The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1898-03-04
READY FUR A FAST.
DIR. HENRY S. TANNER SAYS
HE MAY TRY AGAIN.
Talks OF the Forty Days-A Small BOY
with II Peach Figured Largely at the
Moment That He Broke His Long
Abstinence.

White-haired and 65 years old, DR..
Henry S. Tanner, the famous faster,
IS paying his first visit to Detroit The
doctor is, however, in full possession
Of mental and physical health, and
says he would be ready and willing TO
make an attempt to beat or equal his
record at any time, says the Detroit
Free Press. The fact is he said, in
semi-jccular way, II have my back
up over the boast of that woman in
New York that she can beat me. She
seems to think that am nobody, but
she has yet to prove by something bet
ter than talk that she is ahead of me-"
The doctor, it will be remembered, fast
ed forty days and nights in New York
City. In the first fourteen days he alb
stained from using even water. But he
felt that he could not continue longer
on that line, and began to walk every
day to Central Park to drink from 4
spring. NO" he continued, 81 felt not
the slightest i'll effects from the fast.
On the other hand, I think it rather re-
freshed me, once I had begun to eat
and sleep in normal allowances. first
tasted in Minneapolis few years be-
, fore 1880, the year of the celebrated
fast. l was a sufferer from cardiac
rheumatism, and attempted to fast as
a means Of relief. For eleven days [
kept it up, and the action Of the heart
actually resumed its healthy tone and
all pain passed from that region. l did
not break the fast after l felt this eff
| feet hOWpvpr and m RI
tinue it as long as could. At the end
Of forty-two days l felt that l had
enough However, this is not accepted
as record, as only my friends knew Of
it. The New York fast was held I'M
der the eyes of several physicians.
During the forty days l lost only thir-
ty-eight pounds. When 1 started ev-
erybody predicted that I could not last
more than twelve days. At the end of
my fast l received a cable message
from the queens physician advising
me to take not more than five drops
of milk as my first meal. One doctor
in New York advised me to take as a
square meal lick at a postage stamp.
Still another thought that this would
overtax my stomach, and advised a
good, long smell at some well-done
toast. One and all predicted that my
g stomach would prove to be wreck.
My digestive apparatus, they claimed,
was irretrievably ruined. l might con-
: slider that my days were numbered
few. On the morning of the last day
y of the fast small boy came up to me
1libbling ripe peach. l asked him to
let me hold it. l put it to my lips. I
wanted to taste Of it, but that would
! give everybody chance to say that
had weakened, and I wanted to last
out forty days, as I had promised. You
can imagine that it required some ex-
ertion Of the will to hand it back to
him; but l did it. I asked him to
come back at noon, when my time
would be up. He did So matronly
woman with him. saw her put her
hand in her pocket and take from it a
, big, ripe, yellow peach and give it to
him. 1 suppose she was his mother.
Then the little fellow trotted over to
where l sat and an immense crowd
looked on as 1 grabbed it from his
hand and took one big, long, juicy bite
from it. The memory of that flavor
fingers with me yet. 1 devoured every
bit of the fruit. The general SUPPOSE
ton is that my first eatable after the
fast was watermelon. This arose
from the fact that I had always de-
clared that would begin on a melon.
Not long after the peach incident they
brought me three pints of milk, which
| drank, and an immense Georgia wa
termelon, weighing about forty pounds
Between that time and midnight l had
devoured all Of it, and felt much re-
freshed. l did not care to put more
solid food in my stomach. In due time
came to eat meat and vegetables, and
became, 70 all intents and purposes, a
rationa. human being. Yes, the prac-
tice of medicine derived some good
from my achievement. The physicians
learned that the use of alcoholic slim
ulants was not necessary to arrest the
wasting Of tissue. l used none in my
fast, and ever since then the use of the
stuff in the sick room has been grad
ually decreased" When miners are
immured in mine and shipwrecked
sailors are marooned on a barren ISL
and-nothing to eat in either case
they usually last about twelve days.
The doctor says this is because they
have been accustomed to hear Of that
being the limit of life without susie.