Evening star., 1898-01-04
DIR. TANNER, THE GREAT FASTER.

In Prime Condition at IS and Telling
the Tale of His Forty Days Fast.
From the Detroit Free Press.
DR.. Henry s. Tanner. who tasted forty
days and nights in New York city. in 1880,
Is visiting in Detroit He is in excellent
health at sixty-f1ve years Of age, and thinks
he could repeat his feat II there were occa-
sion to do SO. When he made his celebrat-
ed feat, In the first fourteen days he did
not use even water, but then he began to
walk every day to Central Park to drink
from a spring.
NO" he continued, IT felt not the slight
est ill effects from the fast. On the other
hand, I think it rather refreshed me, once
l had begun to eat and sleep in normal
allowances. 1 first tasted in Minneapolis a
few years before 1880, the year of the
celebrated fast l was sufferer from car
diac rheumatism and attempted the fast
as a means of rellef For eleven days
kept it up, and the action of the heart &C
tuaiiy resumed t1s healthy tone and nll
pain passed from that region. l did not
break the fast after felt this effect, how
ever, and determined TO continue it as long
as l could. At the end of forty-two days
l felt that l had enough. However, this Is
not accepted as a,record as only my friends
knew of it.
THE New York; fast was held under the
eyes of several physicians During the Tor
ty days 1 lost snly thirty-eight pounds.
When 1 started everybody predicted that ]
could not last more than twelve days. AT
the end of my fast l received a cable mes
sage from the queens physician, advising
me to take mot more than five drops OF
milk as my first meal One doctor in New
York advised me to take as square meal
a lick at postage stamp. Still another
thought this would overtax my stomach,
and advised "a 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. 1 might consider that
my days were numbered few.
ION the morning of the last day of the
fast small boy came up to me nibbling a
ripe peach. 1 asked him to let me hold 1t.
l put it to my lips. I wanted to taste of it,
but that would give everybody a chance to
say l had weakened, and l wanted to last
out the forty days, as had promised. You
can imagine that it required some exertion
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
naatronly woman with him. I saw her put
her hand in her pocket and take from 1t a
big, ripe, yellow peach and give 1t to him.
l suppose she was his mother. Then the
little fellow trotted over to where 1 sat, and
1t from his hand and took one big, long,
juicy bite from 1t. The memory of that
flavor fingers with me yet. l devoured
every bit of the fruit
eatable after the fast was a watermelon.
This rose from the fact that had always
declared that 1 would begin on a melon.
Not long after the peach incident they
brought me three pints of milk. which l
drank, and an immense Georgia water
melon, weighing about forty pounds. Be
tween that time and midnight / had de-
voured all of it, and felt much refreshed.
l did not care to put more solid food into
my stomach. In due time 1 came to eat
meat and vegetables, and became, to all in
tents and purposes, rational human being.
Yes. the practice of medicine derived
some good from my achievement. The ply
s1cians learned that the use of alcohol stim-
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 greatly decreased" :"
When miners are immured in u mine and
shipwrecked sailors are marooned on a bar
rem island-nothng to eat in either case
they usually last about twelve days The
doctor says that this is because they have
been accustomedto hear of that being the
limit of life without sustenance, SO they
give up and allow death to take possession
OF them, whereas, had they the will power
they could stave it off as long as he did,
and perhaps longer, and give others a
chance to save them.