HUMAN FACULTY 279 



prizes of much value were to be awarded to the 

 best made men in Sandow's gymnastic classes, as 

 estimated by three examiners, of whom Sir A. Conan 

 Doyle was one, while Sandow himself acted as 

 referee. 



I regret to have destroyed or mislaid the notes I 

 made, so the following description of the very instruc- 

 tive ceremony may be inaccurate in small details. 



The prizes were three, of an aggregate value of 

 not far from ^1000, and given by Mr. Sandow. He 

 had made a tour to his many centres of gymnastic 

 teaching in England, and picked out from each of 

 them the man or men who were most likely to stand 

 well in the competition. The day arrived ; I got a 

 good seat, and was prepared with an opera glass. 

 The competitors marched into the arena ; they were 

 about eighty in number, and they were in ranks of ten 

 abreast. They were stripped to the waist, but calico 

 cloths coloured something like a leopard skin were 

 thrown over their shoulders. So they marched round 

 the arena, then the front row discarded their leopard 

 skins, and jumped each man on to one of a row of 

 pedestals arranged in front of the organ. The 

 electric light was thrown on them. The three 

 examiners walked in front and behind, taking notes 

 and interchanging views. The man who was selected 

 as the best of this batch went to one side ; the others 

 rejoined their companions. The same proceeding 

 was gone through with the second row, and so 

 on successively to the end. Then the selected 

 ones came forward and stood on the pedestals as 

 before, and were examined still more minutely, if 

 possible. Finally, the first, second, and third man in 



