Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1840-03-05

The following is one of the most re-
markable instances ofprecocity, that we
rccollect ever to have heard or read of.
Notwithstanding the account appears to
come well authenticated, we should not
wonder if the reader hesitated to give it
entire credcnce.
(Corespondencs Of the Troy Morning Mail.
BURLINGToS, Vermont, Feb. IL.
Dear Sir-At your request, | sit down
to give you a short description OF that
wonderful and physically precocious
child, Hiram Barber. have just seen
him, and examined him critically. He
was born aud lives in Richmond, Chit
tenden County, Vermont, and was three
years old last May. He is four feet one
inch in height, weighs ninety pounds,
and is every way perfect in his organi-
zation. His voice is grum, and sounds
like a rough-spoken, iull-grown Green
Mountain boy. His body is large and
full-limbs OF the size of an ordinary
man, while the only defect perceptible
is that his legs (Which are smaller in
proportion) bow out, owing to the unu
q suai weight OF his bndy.-HIs father in
formed me that this defect was daily be-
coming less apparent. His head looks
like u developed cranium twenty-five
years old. 1t is thickly covered with
light brown hair.
But what is most astonishing of all,
the lad has as fine pair of whIskers as
any dandy in Troy, forming a complete
circle round his chin, where full tuft
projects, after the most approved style
OF u modern iop. Singular to say, he
has little or no beard upon his upper lip.
This looked somewhat suspicious, SO
took firm hold of the whiskers and
tweaked them till the lad roarcd out
right, and had to be convinced.
The boy talks indistinctly, and ap-
peared to me to be rather idiotic. But
many assured me that he is not. know
that lad three years old is not apt to
be very man-like-but can detect stu
pidity even at that age, which l iancied
/ could do in the case before me. Mr.
Barber, the father, informed me that at
his birth the child weighed but nine
pounds, and that he did not differ from an
ordinary infant until he was more than
fifteen months old, when he began to
grow in this manner. His whiskers did
not begin to make their appearance un-
oil he was past two years of age, when
they came forward rapidly.
ile has been here some short time,
and is now going home. He is not ex-
hijited for money, though all who go in
give him something and he probably gets
moro in this way than in any other
Money plcascs him cyccedingly-Wbcn
he gets any ho shouts in his grum voice
" Here c--lIere-tnl--ma- ,-Elorc"
so Ma or Pa, as II happens, takes out
All cid snuf'box aud dcpositesihe Offering \
The iandlord here tells me he cats
like a soldier on Geld duty, and doubt
IL not for be has n mans strength in his \
hand nGd arin. Pifcnologically speak \
Ing ! ihink his case i, bad enougb-the H
skull is developed but tho ipculties are
wanting.
Z hr CAGE is very singular. have
seen some two or three giants, to say |
nothing of pigmy occasionally y--but
never before sew an iriunt three years
old, sporting full grown pair of whis-
kers of his own raising large enough 4
to excite the envy of half the hairlip, 1
mot to say brainless) csquisitcs of Brosd \
way ar Bond street.
In haste, you're, r.. j.. C.S.