of his
tory have been of royal blood. One of
the earliest of these royal athletes
was Maximianus, called Maximianus
Hercules because of his great strength.
MaXimianus was the son of peasant
and a man of enormous physique. He
became a common soldier and was fl
nally made emperor by his fellow SOL
diers during stormy period OF Ro-
man history.
Mamimianus's strength was prodi-
gious. 1t was said that on foot he could
run down a fox, that he could lift
three men with one hand, and that by
gripping the wheel of a chariot with
one finger he could resist the pull of
three horses. Like most men of
great physical strength, MaXimianus
was a heavy eater. History records
that his daily allowance was forty
pounds of meat and eighteen bottles
of wine.
Augustus the Strong of SaXony, was
another of those royal SamSons. He
would often seize two of his courtiers.
grasping one with his right hand and
another with his left. holding them
up at arms length and playfully
twirling them about. On one occa-
sion the horse ridden by one of his
attendants became balky and refused
TO bulge. After some minutes OF
coaxing the king dismounted, placed
his Herculean shoulders under the
horses chest, grasping it by the fore
legs. and calmly walked away with
both horse and rider. This remark
able performance was witnessed by a
number of courtiers and attendants.
Peter the Great of Russia was a
man of great physical as we'll as
mental power. His years of work as