The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-11-03
WILD MEN.
When Civilized Beings Have Become
Worse Than Savages.

When Civilized Beings daVo BeCome
Worse Than Savages.
From Die Gartenlance.
With the progress of science a whole race
of men has disappeared, the so-called
"wild men," in whose existence the most
learned firmly believed few decades ago,
and who still live in the Imagination of
many who are uuacquainted with recent
Investigations. The wild man was sup
posed to be a peculiar creature, half man
and half beast, forming the connecting
link between the human species and the
ape. The belief in his existence is to be
ascribed, without doubt, to erroneous obser-
vations and reports of travellers.
Only four years ago report came to the
Berlin Anthropological Society from the
Papuan islands testifying to the existence
on one of the islands OF a race of people
with ears six inches in length, and of others
with white skins and.red hair, who lived
naked upon trees, made noises like those of
beasts and seemed devoid of human charac-
teristics. According to the other natives,
these were the descendants of Europeans
wrecked upon the coast many years before.
The most celebrated of modern wild men
were the dwarfs and the Bushmen of
Africa. The former were supposed to
dwell in the unexplored parts Of Abyssinia
AhCJ "CAO oOcCIADCQ as DCAhS AOuE lcbO
without weapons or any form of govern
| ment or religion, climbing trees like apes
and living upon roots, ants and snakes,
which they ate raw. Schweinfurth dis
covered later a veritable race of dwarfs,
the Akkas, in the interior of Africa His
description of them has been quite recently
Confirmed by Emin Pasha.
The Akkas live by hunting, IN which
they are very adroit and successful: they
sell their game to the agricultural tribes
about them. They are cannibals aud very
cruel and treacherous, but the idea that
they form connecting link between man
and the ape is absurd. The same impassa-
BILE gulf that separates the European and
the chimpanzee stands between the latter
and the lowest of the Akkas. Another
variety of wild men was represented by
the ''ape-men" of Southern Asia. In 1924
it was stated in all seriousness in the journal
of the Asiastic Society of Bengal that
two of these creatures, a male and femal,
had been discovered among the laborers
on coffee plantation. Afterward sew.
eral travellers claimed to have seen
similar ape-like individuals, and
finally it was announced that tho Su.
matran forests were the home of two dis
tinct races, called Orang Koobos and
Orang Gugar, both naked and covered with
hair, and the latter of thoroughly ape-like
appearance, with long arms, recedIng fore
heads. and protruding jaws. Their chins
were almost wanting and the calves of the
legs completely so. With the growth OF
the Darwinian theory interest in the ''ape
man" increased, as he was thought to be
the missing link" connecting man with
the brute. The statement of the Papuans
that their wild men were the descendants
OF the Europeans suggests the interesting
query WHISTLER single individuals can run
wild" under certain circumstances and lose
all human attributes. Man is a social
| creature aud 1t is well known that separa.
ton from his fellows eventually robs him
of many of his faculties.