Iron History

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09/04/2008 Entry: "09/05/2008: Completing a Letter from Charles A. Smith to Joe dated October 27, 1987"

Pages 3 & 4 of a letter written by Charles A. Smith to Joe Roark, dated Oct 27, 1987.
Warning: this letter contains some politically incorrect words, but I am leaving them as Charles wrote them as they reflect the feelings of another person, whose identity I will not reveal here.

[Regarding the book: MASS] You should read it from cover to cover, closely, word for word. You will get great pleasure from it. Pleasure because it is so lovely when you stop reading it. Across the front cover is a banner head line, NEW BODYBUILDING SECRETS. There isn�t anything secret in it and there isn�t anything new. Some of the exercises are so incomprehensible you wonder what he is gibbering about. Perhaps the only thing in the book that interested me was the diet section- and that only because I am a noted chow hound.

Poor old XXX walks around in a cultural and political cloud, not knowing where he is, what he is thinking about and what he is doing or can do about the �can do�. He is full of Ricans, Niggers, and foreigners who don�t know how to keep their homes clear of filth and litter, who all have Cadillacs and live on welfare�forgetting that, when you are poor, screwing is the cheapest form of entertainment available. And, might I add, much better than a trip to the local Picture Palace.

I don�t blame XXX. I try to get him to read history and other such books that might help him explain the state of the world to himself. He has recently involved himself in some sort of minor political fuzz buzz where he lives, with the local coppers and their chief who gets forty thousand a year. XXX doesn�t think he should get forty thou and is calling Town Meeting Protest Rallies. Signatures for recall lists and other non productive stuff. What he should be doing is booby rapping the Chief�s toilet so it flushes UP instead of that usual whirly whirly way. XXX is a good old sort- he�s 55 now- had his birthday a week ago- has no kids, is uxurious- a word that Hise loved�and keeps pets to take the place of kids. He is harmless and I like him. He is one of the very very few who answers letters regularly, and when he can�t, at least calls and chit chats on the phone for long intervals. Don�t take him too seriously. Like the guy I mentioned earlier in this letter, he doesn�t know his tits from his testicles and all he knows is what he reads in the paper. I do my best, suggesting this or that book for him to read and he does follow some of what I advise him. But I like him. If I were you, I would try and establish regular letter writing twixt he and thee.

I felt sure I had mentioned Lincir�s weights and Bert Elliot. Must have been some other bloke. I at first thought it was Harry Hill who had them, and I have been told he got a lot of Bert�s library. Don�t know for sure.

Re XXX. I have been told various things. What I do know for certain is that he has had little connection with actual lifting, being a strand puller of note. I also am told he is as tight as a virgin on her wedding night, when it comes to money. He HAS to have his cut even if he has little to do with a book�such as XXX�s book when XXX was supplied with shots by XXX and XXX had to be billed as co-author when he wasn�t. Such stuff.

I am aware that he is niggardly when it comes to sharing info. I feel here that this is because he writes books and what is the use of writing a book when the info in it has appeared elsewhere?

I also know he lived for years with a woman who wasn�t his wife- she was some sort of actress and died of cancer not too many years ago and XXX was very, very upset over it. Here I am not saying there was anything wrong with his being married, as it were, without a churching. Or even a civil ceremony. After all, Love is a battlefield in which ANYTHING goes so long as no one gets hurt. So, though some people I know fault him for �living in sin�, I certainly don�t.

But on the other hand, I also know he helped David Chapman considerably to run down those of Sandow�s progeny who are still living, or their progeny who are still around. And I also know that when I asked him outright where they are and who they are, SILENCE, and I do mean silence, fell with a thickening sud.

I have a feeling that Bollocks isn�t long for this world- his mag I mean. I may be wrong, but I don�t like that non paying of authors/ Last time I called him regarding the non printing�for the second time�of my Eder article, he told me he was going monthly in March. I also notice he is carrying his own products now s well as Lincir�s.

Now, Ed Robinson. At a height of 5 feet 7 and a bodyweight of 235 I can believe he might have had an arm close to 20. But I am NOT prepared to believe he had an arm taping 19 at 198. Bert Assirati stood 5 feet 6, scaled way over 230 and had enormous arms that measured�and I did the measuring a snug 18. That shot of Bill Pullum taping Goerner�s arm was taken around 1927 when Goerner was at his MUSCULAR BEST and scaled 220. It was around the time I saw him do that one hand deadlift with 602-1/4. Goerner was a tad over six feet tall. Later, when he was around 290, his arms taped slightly over 19 and his wrists were around 9 inches.

It amuses me greatly Balik talking about the �British� style of journalism when the British got that style from such solid British citizens as Joseph Pulitzer, Bernarr Macfadden and William Randolph Hearst, not to mention Colonel Robert McCormick of the Chicago newspaper dynasty.

I write Webster and it is sometimes MONTHS before he replies, I am sure he wouldn�t reply if I was some ordinary bloke and Webbie thought I had naught in my library. It appears to me, and I may be wrong, he is very acquisitive with the instincts of a pack rat. Gather, gather all and sundry.

I am happy you and your lady get along well�The family is all that is of REAL value in this piss arse rotten world of ours. So Live until you are old and learn until you are old, and when you are old you will find you haven�t learned anything and haven�t really lived at all.
The best to you and yours, as ever, Chas.
PS: I don�t know the name of Saxons� sister. Thought he only had 3 brothers.