The Newtown bee., 1880-11-24
A QUEER OCCUPATION.

overtlowing with humor, and as queer customer as most of his curiosities. He was an old sailor, had lost an eye in the East, several fingers in Mobile bay, and nearly parted with his head in Cuba. Finally, after wandering all over the world, he opened curiosity shop, and being himself part and parcel of his stock, be succeeded well. To reporter who called one day, he said:
 "Yes, this is 8 queer sort of business. You might think, now, that 6 man would get gloomy working over these bodies, but 1t never seems to me as if they were dead. I soon have them alive again, leastwise as regards looks. Some of them old monkeys I wouldn't part with for love or money; they'rejust like old friends"
 Who buys such thinssP"
 Well, have my regular customers. Ladies have a good deal done in the way of stuffing canaries and pet dogs am cats, and they come in here some. tim weepin' s) you'd think it was q child. But it pays. as l make it 9 rule to charge accordin' to the grief. not to take advantage of lem. When the grief is great they always bring photographs and want me to give the dog the very look he had when alive, so you see a saXidermist has to be sort of sculptor. If hits it exactly they very often insists on maxim me a present. Another class of customers is a few gentlemen who collect birds, and they don't want any thing except it's new q rare. l have a good trade ia birds nests. A good many bo go in for that; but the best of the business, that is, the most money, mes in from the show business. All they want is sumethinr startling, and tbey always pay for it.; but trade ain't what 1t was twenty years ago. Here's an old order l had fron a man in Cali fornia, a sea-ser ,ent to be 100 feet long, four feet in diameter at largest part, and to be in sections and have an authentic history. That was for big side-show man, and, as the mans dead, suppose he won't object to my giving it away. He didn't put DO limit on me, so, as it was my frs ord r, thought I'd mak my own reputation and his fortune at the sam time, and 1 came pretty near doing it. At that time there was a big shark fisherv on the Tybee river, so I sent down piece of shark skin about a foot square, and offlred cent q piece Tor all l could get of tue same size, and as they threw the skins away, l soon got all l wanted. 1 made the frame out of wood, and covered it with can vas, and then soitened the sharks skins
 
 other ike scales; the jaws wei modelled after au aligator's, only ten times as big, and in them | put whales teeth. The inside of the mouth was lined with tsh-skin and painted red, and when it was done you couldn't find a place that wasn't natural The man gave me SI0O more than l asked, and shipped it West. l made the jaws so they would lift, and he used to show it with young girl a-standing in it's mouth. He fooled every body and made lots of money. 1 once made a whale, It was on the balloon principle. Every night they filled 1t with gas, and after the show drew it of 1; but one night when the shouter was ex- planning it, the people commenced to smell gas, and some one yelled, There she blowS,' and sure enough the great mass was settling. and in five minutes 1t was flat on the floor. A rival circus man in the town had hired some one to cut it. l made eorillas fifteen feet high for South Carolina snowman. It took six black bear skins to make each one, and they had alligator teeth and real man-skin faces, taken from bodies by Q young student friend ot mine. He put me up to the dodge. When the gorillas were exhibited scientific professor said one night before n crowd that he didn't belleve they wele gorillas, and that the faces showed that they were nothing but leather. The snowman offered to bet him Sl0O they were, and asked him if he could tell the difference between com mon leather and the skin of an animal next to man. He said he could, and the snowman offered to let three doctors ex- amino it. They went to work with microscopes, and found that the pores were almost exactly like those of man, and that settled it in the minds of the people. or course the showSmen knew what they were, and 1 got good many orders op them at $200 apce; but there ain't shy demand for them now. You can't fool the people with old things"
 see you have sign outside relating to mermaidspH
 Yes; l sell one once in 8 while, and have two or three orders for South America now" he said, as he pulled aside a curtain and showed in glass cases some mummified sirens. Twenty years ago l sold one like this," fondling one ia Lis hands, for $l 500, and they were cheap at that. It takes almost lifetime to make one and have it so as to stand close examination, and then the pedigree costs nearly half. People then were more particu ar to have lies well braced up. Now here's one," talk ing up a specimen about six feet long, that was made in 1857, and has pedi- gree signed by the captain and ere v of the bark K. M. Lawson. That will give you an idea how much trouble and ex- pense people went to. made this my self, on an order, for Sl,O00, but it was never taken, because the man died be- fore it was done. He wanted it perfect, SO that people and scientific professors and that ind could look it all over as much az they wanted to. One of the stipulations was that it should have 8 pedigree, showing the sworn statements of the finders, also their names and ad- dresses, so that they could refer to them"
 Was this all complied withp"
 Every bit; and I'll tell you how it was. got tbe oldest female monkey I could get. and hsh called the grouper that would skin well. The old monkey was killed, and divided below the waist, and prepared aud stuffed regularly, and the fish done this same way below the head. Then the two parts were joined together. This is the hardest part ex- cept the face, which has to be stiffened to give g look of anguish like. The scales, which you see are very small, have to be put in by the thousand, one at time, and graded on to the skin of the monkey, so that the joining will look natural. This done, it is treated with acids to mako it look old, or natural, as the case may be, and then the making part is done"
 But how about the pedigreeP"
 Well, hunted around, and at last found friend who was master of ship bound for China, and he and I fixed it up that he should take the mermaid to China and pretend to find it. So took it aboard and the ship sailed, and after 2 while arrived at Yokohama, and here the mate was fixed. One day all hands they were all jolly drunk when they came down to the boat. The captain took the tiller, and the mate was in the bow, and when they were off ff-shore the