Eugen Sandow was a pioneer of bodybuilding, modelling his body after the ideal male sculptures in Greek art. He toured Europe and America promoting physical training, wrote books on fitness, designed several physical pieces of apparatus such as grip dumbbells, and organised the first English national bodybuilding competition.
My friend the Superior Person had been visiting the South Kensington branch of the British Museum, and he came back in high dudgeon. When I met him, indeed, he was literally spluttering with wrath. Evidently his very superior susceptibilities had suffered cruel outrage. “Great Scot!” he ejaculated, in replying to my look of inquiry, “what will the Museum be coming to next? A penny show with marionettes and performing dogs, I suppose. They’ve actually got a cast of Sandow the Strong Man–music-hall people in the British Museum, faugh!” And the S.P., having delivered himself of this outburst, turned on his heel and…
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