St. Landry democrat., 1886-11-27
NATURAL WONDERS,
Chat With German Who Is Engaged in
Their Manufacture.

t The latest things in the way of muse
0 UNI attractions are the skeletons of non
s descript animals which are exhibited il
] the show windows. They are usually
2 labeled with names which are supposed
' to be derived from the Greek or LatiI
tongue, and are accompanied with al
account of the Staying or capture of the
: strange creature in some remote par
} of the world. Usually the skeletons
seem to be compromise between that
! of man and that of creature belong
ing to some one of the lower orders Of
animals.
One of the principal manufacturers
of these natural wonders is a German
who occupied the upper story of For
syth street tenement. The good-sized
front room is his workshop and the
main living room of his family. He
has made some of the most successful
mermaids, alligator boys and other
monstrosities ever exhibited to a won
dering public, and he claims to be the
originator of the new order of curiosi-
ties represented by the skeletons which
are the rage this fall. The reporter
found him engaged on the most ambi
tious work he has yet undertaken-th
anthrobOus, or man OK. The frame
work, so to speak, was finished, and the
papier-mache covering, which gives to
the framework the appearance of
a skeleton, had been put on down to
the fifth rib The skull was made
like that of the ordinary Egyp-
tan mummy of commerce, only with a
little more definteness of outline, to
give 1t the appearance of skeleton pure
and simple. There were small rudi-
mentary horns springing from the tenn
Piles. The arms were like those Of the
ordinary human skeleton. The bones
OF the lower limbs were to be extra
heavy, and the hools had already been
put on. The backbone extended nearly
two feet beyond where the human back
bone ends, and the joints grew gradually
smaller toward the tip. The entire
skeleton is to be about six and one-haf
feet long. 1t is designed for the show
windows of Western museum. At the
time of the reporter S visit it rested on a
frame above the cooking stove, where it
would dry, and the Germans wife was
preparing several savory dishes be-
meath it.
The manufacturer of these curiosi-
ties used to be magician. He told the
reporter that magic and Ieight-o of hand
are coming into demand again, and he
hopes that the next season he will be
able to get an engagement which will |
pay him better than making paper-pulp
nondeseripts. To illustrate his deterity
he took a pair of child's copper toed
shoes from the mouth of the anthrobous
and rubbed them to nothinoness be-
tween his palms. The business in which
he is engaged, he said, would be more
if mermaid, an anthrob-
Gus or an alligator boy were an article
of general household usefulness, instead
of something which most families can
get along without, However, novelty
commands premium, and while mer-
maid brings only from twenty dollars to
thirty dollars, an anthrobous brings
more than twice as much.
The most laborious part of the work,
the manufacturer said is preparing the
aftidavits accompanying the accounts oil
the Staying or capture of the strange
,reaturs whose skeletons he produces.
His knowledge of English is not the
most accurate, and when it comes to le-
gal phraseology he finds it exceedingly
ilfficult. 1t is his custom, he said, to
begin this part of the work at the same
lime that he begins the skeleton, and to
abor at it in the evening and at other
lines when he is not at work on the Gu
iosty. The interesting account of the s
laying of the anthrobous was finished |
Town to the affidavit of Captain Joel !,
sparks, master of the whaling vessel
5elinda w, which ran under the lee of
n island off the coast of Patagonia in
be summer of 1885. While the Captain,
he boatsWain and six sailors were kill
ag game on shore they fell in with the g
nthrobous. They made every effort to I
apture it alive, but shot fired by Lars '
ansen, an able-boded seaman, which O
'as intended only to disable the strange t
FEATURE struck it in a vital part, and C
nth an expiring below the anthrobous t
.iffened and died. The affidavit, so far C
$ finished, ran: e
''To everybody whom it shall con- c
ern already: ], Joel Sparks, master OF r.
le whale-catching ship Belinda W., be- n
e sound of mind, do herein depose p
nd make forth, that having landed on
small island blythe coast of Patagonia
, which there was no name the chart
n, we did truly and faithfully espy a
lost strange and unknown animal ~
uickly running by his four legs the hill +
p. With so much rapidity as could be h
did we pursue thereafter. N
1d--' .... -
The German informed the reporter -
lat he is about closing bargain with o,