The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-01-10
sIGSoR sUcCIs SUCCESS.
The Champion Faster of the World
Gives sketch of His Life.

KNOW am something OF puzzle, but
| cannot help that. 1t was in 1879, when
i'll Of fever at Daresallam. on the African
coast. that | first discovered my capacity
for abstinence. | had tasted for several
days. and. instead of losing strength,
suddenly felt a new force awaken within
me which the sustained exertion of my
viii seemed 10 increase. 1t is power like
hypnofism. a power which | have grad
uaily learned TO create and control. Solely
by my will am able TO abstain from all
foods. II is power of will which sustains
me and keeps my brain clear during these
long fasfs- Ny will is stronger than my
body-tiiere you have my secret in a nut
she'll
have never given the secret of COM
pounding my elixir to any one. But the
doctors know the ingredients of which it
Is composed. 1t is a very simple elixir. in
deed. Ii has no nutritiye powers, and is
only preparation OF laudanum, which
take to soothe the stomach when pain
first sets in. 1t somewhat resembles chic
rodync, although different in taste and
more nearly instantaneous in effect. use
il as a painkiller and nothing else.
When boy in Rome ] met Ahmed
Mohammed-Ah dullah, cousin to the sui
tan of the Comores islands. and when he
invited me to visi; the land of his birth in
the midst of the Indian ocean. il was like
the pages OF the Arabian Nights turned
10 reality. After that ! Travelled extens-
lively through Africa. | also made tedi-
Gus and perilous passage of the Nabian
desert: during which underwent a long
compulsory fast, but as l had already dis
no i'll effects from IT, In 1870,
while hippomatus hunting near the
Goarni river fell in with
Henry NJ Stanley. with whom | became
quite friendly Hy strange coincidence
Stanley reached London on the day TN
ished my forty-day fast, and arrived In
New York on the day that | began my
forty-tlay attempt here. In 1850 the Italian
Commercial and African Exploration So-
tisty sent ine out To Zanzibar ia establish
a business house. Having accomplished
this task | went back 10 nay old stamping
ground in the Comores islands and NADIA
caScar ] crossed the Red mountains and
went down in the valleys SO full of inlas-
matte poiSon that il was considered sliicl-
tlai for white man to go there. In fact,
they have been called the White Mans
Grave The results of my observations
are recorded in the archives OF the Geo.
graphical Society IN Rolae. My travels
embraced both North and South Africa,
South America and many Of the islands
OF the Indian ocean.
| had written such Wild and glowing ac-
counts of my new elixir that in iss6 was
seized on in my return 10 Italy ana locked
IN in a naad-houSe. | managed. however,
TO obtain an opportunity to prove my asser-
tons by FASTING for fourteen days al forii.
This woke UP my c0untrynen. they got
me 10 90 K, Milan and fast there for thirty
DAYS under the eyes of a vigilance commit
tee When this feat was accomplished my
yeputatiou was made. found that there
sats
OF abstinence. 50 | adopted the fast as nv
new profession next went TO Paris and
tasted there for thirty days, and In the
spring of 1855 TASTED for like period IN
Florence In the fall at the same year
repeatesi the feat in Barcelona under the
ewes OF committee OF forty doctors
After oniv fweniy-eight days Tor
recnpcration. | did IL again IN Madrid:
I fed myself well for two months and
tasted for thirty days at Lisbon. Then |
returned 10 Paris and took two fasts OF
thirty DAYS each in . period of ninety
DAYS ON the fifteenth day Of the second
/ fast I climbed the steps of the Eiiiel tower.
/ Al Rouen | had assembled the cathedral
st,frs on the twelfth day of my fast, and NJ
Rrs,sseis ran ia the top of the Coionne
! an tsonwres In two minutes ana hait. cn
/ October ia. fSSa | began another thirty
aaxs' fast IN Roaen. and on December -
started in agaln 1T Brussels VI kne END
/ OF nav thirty days at the latter place was
! challenged TO keep on i've days more, aud
readily accepted and won the wager THIS
MAS nav last appearance until last spring,
I when I went 10 London and tasted Tor
forty DAYS. In period Of eighteen months
/ ! tasted Tor 10 days, or nearly halt the
time
IL was ea the 18th of March that be
can IN fast III London. The London
uasers attacked nse in their usual hcan-
1 drum fashion. the FaH NgH Gese,te being
/ he only journal that was able - lind any
| thinc interesting about my feat. Bat this
! state Of things did NOT last long. For once,
something foreign took the fancy of the
| Enclishmen. Crowds came II the Royal
| Aquarium 10 see ne, and, although was
/ losing a pound a day ayoiriapois. | waS
/ gaining some tao hundred pounds IN ster-
| ling silver In the first twenty-four hours
/ FIJI off three pounds and n quarter q rate
| which. II | had kept il up for forty
! days, would have left me weighing little