The times., 1899-10-01
A TOWN OF FAT PEOPLE.
Men and Women Tip the Scale at
Two Hundred and Fifty.
(From the Chicago Record.l

| Railway, has twelve men who weigh more
than 200 pounds, and some of them tip the
beam at very nearly 800. The names, oecu-
| pations, and weight of these corpulent dem
! liens of the quiet hamlet are as follows:
! Frank Hockensmith, railroad man, 2SS:
Homer Sims. sawmill hand, 275; Ruddy
Middleton. timber buyer. 2e5; Hiram Coble,
| gardener, 245; John Myerhoffer, saw filer.
2l5; James Sims, teamster, 212, Chris Stel-
| Ter, grocer, 2S0; Frank Ward barber, 207;
Henry Aughinbaugh, farmer, 204 and John
| Middleton, farmer, 202.
Nor is this remarkable tendency to obe-
sity in the community confined TO the men.
The stranger who visits the place cannot
but be impressed as he strolls down the
single business street from the station with
the extraordinary number of large women.
A count OF noses among the feminine por
tion of the community who carry more than
the average of adipose reveals no fewer
than fifteen whose avodupois will range
from 100 to 250. Common gallantry, how
ever, forbids the publication OF the names
of the women. who are obviously sensitive
on the question of superfiuous flesh. The
town has two hotels, and the landlady at
each. caravansary serves as most attrac-
tive advertisement of the quality and guam
tity of the daily bill of fare, since each
calls for the two hundred weigh whenever
she steps upon the scales.
! Diligent enquiry among the most intelli-
gent inhabitants of the place fails to dis
| cover an explanation of this popular in
elination TO feshiness. The hotel people
| stoutly aver that many dealers in COM
pounds for excessive leanness have worked
the community. and made the inns their
headquarters; the postmaster is willing to
swear that no packages have been received
OF nature to arouse suspicion that the
whole town had taken to nostrums for
building up their systems. and the railroad
agent who is also the express agent, is
positive that no shipments of drugs in bulk
sufficient to start an epidemic OF corpulency
have passed through his hands. Applying
the mathematical process OF elimination.
one must look TO local causes. Even here
there are obstacles, apparently insurmount-
able, in the path of all theories. The
citizens say that after an attack OF typhoid
fever the patient not infrequently becomes
very feshy. 1t is recalled that once, and
not many years ago, typhoid fever ragged
in Servia, and those who survived gained
in weight, but not one of the large people
in the town had typhoid.
There are two saloons in the town, and
they do a thriving business, and Mike
Shaffer, one Of the proprietors, is heavy
weight, but he was large before he opened
his thirst parlor and is known TO be a
very moderate patron of his own establish
ment, while not man can be found in
the lot who will admit that he ever pol
ished the front of Mikes mahogany bar
with his waist coat. Besides, obesity is
common to the women, and they never
drink. The doctors around Servia say that
it cannot be the water because that bev-
erage is notoriously bad, and not enough
OF the same is drunk to have a marked
effect on any body's constitution. The air is
the same as that inhalde at Bippus, Bolivar,
and Spikerville, all within a few miles of
Servia, yet in those towns the lean pre-
dominate to such an extent that one Of
Servia's 200-pounders would be viewed as a
freak were he to visit these places.
The boys and girls coming up seem dis
posed TO fatness as are their parents, and
the number of plump and pleasing maidens
who are getting on rapidly toward the 200
mark is also out of all proportion to the
population. Perfect repose OF mind is by
/ many considered essential TO the acqui-
sition of flesh, yet Servia has its full share
: of domestic broils, petty lawsuits. and
, street and neighborhood quarreis. 1t gets
. wrought up to the highest pitch of excite
, ment at intervals, on the slightest provo
cation, and, though there are no blool
feuds, these little difficulties ordinarily
! would be potent in keeping the population
, in mental ferment and interfere with the
) construction of fatty tissue, but it doesn' I
affect the Servians physical proportions
at all.
But while Servia's inhabitants as indi-
yiduals grow large of girth and lusty
while the heavy tread of the citizens as
, they roll to and from the postoffice makes
! Mother Earth groan, the town itself
shrinks. It's population, three hundred a
year or two ago, is now dwindling to two
' hundred and bids fair to fall below it.
Though the aggregate weight of the town
on the scales may equal that of two years
ago it is numerically declining Possibly
u on the Malthusan theory of population
and subsistence. the residents get more u
. eat per capita as their number diminishe;
: and, in eating more, thrive the better.
{ But doubtless the fact that, aside from
e the occasional squabbles that occur in the
a community the people are impervious to
the exciting influences which set the world
: topsy- y-turvy has much TO do with their
rotundity of person. Each day of the year
/. is like the one that precedes and like the
= one which follows it. The country round
about is fertile the farmers in the neigh
!. borhood are thrifty, and the resident OF
: the village who cant get from the world
the living that ii owes him is no true Ser
= vian. With plenty TO eat, enough clothing
n to keep him warm, and roof TO protect
a | him, bothering himself little concerning
y the news from outside his township, wo k
, ing Just enough to anord an appstlte anC
e a perfect digestion, small wonder that III,
men of Servia are great men and occupy
a larger space in the community tha-
those of any other town in all the broa(
land.
- There is no occasion to organize Don
IS Worry clubs in Seryia- The inhabitant
Ie never learned the definition OF the word
N and they are not at this late day going Il
d. exert themselves to ascertain its meaning
e. Reclining in the soporiffc quiet of thei
" cottages, stretched out in front of the vii
y. lage grocery, swapping stories of the lonl
l. ago, or making infrequent trips TO Ee
Id River where beneath outrageous eims
at they angle indolently for the elusive suck
er or club, they furnish an ideal Of physi
G. cal and mental calm. An abundance o
in necessary food and an absence of vexa
re tions that wear out both the human min
ry and body conspire to lethargy and to ODE
,d sity. and to these conditions, present il
n Servia in more pronounced form than Il
+ any other town in northern Indiana, ma.
IN he attributed the unprecedented develop
~ ment of men and women.
ne Let any man in the mad whirl of bust
ness and social life in a large city separat
w himself completely from his business care
,d and locate in Servia let him adopt IN
an mode of life of its Inhabitants and n
J. matter how thin and dyspeptic he may be
- he will inevitably pick up flesh, and IL h
- heeome n genuine Servian in his habits
~ tastes. diet vocation, and accomp ish
rs ments. he may be sure that with ontir
n mental relaxation will come physical bulk
I and ~ he cant attain to the magnitude o