cp 19

Godfrcy Rodrigurs inheritcd nothing in thc way of natura! physique but much in the way of pcrsistence and a certain stubborn ambition to be as unlikc his father in build as pos-sible.

Hc graduated from thc Royal Military Acadcmy at Brcda in 1907. thcn went to Batavia in Java. There. after a season of hard work in a new. strange. hot climate. hc col-lapsed. He was greatly underweight and was threatened with tubereulosis. A sick man. a hopeless inva!id. From there. hopeless and discouraged. hc came to thc United States in 1908. landing in San Francisco. Working in lumber camps on the coast and in Canada. he faccd life in the rough.

Returning to thc British East Indies in 1913 with a weIl-developed case of "wandcrlust." and intrigucd with thc desire to know morę of that strange. eastern land. he lived for three years in and aboul the huts of thc fakirs of India. cndcavoring to learn their strange eastern secrcts of mysticism. torturę, breathing and legerdemain. During these years hc watched and studied these queer men of great will who belicvcd that holiness came with distorting their bodics into strange shapes. Hc learned one thing well. It was possible for man to hołd his body or any portion of it in one position long cnough for it to grow that way. Ali that was necessary was to deve!op sufficient will power to carry thc desire into effect. Whilc most of these fakirs distorted their bodics for no good purpose. be learned that it was possible to so develop thc muscles that they could be hcld in certain positions for good purposes as well.

Back to the United States he came. after three years of wandering in search of thc secrcts of health. arriving in 1916. becoming a naturalized Citizen of this country.

Captain Rodrigues Pictured Twenty Years Ago

How did this weakling. pensioncd off as an inealid by thc Dutch Royal army. who 20 years ago weighed. with