Shiner gazette. [volume] (Shiner, Tex.) 1893-current, 1898-02-23

White-haired and Go 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
a semi-jocular way, 81 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 m 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
spring. NO" he continued 81 felt not
the slightest i'll effects from the fast.
On the other hand, think it rather re-
freshed me, once l had begun to eat
and sleep in normal allowances. first
tasted in Minneapolis a few years be-
fore 1880, the year Of the celebrated
fast. l was sufferer from cardiac
rheumatism, and attempted to fast as
a means of relief. For eleven days l
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 | felt this eff
feet, however, and determined to con-
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 un-
der the eyes of several physicians.
During the forty days I lost only thir-
ty-eight pounds Whan l started ev-
erybody predicted that 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 advized me to take as
Still another thought that this would
oyertax my stomach, and advised
good, long smell at some well-done
toast. One and all predicted that my
stomach would prove to be wreck.
My digestive apparatus, they claimed,
was irretrievably ruined. might con-
slider that my days were numbered
few. On the morning of the last day
of the fast a small boy came up to me
nibbling a ripe peach. l asked him to
let me hold it. l put it to my lips. |
wanted to taste Of it, but that would
give everybody a chance to say that 1
had weakened, and | wanted to last
out forty days, as l had promised. You
can imagine that it required some eX-
ertion of the will to hand it back to
him; but l did it. 1 asked him to
come back at noon, when my, time
would be up. He did so, a matronly
woman with him. | saw her put her
hand in her pocket and take from it
big, ripe, yellow peach and give it to
him. / suppose she was his mother.
Then the little fellow trotted over to
where / sat and an immense crowd
looked on as l grabbed 1t from his
hhnd 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 a watermelon This arose
from the fact that 1 had always de-
clared that l would begin on q melon.
Not long after the peach incident they
brought me three pints of milk, which
l drank, and an immense Georgia wa
termelon, weighing about forty pounds.
Between that time and midnight had
aevoured all of it, and felt much re-
freshed, l did not care to put more
solid food in my stomach. In due time
l came to eat meat and vegetables, and
became, to all intents and purposes, a
rational 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. / 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 shipwrecket
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 tina
being the limit Of life without susie
nance, so they give up and allow dealt
to take possession of then, whereas
had they the win power, they coul'
stave it off as long as he did, and per