Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 December 1877 — ECCENTRIC TRAIN. [ARTICLE]

ECCENTRIC TRAIN.

Hl* Very Long East-Abstaining from Eating or Drinking for Six Day*. [From the New York Sun.] George Francis Train was found in bed at 5:30 o’clook last evening, in a small $3-room of the Phoenix House, Broadway and Twelfth street, close up under the roof, where the air is pure. He pays $2 a week only, because ho took the room last May, when the house was being refitted, and submitted to a good many consequent inconveniences. The waiter that conducted the visitor to the room looked bright. He carried in his hand a pitcher of water. It was the first drinking water that Mr. Train had ordered for six days. By the side ot the single bed were an apple and a biscuit. During two hours of conversation, Mr. Train nsed the apple once to illustrate the position of the world as he stood above it on a mountain; but he did not touch the biscuit nor take a sip of the water. Yesterdav morning at 8 o’clock, he said, had completed a period of six days since he had taken food or drink. Dr. White had called on him and urged him to eat. The doctor was of the opinion that he was troubled with gastric fever. His tongue was very much coated. Judge E. L. Fancher, who had delivered Mr. Train out of the clutches of Judge Davis, had met him and said : “ Mr. Train, after I delivered my decision in your case, you advised me to take a Russian bath. Now, I advise you to go and take a Russian bath. ” Mr. Train’s family then went to him and urged him to eat something. This was too much. He could not resist their appeal, or rather when it was made he felt no inclination to resist it. Psychology would explain that, too. So yesterday morning his family had some oatmeal and water prepared for him, and he eat about as much as he could have held in one hand. On his way to the house he had stopped at a pump, and was able to drink a little water. At noon he had eaten half a biscuit. That was all he had eaten in six and a half days. The biscuit on the table was for his supper, but he did not care to eat it. He had felt a slight desire for water, and so had ordered some. It was his usual bedtime. He usually remained in bed fourteen hours. During the six days of fasting he had lost about ten pounds in weight. His eyes, he said, had lost their peculiar luster, and his knee-joints had become weak ; but, after eating the handful of oatmeal, eyes and knees alike had been restored to their normal state. It was not the nutriment contained in the oatmeal that had caused this, but the mechanical action of the stomach, which had ceased for want of food, was again set going, and so disease was averted.

“ The time will come,” said Mr. Train, “ when I shall be able to fast for thirty days. In the meantime I have proved three things. The first is, that all the stories of terrible agony in starvation are a humbug. They are inventions of people who want to glorify themselves because they have an opportunity.” Mr. Train’s usual fare for months past, he says, has been : For breakfast, five penny rolls, 5 cents, and a cup of coffee, 5 cents; for dinner, 10 cents’ worth of potatoes and bread, and 5 cents’ worth of baked beans; for supper, a cup of coffee, 5 cents. The total cost per day was 30 cents.