Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1898-02-25
READY FOR A FAST.
DR.. HENRY S. TANNER SAYS
HE MAY TRY AGAIN.
Talks of the Forty Days-A Small Boy
with "A Peach Figured Largely at the
Moment That He Broke His Long
Abstinence.

Wnlle-nalred and DO years old, DR..
Henry S. Tanner, the famous faster
is paying his first visit to Detroit. T.
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" lie said n
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 l am a 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 abb
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 a
spring. mo-" he continued, 81 felt not
the slightest i'll effects from the fast.
On the other hand, l think it rather re-
freshed me, once l 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 1
kept it up, and the action of the heart
actually resumed it's healthy tone and
all pain passed from that region. 1 did
not break the fast after I felt this eff
feet, however, and determined to con-
tinue it as long as 1 could At the end
of forty-two days l felt that I 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 1 lost only thir-
ty-eight pounds When l started ev-
erybody predicted that 1 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 |
stomach would prove to be a 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
of the fast small boy came up to me
ripe peach. l asked him to
let me hold it. put it to my lips
wanted to taste Of it, but that would
give everybody a chance to say that l
had weakened, and 1 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 1 did it, 1 asked him to
come back at noon, when my time
would be up. He did so, matronly
with him. 1 saw her put her
hand in her pocket and take from it
big, ripe, yellow peach and give it to
him. l suppose she was his mother
Then the little fello,J trotted over to
where 1 sat and an immense crowd
ooked on as 1 grabbed it from his
hand and took one big, long, juicy bite
rom it. The memory of that flavor
myers with me yet. | devoured every
tit of the fruit The general SUPPOSE
ion is that my first eatable after the
asst was a watermelon. This arose
rom the fact that l had always de-
Jared that 1 would begin on melon.
Not long after the peach incident they
rought me three pints of milk, which
drank, and an immense Georgia wa
ermelon, weighing about forty pounds
Between that time and midnight | had
evoured all Of it, and felt much re-
reshed. l did not care to put more
old food in my stomach. In due time
came to eat meat and vegetables, and
ecame, to all intents and purposes, a
ational human being. Yes, the prac- a
ice of medicine derived some good L
'om my achievement. The physicians y
earned that the use of alcoholic slim a
lants was not necessary to arrest the Ell
-asting of tissue. l used none in my "
lst, and ever since then the use of the nj
uff in the sick room has been grad b,
ally decreased" When miners are =
injured in a mine and shipwrecked r
Lilors are marooned on barren ISL al
to eat in either case II
ley usually last about twelve days. -
he doctor says this is because they
I've been accustomed to hear OF that at
,ing the limit of life without susie pc
tnce, so they give up and allow death Ia
take possession Of them, whereas, ha
ID they the will power, they could FL