NO USE FOR FAT MAN

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11913, 6 April 1933, Page 3

NO USE FOR FAT MAN

• STOUT LONDONER’S SORROWS. THIRTY STONE AND NO WORK NOT WANTED IN CIRCUS. : Tho most pathetic man in England to-day is M r F- W. Lane, of New Kent Road, London. He has been out of work for six years, simply because he is probably the fattest man in the British Isles. There is no doubt that Air Lane is fat, says the ‘“News of the World.” lie is more than fat —lie is huge. He is just over six feet in height, and his chest is 04in., his waist is about the some, and bis neck is 2Yin. ! And he weighs ever 30 stone ! Yet he is only 49 and lie can walk 20 miles a day with the best hikers.

Until six years ago Air Lane had always been connected with the brewing trade. He .started as a barman and finished as manager. Bad trade and competition lost, him bis job. Since 192(1 lie has not boon able to get a post because of his size. Actually he! knows many trades, but his tremendous disability always finishes him- When ho Applies for a post he is always met with a smile and dispensed with immediately because of his looks and stature. When an interviewer saw him at bis homo, bo talked of his great handicap. Tt was _ © small, isquare room with no vestige of adornment. Airs Lane and five children live in this room. ‘I am tho most unfortunate man m England,” .said Mr Lane. “I cannot do anything because everybody laughs at me. I dare not answer an advertisement because I know exactly what will happen when I see the advertiser- You see, I am ever 30 stone now, and I think I am gaining every day. The only normal thing about me is that I take 7% in bats. Aly suits have to be specially made for me, and, I am sure that I am the fattest amd heaviest man in the •’British Isles. <‘Bnt is it any satisfaction to me? No. it isn’t! I’ve tried -every job under the sun., I’ve even tried the circus and the freak side-shows by letter, but nothing happens- I can’t get anything. The very sight of my size puts people off.” Mr Lane has lived through a life of practical jokes. Every day he encounters them. Every time -he gets’ on a- bus someone asks him bow many tickets he wants Every time be passes through a door someone says that modern doors should hoi made much Wider. And he takes it all in good part, But he still caiyxot ' get a. job, and, worse than that, be sometimes cannot get 'food for bis wife and Itoo children. 'Mr Lane might not be the fattest toan on record, bub be is the most, tragic. The famous “Fat Man” ' s Daniel Lambert, who was governor of Leicester Gaol in H9l. He bad a waist measurement of 9ft. 4m., and weighed 53j> stone just before his death. At present the record is said to be held by a! man now living) in Los Angeles, whose weight is 56* 'stone. 1 & - ' Yet none of these famous fat men, it seems, has been handicapped by bis weight. Mr Lane knows all. about them. Be rends everything he can ’about heavy poople, so that ho nug not, miss an opportunity of finding out exactlv how they overcome their disability. “But,” as he said ’ when his visitor loft his small home, the world seems to have no use for a fa . man to-day.”