Strong-Men

Strong Willie Rohrer of Brooklyn was the most popular because they knew him. but strong Al Manger of Baltimore was the hero because he broke three records. After he had done so, the women (there were eight present) purred "Wunderbar, wunderschoen" -and wished Al's nose were not big like his muscles. Big muscles, by that time, had grown commonplace.

Not more than 50 people witnessed the Manger feats last week in the amateur weight-lifting championships of the U. S. The reason for that was the bouts were held in Manhattan's German-American Athletic Club, an out-of-the-way little place on an island full of less static entertainment than grunting men lifting lifeless burdens.

Strong Al Manger and strong Willie Rohrer had one rival for attention, little (118-lb.) Robert Knodle of Hagerstown, Md., who broke five records in his class. But, as usual, the heavyweight class seemed more interesting.

There are two ways of approaching a weight which you are about to lift. Willie Rohrer likes to stalk about it, eye it suspiciously. He creeps toward it, grasps it. Softly he snorts. He waits, sometimes five minutes, as though to catch gravity off its guard. Suddenly he yanks at and lifts it (a steel bar weighted at each end by iron discs) high above his head. Last week, he lifted successfully every weight he tried.

Al Manger takes his burdens casually. He ambles toward the bar and, simply, lifts it. Sometimes he does not lift it much higher than his knees. In this case he puts it down, bows sadly to the audience. But if he succeeds in raising it, he holds it im mobile, and proudly, through his big nose, sniffs the stale air.

There are five different ways of lifting weights. No weight can be considered "lifted" until it is as high as a man can reach. The one-or two-arm "snatch" consists of lifting it with a single motion of one or both hands. The one-or two-arm "clean and jerk" consists of lifting it with one or both hands, first to the chest, then jerking to above the head..The two-arm "military press" is complex. This consists in lifting it to the chest, taking a deep breath, counting two, then slowly raising it above the head.

In last week's contest Rohrer's record was to raise 170 1/2 lb. in the one-arm snatch. In the one-arm clean and jerk he lifted 198 lb. and then later, feeling yet stronger, he lifted 203 1/2 lb. This did not constitute a record because he did it on his fourth attempt (you only get three tries), and because in Switzerland lives a man who once lifted 230 lb. with one hand.

Al Manger's records were 198 lb. in the two-arm military press, 264 lb. in the two-arm clean and jerk, 192 1/2 lb. in the two-arm snatch.

Albert Manger, 29, is 6 ft. 2 in. and shy. He has never lifted a piano, a horse, or a safe. In Baltimore he is a printer.

"Nine years ago," he says, "I started to lift weights. I have never stopped. Then I weighed 94 pounds. Now I weigh 179 pounds and have never felt better in my life. I eat almost anything, but I do not drink."