The Elbert County tribune., 1911-09-22
WON EN- AS FASTERS.
WRITER SAYS THEIR REPUTATION
IS UNDEsERvED.
Man, the Brute Man. Leads In Abstsn-
tion from Food-InsatiabIo Appetite
Not the InvariabIe and Peculiar
Property of His Sex.

Lenten season. when the fair peni-
tent prepares to moi tify and melt the
flesh made too, too solid by long de-
votion to the rites of high living, it is,
perhaps. pertinent to consider the ma
ture and proportions of her self-sacri-
Ace. 1t is assumed that If she does not
sast she will at least abstain-not nee
essarily from flesh meat, but from va
rious little qualifications Of the palate
more or less connected with the con-
fectioners' industry. II she does not
forego chops and birds she will GER
tainly eschew caramels and shun the
cup that cheers OF an afternoon, along
with the modern accomplishments.
But we Will suppose that she really
lasts in the orthodox Lenten meaning
of the word. taking but one full meal
on fast days and sustaining life
shiefiy on light collations, yet with.
oh. what an appetite of a Sunday!
What then? Why, the chances are
that her friends. who never in all their
lives, unless very sick in bed, missed
the customary three meals day. will
look upon her as little less than a
martyr. Then the family physician
will be consulted. and there will be
grave shakings of the head as to her
physical condition. Is she not the vic
tim Of religious enthusiasm? Is she
not trifing with her health?
And man-where does he come in?
Man. the mere brute. Does he ever
fast. be he idler or bread carver? What
question, to be sure? Who does not
know his ways? Has not tradition as
serted the direct route to his heart is
through his stomach? Feed the
brute!" enjoins the mother of the
young wife who asks for domestic ad
vice. And the general laughter that
greets the answer shows how the pop
llar mind has long been made up on
the subject of the most characteristic
masculine failing.
And yet, and yet, dear young lady,
may we not be doing men an injustice? :?
Is an Unsuitable appetite the invariable
and peculiar property of his sex? OF
| woman's repressed development we
have heard thing or two. Sometimes
1t gets into print that through the
ages she has been forcibly detained in
the background; that her Easter hat
would be larger within II not without
had the natural cerebral expansion
teen permitted. There are women
who, to prove this, cut of their hair
and wear hats at Easter evidently not
modelled with reference to adornment
alone Could self-sacrifice to an idea
go further?
And man. May he not have his
grievance, too? Pursued from boyhood
with pies, coddled into old age With
cakes, coaxed and fiattered with the eff
Terminate products Of the kitchen. bull
dozed with puddings. his higher moral
nature put to sleep with seductive pas
try-may we not inquire whether his
uppositious cravings for these things
not founded on purely feminine
conception? Who is 1t but man who
when unrestrained and following his
natural promptings, turns to tobacco
next to food the most effectual de.
stroyer Of hunger?
Who. In fact, are the real fasters
both in practice and In theory?
| Why, men.
In DR.. Tanner the sex has perhaps
its most illustrious example of its own
true promptings. Outside the records
of pathology, did you ever hear of a
female faster on this scale? Who is
the most conspicuous advocate of the
two meals a day idea? Mark Twain
What was the sex of the student al
! Phillips Andover who tasted whole
week because 1t seemed good thing
to do? Not female.
A Chicago enthusiast for a long
time lived on nothing but deep inspi-
rations OF air and few apples. Need
! less to remark he wore trousers. Still
another Western man lie widely know
as the author OF book in which h,
insists that one meal day the yea
around is ample for anybody. he him
self joyfully adhering to the practice
And there is the Rev. John ]. Eber..
of Pottstown. Pa recently deceased
who since 1860 had followed simila,
plan to his own satisfaction.-Toled,
Bee.