Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1886-12-15
WALKING TO HIS GRAVE.
John Snider's Tramp OF twenty-five Thou |

JOnn Oh InOu-
sand Miles.
WABASH, Ind, December 14.-John
Snider, Indiana's walking man, is dam
dy curiosity. and no mistake
The representative has just returned
from a visit TO Snider at his home in Black
ford county, and is more than ever i'm
pressed with the belief that Indiana can
furnish one of the best drawing attractions
that ever made dime museum managers
heart swell with pride.
Snider lives one mile south of Mill
Grove, small station on the Pan Handle
Railway, IN the eastern part of Blackford
county. Iour correspondent found him
industriously performing his heel and toe
act His home is a one story log cabin
located in the centre ofan acre lot which
is inclosed by shabby rail fence. Around
the honse beaten path, worn fully five
inches below the surface, indicates the
route pursued BY Snyder in his weary and
almost ceaseless tramp. To vary the
monotony of his travels, Snider has two
other promenades, both in the rear Of
the dwelling circular in form and ninety
feet in diameter. During the past three
months Snider has walked incessantly out
of doors, through rain, sleet and snow,
but, as the exposure had begun to tell on
him, his relatives fitted up room in the
cabin for his pedestrian exercises.
Two years ago last April Snider then a
robust man of tifty-four, while at work in
a field, was seized with spasmodic
twitching of his arms and hands and
cIamping OF the muscles of the body. He
was incapacitated for labor of any kind,
and the physician summoned pronounced
the case most serious one After few
days of sufleringall symptoms of nervous
arrangement disappeared, and for week
Snider was apparently rs well as ever.
Then the muscular commissions again
manifested themselves, but this time in
the legs. He lost control of both legs and
the propensity to walk, which will even
tually carry Snider TO his grave. took
complete possession of him. and with the
exception of about four hours each day,
from one to five a. m, he is constantly on
his feet and travelling at the rate OF four
miles an hour
At five O'Clock in the morning, after a
sleep of three to four hours, Snider begins
his daily tramp and continuous walking,
eating his meals ~ he walks, until one
O'Clock the following morning, when he
sits down IN chair and sleeps soundly,
being unable TO rest in a recumbcnt posi-
tion.
At the onset his friends endeavored by
force to induce him to remain quiet, but
he Immediately became frantic, and with
tears in his eyes the patient begged to be
released or he would die. Snider was
placed in the State Asylum at Indianapo-
lis for brief time, but was returned by
the authorities thore, pronounced harmless
and incurable. Hr is perfectly rational,
but talks but little about his peculiar
attiiction, and seems rather averse to news
paper notoriety.
The walker stated that he could not
possibly control himself, and that his ply
scians had informed him that he would
walk until death claimed him. When
Snider began his tramp he weighed l60
pounds; he now weighs $50 pounds and
has not an ounce of supertluOus flesh. His
muscles are hard and firm. lie has fully
recovered from a recent indisposition,
when he was thought TO be dying. He
walks with quick step Of uniform length,
striking his heels into the soil each time,
the shock being apparently grateful one
tn the muscles
At times Snider sleeps as he walks, and
for an hour, guided by relatives, be swings
around the circle snoring loudly, and upon
awakening he runs at a rapid gait for sew
eral miles, to ''rest himself" as he says
Snider suffers no pain and is apparently
contented while in motion.
DR.. Davidson, of Hartford City, who is
Snider's physician and has complete charge
of the case, told the Herald correspondent
that while his recovery is impossible Sni-
der would probably live for many months.
THE affection is a disease OF the spinal
cord, said the doctor, ''and from his hips
down his physical condition is not subject
to government by the brain, the great nerve
center"
1t is estimated that during the two
years he has been walking Snider has
travelled 25, 900 miles
The case excites widespread interest
among members Of the medical fraternity,
many members of which have visited Sni-
der at his home, diagnosing the disease
while walking with him, as he il unable
10 stop, even for moment His case il
said by physicians TO be unparalleled aud
his powers of endurance superhuman.