CHAPTER V.THE LIVING WEIGHTS.
About this time there were many strong men. Each hall in London could boast of at least one. It was also a great weight lifting period. When I lifted my heaviest bell, 280lbs., the other strong men put out a placard stating that they were lifting 300lbs. By the time I had practised sufficiently to raise the weights I was lifting from 280lbs. to 300lbs., they came out with the statement that they were lifting 320lbs., and so their little game went on.
For my part I was determined to introduce a novelty. Henceforth, there should be actually living weights. I started, therefore, at the Tivoli with a new display, lifting a horse at arm’s length above my head, and marching with it to musical accompaniment.
This was followed by a display with human dumb-bells. Taking a long bar with a large ball at each end, I placed in each ball a man, and I raised bar, balls, and men, slowly over the head. After putting them down the balls opened and the men rolled out. This performance I accomplished in order to equal the feat of lifting 300lbs. dead weight.
Further, I lifted, and supported on my chest, a grand pianoforte, with an orchestra of eight performers on top of the instrument.
There was still a fourth feat which I performed, knowing that no one could equal it, and that was to turn a somersault whilst holding a weight of 56lbs. in each hand.
These performances I repeated in the provinces. During this tour I had the pleasure of visiting not only many of the chief cities of England, but also Edinburgh and Glasgow.Who can fail to be deeply impressed by the grandeur and magnificence of the scenery of Scotland? Certainly I was not proof against it. Never have I visited a more beautiful city than Edinburgh, and the Scottish people themselves I found exceedingly kind and agreeable. Since then, I have been to Ireland, and can testify that its people are as frank, generous, and warm-hearted, as they are always represented to be. Certainly, some of the happiest days of my life were those spent in the Emerald Isle.
At the end of my first provincial tour I returned to London to fulfil an engagement at the Palace Theatre. Here I introduced another novelty. In place of the orchestra I held three horses on my chest. These animals stood on a plank, one at each side and the third in the centre, holding the balance in a game of see-saw. Included in this performance was the feat in which a Horse Guardsman on his horse rode over me, thus completing at that time the chapter of living weights.
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Sandow