THE IRON COLLAR.

Evening Star, Issue 8718, 9 January 1892, Page 4

THE IRON COLLAR.

A TRUE STORY. •' Have he ailly do'd that? Whoy, sure, he be as strong as Samson hisself! " "Samson? Nay, but he mun (must) be as strong as Samson and Goliath rolled into one, that he be, if all that folks siys of him be true!" . ... a Such wero the exclamation which flow from mouth to mouth around a gaping circle of smock-frocked country fellows, who were sitting over their breud and choese in the public room of the one little inn possessed by their village. The round eyes of the clodhoppers grew rounder with amazement at every fresh word of the news which ono of their number was reading out from a Btray newspaper—a thing which was in itself a kind cf curiosity in any small English village a century ago. The reader went through his task very slowly and clumsily, stammering over every big word aa if it stuck in his throat. But had he been offering to his hearers a reward of LSO apiece they could scarcely have listened to him more eagerly, for what he was reciting wn nothing less than the detailed account of sundry feats of strength recently performed by ,; Strong Tom Topham," a sturdy carpenter, who had won the proud title of "Champion Athlete of Alt England," and whose doings and sayings were chrouicled by the newspapers as minutely as those "of the Prime Minister himself, and read by many people with a great deal more interest. "Thon," continued the reader, "this modem—Her—Herkewls (Hercules) lifted —with his teeth—and knces-a heavy rmvho-ga-ny table fully Git long'' (visible sensation amoDg the audience), "after which—he took up—a heavy kitchen poker —and, striking it—upon his fore irm- bent it at an ob—obtuse angel." "It bain't 'angel,' Joe/' said the landlord, peeping over his shoulder, "it be 'angle'—what you catches Hsh with, ye know. It means that he bent the poker like a fishin'-rod, don't ye ace ?' The pause that followed this lucid explanation was broken by a big, red-faced, brawny waggoner beside the window, who, slapping his huge brown hind down on the table with a force which set til the pots and trenchers dancing, called out in the challenging tone (f a man who would brook no contradiction :

" Well, / doan't b'lieve that, for one ! A man bend a iron pwoaker ju3t ou his arm, like ? Whoy, it be flat impossible !" This objection was succeeded by a general silence, for Sam Stokes, the waggoner,_was a very powerful fellow, and had a habit of convincing anyone who happened to differ from him in argument by applying his sledge-hammer fist to the dissident's eye or nose with a dexterity which mode most people rather shy of contradicting him. But all at once a strange voice struck iu from behind.

" Why should it bo impossible, pray ? It's not an uncommon feat, after ull, as it seema to me." All turned round in amazement, for the voice that had uttered these words, although very quiet and pleaaant, hid in it a ring of firmness which showed that the speaker fully meant what he said. Then they saw that another gueat had iuat entered the room, and had aeated himself at a small table near the door, upon which the landlord's daughter was juat placing some cold meat and a pewter pot of ale. He was a atout, ruddy, rather goodlooking man (apparently between thirty-five and forty years of age), in an olive-green riding-coat and high boots, which were thickly spattered with red mud. The hulking waggoner bristled up indignantly at this unexpected contradiction, and, looking round upon his companions as if calling them to witness how he would demolish this presumptuous objector, said with a defiant laugh: " Look'ee here, ma3ter, if you thinks it so mortal easy to bend cast-iron, V course ye can do it yourself ?" "Well, perhaps I could," answorsd the other, a3 coolly as before. "Perhapx!" echoed the waggoner, with an insulting grin. "That's just it—perhaps." •' Well, it's never wise to make too sure of anything, you know," rejoined Grcencoat quietly ; " but if you would like me to try, that's soon done."

