The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1902-09-09
SAND SWALLOWERS.
Community in St. Louis That Have
a New Cult.
Seventy-Five Men and Women who
Daily Delight Their stomachs
with a MouthfuI of Spe-
cIaI Soil.

A community of rs men and women
in st. Louis, whose Moses is William
Windsor, eat dirt. The dirt eaters
each take every day a teaspoonful of
dirt. Their leader, says a report from
that city, believes that grit is neces-
sary to every animal, and that because
mankind will have no dirt in his food
he is subject TO many stomach troubles
that no other animal has So the dirt
cater goes every day to his little sack
OF soil. He plunges a teaspoon in and
brings il forth heaped with good old
earth. He washes it down with a glass
of water, smacking his lips and blink
ing his eyes as If no morsel ever tickled
the palate of man so deliciously as dirt,
The dirt eater is particular what sort
of dirt he eats. He would be no true
epicurean il he were not. This article
OF singular diet is technically sand.
IT comes from the river bottom and is
made up OF many little particles of
granite, marble, quartz, and flint well
rounded with age. The chief dirt eat
er has the sand collected and steril-
lied and he distributes it among his
followers at 25 cents a sack. The sack
is small, but it holds a good deal of
sand. So that daily dirt eating after
the St. Louis fashion costs about ten
cents a week Dirt eating in St. Louis
ii six months old and 1ourishes like a
green bay tree. The chief dirt eater
looks happy and prosperous. The less
er dirt eaters have every day keen
hunger for their diet, and they bring in
their friends.
The dirt eaters have pretentious
quarters. They are at Eighteenth and
Olive streets in what was until recent
iy the home Of the Merchants League
club. Here the chief apostle Of dirt
eating, Mr.. Windsor, has offices and a
lecture hall. He receives visitors dur
ing the day and every night he lectures
10 his class. He has now IS men and
women who attend his lectures and eat
dirt. This is an amusing sect, and ii
amuses no one more than its founder
He said the other night:
II am not a doctor. | am not a the
iogian. I am simply an advocate of
what ! consider the best means to the
art of proper living. have combined
ali teach into a single word, vitos-
ophy, meaning the science of life,
come from Wisconsin, and was edu-
Gated for the law. l was for years in
the office OF William f. Villas.
''Dirt eating, or more properly sand
eating is something 1 took up four
years ago. l wondered why men were
not as healthy as animals. became
satisfied that il was because they did
not observe natural laws. I observed
that almost every man had stomach
trouble, and that the wild animals had
good stomachs. watched the animals,
and became convinced that their good
health was due to the fact that they
took grit into their stomachs with
their food. In other words they were
dirt eaters. Dirt was necessary to
them
ut occurred to me that men ate no
dirt. Consequently they had no grit
in their stomachs. I determined to
try 1t. | got quantity of fine sand
and began taking a small quantity
every day. The experiment was at
tended by such success that began
teaching dirt eating"