The Grant County herald. (Big Stone City, Grant County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1883, 1880-03-27

put ue IS only uunD brute after all, he
can't give reasonable answer to any re-
mark. He's short, flat and thick
"What do you consider to be the rea-
son OF hls extraordinary appearance"
asked the reporter.
"Wcll. in Michigan, they say, his moth
er was frightened Just before he was born.
This is how they report It happened His
people lived near Diamond Lake, and
mainly subsisted on fish which they
caught themselves. One day his mother
was out on the lake fishing; her hands
land over the side of TIE boat; suddenly
turtle OF enormous size jumped up and
nit her. When her boy Sam was born,
ne had stamped upon his entire boav the
form OF a turtle. He almost beats ny
lat man, David Navarro, who is ocnu-
Inc monstroslty. Dave was born III Hi
nols, and now weighs $50 pounds. What
do you say to an clghteen-ycar-old boy
with Il thlgh % inches round and q waist
band and chest s feet 8 inches Il that
amt monstrosity IN your estimation,
compare him with little Lucia Zurate,
the Mexican dwarf, who is 16 years old,
IS 20 inches high, and weigh = pounds.
After all | suppose neither dwa1ts nor
giants, like our Goshen, nor fat BOYS, are
what you newspaper men mean by MON
str0slties.
II suppose we mean something more
Of the Siamcsc-Twin order
Exactly. The St Benoit twins. FOR
instance By the by, they died last tu-
gust The papers never noticed their
death. They caught cold through travel
ing IN one of BarnEms tents. They were
hardly year old and the cold killed
them. Then there's the Two Headed
Nightingale, MISS Mile Christine, two
women Of color joined together by one
spinal column. These girls have GOT but
one nervous system, although each Las q
aeperate individual consciousness. ] hone
soon to get hold Of the Iaphank H. l.l
monster. lie is now at the Poor house
there, and has hoots like an ON. In adj
dition to that he has three fingers only
On each hand, for all the world like tai
ens'
Determined 10 obtain still further m
formation, the reporter next paid !. visit
to Dr. William 4. Hammond, Professor
III the University of New York. p0n
stating the object of. his visit, the Profess
sor slgnltied his acquicsccnceto the desire
of the Star man.
Il believe that all cases OF MoAstg9s!ty
are due 70 defective development. Most
are owing to the Tact OF nature not hav-
ing proceeded to It's final fruition All
cases Of twins Joined together are by tie
fusion Of two germs. The larger number
of So called museum monstroslties are
manufactured, and where not, they are
simply arrested developments. / have
been deeply interested lately, III the now
50 well known cases Of Johnny Joe and
James, three abnormal developments,
who are not in the technical sense mon
sters, but who are examples Of arrested
development, winch is the basis Of all
freaks Of nature The three are children
of the same parents. James is ten wears
of age and 81 1-2 inches high; Johnny is
eighteen and 33 "A inches in height Joe
is fifteen, and 81 a inches in stature.
They are lmbeclles and dwarts. The
face is in each larger proportionately TO
the part OF the Uranium containing the
brain. The heads are above the average;
all have the peculiar Mongoian-like type.
The ewes are small and set angularly IN
their sockets. The cheek bones are high,
and even the complexion is similar 10
that Of the Tartar type
DO you recognize any authentic IN
stances Of monstrosity IN either modern
or ancient times?"
Few are authenticated The saiyr,
with his animal lower parts and hooted
feet, is a myth. OF course there are gen-
uine cases, such as Mr. kavanagh, the
Irish Member Of Parliament without legs
ana arms. There is an extremely rare
book, Of which two copies only are known
70 be in America. 1t IS entitled Proaigi
0rom &C Ocentorum Chronicon, and was
printed at Basle, in 1903. The author is
CCaradus Lycosthenes, and his work is "a
large quarto volume filled with accounts
Of prodigies and monsters. For instance
Plato's 'Cipodes' and .Monomeri, races
Of men with only one enormous foot, 50
large as TO be able to shade themselves
with it from the sun or use it as an um-
brella. Then he narrates and gives &C
counts of mermaids, harpies which were
filthy birds with human faces, bearded
vomer and medieval conjolned twins.
Why, he has an illustration in the look
OF /. tree in the Hebrides from which
ducks are produced, ,and another Of rab
bit with two bodies and eight legs, tour
of which are located on the back
..These can be hardly authenticated.
Il should think not,' said DR.. Ham
mond.
A gentleman passing through one Of
the public offices at Washington, was at
/ 4 l.. Ill DO nrI yA.oc a.