Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1888 — A PHILADELPHIA HERCULES. [ARTICLE]

A PHILADELPHIA HERCULES.

He- Carries Kight Man and Lifts 3,300 Pounds. Philadelphia Record. Philadelphia-can boast bf a modern Hercules in the person of George Soptman. a giant in muscle and stature. He stands six feet four and a half inchat in his stockipgs, measures fifty niched around the chest,and weighs 273 pounds, scarcely an ounce of which is superfluous flesh. His proportions are admirable, and he has amazed many an athletic expert by ha displays of strength. Soptman recently paid a short visit to a gymnasium On Arch street and gave an exhibition of what he could do. The pupils eyed him curiously when he picked up the qne-hundred-<pound dumb-bell and twirled it between his fingers as a dude might do with a bamboo canei - When he stretched out his arms and asked all who possibly could do so to jump on his back, arms, shoulders, and head to take a ride, eight sturdy and strong men complied with the request, and holding on to his ears, hair and collar-button they bore their weight upon him. He carried them without much difficulty, and the gymnast who saw the performancejjwere almost inclined to think contemptuously of their own comparatively puny physiques. Not satisfied with this, the young giant went to the strength-testing scales and pulled up the 2,000-pound weight with ease. He then wrapped two straps around his shoulder and back, and fastening the ends to 2,300 pounds of iron, he calmly raised the weight and took a promenade around the hall with his load. As a last act, instead of wrestling with a Numean lion, as Hercules, of mythological fame, did, he caught hold of a bear, which a friend had expressly brought, and hugged the animal so hard that it grunted for mercy. Soptman has yet to perform even more difficult tasks and then he will pose himself as a modern Hercules and the hero of twelve unparalleled feats of strength.