The star. (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1874-1875, 1875-01-18
An Exploded Fat Msn-How Chez -Fung Came to
be a WaEherwOHnan.

l
| All nations have given to the Chinese
the honor Of being the most ingenious
people in the world. They are ever ready
In curiosities Of nature and art, seem to
prefer enormities, monstrosities to the
true and pure grandeur of nature.
The colony Of Chinese on st. Ann
street, opposite the Superior District
Court, love, like all Cinnamon, to boast
of the greatness Of China, its wonders
and magnihcenoe. The following story
was told us by one OF them, he-Fung,
the other night, as proof of Chinese su-
periority over the barbarians OF the
West. Whether it were Chinese hoax
or not, it is at least theoretically and
naturally possible:
Che Fung is picture of the more
wretcbed Chinese. He is frightful, dis
gusting in appearance. Tall for China
man, being over six feet i'll hight, he is
| thin and emaciated, q skeleton scare.
crow. His face is covered with wrink-
les, like a schoolbey's atlas; his nose
must be taken for granted, it is mere
itself: his eyes altogether out Of the right
position; and the flesh of his face hangs
| down Ike the hide OF a rhinoceros. Al
together Che Fung is a disgusting sight,
looks as if he had been hung and dried,
boiled and smoked, then buried for a
month or so, and dug up to be exhibited.
Yet Che Fung is good talker in Pigeon
| English, and in confidential manner
disclosed his whole history in that Ian
suage, OF which, while making out about
one word in ten, we got general idea.
II was circus man in China, Tsien-
| Sing, as we call it. We are great on
kgymnastic and legerdemain; but partic-
| ulary in natural phenomena, human
f.iI I.in 10 N bn
frosty mandatory at Tsae-ping, where,
for consideration, any of the human de-
formities you Americans regard as lapsi
| 2ldtQrOe, can be made to order. There are
many parents who thus sacrifice their
children to be made monsters of, and
who live on the gaining by the exhibition
of these monstrOsities.
IL can not explain how all of these
tricks are done, but that they are done
lany Chinaman can testify. A dwarf is
OF easy manufacture; a regular morning
dose of whisky ana tea to q child viii
lstunt 1t, keep it down to its original size.
A monstrosity, a hunchback is, ,,ot course.
easy; while human beings can be made
Of any shape from a cock TO an elephant
by being moulded in n jar like jelly, stuck
| into a jar of the desired shape when
| young and lett there to develop Itself
| As for myself, Twas brought up u '.fat
mani"
"A fat manw we exclaimed involun-
tarily, looking at Che Fung's spare form.
''Do you manufacture Id people in Chi
nar' alt NWs only a trick OF the trade.
| / was naturally a thin b y, but old Foo
Lee soon brought me out. You have seen
sheep slaughtered mere, seen the N skim
| ned. A hole is made in the outer skin
the epiderlmis, u bellows is inserted and
lmn -nI nhA ir m sIfc tnt
the cuticle and the cults, or skin proper,
and swelis out the animal to double its
size, at the same time it almost separates
these two skins, so that the hide of the
animal comes of easily. Tnls was the
manner in which l was treaued to an air
bath, and gallon or SO of mir injected
into my system, and soon 1 began to
swell like a balloon.
In a month or so was returned to my
parents a fat boy, and "a fine specimen O.
"a lat boy, measuring, although only fif-
teen, ePhty-eight inches around the crest
and iortyJinehes around the thiyh. L
was advertised as weighing six hundred
pounds; the truth was l weighed only
about one hundred aud eighty. Tue,
eighty being the weight OF two hundred
gallons OF air by which 1 was pu'ffed out.
| don't believe that L, altogether, pre-
seBted a very pretty aspect, being pulled
out and lulnpy in appearance, and look
ing bloated rather than fat. However, q
very close observer could not detect The
impesbure, and 1 was exhibited ior' many
years, earning q respectable livelihood
for my parents, who had brought me up
to the profession Of fat man. ,
The profession Was not an ngreeabIes
one. 4heair made me ever feei sleepy
and sick. Itd1d not, however, make hfei
lazy; did not impede me As FAT wpad
have done. Those who saw my agility
and gracefalness on the street WUnaepee'
hoS " so fat a man could be SO lively, litJ
sle slspeetlng that this a ppafent Ethess
was an assistance, and half carfied me,
along the street. There were few yotfa
men in China that could beat the
monster of six hundred pounds in a foot
race.
l came over here and exhibited in
lime. One day during a sitting an A meri-
can child, with the usual ingenuity and
Investigating disposition OF American
children, cfept up behind me. and prob
ably impressed with the desire of dis
covering whether a fat man could feel or
not, ran pin or knife, or something
sharp into me while no one was obsery-
ing him.
The result was some what OF an explos-
ion; the captive air rushed out, tna left
me a thin-oOking indivpd ualIas 1 am now.
rhere was no one to blow me UP seien-
iiiieally and therefore tgayeup the pro-
iession OF tat man for that OF washerwo.
maa. seldom feel any evil consequences
from my previous condition, save that
my cuticle, or outer skin, is almost sep
afated from myself, and like On ill-ittfng
suit OF clothes, ,almest drops off, OrbHheh }
es itself up in a disagreeabie manner.
sometimes get cold inside otit, which is
not at all comfortable. Still the position
OF washerwoman is much preferable to
that OF fat man, and intend to stick to
L it,"
A normant Wasp.
Says the Blrlfngton ItaWkeye. A
West Hill minister picked up d frozen
:, ~, xha a. A al al Z ooH MIRA h, ibtsy