The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1893-10-12
THOSE SIAMESE TWINS.
NYE SAYS THEY WE'RE VERY
NEAR EACH OTHER.
Story of Their Life Touchingly Told
Though Differing in Ideas, They
Were Nevertheless IDseparabie.
Bill Nye in Atlanta Journal

MOUNT AIRY, n. q, sept. 26,-This
town is a post village of Surry county,
this State, and has cotton factories,
flour mills, shoe factories for man and |
beast, tobacco factories for the same
purpose, wool carding machines, min
eral springs, newspapers. etc, but its |
principal hit was made at the home
of the Siamese twins.
Settling here before the late war,
these strange men, so different in
character, yet SO constantly thrown
into each others society by circum-
stance which they could not prevent,
and which was about 1t inches in
length, lived until the winter of 1875
under the American name of Bunker.
Here they were married. here their
children were born, and here they
died.
Recently 1 have had the pleasure of
reading an instructive article on these
gentlemen prepared by Mr.. M. A. Du-
four for a French journal, and with
the items of interest offered me by
the old neighborS of Chang and Eng
besides l venture to write on these
much talked of people from Siam.
M. DufOur goes on to state that
| ''las d'exhIbcr leur 'trait-d union
devant les curieux DIES deux mondes,
| lis avient acquis une jolie ferme, a
| Mount Airy dams lie comte de Surrey
| Caroline du Nord) petit d'armees avant
| la guerre de secession, ct passedaient
| uuelvues esclaves.'
Caroline de Nord is good. l shall
have that put on my cards hereafter.
| TRANSLATED, M. Dufour's happy ex-
| preston implies that, tired of dis
| playing their natal hyphen to the gap
ing crowds of both worlds, they had
purchased pretty farm at Mount
| Airy, Surry county, n. c., few
| years before the war of secession.
| They owned a few slaves"
On this last question there is a diff
| ference between authorities. M. Du-
| four, who was thoroughly familiar
with his subject, states positively that
they were not antagonistic regarding
the great question of the right to
maintain and extend slavery-in other
words, that the war did not separate
Chang and Eng.
| Yet / was told by a man who claim
ed to know them well that Chang
owned one slave, while Eng did not,
and did not favor the unholy traffic.
Chang believed that, slavery being a
good thing, one could not have toe
much of it; also that States had the
| right to regulate as they would the
liquor traffic, while Eng believed that
| III was ndU1Oudl v uoSUlOl, anu uudllJ
| refused to help catch and return
Changes niger for him.
My informant said that this led tC
internecine strife between the two
and that when they were on their way
!, home from the lodge, Eng, not being
a member, had reluctantly gone to see
, !, Chang take the thirty second degree
they had an open rupture almost, af
ter which Chang enlisted in the Con
, | So Enfr in l1n 1,
ern army. Later, however, both de
serted, noticing how awkward il
| would be in case one should suddenl.
decide to die for mother home ant
country, while the other favored lon
gevity.
o This same man told me that wher
= Nancy Bunker was born her fathe
: insisted that her Uncle Chang SHOULD
run for the doctor.
r mese tongue, with which [ am perfect
q ly familiar, fright" and left" The
J. were born at Bangesen, Siam, Apri
| Is. 1911, almost simultaneously.
q They had Chinese father, an
y their mother was one-half Chinese
the other half being Siamese.
:, In putting on their dress suit the
q left out the lower stud of the shirt i
: order to give room for the strange col
|
0 two at the base of the Sternum.
4 The sternum is the breast bone.
: These two twins were brought t
= the United States at the age OF Is an
were on exhibition up to the tim
. they settled down at Mount Airy.
e Those who saw them say that Chan
d and Eng did much by their public al
o pearance to elevate and refine thos
d who saw them.
, | Gill Chapr was iptpmnprata AZ
!, cording to DR.. jacob, and many
!. time Eng, who was quiet and sobe
had to 60 on in Changes place as a
y understudy.
ii Eng was Baptist, and on the da
e he united with the church and Wa
i immersed Chang insisted on accompi
e nying him in a beastly state of intol
ication.
% These were the best Known twins
= history, living to the age of GA, {
q nearly so. The Two Headed Nightil
Z gale is yet living at the age of ~, bu
Is is still single-that is, unmarried.
o do not know how / would propose
E. the Two Headed Nightingale.
,r might be acceptable to one of her re;
n soning faculties, while the otht
- might be more sensitive to horrib
n sights and refuse.
Chang had some literary ambition
III while Eng did not. Changes love Il
% rum was a pretty good sign that
1T was a genius. Night after night /
ID would pull Eng out of the bed viii
lg sound asleep and jerk him around
,e the dark, jotting down memoranda
~ thoughts he had during the nigh
10 Chang had invited what he called tt
Is authors friend. 1t consisted of an
y Illuminated wall at one end of I'll
OF room made of mixture which lightt
D. it up so that he could preserve
of Thought which had made its appea
c. ance during the night,
He also invented the Edinbur9
: Joke gimlet and used it successful
% while in Scotland.
a. They were more irritated again
ke each other after the war tnan DeIol
IL for Chang lost his niger and bitter
Id reproached Eng, for being at the bt
n tom of it. On top of all this, h
of tried to reconstruct Chang.
"a Chang married some Tune before t
-. idea occurred to Eng, and though
~ entered fully into the spirit viii
u prompted Chang to wed he often I
IN i'll at ease and out of place sitting
ed late at nights, during the ccurting a
n taking cold looking at the moon a
of pretending TO be asleep.
nd Therefore he soon turned his attic
&C tion towards marriage, and aceomI
% MED by his brother, one evening, ma
proposition to Changes sister-in-la
She rejected him, claiming that,
- cording to her notions, relatives Dug
oy | not to be too thick.
- Nevertheless it was Changes vi
who felt that she had bitten off mo
is than she could masticate, who indt
is ed her sister at last, while under t
Nv influence Of wine Jelly, to accept 81
a. | and for some time the four occupl
~ the same house, ate at the same tai
.e0 | and drank from the same cantee