n of that year, a
gentleman, who had been looking at my lifting-apparatus, remarked to me,
"If you are as strong as they tell me, what is to prevent your seizing
hold of me, (I weigh only a hundred and eighty pounds) holding me at
arm's-length over your head, and pitching me over that fence?" To this I
replied, that, if he would give me six weeks for practice, I would satisfy
him the thing could be done. He agreed to be on hand at the end of the
time named.

In order to be sure of the muscles that would be brought into play by the
feat, I procured an oblong box with a handle on either side running the
whole length. Into the box I threw a number of brick-bats,--then raised
the box at arm's-length above my head, and threw it over my vaulting-pole,
which was at an elevation of six and a half feet from the ground.
Subsequently I added more brick-bats, till gradually their weight amounted
to precisely one hundred and eighty pounds. Having practised till I could
easily handle and throw the box thus charged, I informed my challenger
that I was ready for him. He came, when, seizing him by the middle, I
lifted him struggling above my head, and threw him over the fence before
he was hardly aware of my intent. As he was somewhat corpulent and puffy,
and the act involved an abdominal pressure which was by no means
agreeable, he expressed himself perfectly satisfied with the experiment,
but objected very decidedly to its repetition.

In June, 1858, I commenced practising with two fifty-pound dumb-bells, and
subsequently added one of a hundred pounds, which I was prompted to get
from hearing that one of that weight was used by Mr. James Montgomery, at
that time a celebrated gymnast of New York City, and afterwards a
successful teacher at the Albany Gymnasium. Not having given much
attention to the development of the extensor muscles of the arms for
several months previous, it was a number of weeks before I could put this
dumb-bell up at arm's-length above my head with one hand. As soon as I
succeeded in doing this with comparative ease, I procured another
hundred-pound dumb-bell, and in a few months succeeded in exercising with
both of the instruments at the same time, raising each alternately above
my head. I then commenced practice with a dumb-bell weighing one hundred
and forty-one pounds. It consisted of two shells connected by a handle,
which, being removable, allowed me to introduce shot, from time to time,
into the cavities o