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MY EARLY BAYS

S stated in the introduction to this book, I should be untruth-

ful did I follow the example o i* certain strong men who

have madę it their business to say they are weakly invalids at the conimencement of their training. but. by the secret nicthod, madę themselves into strong men. I reiterate the fact that only one man in every hundred has the chance ot becoming a champion weight-liftcr. To pose successfully as such, one must, in the first instance, be born with the constitution of a horse, and with a sound physical make-up, both externally and internally, good bones and a strong will. Also, of course, the wish and ambition to l>e a “strong man."

I must admit that the manner in which my youthtul days were spent has stood me in good stead in my latter-day training to fit myself tor the title of “Stij.mgest Mail on Earth.”

I was bom at Leipzig, in Germany, on the 28th of April. 1878, and went to school to the age of 14. T practically lived in the open air, being specially lond, in my boyhood days, of long, rambling walks, during which, with my comrades, as the desire seized us, we ran and wrcstled, occasionally; in fact, even niaking a practice of climbing trees, which. in itself, is a splendid exercise, •\alling into play cvery muscle of the body; also 1 may say a cool head and steady nerves are necessary to excel in this particular sport, it such it may be called. The most successful climber is he who attains to the greatest height, and I have often watchcd, and, indeed, myself climbed to such a height that the tree became of inadequate tliickness to the weight it had to support, and at sonie scores of leet above the ground, it would bend over in a manner quite thrilling to behold.

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