Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-04-25
NEAR TO STARVATION
How Men Have Felt When
Suffering From Hunger.
NO TWO JUST ALIKE
IT'S A MENTAL RATHER THAN A
PHYSICAL PAIN. ~-v.
Dreaming Of Food When There's None
to Be Had-Some Remark
able Experiences.
NO TWO JUST ALIKE


of starvation. whether in the streets Of
big city. in the jungles of South America. i'll
an open boat at sea, or on the sandy des-
erts of Australia, give strangely divergent
accounts of their feelings.
Their stories go to prove that different
men feef starvation in different ways. Some
suffer intensely; others hardly at all. Some
feel acute physical pain while the suffer-
ings of others appear to be purely mental.
A sailor whose schooner was wrecked on
a voyage from the Cayman Islands to
Jamaica a few years ago, and who spent
nearly two weeks in an open boat without
food, was asked how he felt during that
time.
Il hardly felt at all after the first two
days." he said Il seemed to outgrow the
longing for food and I do not remember
suffering any particular pain. I drifted
along In a dreamy sort of way, not caring
what happened. Even when saw the ship
which picked me up was not wildly eX-
cited. 1 was too faint to worry. The only
craving I remember distinctly was for a
glass of rum and a smoke of tobacco and
that was very strange, because 1 am prac-
tically teetotaler and do not greatly care
for smoking.
Starvation Kept This Man Walking.
A man who Is now receiving a big salary
In New York had hard time when he
first went to the city and nearly starved.
For days and weeks together he did not
have decent meal, and, by his own &C.
count, he suffered tortures.
Il could not keep STILL" he said.
"Often, when was frightfully hungry and
hadn't cent to buy anything, I would go
to one of the free libraries and try to
force myself to sit down and rest. But it
was no USE Some irresistible impulse
would drive me out into the streets again,
and would pace them restlessly for hours,
hungrily watching the restaurants and
wondering when I would get another
square meal
''The faces of the people in the crowded
streets got on my nerves. Faces, faces,
nothing but faces! They streamed by me
continually, day and night-not one of
iy. It seemed as if it INV was A my
fate to stand still and see that awful pro-
cession of faces fit by forever. They did
not strike me as belonging to real people;
they seemed like the faces of ghosts. When
l dropped off to sleep at night I used to
see those faces in my dreams, and for
months after 1 became prosperous they
haunted me day and night like night
mare.
"My hunger caused me the keenest phys
tcal torture. Every bone In my body ached;
my head throbbed violently; had terrible
felt as If I was just going to faint. AS
soon as hunger fairly got hold Of me I
lost every ounce of energy. l could not
look for work, as had been doing; could
not even beg. Two or three times asked
men for money in timid, feeble way, but
when they turned aside I did not persist.
A poor. addressed woman gave me a dime
one night, although did not ask her. I
got good meal with it, but afterward I
felt hungrier than ever"
Dreamed Of Meat Markets.
An orchid hunter, who nearly persisted in
q limo 10 fxrrn
who lost five of his men by starvation,
night after night when he went to bed,
famished and exhausted, would dream of
the markets that he had seen in various
parts of the world He would behold Lead
entail market, in London, piled high with
thousands Of carcasses and tons of meat;
and just as he put out his hand to grasp
leg Of beef or sirloin steak the vision
would fade. and in it's place would be the
gaily colored market of Panama, with ba-
nanas. pineapples and oranges, glistening
brightly in the tropical sunlight Those,
too, would vanish when he tried to snatch
them; and he would awake hungrier and
more miserable than ever.
Il could have borne the real horrors of
the days a thousand times BETTER he
said, IF it had not been for the tantalizing
miseries of the nights
This same explorer, during the month of
semi-starvation which he experienced. suf-
fered constantly from violent headaches.
dull, gnawing pains in the stomach and bad
attacks of malarial fever. And all the
time he could think Of nothing but food"
which increased his misery tenfold
University Graduates Experience.
A graduate Of Oxford University gave
up all his prospects in life some years ago
to become social worker among the poor
of the East End of London. In order to get
an idea of what it felt like to be really
poor he lived for six days on IL cents eat
ing nothing more than one tiny 2-cent loaf
each day. AS result he nearly starved
and was Ill for week afterward.
ut would not have been very trying" he