KinSource - Tale of the Week - St. Paul Girl Starves Herself And Dies

KinSource

Minnesota Tales

The St. Paul Globe, May 27, 1904, p. 2

ST. PAUL GIRL STARVES HERSELF AND DIES

Undergoes Ordeal of "Sun-Worshipping Fast" and Is Tortured by Fanatics.

Miss Eloise Reusse, of St. Paul, who became insane in Chicago while undergoing the ordeal of the so-called "sun-worshiping fast," is dead in the state hospital for the insane at Elgin, Ill. Dr. Frank S. Whitman, superintendent of the hospital, says that death was due to acute mania induced by starving.

During the fast, which is said to have lasted forty-one days, Miss Reusse is said by the hospital authorities to have been subjected to torture by means of needles and the application of lotus oil.