Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1874-02-13
NUMBER 33.
From the New York Tribune
Social Chaags and Enss.

The poor creatures, the Siamese twins, are
not only dead. bat We hope may soon be at
rest, having given up their mystery into the
hands Of the physicians and men of science,
| who were reused into q fever OF excited zeal
by the news that they were at last at liberty
| to probe and cut the secret from them. Tn
outsiders, after all, this zeal appears to be
more in the interest of mere curiosity than
science Whether there was an artery
running through the lcathery strip of llc>!,
which raised these weak minded hcathea
into worlds wonder, or how it was CON
nected to each trunk by nerves. really
mattcred very little, as long as it belonged
to a monstrous freak ofnaturc. IL they had
pcrpetuated n race of SiameSe twins the
matter might have had some Importance
The really curious point of inquiry ~ ~
how far this union of body made the snul-
of the men dual or single is put b their
death beyond the chance of solution.
In the ease of the South Carolina mulaitn
girls, the unnatural and arbitrary union
of certain faculties OF the brain - well
as the body is well worthy the attcn-
ton of metaphysicianS. For example.
each Of these poor creatures can sustain
separate conversations at the same
time, sing different parts, etc. Bat they
sit down, cross the room, rise or stuup
simultaneously without any hint pr warn
ing intcrchanged. The will. to Il certain
point, Is thus shown to he Identical. while
the other faculties are separate. Ilcrc is
room for n wcightier inquiry than that of
any cccentricities of nerves or arteries.
Why, indeed. should our scientific men
telegraph and write, and rush knives and
lancets in hand to Mount Airy to cut into
the strip of flesh between two dead SIamcSc
when this vcxed riddle of more mysterious
kinship broadens all about them and takes
themselves in. The soul has as few features
a. the body; are they never shared by two
of us in common against our Will? The
ferret eyes of their grandmother which sam
and his brother John inherit. with the
miSerly cunning mt which they hint the
cleft chin gwen to two or three Others Of
the family by some luxurious ancestor to-
gethcr with his sclSGOus tastes are these
less mysterious, less wociul, weighty bur
dens and bonds than the int0lcrablc belt 0l
skin which yokcd thcS. twins into a bond
age from which only Death conld deliver
them? How much further is John indictahlc
for meanneSscs and loilicS into which h!~
inherited eyes have guided him, than Chang
and Eng for the slips and tumhlc> into
which they dragged each other? Here Is
matter Of moment worthy Of kni.c and
probe. Doctor Holmes, we remember. once
brought it up fairly cn the table ior li-~cc-
ton, but drew back, alarmed apparently at
either his subject or his audience.
After all, the poor twins were not such
monsters that We need 90 chucklny and
shudderinc for weeks about their collins.
We are all Changs and Enss a heart.
Every man, says the old superstition. hath
his double, in Africa or in his own house
hold. And every man oI Us knows it to te
true. W hat else do our perpetual school
| boy friendships, our cropping love atflrS,
our marriages, mean but the search Tor
this fetch, this Chang, toward whom an
unseen tOrmcnting band draws uS? Is
! strip of skin more incxplicablc than the
power which impelS Victor To choose a
plain. ill-temporcd. silly woman ont from
hosts of fair and noble naidens for hi- wife,
and 10 eEalt her thereafter, as anointed by
some mysterious chrism, = queen among
women? And consider, beyond, that
nine ont of ten commonplace women are
thus chosen and crowned by their
mates: that the bond hctWccu them
irrational, ridiculous as IL may seem -
others, Is powerful enough to enable them
to bear all hardshipS, pans, incongTuity ol
temper with smiling unity 90 eat th0u
sands of meals together without jarriaE,
while their ideas are diverse IL the poles.
To rear children. 10 20 down unlike, an
tagonistic in body and mind. Yet one, 10 4
common grave. " hat can the twins, going
about with their abnormal girile. furnish ot
wonder like that? Everybody Shuddcred,
too. at the horrible possibility THAI one OF
these poor creatures should die. and the
other, still living. be hampered by 4 corpse.
| IL was OF this horror. so;Lc reports state.
| the survivor died. But did we ever con-
slider the spectacle OF a woman carrying
| through life the drunken. bl1atcd body OF
| husband or 4 son out Of whom the soul has
died long ago. and leIs only the brdtalizcI
mass of matter, incapable of feeling for her.
| or of any feeling or lie but the mechanical
| appetite ola beast? With what zeal, what
tenderness, She drudges tor the body OF this
death Tends it, battles tur it, totters
/ under it. down to the grave. What binds
/ her to it? Here i / mystery bc.orc which
| Chang and Eng's band Of union may wcli
pas nut of sight and be forgotten.