The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-09-10
a TOWN OF FAT PEOPLE.
Men ana Women Tip the scale at
Two Hundred and Fifty.

| VIA a village IN the northeastern part of
this county, on the line of the Chicago aud
Erie Railway. has u men who weigh more
than 900 pounds, and some of them lip tie
beam at very nearly 800. The names, oocu-
pations and weight of these corpuf, Mt den
izens Of the quiet hamlet are as follows:
Frank Hockensmlth. railroad man. 2SS;
Homer Sims, sawmil hand. rs; Rudy Mid
| dleton. timber buyer, 266; Hiram Cobie
| gardener, 245; John Myerhoffer, saw filler.
| 10; JAMES Sims. teamster. PIP; Chris Ste.-
Ter grocer $50; Frank Ward. barber, 2O7;
| Henry Aughinbaugh farmer, z04 and
| JOIN Middleton, farmer 22.
| Nor is this remarkab tendency to obes-
| ity In the community confined to the msn
! Inc granger who VS. Is the place c1nnot
| but be impressed as he stro1s Gown the
| single business street from the station
! with the extraordinary number of large
| women. count of noses among the fem
| mine portion of the community who carry
more than the average OF adipose reveals
! no fewer than fifteen whose avoirdu.o!s
| VIII range from $50 10 $50 Common gall
lantIy however, forbids the publication
| of the names OF the women, who are OBJ
! Vious,y sensitive on the question OF su-
| pertiuous flesh The town has TWO hotels
and the landlady at each caravansary
! serves as most attractive advertisement
| OF the quality and quantity Of The daily
| bill of fare. since each calls for the two
| hundred weight whenever she steps upon
| the scales.
No Cause Is Assigned.
Diligent inquiry among the most inteN.-
| gent inhabiant OF the place fails to dis
| cover an explanation of this popular in
| clination to fleshiness The hotel people
stouly 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 hat no packages have been receiv-
! cd of nature to arouse suspicion that the
Whole town had taken 10 nosirums 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 corpu-
! lency have passed through his hands APP
| plying the mathematical proc IS of clint
| nation, one must look to local causes.
| Even here there are obstacles, apparently
| insurmountabie, in the path of aSl thea-
| rles. The citizens say that after an attack
| of typhoid fever the patient not infre-
| quentiy becomes very feshy. 1t is re-
| called that once, and not many years ago,
! typhoid fever ragged in Servla. aud those
who survived gained in weight, but not one
of the large people N the town had ty-
phoid
There are two saloons in the town ANA
! they do a thriving business, and Mike"
| Shaffer, one of the proprietors, is a heavy
| weight, but he was large before he opened
| his thirst parlor and is known to be a
very moderate patron of his own estabi h
| ment, while not man can be found in the
| lot who will admit that he ever polished
| the front of Mikes mahogany bar with
| his waistcoat. Besides, obesity is common
| TO the women, and they never drink The
| doctors around Servia say that it cannot
| be the water because that beverage Is no
/ Gle
| is drunk to have a marked effect on any
body's constitution. The air is the same
| as that Inhaled at Bippus, Bolivar and
| Spkerville, al within few miles Of Ser
via, yet in those towns the lean predomi-
nate 10 such an extent that one of Ser
| Was 2O)-pounders would be viewed as a
! freak were he to visit these places.
The boys and girls coming up seem dis
posed to fairness, as are their parents. and
| the number of plump and pleasing maid
| ems who are getting on rapidly toward the
| 200 mark is also out Of III proportion 10 the
| population. Perfect repose of mind is by
| many considered essential to the acquis-
ton of flesh, yet Servia has it's full share
of domestic brois, petty lawsuits and
| street and neighborhood quarrels. II gets
wrought up to the highest pitch of excite
| ment at intervals, on the slightest provo
cation, and, though there are no blood feuds,
| these little difficulties ordinarily would
|
mental ferment and interfere with the con-
| struction of fatty tissue but II doesn't af-
feet the Servian's physical proportions at
all.
Larger, hut Fewer.
But while Servias inhabitants as indi-
viduals grow large of girth and lusty;
while the heavy tread of the citizens as
they roll TO and from the pos tofiice makes
Mother Earth groan, the town itse
| Il, lion,
| ago. is now dwindling to 200 and bids fair
to fail below It, Though the aggregate
| weight of the town on the scales may
| equal that of two years ago IL is numeric-
ally declining. Possibly on the Malthus-
! ian theory of population and subsistence,
| the residents get more to eat per capita as
| their number diminishes and, in eating
| more thrive the better.
But doubtless the fact that, aside from
| the occasional squabbles that occur In the
| community the people are impervious to
! the exciting influences which set the worl1
| topsy-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
| porhood are thrifty, and the resident OF
! the village who can't get from the world
! the living that it owes him Is no true Ser
| vian With plenty to eat enough cloth
| ing to keep him warm. and roof to pro-
| tect him, bothering himself little concern
| ing the news from outside his township.
working just enough to afford an appetite
| and a perfect digestion, small wonder th0t
| the men of Servia are great men and oc-
cupy larger space in the community than
those Of any other town in all the broad
| land.
There is no occasion to organize Don't
Worry clubs in Servia. The inhabitants
never learned the definition of the wort,
and they are not at this late day going -
exert themselves to ascertain its mean
ing. Reclining in the soporifc quiet OF
| their cottages, stretched out In front Of
the village grocery swapping stories OF
the long ago, or making infrequent trips
to Eel river where, beneath outrageous
elms, they angle indolently for the elusive
| sucker or club, they furnish an Ideal OF
physical and mental calm. An abundance
of necessary food and an absence Of ve&-
ations that wear out both the human
mind and body conspire TO lethargy and 10
obesity. and to these conditions present