The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1880-07-22
SEVEN DAYS WITHOUT FOOD
DIR. Tanners Progress in His Great
Feat of Fasting.
New orl Sun

|
The portico over the front entrance
of Clarendon Hall forms a make-shif
piazza for a window directly abovei
Yesterday afternoon man sat on this
piazza, while a companion lounged on
the window near him.
"Where is DR.. Tanner ~ asked q new
conner.
There he is" said one of {, group that
stood in front of the window pointing
toward the two men.
The Newcomer approached the man
lounging on the sill, because he noticed
that he was thin, had spare features, let
his head rest part Of the time on his
breast as he leaned against the casing,
and talked in a low tone.
~ am glad to see you," said the snare
man in the same low tone, II hone
you don't want to talk with the Doc
tor"
"Not if it is painful to him." replied
the visitor, initiating, with a smile, the
spare mans use of the third person.
| "You see we have made him prom Use
not to talk much hereafter"
| "And are not you DR.. Tanner" asked
the visitor.
The spare-featured man smiled, At
the same time the visitor who was lean
ing against the sill on one elbow felt his
head grasped firmly from above by the
man sitting out on the piazza. The head
was turned until the face confronted
that of the owner of the hands. which
was looking gravely down upon it.
"Look at DR.. Tanner" said the man
in a strong, steady tone
DR.. Henry S. Tanner, who had thus sud-
denly introduced himself. has a face
worth looking at it has no flesh to spare,
| but is not emaciated. It is marked with
deep firm lines about the mouth and
eyes. The lips are thin, and though not
compressed, they gave the impression
of positiveness in the mans character.
He is said to be an. Englishman bv birth,
but he looks like a Scotchman. His
nose is large, straight and we'll formed.
His gray eyes are bright and steady,
and overhung with bushy brows. His
forehead slopes gently Iron gray
watches of side whiskers extend from
his ears nearly to his chin. He probably
could not be induced to raise a NOUS
tache, Or any other modish style of
facial adornment. His hair is white.
His manner, his speech, and his fea-
lures all indicate high appreciation on
his part Of firmness of character.
He began to fast last Monday noon,
and at noon to-day he will have COM
pleted seven days Of the forty which he
proposed to pass without tasting food.
After he had began his fast he was told
that DR.. William Hammond had said
that water was much harder to do with
out than food. He had proposed to
allow himself all the water he wanted,
but he then resolved to do without wa
ter also as long as he should not feel the
absolute want Of it. Up to last night he
had not swallowed any water for about
100 hours He will not let the water
abstinence experiment interfere with
the success of his main purpose. DR..
Hammond says that ninc-tenths of a
mans weight is water, and from one
point of view water is food
| After breathing the pure air of the
piazza about an hour yesterday after
noon, DR.. Tanner was helped gently
down off the window sill and thence
walked, with some lastitude but no
special exhibition of weakness, through
an ante-room into the main hall. His
single cot which cost $3.50, is covered
with a thin mattress. In the daytime it
has no coyerlet. A boy of ten years
could carry cot and mattress all about
the room. 1t is placed in the centre of
the room. A wooden railing marks off
u space around it about thirty feet
square. After he returned to the hall
he reclined on the cot, lying for five
minutes on one one side, partly on his
face. Then he turned over and lay on
the other. Every few minutes he would
draw up one leg or make some other
change. He was restless and watchful.
On one side of the enclosure is long
table, where the physicians who watch
him sit. When three or four
persons walked around to the op-
posite side of the enclosure and began
to converse with each other, though in
q low tone, he asked to have them go
away. He was not querulous, but
spoke in the calm tone Of man who
expected, as Il matter of course, to be
obeyed. He seemed to be aware of
every movement tn at took place in the
room. He asked to have a window
opened wider. When the reporter
arose to speak to one Of the physicians
DIR. Tanner imagined that he was about
to take his leave, and playfully warned
him not to record the joke on DR..
Wark DR.. Wark is the spare-featured
man who had been mistaken for the
faster at the window. The only use DR..
Tanner now makes of water in the day.
time is to gargle some frequently in his
throat, and occasionally to moisten his
hair. When he gargles water he takes
it from a glass vessel, marked to meas
ure ounces and fractions of an ounce.
The water is discharged from his mouth