The Athlete's Conquest - The Romance Of An Athlete (1901) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PREFACE j I was but little beyond the age of boyhood when this book was written. It was my "first attempt." The first publisher to whom it was offered pronounced it hopelessly crude and devoid of all interest. .Perhaps he was right. The reader can decide this for himself. There have been a few changes made in the contents since the first edition: The critical reader will no doubt say that it needs many more. It does; but if I were to revise it properly but little of the original story would remain. It was written under the influence of the extravagant enthusiasm anddealism of extreme youth, and when the reader realizes that physical culture brought the author from the weakness, emaciation and hopelessness of a consumptive to (that condition of superb health / necessary in a successful athlete, y ., and has, kept him in that conditioa "iow for over fifteen years, he may "vandtcuse the efforts made in the norel / JW ' ' ' to1 ettthuse others to strive for similar rewards. Beknarr Macfaddkn. chapter{Section 415he Athlete's Conquest 15he R-omance e, a fine necessary xcept a wife. I to find a wife? I, never heard of all these ilfeas about the wearing of Every corseted woman seems to be only a creature of imperfections. This is the result of studying to much about physical culture. Now, what kind of a life- companion do I want ? I don't care much about the color of her hair, but would prefer it dark?oh, pshaw what does the hair matter? 1 want to marry a woman in every sense of the word?physically, mentally and morally. I'm a crank, and I know it, but I have the right to be one. Who in the world would marry one of those wasp-waisted women, when he sees the ugliness, and also the disease, that is always, in time, connected with such deformity? The Chinese...