Connecticut western news., 1890-01-22
Queer Texas Hearing. These were his exact words:

ACo, S1I-o-c, rye secu u1u WAIA HI own eyes, an I b'lieve what l see, cause my eyes ain't never gone back on nde since they first opened thirty nine year ago down in the good old Lone Star State O Texas, God bless her an old Sam Houstonl Yes, sir-e-e, l tell you Pve seen him, an he's the wonderfullest human being or any other being that ever drew the breath O life. I ain't jokin'. Tain't no occasion to joke, an I 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 mouse, but the one on the off side-Gee-m Wy see the size O my hand? We'll, 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 2OOO miles in air line. Last spring he stood on the front porch at home an counted the cannon shots what was. fired as President Harrison come up the har- Dor at the Washington Centennial. He | heerd the breakin' O the dam what caused the flood in the Connemaugh | Valley. He didn't know what it was | at the time. He said it sounded like | thunder, but he knew it warn't thun- der, an we was all mighty puzzled till the papers told us what it was. sTher's big storm on the Gulf,' he says, an sure enough in day or two comes news of great waves an shipwrecks. | 'It's rainin' in California; he says, an by-an'-by we hear of storm over there. sTher's a cyclone in Kansas he says, an a cyclone it is, thousan' mile away. 'Its a-comin' this way,' he says, an we get ready to dive into our cellars. q hear two engines crash | LOSCCACl OA u 1d11kOdu OtOl AO 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 won- derful enough for you7"
 "It seems incredible" "There, I knowed you wouldn't b'lieve it, cause you ain't seen it. See- in 's b'ievin'. Le' me tell you sump'n' else. This boy can hear yesterday as well as today. It's fact. He can hear a hundred years ago-a hundred years back; yes, sir-e-c, a thousand! They say in the philosophy that sound never does die. It just keeps on a-cir- culatin' around an around, gettin' further and further away from the earth, till we, with our ordinary years, can't hear it no more. But this young ster-W'y, le' me tell you; I've know ed him to hear back 3,380 years, an listen to the song what Miriam sung after Moses an the Israelites waded through the Red Sea!
 "Mind you," he added suddenly, Che does all this big hearin', this hear in O great sounds 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 teen1 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 pin drop on sofa cushion l He can hear fly walkin' on window pane an a cockroach a-runnin' across the floor, an bedbug crawlin' be- tween the sheets, an'-well, there ain't no sound small enough to escape him. He can set ten feet from me an' count my heartbeatsl He can almost hear person think"
 "Wonderful, wonderful How old is the boy?"
 "Goin' on twelve"
 s.Is he strong and hearty?"
 "Pm sorry to say he ain't. He's mighty sickly an has awful spells with his head.'
 "Your nephew, believe you said" s.No kin; just my folks and his folks is neighbors."
 "Has he good sense?"
 ..He's long ways from being an idiot, I can tell you, but his folks was ten years findin' it out. They thought he was daft till they learnt by a acci- dent that he couldn't hear out of both years at onct; that is, he could hear we'll enough, but the sounds got so mixed up that he couldn't tell nothing about 'em; not a thing"
 ssIt seems to me I've heard of that boy before."
 ssIt's more n likely. He's been con- siderably talked about"
 ssBarnum ought to have him."
 "That's what I tell his folks, but they ain't willin' to let him out O their sight,"
 "Where is his home?" | tsOn farm short ways from Sher- man. His names Hector-Hector Braswell."