GREAT MEN'S BODIES
that he had better do something in this line himself. For Washington had greater height; weight; reach; and sounder judgment than Sullivan, who never began to have ten years of such seasoning, and superb preparation for a supreme effort like this, as those ten years of Washington's, absolutely free from every known form of dissipation, or anything that could undermine and destroy a man.
A fashionable New York tailor, as his books will no doubt show, one day, when Sullivan was at his best, and before he grew so fat, measured him for a suit of clothes. He made the largest girth of his chest, directly under the arms, forty-two and a half inches. Men know that a tailor will not let a man inflate his chest when he is being so measured, but makes him hold it naturally. A shirt-maker, upon the same day, measured him for shirts; and the chest-girth was again forty-two and a half inches; our informant in each case being a gentleman who was measured at each place upon the same day when Sullivan was; and he had these facts from the tradesmen themselves. Custis says that "Whoever has seen, in the Patent Office at Washington, the dress he wore when resigning his commission as Commander-in-Chief, at once perceives how large and magnificent was his frame." Some years ago, at our request, a banker in Washington prevailed upon the Curator of the Patent Office to measure this identical suit. The waist-girth of the vest was thirty-seven and a half inches; But the chest-girth, directly under the arms, was forty-four and a half inches. This made him almost exactly half as many inches around the waist as he was inches high, and about three-fifths as many inches about the chest as he was high. And every inch and ounce of that man was of the highest quality.
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