The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-04-12
IRON-sTOMACHED MAN.
Could Digest Nails, But Baked by n
Juniper Stone.

Could Digest Nails, But Baked by n
Juniper Stone.
From the New Orleans TimesSDemocrat
Albert Hart, the gigantic leading man
of Wang, who has been lying over in
New Orleans during holy week, wears a
ring on his finger that he wouldn't sell
for thousands of dollars. 1t is very
simple silver ring with a curious, green
ish stone set oddly in its center. Hart
told an admiring crowd of listeners its
history in the lobby of Hotel Grunewald
the other evening very much as follows:
Il was travelling with a variety show
through Canuck land a number of years
ago. one of our attractions being what
we called an iron-StOmached man. Ihe
fellow really was remarkable and claimed
to have a digestion he would back against
any ostrich in the world. Whenever we
came to town we would advertise IN ad-
vance that we had a man with US who
would eat anything rendered him by the
audience-wood, nails, scraps OF iron, TIN,
bottles, knives, anything in fine that the
audience cared to hand up. 1 forget the
name of the town, but we struck little
one-night stand once, where there was
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 indestru
ible. 1t is impervious to acid, cannot be
mashed with a sledge hammer, resist all
CnGlnICdlS, ana SO, OF COURSE was 100
much either for the teeth or the digestion
of the iron-stomached man. Well sir, it
was pitiful to see his downfall. The
thing was handed I'D In the presence of
one of the largest audiences we had on
our tour. The iron-stomached man took it,
glanced proudly round and brought his
teeth down upon ii. There was crunch
ing sound and one of his teth dropped
on the stage. The stone was unhurt.
He tried again, bit till his eyes hung out so
on his cheeks, and then took the stone
a VQA OF 10 aa#
terrific effort, and the veins stood out so
big on his neck and forehead that we
thought they We're going TO burst. Final
ly he had to give il up, but he was
man of resorces, and he controlled him
self and turned smilingly 10 the audi
ence: This merely shows you,' he said,
how hard this stone is. This is the Jun
iper stone, and it is the hardest sub
stance in the world. No acid can touch
it, no trip hammer can mash it, nothing
can affect 1t but me. / am the only man
Juniper stone. 1 will swallow this stone,
and before the last act ii will be duly
digested, and if you see fit you can have
me examined by a committee of experts"
WELL the show weIS on and the iron
StOmached man went off. When the last
act was over the audience called for the
iron-stomached man. The manager went
back and found him lying on a pile of
costumes in the property room. He mere
ly looked up and said: 1t amt digested
yet. Give me a little more time So the
manager went out and addressed the au-
dience. He said that the iron-stomached
man required a little more time for the
process of digestion and asked the indul-
gence of those present. Some one yelled
out that they would stay there till that
Juniper stone was dlgested if 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 yet digested. Finally we saw
that the stone never was going to be di-
gested and prepared to make our escape.
The audience was seated round the the
alter on the backs of chairs, smoking,
playing cards and some of them taking
maps, when we got our buds together and
quietly sneaked through the rear door and
out of town, carrying the iron-stomached
man on a stretcher When we got him
to a house we wanted to call a doctor,
but the iron-StOmached man was obdu-
rate and wouldn't have 1t. He said he
had never yet struck anything he couldn't
digest, and wasn't going to be baked
now by any Juniper stone that was ever
discovered. He got, his, pride, up and
we all knew that he was making the all
firedest effort at digestion that the world
had ever known.
'At last the rest of us held confer
ence and concluded that we would have
to get the stone out. It's either that or
being out an iron-stomached man. said
man in the company, was delegated to
grapple with him. Well, l got him down.
gave him an emetic, rolled up my sleeves
and went to work. l got the emetic down
all right, but 1t was another thing to get
the stone. AS soon as it came to the sur
face the iron-stomached man, who was
also an iron-jawed man, got 1t between
his teeth and determined to make one
final effort. He couldn't break it, and
couldn't get him to loose his hold on it;
so there we were; me afraid he'd swallow
1t again or break all the teeth in his
month, and he standing on his pride and
afraid I'd get it away from him. l never
knew l was strong till that night. l set
my teeth, put both feet on the iron-stom-
ached mans chest and pryed at his Jaw
For five minutes there was a terrible
struggle, but l was young and strong,
while the iron-stomached man was worn
out with digesting and struggling and at
last L wrenched the stone away from
him and plunged through the window
with him after me. l ran two miles, and
then he quit. Later l came back quietly
TO the hotel, got in through the back gate
locked my door and went to sleep. In the
morning the iron-stomached man was
pacified, and wanted to start on a hunt
for the physician who had given him the
Juniper stone. We prevailed on him not to
go, and kept the stone very quietly un-
I'll the show broke up, when l had it set
in this ring. It's the greatest mascot
you ever saw, and there isn't any money
that could buy it. There's a diamond
thats worth several hundred times the in
trlnsic value Of that Juniper stone, but
IA rather give you the diamond than see
you chip the slightest bit off that Juniper
stone. Besides, you couldn't because 1
saw the iron-stomached man try it."