THE CITY OF FASTS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 47, 19 November 1907, Page 3

THE CITY OF FASTS.

PRESSMEN CONVERTED. A LADY JOINS THE RANKS." " Come and have a drink," said a prominent Wanganui pressman to a Dominion representative recently. "It gives one an appetite for lunch." Drinks were taken. " I have had no breakfast," he continued. "My lunch will be my first meal to-day. I never have ( breakfast." Are you better for the practico? "Yos, it is curing mo of nervous indigestion." You are not one of the real fasting men, I suppose? '

"Well, I have done a fast of four days. I notice that Dr. Bakewell, of Auckland, is disposed to discredit the fasts that have been reported in Wanganui. But I assure you they are quite genuine. They are not, as he suggests, tho creations of the brain of an imaginative pressman hero at Wanganui." Have/there been v niany fasts ?■ " They have been numerous enough to be regarded as quite common here." Why.in Wanganui in particular? " Mr. L started the practico here. He got hold of some books and articles on the doctrine of fasting/ and was so impressed with it that lie spread tho news wherever ho went in Wanganui; and when several had tried his system and benefited othors soon folio ved." I 3 .Mr. L a quack doctor? " Xo, just an ordinary resident here." Tell me the names of some of the fasters? "I'll give you their names, but not for publication. Thero is Mr. , who completed a forty-nine days' fast. There is Mr. (another prominent pressman). He has just fasted for nineteen days. , a Maori, is now in his fourth week. Ho tried the fust a? a forlorn hopo, and is now so enthusiastic about 7 it that he declares he will enter upon a crusade among the Maoris, and preach to them the virtues of fasting, and try to euro thorn ol some of their vices. A man up the Main Trunk Line has fasted for twenty-three (lays, and thore is my own fast of four days." What good does it do? "It cures many uilnicnts. I had resort to Easting to cure me of nervous indigestion." Didn't you feel hungry? "A little; but that soon passed away, especially after a drink of water or lemonade. You must not worry if you mean to. fast. Tho man who keeps constantly thinking, ,'oli, dear, I haven't, had my dinner yot,' will, do himself harm. Ho had better not fast at, all. We eat meals to-day not so much bocanso wc need tho food, but solely from habit." Ilns Mr. (the' other pressman) been working during his nineteen days' fast? " Certainly." And you worked yourself full time during yrtur four days? "Yos. In fact, I worked longer hours, because I worked in the luncheon hour. I ■ felt no discomfort. There was a craving for food now' and again, but that soon' wont away; and I took exercises. I have been without breakfast for seventeen months."