Connecticut western news., 1889-05-08
A CHILD-MAN.
Extraordinary Discovery by a
 Doctor in Kansas.
One of the Most Remarkable of
 Human Monstrosities.

E1OIlloIl NIOIlSlI O9III0Ss
 There has just been discovered in the south part of this Oickinson) county, writes Kansas correspondent of the Globe Democrat, one of the most remark able monstrosities of the human family ever known to exist in this section. It is child-man, or rather child's body with mans head. A few days ago prominent physician was making call on the family in which the monstrosity lives, and while talking with his patient he noticed an object in cradle at the opposite end of the room. It was care fully covered up, but he thought he perceived beard showing from be- meath the covering. He could get no opportunity for more careful examina- tion at the time, but in order to investi- gate further, informed his patient that other calls would be necessary. Upon a subsequent visit he managed to be left alone in the room with the cradle and its mysterious occupant. Hastily pull ing off the covering there was dis covered a sight which made his heart cease for the moment to beat. It was nothing less than mans head joined to an infants body. The large eyes blinked at him, and the lips, bearded and mustached, made inarticu- late sounds, but no gleam of recogni- tion or intelligence was observable in the beings face. Determined to in ves- tigate the matter more fully, the physi- clan called the man and woman of the house, and demanded an explanation of the sight which had met his gaze. At first they were angry that he had pried into the secret that they had guarded so we'll, but at last, seeing that further concealment was impossible, they made clean breast of the affair and told the following story:
 Nearly thirty years ago man named Reed moved into Kansas from Illinois. His family consisted of himself, wife and one daughter. The latter was about seventeen years old, and rather good looking. They settled near the junc- ton of the Republican and Smoky Hill Rivers, in the vicinity of what is now Junction City, and the daughter mar ried trapper. Her first child was a boy, and she died in giving it birth. An older sister had come on from the East by this time, and she took the mother less little one into her family. Its father was killed during the border troubles, and she practically adopted the orphan. The child grew and thrived normally until it was about four years and six months old, when it seemed to cease developing. Soon it was noticed that development had not been arrested in all parts of the body. The head kept on growing as if it belonged to the sturdiest child in the State. Year after year this strange growth went on, and still there was no change in the infantile body or limbs, though the head continued its growth. The sister and her husband moved into Dickinson County, where they have since resided, and took the child with them. The grandparents are dead and the monstrosity has reached the age of twenty nine years. Its head is as large as that of an average sized man, and is crowned with a heavy growth of coarse brown hair. Heavy beard and mustache are on it's face, and lines of maturity show upon the cheeks and forehead. The body remains, from the neck down, that of a four-year- child. The child, or man, cannot sit up as the monstrous head is too heavy for the muscles of the trunk to lift. It lies in the cradle helpless, and watches with brute-like gaze the doings of those around.
 The mind is somewhat in advance of that of an infant but is still practically inactive. No speech or general intelli- gence has been involved from the strange being. It must be fed from an at tend ants hand, and though its teeth are we'll developed, its stomach can digest noth- ing but the simplest foods. The tiny hands and limbs are as soft-feshed as the veriest babe's, while the face and head have the harsher feeling of maturi- ty. There seems no reason in the mind of the physician who made the strange discovery why the monstrosity should not live to the age of three score years and ten, though it would seem to be a blessing to the world to take its life from it. The imagination can easily picture what it will be when gray hair has settled on the head and beard while the body remains that of a babe. The family, ashamed of the pos session of such monstrosity, has re- ligiously hidden this skeleton in their closet from the world, and few know of its existence. It is only by accident that it was this time discovered. The doctors story has led several prominent citizens to take trip to the farm house to see the remarkable freak, and all unite in calling it the most wonderful being they ever witnessed. None, how ever, wish to make second trip, as one look at the strange creature is enough to