Читать книгу Sandow on physical training: a study in the perfect type of the human form - Eugene Sandow - Страница 23

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The tour in France with the pantomimist, François, was, as we have said, a remunerative one, and naturally so, for the play in which Sandow and his quondam partner appeared had many elements of interest and novelty. As a pantomime, it amused the people; while the combination of athlete and harlequin introduced a new feature in entertainments of the kind, which astonished as well as delighted the audiences that were drawn nightly to witness them. The pantomime was entitled L'Afficheur (the bill-sticker). It was composed as well as partly performed by Sandow and François, who appeared under the stage-designation of "les frères Rijos." Its original character may be apprehended from the circumstance that François, who personated harlequin, was dressed as a huge doll, which Sandow juggled and tossed about the stage, threw over walls, and pitched in at windows, with a freedom which for a time disguised from the audience the fact that it was a living man, and not a stage property, that was being shuttlecocked about. Amusingly labelled, harlequin was also thrown against walls, to which he clung, exhibiting, in ingeniously contrived changes of dress, the pictorial embellishments of the bill-sticker's art. The performance, though an amusing farce, gave opportunity for the display of Sandow's extraordinary dexterity and strength, and served well the purposes for which it had been temporarily taken up. From France Sandow and François passed on to Italy, where, at Rome, they met with continued success as they adapted the pantomime to the tastes and local circumstances of that country. With the company was an artist whom Sandow had known in Holland at the time of his machine-breaking escapade, and an evening was devoted to the giving of a benefit to this old confrere. To give eclat to the evening's performance, the artist begged Sandow to exhibit his prowess in some feats of strength other than those in which he was accustomed to appear. Anxious to favour his friend, he readily complied with the request, though he was without apparatus, which had to be borrowed or extemporised. After a little searching about, the necessary appurtenances were got together. Impressed into service, besides a set of dumb-bells, were a couple of pairs of railway-car wheels, with their axles; yet, with this motley apparatus, Mr. Sandow not only contributed his own share to the evening's entertainment, but achieved a triumph which threw into the shade the other performances of the occasion. So signal was his success, that the director of the local theatre called upon him to offer him a very liberal sum if he would abandon the pantomime and engage himself as a wrestler and performer of feats of strength. This he afterwards did, and won a name for himself in the Eternal City for his performances, which attracted King Humbert and the athlete-loving members of his court. He was, however, not unmindful of his partner, François, for he shared with him the profits of his exhibitions until he left the city.

While at Rome, Sandow had an opportunity of enhancing his fame as a wrestler, for in this capacity he had been giving lessons to the titled youth of the Italian court, as well as wining their admiration for his powers as an athlete. This came about in consequence of a challenge he received from Bartoletti, a notable Roman wrestler, not unknown in America, who offered to stake 5000 francs on the result of a wrestling match with Sandow. The challenge was accepted, and the issue was a surprise to all Rome, for Sandow's victory was an easy one and enabled him to put the prize-money in his pocket. On the morrow of the contest, the surprised winner was made the recipient, after the fashion of the South, of innumerable bouquets, with other souvenirs and presents, including many applications from those seeking to become pupils of Sandow in learning the art of athlete and wrestler. In a short time he had more pupils than he wanted, though the aggregate fees were welcomed in the improvement of his finances. From Rome, Sandow at length passed to Florence, whither his reputation had preceded him, and there he met with equal success, and was presented by the Athletic Club of the famous art city with a handsome gold medal in commemoration of his visit.

Subsequently, Sandow visited Venice and Milan, where he won further honours with the golden rewards of his work. At the latter city he received a new challenge from Bartoletti, who, it seems, was not satisfied that he had been fairly beaten, or was at least unwilling, without further trial of strength, to accept defeat. Sandow, good-naturedly humored the great wrestler, and the new match took place at the Theatre d'Alverne, with like results. Sandow again was victor. A new contestant at this time came upon the scene, named Sali, a man who was acknowledged to be the best wrestler in Italy, and had won repute in Australia, where he defeated every one of his opponents. The moment was an auspicious one for a trial of strength between an Italian and a Prussian, for Germany and Italy had just then joined the Triple Alliance, and the political movements of the time invested the match with an international importance. Sali, moreover, was known to be an ugly customer in a contest, a man who would do his utmost to beat his opponent, as well as to maintain the fame of his country. Public excitement rose to a high pitch over the match, and the gymnasium of Milan put up the money for the stakes. The day arranged for the contest came, but the sequel was not varied in Sali's case, though he stood well up to his work, and the match lasted over an hour. The honours once more fell to Sandow, who came off victor and received an enthusiastic ovation, with the usual accompaniment of presents of fruit, flowers, and bon-bons.

Subsequently, Sandow beat, in five minutes, Milo, a pupil of Sali's, and then proceeded to Venice, where he bought a villa, with the design of enjoying a brief vacation. Here he was induced, however, to forego his well-earned rest, and to issue a challenge, this time to any two wrestlers, whom he (Sandow) undertook to tackle at once, the stakes being 3000 francs. A number of would-be competitors came forward, attracted by the daring challenge; but two only remained in the field to try their luck against the redoubtable Prussian. Their names were Sarini and Vocoli. Notwithstanding that the occasion was the first one in which Sandow had ventured to wrestle with two men at once, ten minutes sufficed for the contest, for within that brief space both athletes were on their backs.

