Lives On Five Cents a Day

1901

Indiana Laborer Thrives on Exclusive Diet of Oatmeal

William Hamlin, a laborer, of Mishawaka, Ind., employed in very active work, and who spent the summer as a laborer in digging sewers and laying water-mains, has subsisted throughout the summer and fall on five cents a day, and is still continuing the experiment. Mr. Hamlin selected oatmeal for his diet, paying two cents a pound therefor, and consuming two and a half pounds a day, or seventeen and one-half pounds a week of seven days, at a total cost of thirty-five cents.

Hamlin's daily bill of fare since last summer has consisted of the following menu: Breakfast, plenty of hot drinking water and three-quarters of a pound of oatmeal; dinner, plenty of drinking water and one pound of oatmeal. For supper he takes a hot or cold bath, sometimes only a foot bath, three-quarters of a pound of oatmeal and plenty of drinking water. Mr. Hamlin says that after eating supper he often feels frisky as a colt. Whenever his appetite becomes rebellious and his stomach seems to crave other food he simply lays the oatmeal away on the shelf until the appetite returns and the stomach becomes subjugated.

Several citizens of this place, acquainted with Mr. Hamlin's eccentricities, vouch for the accuracy as detailed, and assert that Mr. Hamlin is as well satisfied with his present physical and mental vigor that he is not desirous of returning to the old order of things.