Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1886 — A Bulgarian Hercules. [ARTICLE]

A Bulgarian Hercules.

In the Bulgarian village of Ostrova, a correspondent of the Freie Presse witnessed the exploits of a rustic athlete who could make his fortune in any North American circus. He snapped an inch tow by passing one loop over his neck and shoulders, and the other around his bended knee, and then straightening out with an effort that turned his forehead into a clump of wrinkles. With an end of the same tow he then got a hitch around a sixtypound chunk of limestone, and, after giving it a few pendulum swings, whirled it around his head like a slungshot, A boy attendant then handed him a stone jug of the heaviest caliber, which he wrapped up in a shawl, and chucked between his crossed arms and his chest.

“ Will you pay for it if I break it?” he asked, after giving the bundle a preliminary hug. Coppers dropped in from all sides, and under the next hug the massive stoneware collapsed like an egg-shell. Samson next seized a wheelbarrow by the end of the handles. “Who will give me a florin if I let him sit in here and lift this thing the way I hold it ?” No one seeming disposed to volunteer, Ham son made his boy get aboard and hold the limestone rock between his knees. Seizing the barrow at the very extremity of the handles, he raised it clean off the ground, held it out at arm’s length for at least five secands, and then lowered it without allowing the front end to tip a single inch. He then produced a large grain sack, and offered to bag any fellowman in less than ten minutes for a bet of five against two florins. A broadshouldered raftsman accepted the challenge on condition that the matador should refrain from using his clenched fists. A ring was formed, and the raftsman proved a tough customer, but in spite of all his kicking and bracing the champion finally got a lock-grip around his arms, and in the next moment ensacked his person from head to heels, amidst the thundering plaudits of the rustic spectators.