Sandow Responds
That charlatan Sampson is still up to his tricks over a hundred years since I beat him at the Royal Aquarium in Westminster, London. Here's the real truth.
All us strongmen had our own special and unique feats of strength that others had a difficult time doing. Samspon and I each had our own sleazy little tricks we used to make ourselves appear stronger than we really were. For instance, Sampson appeared at the Cantabury Theatre of Varieties in London with a giant barbell marked 2,240 pounds sitting on top of two large barrels. He brought a couple suckers on stage, and they couldn't budge the barbell. Sampson made a big deal out of it and slowly lifted the weight with much effort. One night, somebody came up and lifted it with ease after Sampson had put it down. That's when it became clear that one of Sampson's assistants had unplugged the secret holes on either end of the barbell and let the sand out of the weight and into the barrels. Sampson also had a sham where he claimed, by the use of a harness, to lift some horses. One night, he did his act, but after he collapsed from fatigue, the platform he had "lifted" hung in the air.
I also had my little tricks. In fact, I knew I would have trouble matching Sampson's ability to break coins with his fingers and snap chains wrapped around his biceps. I had Lurline the Water Queen go over and pay a guy named Schlag to make me some chains and coins made out of very brittle metal. Lurline positioned herself in the audience, and when the real chains and coins were passed around to prove they were authentic, Lurline switched them. The wench later told about our trickery, and I was lucky to escape without too much embarrassment. The point is, though, that both of us were a mix of extraordinary physical abilities and showmanship. I simply outmaneuvered him at the Aquarium.
Sampson should give it a rest. I would, though, like to know how he learned to break those chains with his biceps. I was standing right next to him, and there were no tricks involved. Sampson snapped those chains like they were strings.
Coming Soon--Sampson reveals how he broke the chains