Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 January 1882 — A Modern Samson. [ARTICLE]

A Modern Samson.

Madison Courier. Bill Hood, the colored man of strength, who formerly lived in this city, died at his home in Jackson county. near Seymour, recently, aged seventy years.” Our older citizens will remember him, and the younger ones will recall many leats of his strength that have been repeated to them, Hood was a remarkable man in many particulars, and for strength was perhaps without an equal in the State thirty yeais ago. He was a teamster, and often while engaged in hauling rock would lift with perfect £ase and place on his vwagon, flan stones that would require the strength of three ordinaly men. When his team would stall in chuck holes, he would place his back under the axle of the wagon and boost tne load out of the hole. When in his cups he was somewhat quarrelsome, and, conscious of his greatstrength, would defy the officers of the law and their posses. Upon more than one occasion the officers had to shoot and disable him before they could arrest him. Upon .one occasion a crowd of railroaders caught hiih'"ina'liquo store kept by Pat Carr, in the hous now occupied by Mr. Hoefer, the 'stocking weaver, and by doubling teams on him, thought they could whip him. They accordingly locked the door to prevent his escape and then informed him of their incen-

tion,"when he immediately commenced to defend himself by taking the ringleader by the nape of the neck andjthe seat of his pantaloons, and raising him above’his head threw him clear through the show-window and .out on to the pavement He then began to knock the others down w T ith his fists, and floored them right and left until he had the whole crowd dowm, wheiihe quietly unlocked the door and made'his way home, but not without a good many bruises, as his antagonists had been busy all the time belaboring him with ax handles and such like weapons. His superhuman strength, however, was so great that he soon rallied and recovered from injuries that would have killed ordinary men. Statistics disclose the fact that of every ten children born in England and Wales, less than seven ever reach their twentieth year. In France only onehalf of the boys and girls who are born attain that age, and Ireland fells even below this miserable standard of juvenile healthfulness.