  4U 1954+319 was discovered 25 years ago, but only recently has a clear
picture of its nature begun to emerge. We present for the first time a
broad-band spectrum of the source and a detailed timing study using more than
one year of monitoring data. The timing and spectral analysis was done using
publicly available Swift, INTEGRAL, BeppoSAX, and RXTE/ASM data in the 0.7-150
keV energy band. The source spectrum is described well by a highly absorbed
(N_H~10^23 cm^-2) power law with a high-energy exponential cutoff around 15
keV. An additional black body component is needed below 3 keV to account for a
soft excess. The derived ~5 hr periodicity, with a spin-up timescale of ~25
years, could be identified as the neutron star spin period. The spectral and
timing characteristics indicate that we are dealing both with the slowest
established wind-accreting X-ray pulsar and with the second confirmed member of
the emerging class dubbed "symbiotic low mass X-ray binaries" to host a neutron
star.
