Page:How to Get Strong (1899).pdf/556

 they had to undergo for them. I could at this moment pick a crew composed of men all more than thirty years old who are still, or have been till quite recently, in active rowing, and, though some of them are married men, I would back them to render a good account of themselves in eight or four or pair against any selection of men that could be made.

"Nay more, in any other contests of strength and endurance, I believe they would more than hold their own against any younger athletes; and would overwhelm any similar number of non-athletes of the same or any other age. As contests I should select a hard day's shooting over dogs, cross-country riding, tug-of-war, boxing, long-distance rowing, or, in fact, any contest in which the special element of racing in light ships has no part.

"For such contests I could pick not eight but eighty men well over thirty years old; and, if the limit were extended to twenty-four years of age, I could secure an army. Is there any one who doubts that my rowing-men would knock the non-athletes into a cocked hat? For it must be remembered that the bulk of rowing men are not exclusively devoted to oarsmanship. A very large proportion of those that I have known have been good all-round sportsmen."

Does this testimony of Mr. Morgan and Mr. Lehmann, covering nearly eight hundred famous oarsmen, the most renowned amateur oarsmen England—rowing England—has ever produced; for a 'Varsity oar who does his duty in the battle is forever on an honor-roll, dear to men any way, as we have seen in the case of the Master of the Rolls:—does this say that athletes die young? Have athletics killed Mr. Justice Chitty at seventy? Or Paul Krueger at seventy? Or Lord Esher at seventy-nine? Or Bismarck at eighty-three?