The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-04-18

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bonanza to club man. When he comes
home from a "nighu out" he has only
to point lbs walking stick in any direc-
ton as, Franklin did with his lightning
rod, and the electric fire will come down
and illuminate the place. 1t doesn't
matter which way the stick Is pointed he
will be sure to get light sufficient to
find his way up stairs.
FRANCIS LEON CHRISMAN.
THE IRoN-sT OMACHED MANS FATE.
He Digested All Things until a Man in the
Audience Handed up a Juniper Stone.
(From the New Orleans Times Demo-
GRAFT
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 curious green
ish stone set oddly in its centre. Hart
told its history the other evening very
much as follows: 81 was travelling
with variety show through Canuckland
number of years ago. one Of. our at
fractions being what we called an iron
stomaohed man. The fellow really was
remarkable and claimed to have diges-
ton he would back against any ostrich in
the world. Whenever we came to town
we would advertise in advance that we
had a man with us who would eat any
thing rendered him by the audience
wood, nails, scraps of iron, tin, bottles,
knives, anything, in fine, that the au-
dienoe cared to hand up.
81 forget the name of the town, bu t
we struck a little one night stand once,
where there was physician who had
heard of the iron-stomaohed man earlier
in our tour. This physician had gone
back and got hold of this stone, which is
absolutely indestructible 1t is impervi-
GUS to acid, cannot be mashed with a
aledge hammer, resists all chemicals,
and SO, of course, was too much either
for tho teeth or the digestion Of the iron
stomached man. Well, sir. it was pitiful
to see his downfall. The thing was
he nded up 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 on it. There was orunohing sound,
and one OF his teeth dropped on the stage.
The stone was unhurt. he tried again,
bit till his eyes hung out on his cheeks,
and then took the stone out and looked at
1T. He made one more terrific effort, and
The veins stood out SO big on his neck
and foreheadathat we thought they we're
up, but he was man of resources and
he controlled himself and turned smiling
ly to the audience.
This merely shows you,' he said
how hard this stone is This is the juni-
per stone, and it IS the hardest substance
in the world. No acid can touch it, no
trip hammer can mash it, nothing can
effect it but me. l AIN the one man in
the world who can digest the great juni-
per stone. 1 will swallow this stone, and
before the last act it will be duly digest
ed, and if you see fit you can have me ex-
amlned by committee of experts
Well, che show went on, and the iron
stomached man went off. When the last
act was over the audience called for the
back and found him lying on a pile of
costumes in the property room. He
merely looked up and said: 1T amt d.
gested yet Give me u little more time. )
SO the manager went out and addressed
the audience He said that the iron -stom-
ached man required little more time for
the process of digestion, and asked the
indulgence of those present Some one
yelled out that they would stay there
till that juniper stone was digested If it
took all night. Every now and uhen 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
be digested, and prepared to make our
escape The audience was seated round
the theatre on the backs of chairs, smok-
ing, playing cards, and some of them
taking maps, when we got our duds to-
gether and quietly sneaked through the
rear door and out of town, carrying the
iron stomaohed man on stretcher. When
We got him to p house We wanted to call
a doctor, but the iron-stomached man
was obdurate and wouldn't have it. He
said he had never yet struck anything he
couldn't digest, and wasn't going to be
baked now by any jumper stone that
was ever discovered. He got his pride
up, and when he set his teeth and knit
his brows we all knew he was making
tue dil-uT6u5St OllOfu hU UlReSulOu UQhU Uu6
world had ever known.
cat last the rest of US held confer
ence and concluded that We would have
to get the stons out. It's either that or
being out an iron-stomached man. said
the manager, and l, being the largest
man in the company, was delegated to
grapple with him. Well. got him down
gave him an emetic, rolled mp my sleeves,
and went to work. got the emetic down
all right but it was another thing to get
the stone. AS soon as il came to the sur
face the iron tomached man, who was
also an iron-jawed man, got it 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; afraid he'd swallow it
again or break all the teeth in his mouth,
and he standing on his pride and afraid
I'd get it away from him. / never knew
was strong till that night. 1 set my
teeth, put both feet on the iron-stom-
ached mans chest, and pried at his jaw.
For five minutes there was terrible
struggle, hut l was young and strong,
while the -stomached man was worn
out with digesting and struggling, and
at last wrenched the stone away from
him and plunged through the window,