A Modern Sampson.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3195, 3 May 1889, Page 2

A Modern Sampson.

There has been exhibiting, in Now Yerfe n strong man, whoso feats' really entitle, him to be regarded as a successor to the Scripture hero whoso name kebeari, Charles Sampson is about thirty years of age and only of medium build and height, indeed, not by any means the sort of person one would pick out as a Hercules. Yet' the following are among some of his feats. He can brcalt nine steel wire cables of eight strands each passed round his body, by the expansion of his ohest; in the samo, nlnnner he can break a steel traceoliain, such aa is nsod in truck harness, liko glass, and he can pull'each link of the chain in two with his hands. He can bend' agas-pipoan inch in diameter to aright angle by striking it across his arm. In the tug-o-war. ho lias pulled successfully against twelve strong man, He will take a 'piece of steel chain three feet?long, force open one of the links, form a ring' of the chain just large enough to . fit the biceps of his right arm. he will swell the musles end tendons until tho ohain snaps in half from the tremendous strain. There ia no trick about this: the steel- used is three-sixteenths ol an inch, and formed in double Mb an inoh arid a half long. The tensile strength required to peform tlm feat is estimated at. 40001bi,, and it is dono with the greatest ease without the performer experiencing the slightest inconvenienoo.After that he mil wind about 126 lengths- 'of steel wire, cable round his chest, and in less than three seconds, by swelling the muscles of his ohest, baok, and 'shoulders, the metal, it snapped. In Bt Petersberg he placed himself in the centre of au oigbt-foot ring, and. fourteen strong men took hold of the ring and tried to pull him bejond a certain limit marked on thfl floor and failed to do so. Ho has decorations presented to him by all the orowned heads in tho Continent, ; especially'a very magnificent one, containing eighteen diamonds, conferred upon him by the late Emperor -Alexander of Russia, for killing a steer with one blow of his fist; this feat he also performed in Germany and Paris—in the latter place, as the animal was running, ho only knooked it down by the first blow, but the scoond orushed in its skull. During his professional exigences he has broken his arms seventeen times. Ho |doca not attribute his marvellous physical powers to any freak of Nature,but simply to careful training, • ,