The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-04-24
CHAMBER OUTFITS
A JUNIPER STONE.
The Iron-Stomached Mans Fate--He Had

wouldn't sell for thousands of dollars. 1t
Is a very simple silver ring, with curl
Gus grsenish stone set odly in its center
Hart told its history the other evening
very much as follows:
ssI was travelling with a variety show
through Canuck land number OF years
ago, one Of our attractions being what
We called an iron-stomached man. The
fellow really was remarkable add claimed
to have digestion hs would back against
any ostrich in the world. Whenever we
came to O town we would advertise in ad-
vance that we had man with us who
wouii eat anything rendered him by the
nudience--woou, nails, scraps OF iron, tin,
bottles, knives, anything, in fine, that
the audience cared TO hand mp.
81 forget the name of the town, but
we struck little one night stand once,
whore there was q physician who had
heard OF the iron-stomached man earlier
in our tour. This physician had gone
back and got hold OF this stone, which is
Absolutely indestructible. IL Is imperyious
TO acid, cannot be mashed with sledge
hammer, rasists all chemicals. and so, OF
course. was too much either for the teeth
or the digestion of the iron-stomached
man. Well. sir, IL was pitiful TO see his
downfall. The thing was handed up In
the presence Of one of the largest audien-
ces we had on our tour. The iron-stom-
Rched man took 1t. glanced proudly round
and brought his teeth down on 1t. There
was crunching sound, and one OF his
teeth dropped .on the Stage. The stone
was unhurt. he tried again, bit till his
nyes hung out on his cheeks, and then
tout the stone out and looked at Ii. He
made one more terrific effort, and the
veins stood ont so big on his neck and
forehead that we thought they were go-
sng to burst. Finally be had to give 1t
up, but he was inau OF resources, and
he controlled himself and turned smil
sngIy to the audience.
This merely shows you,' he said,
ybow hard this stone is. This Ia the
3uniper stone, snd IL ie the hardest sub
stance In the world. No acid can touch
Il, no trip hammer can mash II, nothing
can affect II but me. / am the one man
per sione.I will swallow this stone, and be-
fore the last act It will be duly digested,
and IL you see fit you can have me ex-
Rmined by committee OF experts.
Well, the show went on, and the IRON
stomached man went of. When the last
act was over the audience called for the
1ron-stomached man. The manager
went back and found him lying on pile
of costumes in the property room. He
merely looked up and said: 1T amt
digesred yet. Give me little more time.
So tha manager went out and addressed
the audience. He said that the IRON
stomached man required q little more
time for the process of digestion, and
asked the indulgence of those present.
Someone yelled out that they would stay
there till that juniper stone was digested
II 1t took all night. Every now and then
one of us would run in and ask the IRON
stomached man how he was getting on;
but every time we would find him paler
and paler and get the information that
the stone was not vet digested. Finally
we saw that the stone never was going TO
be digested. and prepared to make our
IN rlo hn n nd fnptna xrao taA nd
the theater on the backs OF chairs, smok-
ing, playing cards, and some of them
taking naps, gben we got our duds to-
gether and quietly sneaked through the
xesr door and out of town, carrying the
tron-stomached man on a stretcher. When
we got him to house we wanted to call
p doctor, but the iron-stomached man
was obdurate and wouldn't have 1t. He
said he had n ever yet struck anything he
couldn't digest, and wasn't going to be
balked now by any juniper stone that
mp, and when he set pis teeth and knit
his brows We all knew he was making the
all-nredest effort at digestion that the
world had ever known.
eat last the rest of us held confer
ence and concluded that we would have
TO get the stone out SITS either TINT or
being out An iron-stcmached man. said
the manager, and 4, being the largest
man lin the company, was. delegated TO
Rrapple with him. We'll, / got him down.
gave him an emotic, rolled up nv sleeves,
and went to work. ( got the emetic
down all right, but II was another thing
to get the stone. AS soon as il came to
the surface the iron-stomached man, who
was also an iron-jawed man, got il be-
tween his teeth and determined 10 make
one final effort. Hes couldn't break il,
and couldn't get him to loose his hold
on II. so there we were: me afraid he'd
swallow II again or break all the teeth i'm
his mouth, aud he standing on bis pride
and afraid I'd get it away from him.
never knew L was strong till that night
set my teeth, put both ieet on the iron
stomached mans chest, and pried at his
Jaw. For five minutes there was a terri
BILE struggle. bot was young and strong
while the iron-stomached man was worn
out with digesting and struggling and at
last wrenched the stone away from him
and plunged through the window, with
him after me. | rem two miles, and then
be quit. Later 1 cano back quietly to the
hotel, got in through the back gate, lock-
ed my door. aud went TO sleep.
"ln tho morning the iron-stomached
man was pacifed, and wanted TO start on
hunt Tor the physician who had given
him not TO 60, and kept the stone very
quietly until the show broke Up, when
had IL ser In this ring. It's the greatest
'mascot' you ever saw, and there isn't
any money that could buy II Here's q
diamond that's worth sevearl hundred
times the intrinsic value OF that Juniper
stone, bot I'D rather give YOU the dia-
mond than see you chip the slightest ut
on that Juniper stone. Besides, you
couldn't. because 1 saw the iron-stomach-
ed man try it,"