The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-05-18
HAS SOLD EIs own SKELETON.
4 Freak Who Can Dislocate His Joints
Without Inconvenience.
From the Brooklyn Eagle.


From. the Brooklyn EAGLE.
A freak in Barnum's side show, who is in
no sense of the word a fake, is Charles E.
billiard. He dislocates his joints and re-
places them at will, to the great astonish-
ueut of the many visitors. The most emf
nent physicians in this and other countries
have tried to solve this mans peculiar gift.
Init all have failed, and he remains as great
a puzzle, TO himself as we'll as others. as
when he first discovered he could loosen
himself, so to speak, without doing any
harm or causing any pain. Mr.. billiard is
Of medium hight, 1.-the and graceful. and is
nOSsessed of his share of manly beauty. An
Fade reporter interviewed this stumbling
block to science yeSterday-bearded him in
his den, as it were-and drew from him a
life history which is full of incident and
novelty.
81 was born at Martinsburg, w. Va he
began, ION Aug. TO, 1857. / grew up to a
schooling age the same as any other child.
One day. remember it WE'LL climbed
into An orchard from which little boys were
supposed to be excluded, and, catching sight
or dog, quickly jumped the fenee into the
Roadway, turning my ankle when l struck
the ground. 1t didn't hurt any, so kicked
against the fence, and-snap- went back
into place again. l went home and scared
my parents almost into Mysteries by repeat
ing my snap act, and they sent post haste
for doctor. He twisted me and ham,
mered me, and found lot of new places
that could be broken without pain, finally
giving up the puzzle with the consoIing
theory that there was a screw loose
somewhere. In school / soon learned
to unjoint my head and could write
on the blackboard and look squarely at the
school at the same time. always cracked
my ankles instead of swapping my fingers
TO attract the teachers attention, and il
found | was being beaten in a foot race
always managed to have broken leg or
twisted foot for ten or fifteen minutes as
an excuse for having lost. When bucket
of coal was needed my wrist was always
dislocated; during harvest time dislocated
knee came in handy. I couldn't carry
water with dislocated shoulder, nor weed
the garden with three broken fingers on each
hand. so | managed to have things pretty
easy during my childhood. As I grew
older l found there were few joints in my
body that l could not dislocate and it
gradually got to worrying me. l
consulted one doctor after another
and one word, enigma, gives the
result of all their Investigations. When l
gave it up in despair and had resolved not
to bother myself any more about my fall
st. Clair of the Port Huron Medical COL
lege; DR.. Pauerest, Philadelphia; DR.. Bliss,
New York; DR.. Howell, Baltimore; Dr.
Chambers, st. Louis; DIR. Doremus, Phil
t.delphia; DIR. Adolphus, Atlanta, Ga, and
1000 and one others tackled me one after
another and as regularly gave me up as
being an unexplainable mystery. Inow
began to get used to being on exhibition
through having so many doctors exper-
tr,1n,, ttv,er Il 4
one OF the many offers that kept pouring in
upon me to visit medical colleges through
out this country and England, and after
exhibiting for time before surgeons and
students at home | took an engage
ment in the royal college in London, where
they kept me for seven years, and vet
could tell me no more when l left than
when entered. When l returned l took
turns at the prominent colleges in the large
cities, occasionally shifting off to a season
In museum or side show for q change. l
have become completely hardened to criti-
cism and curiosity regarding my defect or
gift, whichever you have mind to call it,
and am just as well satisfied here or in a
museum as before q crowd of students that
are aching for my corpse whenever they see
me. College work pays me best, though.
1 get $3.50 week at a college or where
am now, but have worked as low as S75
IN museum, because | wanted a change SO
much BY the way, suppose you read in
the newspapers few years ago how |
sold my bones. l had received various
offers from half dozen cranks scattered
over the country of from $1,000 to 81 900
for my body after death, money to be paid
on date of contract, but paid no attention
to them. Finally, one day while
l was exhibiting at the
Bellevue hospital, Philadelphia, DR..
Doremus came up to me with pleasant
smile, and the eqally pleasant greeting of
We'll, billiard, now much for your bones
to-dayp They're $4,000 to-day said l.,
laughing. Its a CO. he answered, and the
next day he sent me a check for that
amount, and | signed a contract giving
him my skeleton after death, but reserving
the right to use it myself until death occurs
| thought at first it was a joke. but soon
found out it was straight taansaction, and
business from the word go. III stay with
Mr.. Barnum, whom l like very much, the
rest of this season, but will probably drift
to some college for the winter"
Mr.. billiard has never known what it
was to be ill, and is in perfect physical con-
dltion. HIS disjointing and rejointlng are
done quickly, and among many others in
clude the following dislocatlons, which will
give those who did not see him last week
some idea of his peculiar formation: Com
plete dislocations of the wrists, elbows,
fingers, ankles and knees; four different dis
locations of the shoulders and four of the
hips; eight dislocations at the same time,
embracing shoulders, hips, knees and ankles
and twelve dislocations at the same time,
embracing toes of each foot and the two
ankles. While thus dislocated he shows
seven different forms of what is known as
club feet. Mr.. billiard is married; we'll
educated, and a very pleasing converse
tionalst.