"So saying, ho caught up the heavy poker in his right hand, stretched out his left arm with the fiat clenched, and then, striking the latter—quite lightly, aa it aeemed—with the poker, made the iron bend like a Btick, and then unbent it again with another blow, almost before the amazed spectators could see how it was done. " VVhoy, if it be only that," cried the waggoner, misled by the seeming ease with which the feat haa been accomplished, "I could do it myself!" And seizing the poker, he hit himself a tremendous blow with it across the left arm, expecting to see the iron bend like a reed. But it didn't; and instead of that the blow hurt him so much that he roared aloud with pain, and looked so extremely foolish that all the bystanders roared much louder with laughter. »' There be some trick i' that, for aartin !' howled Sam, furious at being thus made a laughing stock in the eyes of bo many of his admirers. "I* bain't fair play, that it baint!" " Seeing is believing," observed the greencoated stranger, with unruffled composure. "Look and see whether this is fair play or not." The lookers-on had certainly some show of reason for concluding that this feat had been accomplished by sleight-of-hand instead of sheer strength, for Mr Greencoat was a smaller man than several of those present, and his outward appearance (although he had a good broad chest of his own) gave little or no token of unusual strength. But their doubts on this point were speedily set at rest. As he uttered the last words, the Btranger suddenly seized the burly waggoner's hand before the latter could guess what was coming, thrust it into the empty quart pot that stood before him, and then, with one powerful squeeze, crashed the edges of the pot so tightly •round his wrist that the hand could not be withdrawn.

Here, at least, there oonld be no question ol sleight-of-hand; and so confounded were ail the spectators by this wonderful display of strength that they oould not even raise their usual clamor, but sat staring in silent and open-mouthed astonishment at the hero of the exploit, till the latter (who seemed to think very little of what he had done) rose and said, carelessly -. " Landlord, if there's a blacksmith anywhere near you had better Bend for him at once, for I don't think our friend here will get rid of that pewter glove without his help. In the meantime, with your permission, I'll just step out and see if that worthy ostler of yours has looked after my horse properly." As tho stranger left the room the landlord rubbed his great hauds with a gleeful chuckle.

" There'll be some sport now, lads," said he grinning. " Dick the ostler '1! meet his match, I'm thinking, if ho be as sauoy to this chap as he be to moat folks, and ten to one he will, too, for ho bain't called ' Surly Dick' for nothin'."

The worthy landlord seemed to be right, for even before he could reach the entrance to the stable yard—whither tho whole company instantly crowded after him—Surly Dick's harsh voice was heard answering with a volley of abuse the green-coated guest's mild expostulations upon the way in which his horse had been neglected,

" Djsn't thee try to teach ne my business !" growled the uucourteous ostler, leasing back disdainfully uguinst a post with lib bauds in his pockets, as if to show how little he cared for him. "The horses be my consarn, not thine ! Shut thy mouth and bo off, or I'll p.'onch thy yed !" "Oh, indeed ;"said the green-coated man, as quietly as evei " Well, when a dog gets vicious the bc&t pLn i3totie him up at once. So here goes to do u !" Then/quick as lightning, he snatched up the long iron bar with which the stable door was secured at night—a bar at least two inches broad, and quite a3 thick as an ordinary poker—and with one mighty wrench twisted it round tho post and the ostler's neck, literally hjinij the man to the wood ! At this sudden aud formidable turniug cf the tables Surly Dick (who, like other bullies, was somewhat of a coward at heart) set up a howl of terror that made the air ring, and brought headlong into the yard half a dozen passers-by, among whom wa3 the lord of the manor himself, young Viscount C . "Hollo!" cried the Viscount, as he caught sight of the green-coated strauger ; " is this the latest of your feats of strength, Mr Topham ?" "Topham!" echoed all the bystanders with one voice. "Be i/on 'Strong Tom Topham'?" "That iw the name which some people give mo," laughed Mr Topham—for it was indeed no other thau the famous athlete himself. "I've been teaching this saucy fellow a lesson in good manners, my lord," added he, pointing to the discomfited oatler in his iron collar, " and I rather think he'll be a little more civil to strangers after this." So indeed it proved, for from that day forth Surly Dickseemed to be wonderfully toned down, But so far from being ashamed of his strange punishment, he appeared to be rather proud of it than otherwise, and (like tho loyal man who used to boast of having been kicked by George IV ) was never weary of relating to an attentive audience how he had oDce been all but throttled with au iron bar by " Strong Turn Topham." —David Kur, in the 'Hoy's o,vn l\>r.tr. : __________