THE STRONGEST MAN IN THE WORLD.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1030, 2 June 1880, Page 2

THE STRONGEST MAN IN THE WORLD.

The strongest man in the world at the present time, so far as we are able to learn, now lives in. Reno, Waßhoe county, Nevada. A San Francisco Chronicle reporter recently witnessed the astonishing feats of this remarkable man, and was fully satisfied by what he saw that he is really all that has been claimed. for him. His name is Angelo Cardela, an Italian, aged thirty-eight years ; stature, five feet ten inches ; weight, one hundred and ninety pounds ; occupation, labourer ; habits, temperate, though he has no scruples against the use of malt liquors and the light wines of his country. In personal appearence he is not remarkable ; merely a good-natured looking son of Italia, with broad, heavy face, a noble development of chest and shoulders, and large, fleshy hands. Hia strength was born with him, for he had no athletic training. When " stripped to the buff," however, a marked peculiarity in his spinal column is at once apparent. His backbone is, we might aay, double-jointed, with the vertical articulations unusually large and prominent. Though he is not a man of unusual size, his spinal column is double the ordinary width, and his other bones and joints seem made on a similar large generous scale. After some solicitation, he finally consented to favour the reporter with an exhibition of strength, which proved to be such an astonishing exhibition of lifting power as scaroely to be believed. The reporter, whose weight is one hundred and fifty pounds,

stood with one foot on the floor and arms outstretching, his hands being lightly grasped by two friends, one on each side, to preserve the balance of his body. This alight assistance, however, had no tendency to raise his.body, being merely to keep himmerely from toppling over. Cardela then stooped down •and placed the third finger of his right hand under the hollow of the reporter's foot, upon which he was balancing, and, with no perceptible effort, raised the reporter to a height of four feet and deposited him, standing, on a table near at hand. This feat he repeated, and then grasped the reporter's ankles with both hands, raised him above his head, and gently lowered him to the table in a sitting posture. Cardela had a pipe in his mouth while lifting, and continued smoking, as much as to say, " Per Baccho, 'tia nothing : a way we have in our country." On|a former occasion he raised Mr. Lawrence, a gentleman connected with the editorial Btaff of the Reno Gazette, in i similar way, with one finger, carried him across the room, and left him standing on a table. He has also lifted on the same plan, taking his third finger (which seems to be his most reliable one), several Reno heavy weights, one weighing over two hundred pounds. He can strike a blow with his fiat with a power of five hundred pounds, measured on a register. It is said that two Irishmen near Verdi started in to whip him one night, but concluded to give up the contract, as he grasped one in each hand and beat them together until the life was nearly hammered out of them. Many other tales are told of his extraordinary strength, and there can be no doubt that, in his particular speciality, he is unrivaled, and indeed a hisxis iiature when the peculiarities of his physical ' ' make-up " and is almost limitless power are considered. He states that his father could strike a blow equal in power to 1000 pounds ; so that his strength seems a direct inheritance. Cardela was not much educated and an imperfet knowledge of English. He dislikes to show his strength, and falls to realise his own value. If he were to give public exhibitions of^his wonderful powers he would donbtless be recognised and acknowledge to be the most powerful man in the world in certain lines of strength.