Elated at his success, and being in admirably good form, Sandow now published a challenge, inviting three wrestlers to try their skill against him in one match; the rules of the contest being that, as each man is successively thrown, he is considered out of the ring; though, until there is a fall, all may come upon the challenger at once. His three former opponents, Bartoletti, Sarini, and Vocoli, accepted the challenge, and, as may be imagined, great was the excitement which the proposed match evoked. It will appear tame, as well as the merest commonplace, to chronicle the result; which varied in no whit from that of the preceding matches, though Sandow had an unusually hard struggle of it to wrest victory from the grip of his triple opponents. The match lasted an hour and a half and was a triumph such as Sandow might well be proud of. Against professionals of so great repute, no wrestler has hitherto been known to contend,—in a match three against one,—and to come off conqueror.

So notable a contest could hardly be won without its being widely talked of and deservedly praised. For a time it was the chief topic in the German and Italian Press, and the theme of comment in all the Mediterranean cities and towns. It took place just at the period when the late German Emperor, Frederick William, was at San Remo under treatment for his throat—the malady which was soon to deprive the Fatherland of its loved monarch. Sandow's renown naturally reached the young king's ears, and Frederick sent a message to Venice commanding the presence at San Remo, of the Konigsberg athlete. The command, we need hardly say, was obeyed with eager alacrity, and Sandow had the honour of giving an exhibition of his prowess before the Kaiser and his royal consort. The Emperor, though sadly stricken now with his fatal malady, was himself a man of much strength, and naturally took pride in witnessing the feats which his athletic fellow-countryman had to show him. With an old-time pride in his own powers, Frederick took a complete pack of playing-cards and with a strong, quick turn of the wrists tore them in two. It might have been courtly etiquette to leave the Emperor to the enjoyment of the pride he felt in the work of his hands; but some one informed His Majesty that Sandow could beat him at his own trick, and it was with pleased surprise, and with no admixture of envy, that he witnessed two packs torn apart by the renowned athlete. After witnessing several other astonishing feats, the Kaiser took a ring of great value from his finger, which he had worn for eighteen years, and with frank heartiness presented it to Sandow, telling him, at the same time, that he was an honour to their common Fatherland, and that he could desire nothing more than that his army were made up of many such types of fine physical manhood. He added, with touching pathos, that, to possess Sandow's perfection of bodily health and strength, he would gladly exchange places with him, were it in his power to do so. He also expressed the hope that he might live to see Sandow his guest at Berlin. The ring, which he then placed on his subject's finger, is of beautiful French enamel, encircled with brilliants, with the initial F, and a crown over it composed of diamonds. Sandow naturally prizes it as the most cherished of his souvenir treasures.

After this memorable incident in the great athlete's career, Sandow returned to Venice, where he had an encounter with a wrestler, named Muller, whose unprofessional brutality in a match which ensued, gave Sandow occasion long to remember him with keenest dislike. He was, in truth, a terrible antagonist; being known to resort to infamous tactics—such as seeking to break his opponent's finger or limb—to get the better of his adversary and win a match, even through a foul. Sandow, though aware of Muller's vicious habit, was not loth to try odds with him, and the match was duly brought on, before an immense and highly wrought-up audience. Sandow entered the arena and confronted his adversary with his usual pluck and coolness. After some minutes' struggling and a few feints, Muller saw that he was not likely to throw his opponent and he then attempted to play his old game, which Sandow, for the time being, foiled. Muller persisted, however, in his tactics, and endeavoured to get Sandow at a disadvantage, seizing hold of wrist, arm or limb, in turn, with the evident design of breaking or disabling it. But Sandow was wary, and for a further while succeeded in checkmating his purpose, until, with both hands, Muller fastened upon Sandow's right forearm and tried to snap it at the wrist, and at the same time, with a supreme effort, he forced two fingers of his right hand an inch deep into Sandow's flesh, crushing the veins till they burst, and causing him intense pain. This dastardly act, so foully committed, caused Sandow, for the first and only time in his life, when wrestling, to lose his temper, though not his presence of mind. With all his strength, Sandow, by an alert movement, jerked back his left arm, and, closing upon Muller, threw both arms round his body, between the waist and the chest, and drew his opponent towards him in a very bear's-hug until Muller's face blackened and blood gushed from his mouth, and he fell upon the floor as if he were dead. The defence was the act of a minute; but it left Muller, not dead, but with four broken ribs, from which it took him a long time to recover; while Sandow was disabled for four months, the veins being torn in his arm, and the nerve-fibres greatly lacerated. Even to-day, though five years have passed, Sandow speaks of the circumstance with keenest regret and no little reticence; though it was Muller's own perfidy that provoked Sandow to administer the merited, but unrestrained chastisement.

It was at Venice, shortly after his recovery, that Sandow made the acquaintance of the English artist, Aubrey Hunt, R. A., whose admiration of the fine physical development of the great athlete led him to paint the now well-known picture of Sandow in the Coliseum at Rome, in the character of a gladiator. It was from this artist that Sandow first heard of Sampson's nightly challenges at the Westminster Aquarium to any athlete who would come forward and do the feats performed by himself or his pupil, Cyclops. On the evening of the day Sandow was apprised of the challenge, he was already on his way to London, with what results—if the reader is not yet aware of them—the next chapter will disclose.