The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1919-08-11
Over 100000 Tons Of Food VIII Have
Been Consumed by Person
Who 10 Seventy Years
Old.
FIGURES ARE STARTLING
Parade Of Articles In Menu for Last
Half Century Would Beat
Modern Circus
Wonders.

! The Keokuk man who has reached
| the age Of seventy and who eats with
anything like his old appetite will,
no doubt, be surprised to know that
| he has consumed in his lifetime 100,.
900 tons of foods and liquids. If he
could see all of the menus which he
has enjoyed marching past him In
review, he might believe that he was
"seein' things" A writer in the Lon.
don Tit-Bits has figured it all out.
He would gasp with amazement ii
he could see his life's menu pass be-
fore his eyes--a procession of fifty
two-horse wagons, each with its bur.
den of two tons, every ounce OF
,, which has passed his lips. And 1t
would probably not be prudent to
mention the fact that, since he was
Graded, he has actually consumed
considerably more than hundred
times his own weight in nourish-
ment.
Assuming him to be man Of
healthy appetite, and making every
allowance for the years OF childhood
and his old age, the bread he has
tons and would be represented by a
twelve feet high--a leviathan loaf
which hundred strong men could
scarcely raise from the ground.
His aggregate potato, If reared on
end, would totter six feet above his
head: it's waist" would be SO ample
that the two tallest soldiers in our
army could not clasp hands around
it; and to remove it-for it weighs
1o1
would tax the strength of three
powerful horses. And of other vege-
tables he has eaten enough to equip
dozen green-grocers' shops.
His consumption Of meat Of one
kind or another is no less startling.
He has eaten as much beef as a
drove of twenty bullocks could sup
ply; all the mutton that flock OF
fourscore sheep could contribute. and
his morning rashers of bacon would
be sufficient, if placed end to end, to
reach from Highgate to Tit-Bits'
offices.
The fish he has eaten would, at q
modest estimate, turn the scales at
five tons, and we cannot allow him
less than 10000 eggs. or considerably
less than one a day, for all purposes.
He has "sweetened" his life with
four tons Of sugar, and ton of but.
ter would be no extravagant allow.
ance for a long lifetime, to which we
may safely add a quarter OF ton OF
cheese.
The fruit he has eaten in one form
or another could scarcely weigh less
than four tons, and his aggregate
apple alone would be good five
yards in circumference.
In solid food alone he has dis
posed Of much more than fifty tons
in his seventy years-in allowance,
let us say, of ten times his present
weight for every year of his life.
And the liquids he has swallowed are
little less portentious in their vol
ume.
Let us suppose that, in one form
Or another, from the cup that
cheers" to the cup that exhilerates. !
he drinks on an average three pints
a day We thus get life total rough
Iy of 5000 gallons. This quantity is
sufficient to fill a small reservoir
twenty-five feet long and ten feet
wide to depth of six feet. And Its
weight is SO great that it would raise |
he entire population Of village OF
900 inhabitants into the air.
Thus in life covering the allotted
,pan" a man Of sound health and
appetite disposes of little less than
me hundred tons of food and drink
/ quantity sufficient, If expressed in
power, to raise a first
lass battleship to height of two
niles.
If our septuagenarian has been q
Imoker, even Of moderate indulgence,
or. say fifty years, he has converted
INTO smoke the equivalent of quar-
er of a million cigarets, at a cost
which could scarcely be less than
100 pounds sterling; or 800 boxes OF
igars, or six hundredweight of pipe
obacco.