Painful Results of Stoutness

1901

A stout man lifted himself into a Heights car the other morning and took the only vacant seat. Pretty soon a lady came aboard, and the stout man quickly arose to tender her his place. As he reached a standing position the car suddenly started, and he sat down with a sound like a broken slat. Blushing deeply, he once more struggled to his feet and was about to step out into the aisle when the motorman saw a wagon on the track and fiercely applied the brakes. The car stopped so suddenly that the stout man doubled over on a thin young man in the front seat and almost cracked his slender neck. The young man pushed the dents out of his derby hat and muttered some remarks that were not complimentary to fat people in general.

Then the fat man braced himself for the third time, and the lady sympathetically remarked, "Please don't trouble yourself." But the fat man's spirit was up. He crowded out into the aisle and filled it so full that the lady could not get by him; then, with a polite wave of his hand, he indicated the seat and backed out of the way.

"Thank you!" said the lady very sweetly. "But I get off at the next stop."

Then the fat man went out and filled up the back platform. — Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Leo Whitton Claims to Be the Fattest Man

1896

Weighs 715 Pounds

"The fattest man in America" is the way in which Leo Whitton announces himself. Up to a year ago Leo had been growing broader, rounder and more uncomfortable for the past thirty-seven years. He weighs 715 pounds. Daniel Lambert, the Norfolk giant, tipped the beam at 729 pounds, scoring the world's record.

Whitton's tremendous girth is not so apparent when he stands, but when he sits he is startling. His measurements are: height, 5 feet 10 inches; neck, 26 inches; biceps, 28 inches; chest, 6 feet; waist, 7 feet; thigh, 49 inches; calf, 26 inches. He comes of stock noted for fleshiness. He was born in Northumberland County, Ontario, Canada, of English parents. Up till the age of twenty-one years he worked on the farm at home. Then he went into the butcher business at Brighton, Ont., which he attended to up to three years ago, when his extraordinary girth rendered it impossible for him to handle the chopper.

When asked if he had endeavored to avoid growing so fat Mr. Whitton replied that he had tried all remedies. He has never tasted alcoholic drinks in his life. He loses from ten to fifteen pounds during the summer, but does not feel much relief from the loss. In winter he regains the amount that was missing. He is married to an average-sized woman, and has five children, the eldest of whom is seventeen years old. None of them shows any signs of abnormal stoutness. — New York Recorder.

Crowded Mass Transit Train — The Fat Man and The Spinster

1905

ON STRANGER'S LAP SPINSTER RODE IN CROWDED ELEVATED TRAIN

Situation Enjoyed by the Other Passengers, but Decidedly Distasteful to the Principals — Fat Man Finally Succumbs to Fate

The elevated train was chock full when the very stout man got on at Thirty-third street. There wasn't room between platform and platform for a famine victim; but the stout man, like all stout men, didn't see how he could make any difference. He stepped upon the platform buoyantly, mashing a messenger boy flat against the door and spreading a lemon-faced little spinster all over the window like jam or butter.

At Twenty-eighth street half a dozen people got out. Instantly there was a rush for seats and standing room left inside the car. But alas! when a fat man gets wedged in a doorway, who else can penetrate it? Again, like all fat men, the fat man was lucky, and, strange as it may appear, he managed to get one of the seats recently vacated.

When he had sat down the little spinster gathered herself together and found a foothold in front of him, and the others, with some new passengers just taken on, crowded in after her and packed themselves like sardines. They were squeezed so tight that the spinster reached for a strap to keep from being pushed over on the fat man's head and shoulders. But just as she made a grasp somebody else caught the only remaining strap. The bell rang sharply and the train started with a jerk. The little spinster lost her breath and balance, toppled for a moment on her toes and then sank struggling down upon the fat man's lap.

The fat man gasped and the spinster gave an awful cry of consternation and reached for the floor. But there was no floor! Every inch of space was covered by the feet of the determined passengers. The moment she sat down they had spread out over her space. Then she blushed. Some people looked her way and laughed, but nobody moved. She couldn't wedge her knees down from the altitude they had assumed at the first lurch.

She continued to struggle and strain to reach a strap, while the fat man sat helpless with that energetic mite of femininity going through the jiu jitsu exercises on his knees. At the next station more people got on and the fight of the lone spinster became more difficult and desperate.

Flesh and blood, even 300 pounds strong, could stand it no longer. Like a mountain rising and casting off the small cities on its surface, the ponderous one rose and pushed the sardine-like passengers out of his magic circle. The spinster slid off his knee like a drop of water off a duck.

"Madam," said the fat man, lifting his hat gravely, "will you do me the honor to take my seat?"

"Well, it's about time!" snapped the ruffled little spinster ungratefully. — New York Press.

The Death of the World's Largest Human

1912--

DEATH OF WORLD'S LARGEST HUMAN

"Baby" Bliss Is Found Dead in His Home -- Accidentally Asphyxiated.

BLOOMINGTON, Ill., Jan. 4 -- Leonard (Baby) Bliss, reputed the largest man in the world, was found dead in his home today. Neighbors found his frozen body seated in a chair with gas escaping from a gas stove. He had been dead several days.

It is believed he arose several nights ago to get warm and in some way accidentally opened the jet.

He was born here in 1865. His dimensions were:

Height, 6 feet, 4 inches; waist, 72 inches; hips, 88 inches; chest, 66 inches; thigh, 42 inches; calf, 27 Inches; collar, 21 inches; hat, 7 5-8; sox, 12½; shoes 13; weight, 540.

Bliss was well known in America and Europe, having toured both continents as a salesman for a bicycle factory.

He also was at various times with circuses. Last summer he spent several weeks on the road with a "fat man's baseball team."

--The Billings Gazette, Billings, Montana, January 5, 1912, page 5.

For Sanitary Reasons, No More Kissing

1915--

Substitute That Only The Flabby Will Accept

Health experts are advocating the substitution of a tap on the cheek with the palm of the hand for the kiss. But no red-blooded person would be content with such a substitute, sanitary though it may be. -- Long Beach Press.

--Woodland Daily Democrat, Woodland, California, July 2, 1915.

Comment: The headline with the article doesn't make a bit of sense to me.