The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1915-05-25
SWALLOWED JUNK
FOR THIRTY YEARS
HARDWARE AND GLASS, NAILS,
BOLTS, COINS AND BULLETS
PIE FOR THIS MAN.
OTHER BRIC-A-BRAC REMOVED

A Wonderful Collection Was Found
When Surgeons Explored Stomach
of Seattle Man. Began Swallowing
Things With Suicidal Intent.
SEATTLE, Wash.-What would
you do if you had swallowed a jack
knife? Or, perhaps, several jack
knives? What would you take for
your chance of living if you had dined
on broken glass, with handful of
pins and nails as a 'chaser?"
James Fitzgerald, 81 years old,
didn't hurriedly repent and rush for a
doctor when he ate of such fare. On
the contrary, he went about his bust
ness and slept soundly of nights, with
no suggestion of internal uneasiness.
And he did it for thirty years.
Yesterday out at the county hospi-
tai they performed an operation on
Fitzgerald, and when it was all over
the surgeons awarded him without
stint the doubtful honor of being the
original human ostrich.
What the Doctors Found.
The patients stomach yielded ia
bits of broken glass, jackknives, pins,
nails, coins and other pieces of brio
a-brac. The collection of debris
weighs more than a pound.
FitzgeraId's stomach contained the
following articles: Eight knives, one
bolt two and half inches long, with
nut on the end; a dime, shoemak-
er's anvil, loaded 1920 Krag-Jorgen-
sen cartridge, one key, five pins, nine
parts of jackknife handles, eleven
knife blades, four key ring tags, three
nails and more than 100 bits of glass
and metal.
And Fitzgerald is going to get well.
A brawny, big-framed, two-fisted
man who stands more than six feec
tall in his stocking feet and weighs
nearly 200 pounds, Fitzgerald will
be out of the hospital in ten days,
the doctors say. And once well he is
going to curb his voracious longing
for cutlery and cut glass.
Began With Suicidal Intent.
1T was back in Quincy, ILL.,, in
1885, during President Cleveland's
first administration, that [ discovered
| could become a human hardware
store without half trying" said Fitz-
gerald, as he propped himself up on
one elbow on his cot and told his sto-
ry in a rich brogue There was no
work in sight, and l finally decided to
end my life after l had gone for a
week without eating. But did | go
and lay down in front of a train or
Jump off bridge? I did not.
II went out along the railroad
track and picked up several small
pebbles that were small enough to
swallow, and then l sneaked up to
house where they were making re-
pairs and stole a handful of nails.
And l swallowed them and then went
out alongside the railroad track to
die
81 fell asleep. l woke next morn
ing and was surprised to find I was
not dead. I was not feeling any dis
comfort from the nails and stones in
my stomach. And then | knew that
l need never go hungry again"
Fitzgerald tells how he would walk
into a saloon, go up to a group of
men who were drinking and say:
81 can eat that glass you have in
your hand"
eff you can I will give you S."
would be the usual reply. And then
he would crunch the glass in his
teeth and gulp it down. Sometimes,
if the bartender objected to this feat,
he would borrow a jackknife and
swallow it with ease. Or it might
be some other article. Fitzgerald was
not particular, providing he could
get it down.