The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1880-07-23

About the year 1910 the Rev. Jabez :. swan,
now a retired Baptist clergyman living here,
held a series Of religious, OF ''revival. d" meet
/ ings in the village of Mystic, few miles east
I Of us. The meetings were characterized b.
1 intense religious excitement and nightly ad
/ ditions to the ranks Of the converts swell
/ ed their number to several hundred Among
/ those most deeply moved by the rugged eIo-
/ quence of the evangelist was Calvin Morgan.
/ who possessed a highly impressionable and
/ excitable temperament, which was so wrougHH
/ up by the exciting scenes and incidents af
/ the time that he became 'religisn-mad" -=
/ his clearer-headed ueighbOrs termed his fan
/ tasy, and he went TO the extreme Of faIt1-
/ cism. lie declared that he had received
/ divine commission to illustrate the sustainiuc
/ power Of faith in God by fasting forty day
+ and nights. Nothing could dissuade him
Z from his purpose, and he resolutely began
! his self-imposed fast. At the end Of fort,
/ days he emerged from his confinement which
had been i'm his own house, a haggard. weak
| and emaciated man. There were many who
were disposed TO doubt that he had tasted
during all of the appointed time, but he met
/ them, rs well rs those who had 10 doubts.
I with the solemn declaration that for forty
/ days and nights he had tasted no food of any
kind, and that nothing had passed his lips
/ except water, of which he had drunk freely
/ and occasionally small quantities Of common
/ table salt. His wife affirmed that she had
given him no food during the forty days, and
/ the other members Of his household made
/ similar declarations From that time for
ward he has been known all through this sec
/ tion as ''FOrty-Day Morgan - and, indeed
4 at the present time few know him by am
. other name. The story of MOrgan's fast wa
retod in the papers at intervals for years af-
/ ter it occurred, and it is now only tradition
among the people of Eastern Connecticut
+ At the time he entered upon his fast Morgan
lived in Mystic, but his present residence is
Poquonnoc, an cadjoining village When
seen Yesterday by a gentleman who desired
to have a talk with him, he looked like ahala
. ard hearty gentleman Of sixty-fve, although
. he Is nearer eighty, but he is disinclined g.
+ converse about the matter.
PASTED THTRTY-SINE DAYS AND DIED.
a Boston Herald special from Pittsburgh
under date of July 70, furnishes the follow
ing: The 'starve ds-you-p please race OF Dr.
. Tanner against time has called MP a reminis-
. cence from ParIs Washington county, this
/ State, which is well authenticated IN lNAo
Thos. Ford, aged about tweuty-three years.
lived without food or water for .thirty-nine
days. lie was taken ill and was unable tC
i swallow either solids or liquids. All the
/ physicians i'm the country round were unable
to afford even the slightest relief. ON the
/ evening Of the tlirty-Binth day he took his
sisters hand i'm his and remarked that she
would not have TO watch with him much
/ longer that he felt no worse than he had for
/ several DAYS past, but that no man had ever
/ tasted forty days but our Savior and no man
/ ever would, lie died that.evening, leaving
a request that post-mortem be held for the
benefit Of science, as he did not want others
to suffer as he had done. The examination
was made and the physicians found the en-
trance to the stomach closed up by a fungus
growth and it would nave been impossible TO
/ relieve him by an operation.