Delaware state journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1870-1883, 1872-02-27
rhe elnrv nr n CnrInna Chnrnclcr.


A Georgia paper 1.-The Telegraph and Mes
senger of Macon-is responsible for this story:
In the old town of Sunbury, on the coast of
Georgia, now a melancholy ruin, James Som
ersall, the subject of this notice, was born /,
ilAy-one years ago. His parents emigrated $
from the Island Of Bermuda over century :
since, and arc in part responsible for the in !
PRODUCTION OF that beautiful grass, which is
the bane Of planters on the seahoard. The
father Of James was n tailor and cripple, and
his mother kept q small bakers shop. They
had one other son besides James, and were
very poor, The former from his earliest
childhood was utterly unlike his kind, and
developed tastes and habits of the strangesl
and most abnormal character. Once at q very
tender age he was missing for several days,
and finally turned up fast asleep upon tomb |
stone IN the village graveyard.
Fond Of solitude, he lived In the thich re- |
cesses and tangled forests. A passion for
natural history was thus engendered, which
r afterwards produced, we venture to say, the
. most complete work Tin manuscript ever
. compiled on the orthodoxy of Georgia.
% Skilled in Sharing birds, his home was strung
C around with ingenious cages of his own man
lf uiacture, filed with teathered inhabitants, some
n hitherto utterly unknown 10 the residents of
The country. lie has been known TO watch,
and follow day after day without ceasing, a
nj, paroquot or some other strange bird until he
ulu ntNhlku his liliAts -NNAoS Bllh hlhNt hal9i
* aud robbery on the roost, were the means em
its ployed 10y him in capturing his feathered
.d ircasurers. This proiTacted life in the woods
If and close association with beasts and birds
gradually transformed this wonderful creature
into a wild man, and, strange to say, his very
physical appearance underwent change, and
Ills natural tastes and appetites also. The
writer has seen him with pocket full of live
grasshOppeIs which he would eat like sugar
plums or hons hons Lizards, locusis, and
liz even serpcnts were despatched in the SAINT
way Indeed among his other sylvan pur-
suits, the capture of snakes was lavorlt'
paslime Armed with q torked stick only
we have seen this man crawl on all four
through a covered ditch forty feet wide, fill e
with Ooze and slime, in quest Of the dea-ll
moccnsin. When encountered, after pinnin
s,i the reptiles head to the earth he would seiz
lis it by the neck, and insert course cloth int
'''4 its mouth 50 as TO cover the iangs, iorcibl
extract them with sharp jerk. He often at
snakes alive
= The dwelling ol this man monster was visit
cd by every stranger and antiquarY who mad
cte u pilgrimage to Sunbury, to view the old for
and the enchanting water scenery oil I'll
dilapdaiel town. 1t presented unique az
Sos pearance. Hung around the walls were IL
man cages OF multitude Of birds, embracing man
Is of every variety TO be found in this latitud
old and q long chest upon the floor contained h
70 Of collection Of serpenls
ion- Du' VINO "oulu suppose tu"' ms snaho lug
tant couIteu !he hiuses, anu Is ,iie auhoI Vi w,
ents colleeuon ol poems nosuY OIL tle AiiouIo,
rtif cast, which were published, We believe,
The Charleston. Several Of these are in our pc
Inns. session, and form a curious meldpge of sent
tho ment, vugarity and nonsence OCCASIONAL
cor however he wrote quite respectable doggere
"a and his doting mother proclaimed him to
en- a not quite the equal of Byron, but the superl
who of Burns
IL or The writer and Mr.. James Seymour, OF Il
4 we city, were classmates at school, with til
xno. curious genius He ded about SIX yea
e bis since, and is still regarded, like the bla
will dwarf of Sir Walter Scott, as one of tho celC
Inn rites Of old Liberty county.