The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1884-06-11
THE MAN WITHOUT BONES.
A UNITED STATES MARsHAL's Al
LEGGED DISCOVERY.
A Man Who Can be Flattcned Out
Like a Pancake and KOlicd up
Like Wall Paper

A Man Who Can be Flattcned Oue
Like a Pancake and Rolled up
Like Wall Paper.
Your correspondent was introduced to
Isaac Arbuckle. Il member of a United
States marshal's posse, which had Just
returned from q raid in search Of moon
shine whisky manufacturers in the
mountains Of Eastern Kentucky, says a
letter from Lexington, Ky, to the Gin
| cinnati Times STIR. Arbucklc, when in
tcrrogatcd, stated that he had made Il
discovery while providing among II
mountains down below B~arbourvlllr thai
he felt sure would he of interest to news
papcr readers. His story, in his
words, was as follows: :,
"Two days after leaving B~arbourvllla
| spent the night at the cabin OF Il poor
farmer among the hills, and during Il So
cial family conversation, in which par
ticipated, after supper, some one Incl
| dcntallv spoke of Hector Davis, thcman
without bones | Immediately asked
what was meant by the expression, when
my host explained that Hector Davis was
one of their 'ncighbors, living some
three miles further on among the noun
tains, and that he actually had not a bone
in his body. As Icxpressed some skeptl-
| cism, he volunteered to show me over to
Hcctor's the next morning. We knocked
at the door of the Davis cabin about nine
o'clock the next day, and the first thing
that struck my attention upon entering
was a middlc-agcd man sitting bolt up
right. and supported by a rude and pc
culiarly-shaped framework.
.sHc was introduced to me as Hector
Davis. | at once entered into con'crsa-
ton with him, and discovered him to be
a man of fair intelligence, and eager to
tell all about himself, in a voice that was
as strong as my own. l graspcd his hand
upon first entering, but his fingers all
rolled together like a cabbage leaf in Il
mushy sort of a way thatsmadc me glad
to let 90 of them. Taking hold of his
limbs, they yielded to the pressure until
they were tattcncd out to twice their
proper width. The only indication OF
bone was in his skull, which, while plla-
bic almost as shoc-leather, still offered a
kind of protection to the poor fellows
brain.
ellis neck was as timber as a dish
| cloth, and when his head was released
from its support, which was something
in the shane of a similar contrivancc used
in photograph galleries, it rolled help
lcsslv about on his shoulders like a foot
ball. His arms dropped at his sides, but
with the aid of the muscle he was en-
abled to partly raise the forearm, al.
though the hand curled over Imply and
gave the whole a sort of zigzag shape:
| lie shutfled off his slipper. and requested
me to step on his foot. I did so, and it
at once spread itself ont until it looked
as if a railroad train had passed over 1t.
1t slowly resumed its natural shape, but
it was fully half an hour before he was
| able to get the foot in his slipper again.
"'Pernaps you would like to tic my
leo in a knott" he suggested.
Il found no difficulty i'll performing
this feat, while my friend accomplished
the same with the other leg; and after
we had also ticl knots in both his arms,
he presented a very knotty problem in
| deed, end one that would nave set a pro-
c%ssional contortionist crazy.
"When he had unravc!ed all the knots
and Strengthened his limbs again, he re-
oucstcd us to lift him gently from his
framework and place him upon the floor.
This We found no easy task, for his body
slippcd about in our arms like an eel, and
it was only by securing a firm grip upon
his clothing that we managed to keep
him from falling. We finally succeeded
in strengthening him out upon the floor,
and then my friend, who seemed to thor
oughly understand the homeless mans
programme, seized a barrel standing
| near. and which | afterward learned con-
tanned turnips, and swiftly upendinS it,
at oncc proceeded to roll it over the pros
trate Davis, from his toes up to hi, chin,
ard back again to his toes.
"Thc only manifestation of pain he
made was when the barrel passed over
his heart and lungs; but it left him IN q
horrible shape. | can only describe it by
comparing it to that of a man made of
mud and then thrown up and fiattened
against a wall. But l had no time to
contemplate his f~1atness, as he almost
Immediately called to us in a
rather weak voice to 'rcll him
up This we proceeded to do by
doubling his head over his chest, and
then continuing to roll him up as you
would a carpet. until we came to his
feet, and he formed a perfect cylinder
about as large around as a half-barrel:
A voice fccbly piped from the center OF
the cylinder for us to unroll him, and
we soon had him once more spread out
ovcr the floor.
"Whilc his body was resuming its
former shape I learned from his old,
specialized mother, who had sat during
all these proceedings knitting in her
rocking chair. that Hector, who was
forty years old, had always enjoyed ex-
cellcnt health and provided we'll for her
until the beginning of his peculiar ;!fic-
tim two years ago. lie first observed a
softcning of the bones Of the toes and
this rapidly spread to all parts of his
| anatomy, although, beyond making him
helpless, he never experienced any in
convenience from it. All his vital organs
performed their functions properly. and
She believed he would live to a good old
age. She had a younger son, then in
the field at work, who assisted her in
handling him, and altogether they got
along quite comfortably. She did not
know what the doctors might think of
Hector, as she had not seen Il doctor up
in them thar hills for nigh onto twenty
years. After my friend and | had re-
placed the homeless man in his frame
work, we babe him goodbye and came
away