Barsabas entering one day a farrier's shop in a country village, asked for horse shoes, the farrier showed him some, which Barsabas snapped in pieces as if they had been rotten wood, telling the farrier at the same time that they were too brittle, and good for nothing.The farrier wanted to forge some more, but Barsabas took up the anvil and hid it under his cloak.The farrier, when the iron was hot, could not conceive what had become of his anvil, but his astonishment was still increased when he saw Barsabas deposit it in its place with the utmost ease.Imagining that he had got the devil in his shop, he ran out as fast as he could, and did not venture to return till his unwelcome visitor had disappeared.
Barsabas had a sister as strong as himself, but as he quitted his home very young, and before his sister was born, he had never seen her.He met with her in a small town of Flanders, where she carried on a rope manufactury.The modern Sampson bought some of her largest ropes which he broke like pack-thread, telling her they were very bad.--``I will give some better,'' replied she, ``but will you pay a good price for them?''--``Whatever you choose,'' returned Barsabas, showing her some crown pieces.His sister took them, and breaking two or three of them said, ``Your crowns are as little worth as my ropes, give me better money.'' Barsabas, astonished at the strength exhibited by this female, then questioned her respecting her country and family, and soon learned that she belonged to the same stock.
The dauphin being desirous to see Barsabas exhibit some of his feats, the latter said, ``My horse has carried me so long that I will carry him in my turn.'' He then placed himself below the animal and raising him up, carried him more than fifty paces, and then placed him on the ground without being the least hurt.
Barsabas' sister was not unique in her century.I quote from a magazine called The Parlor Portfolio or Post-Chaise Companion, published in London in 1724:
To be seen, at Mr.John Syme's, Peruke maker, opposite the Mews, Charing Cross, the surprising and famous Italian Female Sampson, who has been seen in several courts of Europe with great applause.
She will absolutely walk, barefoot, on a red-hot bar of iron: a large block of marble of between two and three thousand weight she will permit to lie on her for some time, after which she will throw it off at about six feet distance, without using her hands, and exhibit several other curious performances, equally astonishing, which were never before seen in England.
She performs exactly at twelve o'clock, and four, and six in the afternoon.
Price half-a-crown, servants and children a shilling.
From the spelling, I judge that the person who selected this lady's title must have been more familiar with the City Directory than with the Scriptures.
In Edward J.Wood's Giants and Dwarfs, London, 1868, I find the following:
A newspaper of December 19th, 1751, announces as follows:
At the new theatre in the Haymarket, this day, will be performed a concert of musick, in two acts.Boxes 3s., pit 2s., gallery 1s.Between the acts of the concert will be given, gratis, several exercises of rope-dancing and tumbling.There is also arrived the little woman from Geneva, who, by her extraordinary strength, performs several curious things, viz.1st.She beats a red-hot iron that is made crooked straight with her naked feet.2ndly.She puts her head on one chair, and her feet on another, in an equilibrium, and suffers five or six men to stand on her body, which after some time she flings off.3rdly.An anvil is put on her body, on which two men strike with large hammers.4thly.Astone of a hundred pounds weight is put on her body, and beat to pieces with a hammer.5thly.She lies down on the ground, and suffers a stone of 1500 pounds weight to be laid on her breasts, in which position she speaks to the audience, and drinks a glass of wine, then throws the stone off her body by mere strength, without any assistance.Lastly, she lifts an anvil of 200 pound weight from the ground with her own hair.To begin exactly at six o'clock.
At present the stunt with the two chairs and the six men is being exhibited as a hypnotic test.
Giovanni Battista Belzoni, the famous Egyptian archeologist, who was a man of gigantic stature, began his public career as a strongman at the Bartholomew Fair, under the management of Gyngell, the conjuror, who dubbed him The Young Hercules.Shortly afterward he appeared at Sadler's Wells Theater, where he created a profound sensation, under the name of The Patagonian Samson.
The feature of his act was carrying a pyramid of from seven to ten men in a manner never before attempted.He wore a sort of harness with footholds for the men, and when all were in position he moved about the stage with perfect ease, soliciting ``kind applause''
by waving a flag.He afterwards became a magician, and after various other ventures he finally landed in Egypt, where his discoveries were of such a nature as to secure for him an enviable position in ``Who's Who in Archeology.''
