The Athletes and Athletic Sports of Scotland

STRONG MEN AND THEIR FEATS OF STRENGTH. 25 t, will be hopelessly beaten unless he also can specially train imself for the same feat. There aregenerally from half a-dozen to upwards ofa score f athletes eachloudly proclaiminghimself the strongestman on arth. In London alone, in the winter of 1889-90, there were "ampson, Cyclops,Sandow, the brothers Samson and Hercules, jax, M. Feydin, and a strongest woman on earth, Mdlle. 7 ictorina. We have no doubt there are a few more on the 'ontinent, afew in America, andtwo or three in Australasia, ne can understand how there might be several menscattered ver the world who had never met to try conclusions, each of vhom might claim to be the strongest, but when two or more ome to be advertising themselves in the same town, each as the trongest man in the world, one naturally expects a contest to ettle the matter. Of those in London, Sampson and Sandow eemed to be accepted as the two strongest, and the resultof a ontest between them left Sandow the victor. Yet so unsatis- actory was the whole affair, that after reading various accounts t is impossible to find a reliable recordof a single first-class feat f strength performed by either of them. Sampson in this con- est led off with the time-honoured feat of bending and then traightening an iron rod on his arm : Sandow followed suit. Sampson then broke a piece of wire by expanding his chest; Sandow did the same. Sampson next broke iron chains by raising the biceps of his arm ; Sandow as again up to time. Sandow took the lead by lifting at arm's length one of the gentlemen on the stage; Sampson declined. Sandow then lifted a weight of 150 lbs. over his head; Sampson, the self- styled " strongest man on earth," declined this also,and Sandow was declared victor. Now, the remarkable thing about this contest was, that with the exception of Sandow's using the150 lbs. dumb bell, a weight which several well-known athletes can manage with one hand, there was not a single feat performed by either of them of the slightest value as a test of real strength. Bending a rod of iron