The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-08-21
Thirty-Nine Days without Food.

i
DR.. TANNERS attempt to demon
strate how long man can go without
tasting food calls to mind the crazy
freak of an inmate of the Sangamon
County Jail last summer. A Post re-
porter called at the jail this morning,
and through an interview with Jailer
Higgins cleaned the following facts in
regard to this marvellous case: A man
named Bartholomew Lengnann was
confined in the County Jail on charge
of larceny, but when the case came to
trial he was discharged. The fact of
his Imprisonment. seemed to weigh
heavily on his mind. He had been en-
ployed on a farm near the city as a Ia
borer previous to his confinement, but
when set at liberty he wandered about
the streets, and finally commenced to
preach on the street corners. His SER
mons were wild and rambling, and were
generally received with yells and boots
by the gamins who chiefly made up his
audience. His efforts to Christianize
the loafers, newsboys and bootblacks
finally became nuisance, and he was
taken in one night by the police, tried
on charge of vagrancy and sent to the
County Jail for one hundred days under
the vag law. This was in the latter
part of last August. After being in jail
few days it became evident to the Off
cials that he was partially deranged.
He would talk on no subject but relig-
ion, and was continually exhorting his
fellow-prisoners to turn from their
crooked paths and join him on his road
to heaven. Some three weeks after his
incarceration he conceived the notion
that it was his duty to begin long term
of fasting. So he announced to the
Jailer that in the next thirty-nine days
he would be at no expense to the
county for food, as it was his
intention not to put morsel of
grub to his lips during that period. Ac-
cordingly the next day Lengnann re-
fused to eat his rations. And so with
the next, and the next-until seventeen
days went by and the prisoner had not
swallowed crumb. His fellow prison
ers scoffed at first, but when the days
went on and the prisoner uncomplain-
ingly saw them eat their food, their
jeering turned into wonder--not to say
awe, for Lengnann stoutly protested
that the power of God was sustaining
him in the effort. A few times each day
the prisoner would drink moderately Of
water, but tasted nothing else. He re-
tanned his strength surprisingly, grow
ing but little thinner, and walked about
the corridors as though he dieted
sumptuously every day. #tt -
When the seventeenth day came,
which was September 25, the authori-
ties at the jail became somewhat
alarmed, and, taking council in the
matter, the poor wretch was set at lib
erty, thinking that once outside the
prison bars, his reason would resume its
sway, and the long fast be broken. But
this was not the case. Lengnann had
not yet finished his penance. Being too
weak to work, and too poor to pay for
lodging, he Immediately went to police
headquarters, and, securing bunk to
sleep in, went on with his fast the same
as before, until he had completed the
time that he contracted to-actuallv liv-
ing thirty-nine days without tasting
food. When the time was up he went
up town to a restaurant and surprised
his lonesome stomach with light meal,
eating very sparingly and with none of
the manner of man who was frightful-
ly hungry. The long fast or the first
meal seemed to have cured him of his
religious frenzy. He hung about the
city few days, apparently but little
weakened by his starving process, and
then, gathering his little effects togeth-
er, tramped out of town. The matter
created considerable excitement at the
time among those who were acquainted
with the circumstances, and the Post
presents it now to show that DR.. Tan
ner's task is not an impossible one
Springfield (lN.) Post. 9G he.