Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 2, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 June 1858 — California. Endurance. [ARTICLE]

California. Endurance.

A San"‘Francisco correspondent of the New York Tribune gives the following account of several extraordinary feats of strength and endurance lately performed la that city: “Several extraordinary gymnastic feats have been performedjiere. On the 9th inst.» a Mr. Henry Derrick drew.a sulky, weighing 73 pounds, seven times around the Union Race Track, a distance of seven miles in 54 minutes and 28 seconds. “On the 10th inst.j a Mr. J. H. Moody, raised two 14-pound weights 25,000 times four feet from the floor without stopping. These weights are hung over pulleys, and the gymnast sits in a chair, catches the-rope *at arm's-length, draws his hand to his shoulder, raising the weight four feet by so doing; then lets the weight down, raises the other, hnd so on. Mr. Moody’s task lasted about jive hours. “On the 13th, Mr. Wheeler went to work to beat Mr. Moody. He sat down at 7 o’clock "in the morning and worke.d till 5 P. M., raising 14 1-2 pound weights. He raised them 58,617 times—equivalent to lifting 418 tuns ' four feet high. While Wheeler was at work he ate and drunk a little wine given him by ! his friends. He lost 4 lbs. in the operation. “On the ITjfli Mr. Moody pulled the 14 | pound weights 6SL<6O times in eleven hours i of unremitting labmuand aK a cost of three ‘ pounds of his weigfc.'Njlis task was 'equivalent to lifting 472 tuns four feet high. Wheeler swears that he can and will beat Moody. It is said that their feats in polling have never beun equaled in any other place. “The publication of the particulars of Jack Power’s ride of 150 miles in six hours and forty-seven minutes has called out a description of a ride by Juan Brown from Los Angelos to San Francisco in September, 1846. He rode 630 miles in four days, the last 180 mi}es from Monterey to San Francisco being made in 7 3-4 houis, or 22 1-2 miles an hour. Brown is a Swede by birth-,-, but “a true American,” as he says, by adoption, and the purpose of his ride was to carry news to American officers of the dangerous position of the American troops in Los Angelos. “There have been many wonderful rides in California. In one instance, known to myself, an American boy, ten years of age, rode from Sacramento to Sofioma, 80 miles, in a day, without changing his horse.”

[From the Missouri Democrat.