Excerpt from The Mannequin Makers by Craig Cliff, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

As the people of Marumaru cheered, the assistants dismounted with care, removing the weights and lowering the platform so that the ponies could walk down. Once the men in togas had removed the platform, Sandow pushed himself upright with what strength remained in his arms and dusted himself off. He gave a cursory bow and left the stage.

Two minutes later he returned, dressed in a three-piece suit that Kemp would wager had come from Savile Row. He looked almost unremarkable and the audience greeted him with a trickle of polite applause.

'Thank you very much,' Sandow said. 'We have a few minutes remaining if you wish to ask me any questions about my system, or the benefits of physical culture more generally.'

A scatter of hands rose into the hair. 'Yes, madam?' He pointed at Mrs Harry Wisdom in the second row.

'Mr Sandow, what is your view on prohibition?'

'It is my belief, madam, that if a healthy love of physical culture was spread among the young there would be no need of prohibition. Men who study physical culture take care of their bodies and when they have a drink or two have the willpower to say, "No, old man, I have had enough. This stuff does not do me any good if I take more."'

Big Jim Raymond stood without invitation and asked in his booming, mayoral voice, 'What about lunatics? Do you think they would benefit by physical training?'

'Undoubtedly,' Sandow replied. 'They have adopted my system at Coney Island and no fewer than eighty persons have been sent out of the asylum thoroughly cured. It is the body that feeds the brain, the latter consuming twenty-five per cent of the blood in the system. Among businessmen and politicians very often it consumes as much as sixty per cent. It stands to reason, therefore, that if you do not keep the machinery for manufacturing food for the brain in good order something must burst. Many diseases can be cured by physical training of the body, for a healthy state of the mind will not allow the bacillus to live in the body.'

The crowd mumbled in agreement.

'And you, sir, standing toward the back?'

Jolly Bannerman straightened the lapels of his ill-fitting suit. 'Have you received many challenges during your tour, Mr Sandow?' he asked, grinning.

'Oh, a great many,' Sandow said, 'and always from men who have nothing to lose and everything to gain from the advertisement they would get in a public competition with myself. But to accept challenges from every man I meet is not my object in life.' Jolly's face sank. 'I am endeavouring to make other men stronger than I am myself. That is my gospel and I think I have preached it well enough to you this evening. You, sir,' Sandow indicated to a man seated four rows from the front. Kemp recognised him as Mr Fricker, the pharmacist, as he stood to ask his question.

'Have you devoted any time to developing some of the minor organs, such as moving the ears?'

The town chuckled as one.

'I must admit that I have not attained this accomplishment,' Sandow replied. 'Indeed, I do not see its value, unless one wishes to become a professional listener.' This retort was met with widespread laughter, applause and a few ringing bravos.

'But surely,' Kemp shouted, pushing to the front of the men standing in the wings, 'the actress in your company who plays a statue could benefit from learning not to blink?'

Sandow fingered his moustache, grinning as he searched for where the voice had come from. 'Far be it from me to comment on other performers,' he said, looking vaguely in Kemp's direction, 'particularly those more artful than me, a simple strongman.'

'But could the eyelids be trained?' Kemp persisted.

From The Mannequin Makersby Craig Cliff (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2017). Copyright © 2013 by Craig Cliff. Reprinted with permission from Milkweed Editions. milkweed.org