The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1860-03-15
sf(istrl(antous.
From the New York Express.
TEe Negro in a New Form.

HE Negro in a New Form.
The animal at Barnum's is the nearest
appI bach to human Of any creature sup
posed to belong to the lower orders of an
imated beings. 1t stands erect, to height
of four feet, and weighs fifty pounds
The legs and arms seem to be shaped pref
ty much like those of human being,
though neither can be made as straight rs
the limbs of human beings generally. The
arms. however, are by no means SO dis
proportionately long as is the case with
every species of the genus simia, while the
hands are decidedly human, in the minutest
particular, even to the formation of the
thumb and finger nails-the latter being
just finger nails and not claws The legs
were not visible, being clothed. Neither
were the feet, which were concealed by
slippers; but the exhibitor said the legs are
destitute of calves, as in the orang- -outang,
and taper down from the thigh to .he ancle.
The feet, ne says, are formed like ne
groe's, with the heel projecting; but the
great toe is more like a thumb than toe,
and all the toes bend inward, toward the
sole. But the most striking pant of the
animal is the head and face, which present
the exact appearance Of an idiotic negro
boy of about ten or twelve years old. The
bottom of the face, about the mouth, is
comparatively broad, and tapers away to-
ward the frontal bone, which is uncom-
monly narrow. The forehead also recedes,
but not more SO than is frequently seen in
negroes. The upper part of tie skull con-
tinues to narrow, till at the crown it ends
in almost point The ears are somewhat
higher up and further back than is usual
| in the human race, but are formed precise
ly rs among men. Tbs mouth is very large,
and we'll filed with very white teeth doub
led all through. The tongue is human,
but the jaws can not close together BY about
a quarter of an inch, owing to nallorma-
ton, said to be peculiarly of the orang
outang The eyes are peculiarly large,
black and bright There is another close
assimilation to humanity, which would
seem, of itself, sufficient TO remove the
creature from this Sjmia Category that is
that the face, hands and other parts Of the
body that are expo sed (for he is clothed
in sort of red tunic, black velvet breech
g and red stockings, are completely free
from hair. Even the head is bald.
The creature is speechless, making sort
of ''cheeping" noise when teased--though
he did once make sound much like Yam
kee Doodle" is perfectly docie-a quality
in which it differs diametrically from the
ferocious gorrilla-constantly sways it head
from side to side, and is always on the
broad grin 1t walks with awkward steps,
like child just learning. on its two feet,
which the exhibitor says it has lately learn
edits natural method of locomotion be-
ing on all four. 1t seems to be very imi-
ta.ive, and can make the motion of turning
Il key in a lock to open the door, but seems
to be iucaprble of knowing which way the
KEY should be turned.
This creature is said to have been cap
tured on the banks of the River Gambia,
in Western Africa, near It's confluence with
tie sea. 1t was taken in compony with
two others, one male and the other female.
1t, male, survived the passage. 1t has
been in this country five months. When
brought here first, it is said it refused all
other food but raw meat. Now it will cat
fruit, cakes, and almost any article Of food
eaten by human beings, but prefers flesh
messed veay rare. A great deal of mirth
was elected on Monday night, while the
creature was being exhibited.