From the June 11, 1894 New York Times:

A new society of cranks has been started by a former Lieutenant in the German Army. His name is Wäthe. He is the leader of a new “ism,” and as such has sailed from San Francisco to Honolulu. The “Fruitarians” is the name of the new society he represents, and their belief–or rather notion–is, that modern civilization is full of vanities and strange motions, and greatly needs reforming. The members eat nothing but ripe fruit, eschew cooked food of any kind, and drink only water. They are to live in huts, bare of the comforts of civilization, and go naked. Ex-Lient. Wäthe intends to buy a large tract of land in the Sandwich Islands, or perhaps, a small island outright, for the purpose of founding a colony.•