The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1874-02-06
THE. SIAMESE TWINS.

the mystery of the Siamese Twins.
There was very little real mystery about
them. Their parents had been addicted
to twins, and Chang and Eng differed
from their other twin brothers only in
being bound together by a feshy iga-
ment. They were two entirely distinct
persons mentally, Eng being decidedly
the superior of the two. Physically
they were also distinct Individuals ex-
cept in one respect. Through the band
which connected them ran large ar
terry, the existence of which established
a connection between the circulating
system of each. In all their thoughts,
actions and sensations they were too
entirely distinct persons but, neverthe-
less, the same blood flowed through the
veins of each, and the heart of Chang
made its pulsations felt in the remotest
extremity of Eng's body. The real
physiological mystery of the Siamese
Twins was in this connecting artery.
Where it began in the body of the one
and where it ended in the body of the
other was never ascertained while the
twins were living neither was it known
in which direction the blood flowed
through it. Naturally it was surmised
that the heart of the larger and stronger
Of the twins controlled the circulation
of both !; but it was impossible to un-
derstand how the process of returning
the arterialized blood to the twin hearts
from which it flowed could have been
accomplished under such curiously COM
ple1 conditions. 1t was not the fear Of
the loss of blood that would have ensued
from cutting the connecting artery which
prevented the separation of the twins !;
but the certainty that it would finally
interrupt the circulation of the blood in
both. The mystery of their connection
simply lay in the unexplained way in
which the blood of one flowed into the
body of the other. The attempt to con-
found the identity of the twins, and to
thus give them mysterious double
unity, was merely the idea of the great
Snowman who from time to time exhib-
tied them.
The fact that the children of these
unfortunate beings were in SO many in
stances deaf and dumb is not at all
strange. The twins were certainly alb
normal specimens of humanity, and it
was not to be expected that their chill
dren would be free from all taint of
their parental misfortune. That any of
them were fully developed and healthy
was doubtless due to the pure blood of
the sturdy English women who pos
sessed the strange courage to marry the
twins.
For many years Chang and Eng were
exhibited to, and stared at by, the pub
lie. Few of those who saw them
thought, however, of the inner life of
these unhappy men. They had certainly
passed though strange experience
within the years that elapsed between
theirpurchasefromth their heathen parents
by an astute trader and their admission
as civilized American citizens to an
American Baptist church. They became
prosperous and rich, and owned planta-
tions and slaves. The old barbarian in
stinct never quite left them, for they
were reputed to be the hardest masters
of all the slave-owners of their neigh
borhood. Baptized as they were, they
still gave way to occasional fits of saw
age rage, and in one of these the life OF
one brother was said to have been actu-
ally attempted by the other. For the
most part, however, they were silent
men, and it was rare that the one was
ever known to speak to the other.
That they really hated one another it
is extremely probably. although this
feeling seldom found expression in
words. Chang was to Eng merely the
living shaft to which he was inexorably
chained. Had his brother never ex-
listed, Chang would have been free like
other men. Gould amy man not more
than usually imbned with the divine
teachings of Christianity have really
loved the clog that made him a prisoner,
not in solitary confinement, but, what
was far worse, a prisoner who could
never for a single instance be alone !?
And then it is to be remembered that
each saw in the other the per-
petual threat of terrible death. Eng
knew that the death of Chang would
drag him down into common grave.
Could he look with affection upon one
who was not only horrible burden to
him in life, but a constant menace of
untimely death? These men we're at
best but partially reclaimed barbarians.
Between such, 80 situated, affection
must have been impossible, and their
proverbial silence should be interpreted
as the token of terrible and hopeless
mutual aversion. Frank Lesiie's Neps-
paper. a..7at
The following "pome" is going the
rounds Of the press, minus the name OF
| 4.