The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-08-06
LAUGHS AT ALoCKED JAW.
John Cook of Coney Island Works and
Eats Cnder Diftieutes.
From The Ne,o York Aduerttser.

From The Ne,o York AdUertissr.
There is at present living in Sheepshead
Bay 6 man who is prospective victim of
the deadly locked jaw. Ills case has been
pronounced hopeless by phys clans but,
with wonderful deter uinatioa, the afflicted
man has continued TO live and perform his
daily labor while his jaws remain in that
vice-like grip. Death by starvation is
actually staring him in the face; but John
Cook calmly c0ntemDlates his impending
fate, aud goes about his duties as cheerfully
as if he was sure OF living over again the
three score years which he mas already spent
on earth.
No other physical symptoms at any time
accompanied the development of this re-
markaole case # lockjaw. Physicians rarely
encounter a case Of this sort. where the
nervous and muscular systems in part of the
body remote from the place of contraction
are not affected in some manner. John
Cook is a man of perfect health outside OF
the troubles affecting his inferior mayiiiary,
and has a robust constitution aud "a healthy
appetite. In view of the absence Of these
other disorders physic ans regard his case as
simply one of a locked law, and due, no
doubt. to the absence Of sufficient natural
lubricant at the hinge joints
When the physicians first examined Cook
they concluded that the case had its origin
in an injury of some sort which he had re-
ceived. IL was not until the physicians had
departed that John remembered that his
jaw was injured about six years ago, and
that SIT CO ii the lower Jaw has become
gradually locked until it is now immova-
bic.
The injury to the jaw was received while
he was wrestling with jim King in the bar
room of Mrs. Mahon's Atlantic hotel
Sheepshead bay. The men nsd just re-
turned from an election in the town ball,
and were drinking the bar of the hotel
when King proposed wrestling bout. The
men were evenly matched, and Tommy
Smith, who has tended bar ia the hot5l for
the past nineteen years, acted as referee
John was thrown fairly, but in falling his
left jaw came in contact with the end Of
the bar rail. The injury was superficial,
but during the next few days tho jaw began
to lose its freedom of motion. IL took some
years before the Jew was fairly locked
as it is now. 1t has been locked
tightly for year, and John Cook would
have been starved to death before now
had he not seen the result and taken the
precaution to have two teeth fled down in
front and another drawn out. This left an
aperture, through which he now pushes the
necessary food into his mouth. OF course
he cannot chew his food. He feeds prin-
ctpally on soft msteriai-miik ard bread
and soaked crackers and fish. When hs
wants to enjoy roast beef it must be cut I'D
in shreds for him. When, by dint of hard
pushing, he forces some food into his
mouth, he rolls 1t around with his tongue,
tossing it from side to side until it 10 ready
for swallowing. On account Of the slowness
with which he is compelled to cot, he occu-
pies his chair at the table sometimes two
hours at stretch
For fifty years Cook has lived at Sleeps
heed Bay, following his calling summer and
winter as a fisherman. He is of African
blood and was born in slavery. His mother,
an old lady 90 years old, is still alive and is
as spry az a woman Of 40 There Is no ono
better known on Coney Island than John
Cook, not even John Y. McKane. A num-
Der of Cooks friends have offered to pay
for the services Of surgeon if he will per
NIT an operation, but John is adverse to an
operation