Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1872-03-16
A Curious Character.

A Georgia paper is responsible for this
story:
In the old town OF Sunbury on the
coast Of Georgia, now melancholy ruin
James Somersail, the subject OF this no,
tice, was born f ty-one years ago. His
parents emigrated to the isl md Of Btr.
inuda over century since, and are in
part responsible for the introduction Of
that beautiful grass, which is the baDe Of
planters on the seabOard. The father of
James was tailor and cripple, and his
mother kept a small bakers shop. They
had one other son besides James aud
were very poor The former from his
earliest childhood was utterly unlike bis
kind, al developed tastes and habits OF
the strangest and most abnormal charac-
ter. Once, at very tender age, be was
missing for several days, aud finally
turned mp fast asleep upon tombstone
in the village graveyard.
Fond Of solitude, he lived in the thick
recesses and tangled forests. A passion
tor natural history was thus engendered,
which afterward produced, we ven ur
to say, the most complete work (in man.
uscript) ever compiled on the ornitholo-
gy OF Georgia. Skilled in snaring birds,
his home was strung around with inge-
niOus cages of his own manufacture, fill
ed with feathered inhabitants, some
hitherto utterly unknown TO the resi-
dents of the country. lie has been
known to watch and follow day after
day, without ceasing, paroquet or some
other strange bird, until be had secured
his prize. Nets, bird lime, traps, and
robbery on the roost, were the means
employed 10y him in capturing his frath-
cred treasures. This protracted life in
the woods and close association with
beasts aud birds, gradually transformed
this wonderful creature into wild man,
aud, strange to say, his very physical
appearance underwent change, and his
natural tastes and appetites also. The
writer has seen him with a Docketful of
live grassEoppers, which be would eat
like sugar plums or bon bons. Lizards,
locusts aud even serpents, were dispatch
ed in the same way. Indeed, among his
other sylvan pursuits, the capture OF
snakes was favorite pastime. Armed
with forked stick only, we have seen
this man crawl on all fours through a
covered ditch forty feet wide, filled with
ooze and slime. IN quest of the deadly
moccasin. When encountered, after pin
ming the reptiles head to THE earth, he
would seize it by the neck, and insert a
coarse cloth into its mouth SO as to cover
the tangs and forcibly extract them with
81 arp jerk. He often ate snakes alive.
The dwelling of this man monster was
visited by every stranger and antiquary
who made pilgrimage to Sunbury, to
view the old fort and the dilapidated
town. 1t presented a unique appear
ance. Hung around the walls were
the cages OF multitude of birds, EN-
bracing many of every variety to be
found in this latitude, and a long chest
on the floor contained his collection of
serpents.
But who would suppose that this
snake man courted the muses., and is the
author of quite collection Of poems,
mostly OF the amorous cast, which were
published, we believe, in Charlestown.
Several OF these are in our possession,
and form a curious mela,age of senti
ment, vulgarity and nonsense. Occa
sionally, however, he wrote quite re.
spectacle doggerel, and his doting moth.
er proclaimed him to be, not quite the
equal of Byron, but the superior OF
Burns.
The writer and Mr.. James Seymour Of
this city, were classmates at school with
this curious genius. He died about six
years since, and is still regarded, like the
| black dwarf of Sir Walter Scott. as one
OF the celebrities of old Liberty county.