Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 281, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 November 1910 — FEASTS THAT KILL [ARTICLE]

FEASTS THAT KILL

Horace Fletcher, Arch-Apostle of Hypermastication, Talks. Details Dire Effects of Christmas Dinners and Thanksgiving Turkeys—Finds That Poor Are Good Eaters. ' Chicago.—Christmas and Thanksgiving turkey, cranberry sauce and the long list of victuals that go with these staple articles have been responsible for more loss of life, energy and ability to the people than all the great battles of history. Thus does Horace Fletcher, archapostle of hypermastication—meaning, in plain English, the world’s foremost advocate of the theory of thoroughly chewing food—denounce -overeating, especially the dxtent to which the practise in indulged in on national holidays. Not only that, but the Sunday dinner is more directly blameable for “Blue Monday” than is the proverbial

“night before,” in the opinion of the man who made chewing an art. Clad in pale blue, striped pajamas, with his feet bare, Mr. Fletcher faced a small gale blowing into the open window of his room at the Congress hotel the other day with enviable impunity. True, it was not snowing, but the sun had barely left Michigan City on its way to Emporia, Kan., and the atmosphere 'was more or less frigid. The teeth of the interviewer chattered. Mr. Fletcher, who is as radical an advocate of “fresh air" as he is of scientific mastication, was Immune from the breeze. He was pink, and smiling. .Although sixty-one years old and snow-haired, he is an athlete in superb condition. He attributes this to his system of living and of chewing food. He weighs 170 pounds and has eaten fewer breakfasts in the last twenty years than any hobo in Clark street. As a result of publicity given to his “right-living” propaganda. Mr. Fletcher says the words “Fletcherism," “Fletcherize,” and “Fletcherite” have

been recognized by lexicographers and will be “real words” in the dictionaries. : It means to digest thoroughly,” said the sexagenarian. "A manuscript on morals may be ‘Fletcherized.”' Mr. Fletcher was loath to believe that the “superman” of ages to come would be able to scorn food and derive his nourishment from plain air. “I would hate to think of that comto pass,” he said. Then he contesseßgj fle enjoyed what he did eat. ‘ Still, it might be done if a man would get on the windward side of a soup kitchen, and take deep, regular breaths,” he added. The secret of correct living and right living is possession by a greater percentage of poor persons than by “malefactors of great wealth,” Mr. Fletcher said. He seemed anxious to correct an impression that he was a votary of the midnight rarebit debauch • . “Rarebits are all right if a person wants them and if properly cooked and masticated," he said? “but I take them perhaps two or three times a year.” Mr. Fletcher is firm in his belief that “economic eating” will revolutionize society.