CANADIAN STRONG MAN.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5208, 25 November 1927, Page 3

CANADIAN STRONG MAN.

KILLED HORSE WITH A BLOW.

FEATS IN THE OLD DAYS.

Abraham Lincoln’s feat of lifting a barrel of cider to his knees and holding it there while he drank from the bunghole is th® classic ofi exhibitions of strength in th® pioneer days, but there have been others who proved the frontier-bred men were of giant strength (says The Pathfinder). But Masterton, the famous marshal of Dodge City, Kansas, in its gun-fight-ing days, was one of them. One day Masterton tried to pull a drunken cowboy from the saddle to subdue him. The puncher closed down on his pony with a vice-like grip of his knee#. The athletic Mr Masterton gave a. mighty tug and down came pony and rider in a heap. But for sheer brute strength take' the case of, Joe Beaupre, a' FrenchCanadian who ranged the buffalo plains in the old days. According to tradition Joe. was so strong that he never would fight any man fpr fear of killing him, and there are plenty of incidents which show that his fears jvere justified.

One day, while he was driving a horse hitched to a sledgei along a narrow trail the animal baulked, and Beaupre could not budge him. Finally, becoming enraged, the man struck the nerv'Jus animal a blow behind the ear which stretched it on the ground dead. Then, loosening the; harness, Beaupre picked the dead horse up, tossed it to one side of the trail, and went on, pulling the sledge himself. Although possessing such terrible strength, Beaupre was not a giant in stature. He was less than 6ft tall, but he was broad chested and stocky. Second only to his phys’eal strength was his prowess as an eater, and he would have been famous for his appetite if for nothing 'else.

Beaupre was very fond apples, and he could eat an entire box at one sitting, and thing nothing ofi it. Once he was challenged to a one-day eating contest by another man, who was champion eater of his part of the country. The challenger, after consuming 371 b of meat, decided he had eaten enough to win. Then Joe started. He downed r>3lb of buffalo meat, a. 61b piece of. pork, some lard, and two loaves of bread.