This is the photograph that stopped me this morning. A man eating breakfast with considerable enthusiasm. “Last Meal” could mean he’s on death row… but the caption explains why.

George Hasler Johnston of Chicago is shown eating the last meal he'll get for some time. Immediately after, he started walking from Chicago to New York. Nearly a thousand miles. Vowing not to eat until he arrived. He estimated thirty days. He was doing it to win a $1,000 bet.

Medical men were asked about this plan. They said, emphatically, no.

Johnston said he could do it.

He didn't go alone. Walking alongside him as trail blazer and road guide was James Hocking of Yonkers, seventy years old, holder of the world's long distance walking championship. Hocking had walked seventy miles on his seventieth birthday. He knew something about covering ground.

Scientists arranged to examine Johnston in a dozen cities along the route, using him as a moving laboratory. His daily plan was straightforward: thirty-five miles, twenty quarts of water, three shirt changes, one hundred shirts total. No food.

He trained for the attempt by going on a thirty-day fast beforehand.

On June 17th, eight days into the walk, Johnston hiked into Pittsburgh. Local physicians examined him on arrival and declared him in perfect condition. He left the next morning for Greensburg, heading east toward the mountains.

The Pittsburgh papers had been running columns about his progress for days. Crowds met him everywhere along the route. Police escorts formed to clear the roads. In Toledo his party was given a standing ovation at the theater.

He crossed the Allegheny Mountains near the end, climbing Bald Knob with nothing in his stomach but water, in weather that soaked them through and roads torn up for construction.

Twenty days after leaving Chicago, Johnston walked into New York. He had covered six thousand miles in total. Lost thirty-three and a half pounds. A doctor examined him and confirmed his health was sound.

The medical community, which had said it would kill him, had no comment.

He collected his thousand dollars. Then he wrote about the experience at length, calling it the greatest demonstration of what physical culture can do for the human body that had ever been attempted.

I believe him.

See you tomorrow.

— Chris

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