Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-17

eW&SSNS&, assortment of ailments
X@N to fondle and care for.
Every time pick up
a newspaper or review
now I run across an
article of more or less interest on the sub
iect of health. 1t is supposed by newspa-
per managers and the editors of the big
monthly publications to be the most inter
esting subject to the public except the never
ending controversy on the various ramifca-
tions and relations of man and wife. AS
everybody is writing about health, how to
get fat, how to get lean, how to increase
bodily vigor, and so on, propose to have a
go at it myself.
My experience in athletics has been toler-
ably large. Beside personal efforts in that
direction. have watched the athletes of
various countries with a good deal of inter-
est. I have come to the conclusion, as far as
heath is concerned, that every man must of
necessity be his own judge. For instance, I
have known two men to start in to train on
exactly similar lines, but with thoroughly
opposite results.
A FAILURE.
I think the most amusing thing of the
sort that ever knew was the experience of
Colonel John McCaull. Some years ago he
decided that he was growing too stout. He
weighed 26O or 27O pounds, his activity be-
came thing of the past and the girth of his
waist grew visibly. He went up to the
New York Athletic Club and put himself
in the hands of the trainer. The trainer
looded at Colonel McCaull with grave mis-
givings and announced that he would begin
by taking ten pounds week off of him.
Then he enveloped the portly form of the
Colonel in heavy flannel clothes, pulled q
series OF thick Sweaters over his rotund
body, bound handkerchief around his
neck, and led him on run around the
suspended track OF the gymnasium, The
run terminated at about the end of 80 PAGES,
when the Colonel sat down and breathed
hard, but he was man of perseverance and
he clung to it. After he had made the cir
cult three or four times he went down to the
third floor of the gymnasium, lifted dumb
bells, swung Indian clubs, took a cold
plunge, was rubbed down and walked back
to his residence. That night he ate q dinner
that startled the entire household. The fol-
lowing day he went through the same per-
formance, except that he ran half mile
more, and at the end of the week he mounted
the scales with glowing face and heart
full of hope. He had gained exactly eight
and half pounds. The trainer was mute
for time, and then came to the conclusion
that the Colonel had not taken enough exer-
else. The result was that the next week he
pounded around the place with a vehemence
that startled the neighbors, was pummeled
and rubbed by professional massage opera
tors, lived on fighting mans diet and fin
ished the week II pounds heavier than he
had begun. Thereupon he definitely aban-
doned the system of training which is of
worldwide repute. Throughout all this tu-
multuous and violent exercise the Colonel
did not touch a vegetable because vegetables
are supposed to increase the weight. That
is a recognized rule among trainers.
A VEGETABLE DIET.
A short time ago Colonel McCaull fell i'll
in Chicago. He came to New York, put
himself under a physicians care and was
told that he must reduce his weight He
smiled, for he had talked about it thou
sand times without success. The physician
told him to go off and eat nothing but veg
etables. The Colonel did so. and the result
is that he has lost about 80 pounds in the
course of six weeks. 1 have never seen him
looking better than he is now. 1 give this
illustration to show that rules in training
are bosh.
Let me give another. About three years
ago Mr.. Ariel N. Barney weighed III
pounds. He was then subject to hemor-
rhages, was as thin as rail, but more than
that he had the pallid skin and leaden eve
of a man who is in ill health. His thinness
amounted almost to emaciation. Mr.. Bar.
ney had long siege of illness, in which
hemorrhages were frequent, and his life was
at one time despaired of. He seemed to
have no vitality at all. He was talking to
an old doctor In country town in the West
one day when he received a prescription
which not only saved his life, but built
him up into a specimen of stall
wart, sturdy and powerful man.
hood. He is to-day well-known figure in
New York, and man of practically tireless
strength. The country doctor with whom
Mr.. Barney ia ked said that after good
deal OF investigation he had come to the
conclusion that milk and rum were two of
the most nutritious liquids known. He be-
lieved in an abundance of both of them, and
held stoutly to the opinion that if a man
drank enough rum and milk it would make
him stout and hearty. There was long
argument on the subject, and finally Mr..
Barney became convinced, and he began to
drink rum and milk within an hour. The
milk was not pleasant to his taste at first,
nor is it, he tells me, to this day a grateful
drink by any means, but he stuck to it like
a major. Whenever he was near barroom,
in restaurant, or even in a private house,
he asked for milk whenever the opportunity
occurred. He began by drinking six glasses
a day, and made it point to increase the
number and keep record in his diary of
the number of glasses that he swallowed.
He is man of good deal of popula, ity,
and he accepted every invitation to drink
with alacrity.
RUM AND MILK.
He poured about sixteenth of an inch |
of rum in the bottom of the glass, filled it |
up with milk, and poured it resolutelv |
down. Eighteen glasses day of milk. in |
cluding what he drank in the morning and |
at night before retiring, formed the average |
for the third month after be had begun the !
system. 1t went on for six solid months and |
he had not gained pound. Further than |
this he discovered no good effects of the |
milk, but he stuck to it with invincible de- |
and the seventh month began |
to feel that his clothes were growing tight |
for him, and then he built up in every posi- |
BILE direction at rate that surprised his |
friends. 1t went on so fast that it was neces- |
sary for him to GET an entire new outfit of |
clothes every five or six months, and after |
he added so pounds to his weight his delight |
at the change gave way to alarm. He went |
to DR.. Robertson, OF New York, to see |
whether the flesh was of the good, solid and |
healthy order. The doctor poked, punched,