The Athletes and Athletic Sports of Scotland

26 ATHLETIC SPORTS OF SCOTLAND. by striking the arm depends on knack, not strength. Breaking wires and rings givesno definite tests ofstrength, as the follow­ ing facts prove :—In one instance one of the audiencebroke the chains with little apparent effort; in another instance, a pair of dray horses attachedto one were unable to break it,which prove that someof the chains were easily broken, others ill to break. A Mr. Griffin, writing tothe Sportsman at the timesaid, " San- dow's dumb-bellwas said to weigh 150 lbs. It mighthave been 15 lbs. or 1500 for all the public were allowed to know." In short, after allLondon was excited about rival strongmen, and after much wordy warfare and exciting contests, the strong men went away breathing defiance to each other and to the whole world, withouthaving performed a single feat of genuine strength of a definite value. The following extract will show the trum character of some of the London performances. In a" contest between Hercules and Sampson and the mighty Ajax, Hercules wasn't put to much trouble, his partner Sampson setting the Frenchman a t sk which he failed to fulfil. This was to hold aloft a dumb-bell weighing 112 lbs. with one hand, while with the otherhe performed tricks with a weight of56 lbs." On an average, a man could be found in every parish in Scotland strong enough to perform this feat, that a so-called champion strong mandid his best to perform but failed. This brings us to the subjectof dumb-bell lifting andputting up, one ofthe best tests of strength, as it admits of a definite value being put on each athlete's performance. Dumb-bells allow of a great variety of feats; but for a display of rea strength, the best and most popular test is that of raising the dumb-bell withone hand to full stretch of arm abovethe head The athlete that canput up the heaviestweight is the strongest at that particular feat. Yet simple as this test appears, it can be performed in different ways that lead to disputes. In the news paper controversyaroused by the Sampson-Sandow contest, ence wasmade tothe feats performed with dumb bells by D Dinnie andG. Davidson athe London Aquarium several year