Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 86, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 July 1909 — ONE LEGGED ATHLETES. [ARTICLE]

ONE LEGGED ATHLETES.

Rteorde Mad* by Mon With Qtrfoui Handicap. Although moat of us hare sees, or at least heard of, the one legged orloketers—eleven of whom were often wont, in the days when the game was not so strictly disciplined as it is at present, to oppose an eleven of one armed players— one legged athletes are by no means common, and a one legged golfer is probably unique. Yet such a phenomenon does exist, in the person of a member of the Bulwell Artisan’s club, who, it is said, plays a very sound game. He, in all probability, however, acquired the rudiments of the science when acting as caddie in days previous to the accident that necessitated that amputation of his limb. That such a handicap as the loss of a leg does not incapacitate a man from excelling as a swimmer, says the London Tit-Bits, has been conclusively proved on more than one occasion. One of the foremost exponents of the natatory art at the present day labors under this disadvantage, and many old frequenters of Brill’s Baths at Brighton will remember the head swimming master, Camp, who, despite the fact that he had but one leg, was not only an adept at trick swimming, but in the matter of pace could give a start and a beating to many who had the normal number of limbs. More than once has a one legged cyclist won a race, and not so long since such a one, named West, used, with a liberal start, to hold his own With the speediest professionals. Kilpatrick, too, must be endowed with as much power in his one leg as most men have in their two, if we consider the many daring feats he has accomplished on his cycle, foremost among which are bis standing with his machine on the summit of the 100 foot high Laxey Wheel, in the Isle of Man, and his descending at breakneck speed the east steps of the Capitol at Washington. The annals of foot racing contain more than one record in point. We read how once Newmarket Heath was the scene of a race between two cripples, each having a wooden leg. In the presence of a goodly throng, among whom was the Merry Monarch, “they started fair, and hobbled a good pace, which caused great admiration and laughter among the beholders; but the tallest of the two won by two or three yards.” Again, over a hundred years later, in 1799, a certain one legged man, named Carter, backed himself to cover six miles within the hour, and performed th*e feat with six minutes to spare. Some years since a wrestler named Binet gained much kudos among the habitues of Continental fairs less by his wrestling prowess, although that was not inconsiderable, than by his being handicapped by the loss of a leg. This notwithstanding, he always made a gallant and not infrequent a successful show, his great height, strength and weight standing him in good stead. He excelled, too, in feats of strength, and was specially notable for his skill in casting a heavy blacksmith’s hammer. To w trial of skill with this implement he was wont to issue a general challenge and it was but seldom he found his master. , Nothing, one would say, is more calculated to place a boxer at a disadvantage than the loss of a leg. Yet Thomas Kench, a burly 15 stone man, topped 6 feet by some 3 inches, well hgld his own with the gloves with such as had the temerity to face him in the arena of the booth with which he and other boxers traveled the fairs and race courses in the days when pugWism flourished. Not only gid he take on all comers at mimic warftye, but on one occasion at least heststfipped in the ring for serious fray, his opponent being a Leicester butcher, who thought to compensate for his inferiority In pounds and inches by his superior activity. In this, however, he was mistaken, for the long left of the cripple, which he was unable to avoid, put him out of time after seventeen well fought rounds.