The St. Johns herald., 1890-09-04
QUEER TEXAS HEARINGl
The Most Wonderful Pair of Ears
 in All Christendom.
A Youngster Who Heard the Breaking of the JohnstOwn (Pa.) Dam in the Lone Star State-The Greatest of Nat
 - ure's Many Freaks.

These were his exact words, as faith fully reported in the New York Tribune:
 'Yes, sir-e-e, I've seen him with my own eyes, an b'lieve what I see, cause my eyes ain't never gone back on me since they was first opened thirty-nine years ago down in the good old Lone Star State O Texas. God bless her an old Sam Houston. Yes, sir-e-e, I tell you I've seen him, an he is the wonder fullest human being or any other being that ever drew the breath O life. I aint jokin' 'Tain't no occasion to joke, an l ain't lyin', cause down in Texas folks don't lie for fun. Yes, sir-e-e, he's got two of the curusest years you ever see. The one on the nigh side of his face ain't no bigger'n the year of a mouse, but the one on the of side-gee- mi-netty! Wy, see the size O my hand? Well, sir, it's bigger'n that, bigger by right smart, an my hand ain't no baby's fipper.
 There ain't no limit to his hearin' I've knoWed him to hear two thousand miles in air line. Last spring he stood on the front porch at home an counted the cannon shots what was fired as Pres ident Harrison come up the harbor at the Washington centennial. He heered the breakin' O the dam what caused the flood in the Conemaugh valley. He didn't know what it was at the time. He said it sounded like thunder, but he knew it warn't thunder, an we was all mighty puzzled till the papers told us what it was. There's big storm on the gulf he says, an sure enough in a day or two comes news of great waves an shipwrecks. Its rainin' in Cali fornia,' he says, an by an by we hear of a storm over there. There's a cyclone in Kansas he says, an cyclone it is, thOusan' miles away. Its a cOmin' this way he says, an we get ready to dive into our cellars. I hear two engines crash together on railroad over there,' he says, an he points in the direction of the sound an we get map an mark it down, an next morning read all about the accident in the papers, just where he said it was. Ain't that wonderful enough for you?"
 Ut seems incredible"
 1uCICs hHOHtu JOu NOuIOH UC- lieve it, cause you ain't seen it. Seein' s b'lievin'. Le' me tell you sump'n' else. This boy can hear yesterday as well as to-day. It's fact. He can hear a hundred years ago-a hundred years back; yes, sir-e-e, a thousanl They say in the philosophy that sound never does die. It just keeps on a-circulatin' around an around, gettin' further and further away from the earth, till we, with our ordinary years, cant hear it no more. But this youngster-w'y, le' me tell you; I've knowed him to hear back 3,3S0 years and listen to the song what Miriam sung after Moses an the Israel ties waded through the Red Sea!
 Mind you," he added suddenly, ''he does all this big hearin', this hearin' O great soun's back in the ages an over distances of thousands O miles with the big year on the off side O his face, all the time a-keepin' the little teensy year on the nigh side closed up. But when he goes in the house he opens the little year an shuts the big one, an, sir, with that little year he can hear a pin drop on a sofa cushion! He can hear fly walkin' on window pane an a cock roach a-runnin' across the floor, an bedbug crawlin' between the sheets, an well, ther ain't no sound small enough to escape him. He can set ten feet from me an count my heart beats! He can almost hear person think!
 ''Wonderful, wonderful! How old is the boy?"
 "Goin' on twelve."
 [ "Is he strong and hearty?" . ''I'm sorry to say he ain't. He's mighty sickly an has awful spells with his head"
 "Your nephew, believe you said"
 ''No kin; just my folks an his folks is neighbors."
 Has he good sense?'
 He's long ways from being idiot, I can tell you, but his folks was ten years findin' it out. They thought he was daft till they learnt by a accident that he couldn't hear out of both years at once; that is, he could hear we'll enough, but the sounds got so mixed up that he couldn't tell nothing about 'em; not thing"
 ''It seems to me I've heard of that boy before"
 Its more'n likely. He's been con- siderably talked about"
 "Barnum ought to have him.
 'That's what 1 tell his folks, but they ain't willin' to let him out O their sight"
 Where is his home?"
 "On farm a short ways from Sher- man. His name is Hector - Hector BraSwell,"
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