HOW TO GET STRONG
Murray, the grammarian, jumped twenty-two feet; but that Washington, beating him, did twenty-three. Not knowing just where to find verbal evidence or record of this, there is proof, in Hale's case and in Washington's, eloquent and wellnigh decisive. Look again at Hale's statue (p. 1). Notice the sinewy, clean-cut, uncommonly developed calves; indeed, every part of the legs. No fat; nothing soft there; nothing superfluous; but just where a jumper needs unusual development; there Hale had it.
Clearly he was a good one. To-day he would have made the 'Varsity crew surely; or the foot-ball team;—or both; as Chitty did the crew and the 'Varsity eleven at cricket. But Washington was a better; and had still better legs. Look at them and see. For here is a copy of the very picture from the City Hall, of which Custis said: "His matchless limbs have in but two instances been faithfully portrayed. In the equestrian portrait by Trumbull, of 1790, a copy of which is in the City Hall, New York," etc. Scrutinize it closely at foot and ankle; at calf and knee and thigh; at hips and waist; chest, arms, shoulders, and neck, and say if, taken altogether, you ever saw, physically, a better man, or as good a man. We took one of Harvard's most famous coaches—an oarsman of record and renown—in
of his generals to his home near by for supper. While they were at supper Carroll noticed his wife closely watching Washington, and he asked her if she was ailing. Then Washington spoke up, and said that she undoubtedly recognized that, by warfare's usage, they would not be able to jump twenty-two feet one inch that night for a lady's hand. This was the first time that Carroll knew that Washington was the man who had made the jump years before upon the village green."—Dilworth M. Silver, in Buffalo Courier.
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