A MODERN AMSON.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1436, 20 December 1886, Page 2

A MODERN AMSON.

I propose to givo a short sketch of the life of a man who was little known outside the village of Granville Corner, in Washington county, where he was born and spent the most of a long life. It is Known of him, and can be proved, that he has performed feats of strength unsurpassed by any man that has lived in ancient or modern times, except, of coarse, the Hinlioal Samson. His name Is, or rather was. Steam Carpenter. Being naturally of a very quiet, peaceable disposition, and a member of the Society of Friends, ho never did anything for jdisplay to attract attention; but the feats of streop'b that he did were done more to satisfy himself and to see now much he could lift than for anything else. All his lifting was done by mala strength wihout harness of any kind. Gnu of his greatest feat? was lifting a box filled with iron, which weighed 1900 lbs which is equal to lifting 3800 ibs In a harness. He lifted it with ease by grasping a rope or chain which was bound around the hi xto secure it. He did not know 'ha weight of the box tf iron at the time, and was afterwards heard to say that had ho known it woighei so near » ton he would have pat the other 103 Ibs on and lifted the whole. At another time he lift'd a cannon that weighed 1400 Ibs and shouldered it. At Comstock’s Landing, on the Chunplain Canal, near Whitehall, one day while waiting for a load of merchandise, he lifted a barrel of white lead with ease. Bis neighbors, when killing ho?s, if he happened to be around, would atk him to guess the weight of a hog just killed. If it happened to be a big t/tie weighing 400 or 500 lbs, he would ai. op down and twis his fingeis Into the bri ties and in 'hat way lift it clear from the ground a»d guess on its weight. Be performed ooeof the greatest feats of strength on record after he had reached the age of seventy-five years. He lifted two twenty four foot imn rails by grasp log one in each baud and walking off with them. The rails were resting on wo den horses, so he did not stoop down to lift them. One day in haying be was going from the field to the honse for dinner. They were walking along the road together, when one of his men, for mischief, came np behind him, and by a skilful trip, threw Caipenter down. He got up and sa d nothing about it. He walked to the h use, and, after dinner, when returning to the field with hi# men, they came along to the place “here the man gave him the fall, ‘ He suddenly turned upon the man,and grasping hjm by the shoul »>tb and the seat of the lifted him and hurled him high into the air, and over a seven rail fence, by tie side at which they happened to be walking. The man came down in the meadow a rod or more from the fence considerably shaken op but not badly hurt. Mr Carpenter web no* a gigantic man I size. He was about sft tall, and appeared much less than that owing to hU ma sivo build. There was no superfluous fiesh upon him, bat the musoles of his arms, shoulders, and neck seemed to be piled upon Him, so great w?s their size* This gave him a stooping appearance. In a crowd, a oisual observer would not be likely to pick him out as one of the strongoat men that ever lived. Mr Carpenter's living at the present time at Granville Corner, Washington County, N.Y , hi* old home, or was living the last I heard of him Ha must be over 80 years of age,— Tmj N 7 , T'mes.