Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1889-11-13
HE Two.HEApEp GIRL.
A Queer Case Which Once Came BefoE
Now York Lawyer.

A Queer Case Which Once Came Before
Now York Lawyer.
In the way of twins, says a New York
letter to the Buffalo Express, you have
probably seen the so-calIed two-h headed girl,
Mile Christine, consisting Of two negresses
joined together by nature much more COM
pactly than were the famous Siamese twins.
Mile and Christine have been shown by
Barnum and other exhibitors for many
years, and are now aged about forty. The
Siamese brothers married two wives, as
you will remember, and lived in South
Carolina after retiring from the museums
until the death of one from disease was ina.
mediately followed by that of the other
from fright. A post mortem examination
proved that physicians had been right in
saying that q surgical separation would
have been fatal. In the case of Mile and
Christine even the suggestion Of parting
them can not be considered, because they
ars joined from their hips nearly up to their
shoulders. But 1t gyas nota question Of freak
ish anatomy which led me to write of these
women. Ex-Judge Dittenhoefer is New
York lawyer to whom show people go with
many of their knotty legal questions.
But no case was ever presented to me
that was easier to decide, and yet more
curiously novel;" the lawyer recently said
| to me, ''than that of Mile Christine The
death Of Dick Fitzgerald, through whose
show agency much of the business of the
| museums was done, recalls this matter
which came to me about year ago, but has
never been published. Fitzgerald called at
my office with letter from Millie-C Christine
requesting me to find out whether, if they
were to marry one and the same man, it
would constitute bigamy in the eye
of the law. 1t was evident enough, al
though they did not say so explicitly, that
an ofier Of Joint marriage had been made to
them and that they contemplated an &C
ceptance in case the trlpartite union would
be lawful. They urged that they had al.
ways been advertised as "a two-headed
glrl,' the claim being made on their behalf
that they were one individual with two
heads, four arms and four legs. If that
view of them could be accepted in law then
single husband would be quite proper
But they were pious Methodists and had nc
notion of doing any thing wrong, legally OF
TeliGiOusly, Fitzgerald wished my profes
sional opinion for the guidance of the
twins. OF course, the theory that they
were one person was entirely untehable
and / had no difficulty in forming ar
opinion that their joint marriage 70 one
man would be bigamy for him. II would
entail no criminal punishment on the wives
nor was it likely that proceedings woulc
ever be had against him under the peculiar
circumstances. But had to tell them tina
II the question ever came before q court
they would surely os decided twins, anC
only the one marriage ceremony which pre-
ceded the other would be valid, while thu
second one, although 1t might have occurred
G minute later, would be invalid, and would
possibly subject the husband to prosecu
ton. At the same time l reminded Fitz
gerald Of the late Charles o'Connor's re
mark when he was asked whether 1t wa,
legal to shoot burglar to death on sight
"The law would say hang you for it." b.
exclaimed, "but no public prosecutor OF
Judge or jury would punish you for it; 81
shoot the burgiarp After the same fash
ion advised Fitzgerald that Millie-G Chris
tines prospective husband might be sent Il
States prison for bigamy, but that nobody
would ever undertake to do it. However
the two-headed girl concluded to live I'm
married. ss