HOW TO GET STRONG
cellar. Nathaniel, his (David's) father, was not quite as strong. Yet he could throw a barrel of cider into a cart; while Joseph (Nathaniel's father) exceeded them all—for he could lift a barrel, and drink out of the bung-hole!"
Just try any one of these three feats at some time when you are feeling fine. You may learn something; or name some man among the three and a half millions of people in New York City, or of the four and a half millions in London, who can do what Joseph Beecher did. Not only is a cider-barrel a clumsy, unwieldy thing; but you have to hold it at arms-length, and with a poor grip; so that, even empty, it is no plaything. But full, it weighs about four hundred and fifty pounds; and, barring Sandow, and a very few others, the world has scarcely a man in it to-day who can do what Joseph Beecher did. David, the grandfather, was a blacksmith—about the strongest kind of mechanic—and Henry got a deal of strength there. But wherever he got it, it stood out all over him.
JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE
410