The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-09-14
A TOWN OF FAT PEOPLE.
Men and Women Tip the Scale at Two
Hundred and Fifty, and the Children
are GROWING pl111nln

| Hundred and Fifty, and the Childrel
| are Growing Plump.
| With popula ton of exactly POS, Ser
| via, village in the northeastern par
| of this country, on the line of the Chi
cago and Erie Railway, has IL men wh'
| weigh more than 200 pounds, and som
Of them tip the beam at very nearly
800. The names, occupations and weigh
of these corpulent denizens of the quie
| hamlet are as follows: Frank Hocken
| smith, 2SS; Homer Sims, sawmill hand
| 275; Rudy Middleton, timber buyer
265; Hiram Coble, gardener, 245; Johr
Myerhoffer, saw filler, 215; James Sims
teamster, PIP; Chris Steller, grocer, go
Frank Ward barber, 2O7; Henry Augh.
limbaugh, farmer, 204, and John Middle
ton, farmer, 202.
Nor is this remarkable tendency tc
obesity in the community confined to
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 num-
Der of large women A count of noses
among the feminine portion of the COM
munity who carry more than the aver
age Of adipose reveals no fewer than fiji
teen who avoirdupois will range from
100 to $50. Common gallantry. however,
forbids the publication of the names the
women, who are obviously sensitive on
the question of superfluous flesh. The
town has two hotels, and the Iandlady
at each carayansarv serves as a most
attractive advertisement of the quality
of the daily bill of fare, since each calls
for the two hundred weight whenever
she steps upon the scales.
Diligent inoutrv among the most in
telligeut inhabitants of the place fails
to discover an exclamation of this popu-
lar inclination TO feshiness. The hotel
people stoutIv aver that MANY dealers
in compounds for excessive leanness
have worked the community, and made
the inns their Headquarters the post
master is willing to swear that no pack
ages have been received of a nature 10
arouse suspicion that the whole town
had taken to nostrums for building I'M
their systems. and the railroad agent.
who is also the express agent. is posi-
tive that no shipneut of drugs in hullx
sufficient TO start an endemic of cor
pulency have passed through his hands
AppIvfnr the mathematical process Of
elimination one must look ia local
causes Even here there are obstacles
apparently insurmountable in the nath
of all theories The citizens' saw thai
after an attack of typhoid fever the pa-
tient not infreouently becomes very
deshy. # 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 LARGO neo-
pie in the town had tvphoid
There are two saloons in tbe TOWN and
they do a thriving business and "Mike"
Shaffer one of the proprietors i a
heavy,vefght but he was large before
he opened his thirst parlor. and is
known to be very moderate patron Of
his own establishment while nor a man
can be found in the lot will admit that
he ever polished the front of sNIile'so
sides obesity is common to the women
and they never drank The doctors
around Servia saw that II cannot he tba
water. because that beverage * uoto-
riouslv bad, and not enough Of the Same
is drunk to have a marked effect IN
anybody's constitution. The air is the
same as that inhaled at Bippus, Bolivar
and SpiherVile all within a few miles
Of SerVia, yet in those towns the lean
predominate to such an extena that
one Of Servia's 200-pounders would be
viewed as freak were he to visit
these places.
The boys and girls coming up seem
to fairness, as are their par
onts, and the number of plump and
pleasing maidens who are getting on
rapidly toward the 200 mark is also out
IF all proportion to the population
Perfect repose of mind is by many con-
'idered essential to the acquisition of
tesh, yet Servia has its full share of
domestic br0ils, petty lawsuits and |
street and neighborhood quarrels. 1T |
gets wrought up to the highest pitch of
excitement at intervals, on the slightest |
and. though there are no |
blood feuds, these little difficulties or
linarily would be potent in keeping the |
tIrt, to-, IN,