Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1877-10-25
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An Embodied 3lNightmares-O Our
fsDeyiI Fish--D Description of the
I~el MOnster-ssThat Husband
of .Mine'-TwO
f9Dui ~ iThieVes.9 haa Sksw
To ikeL Editor Of the O5serodr:
New YoRk, October 20, 1871
= The white whale Of The AQUA
rum, long the foremost curiosit,
in the citys now has. his big nose
put entirely out OF Joint. A few
days ago q steamer from ST. Johns
drew up to a dock il the East riy--
er, and. as lis coming bad been
previously heralded BY telegram,
i. was soon surrounded BY curl
Gus crowd who, eagerly awaited de-
yelopments. Their curiosity, how
ever, got scant Qualification. for
after. the careful unloading Of d
huge cask something like a sugal'
hogshead, which was placed on a
truck and rapidly driven away,
the audience .grumblingly dispers
ed. The mysterious attraction
which this cask contained, and
which has dimmed. the .lustfe Of
the. white whales pre- eIninence as
a curiosity, was nothing less than
a monster octopus or devil fish, a
member Of the family which Vic
tor Hugo has so graphically de-
scribed., The anim,l, which is so
improbably horrid aud utterly.
nightmarisn in appearance that |
woulda't believe in his existence
any more than in that of, the sea
serpent unless i had seen lin
with my own eyes, got caught in
the rocks somewhere along The
coast of Newfoundland, ard hav.
ing struggled himself 70 death was
secured by some fishermen. who
during his lifetime wo1ldn lave
risked themselves within bis reach
for all the gold OF the Indies, Af
ter exhibiting their CHASTITY, Prize
for day or two they sold it Ia q
naturalist, who Shipped it solthi
ward for the purpose, ] Lelieve,
Of placing it in the Smithsonian
Instit1te at Washington, But our
wide-awakc Aquarium IN managers
got wind ofsthe affair and prompt
" bought the thing BY telegraph
at an enormous price, to the In
tense disgust Of the Smithsonian
Institute.
We may we'll congratulate our.
selves in securing this specimen,
for beside being the largest ever
taken. from. the sea, It il the great
EST natural curiosity ever seen in
this city, Barn1m's "What is it
and the "woolly horse" to the con-
trary Notwithstanding. @'4
Arrived at the Aquarium the
devil fish was spread upon the.
floor for examination and meas
urement, to which forInalitics on.
/ lv a chosen few were admitted
In appearance the creature is un-
like any other living thing under
the sun but for tie sake Of hav
ing something ia mind with which
to compare it, I may say that its
general plan is more like that Of
an enormous spider than anything
else I can think Of. It's PUPPY
body measured fully nine feet in
length by four in breadth and one
in thickness. From this smissha.
pen carcass stretch ten arms or
tentacles, trailing, liyipgssnaky afs
fairs, two 81 which are over TWEEN.
-ty-topr. feet long, and the others
about ten feet. The eyes arc the
largest. possessed by any known
creature, each' being fully eight
inches ia diameter andsaid iowear,
in 4ife,s a most terrible expression
To complete the horrors Of the
thing its mouth is furnished with
thick curved beal1 like that Of O.
parrot, with which it tears in pie
ces whatever prey its arms encoun-
ter. These arms are furnished
with numerous orifces which, the
moment they touch an object, act
like SO many suckers aud gives
the animal a, grasp. from which
there is absolutely no escape cx-|
cept by severiug the arms from
the body. The dead monster will
soon be placed on exhibition. 4
z The annual trade book sale for
1877, the opening Of which I no
ticed two weeks ago, has closed
with a larger record than auy Of ]
its predecessors. Altogether, o.
yer 4 million volumes were dis.
posed of, including for the first
time considerable contributions
from prominent European publish
ers. sNs 7e ssNlih''T es.ft
The largest demand for any.
book was for Lee & Shepard s'sThat
Husband OF Mine,R the total sales
of which already foot up l0O, 600