THE PERFORMANCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXII, Issue 9595, 5 February 1910, Page 5

THE PERFORMANCE.

Last night George Hackenschmidt, the man of thews and muscle, worldfamed athlete aud strong man, made his appearance in the Town Hall, before a fairly large and certainly an appreciative audience. The performance was interspersed with a number of vaudeville items, which were not of a particularly brilliant order. But the attraction, of course, was Hackenschmidt and his companion athletes, Guuuer Moir and Alex Bain. Prior to his wrestling bouts with these men an offer of £15 was made to anyone who could stand against him for fifteen minutes, and was accepted by Moaua Parateue, the well-known local wrestler, who, taking all things into consideration, made a good stand against the champion, although he was put down in the space of 3 minutes 45 seconds. The remarkable muscular development of the famous wrestler was much admired, while his cleverness on the mat showed him to bo as active as a cat, and that his muscles could be brought into most effective use when wanted. This was demonstrated in an exhibition of catch-as-catch-cau with Guuuer Moir, who was his wrestling partner when the Russian visited Australia some four and a-half years ago. The bout between the two men was a lively one, aud was watched with intense interest throughout. Moir is splendidly buiit, and gave his opponent an exciting tussle, going out in three minutes seven seconds. Then followed a bout with Alex. Bain, a fine sample of the brawny Scot, ;>tandiug six feet two inches in his socks and weighing seveuteeu stone. This proved a particularly exciting contest, the big Scotchman making a tine stand, n which a great variety of holds were made use of. At times Baiu lifted the champion completely off his feet, but the latter's quickuess aud skill stood him in good stead, aud after a strenuous contest, lasting six minutes ten seconds, secured the fall, both being loudly applauded at the conclusion. A physical culture exhibition was also given during the evening by Hackenschmidt, showing his method of developing biceps, triceps, shoulders, arms and shoulders together, abdominal muscles, the legs aud the neck. He claims that his methods render the muscles supple aud enduring, aud that to become really strong it is essential to use weights. Very interesting and educational were a series of postures in which the various muscles of the arms, neck, back, stomach aud legs were not only thrown into relief, but moved, showing that in addition to strength the system cultivated mobility. An exhibition of skipping by Gunner Moir was an interesting event and won the applause of those preseut. Several solos were sung by Madame iSlauche Oarelli, which also received their share of applause. Among tlie bioscope films shown the most interesting were those showing the fight for the boxing championship of England between Gunner Moir and Tommy Burns, and the world's wrestling championship between George Hackenschmidt and Joe Rogers, the twenty-one stone American champion.