The weekly examiner., 1901-06-01
THE MAN WITH THE MUSICAL HEART.
While in Hartford Recently He Gave an
 Interesting Account of His Career.


 Interesting Account of His Career.
 Referring to the account of the death of Robert B. Brown at Eligin, H., recently from pneumonia, as given in a Hartford paper, and who was known to physicians here and about the country as ''the man with the musi- cal heart,'' Hartford man who knew him we'll and intimately sends us the following regarding his life:
 This mans real name was Joseph Millkarski. Several years ago he was student in a Russian university. Two years after entrance thereto AL exander III nearly lost his life by the blowing up of a bridge on which he was passing. Suspicion pointed to the students of this university and 800 of them were placed in dungeons, where they were subjected to continuous tor ture for about twelve months, the cells in which they were placed so built as not to admit of their standing up straight or lying down at full length, but always in a bent position. After this terrible ordeal they were taken out, their heads shaved, and then presented to the czar chained hand and foot. Their sentence was read to them: "Si- sberia for life" But before starting on their dreadful journey priest of the Greek church baptized them, after which he addressed them in words to this effect: Sons and daughters, you have sinned against the holy cZar and Almighty God and to atone for this you are sentenced for life to the mines of Siberia. If you receive the sentence with pure love of heart and commence to love the czar and God, you may es- cape hell everlasting, in the name of the God Almighty and the holy czar of all the Russians, Alexander III"
 When the journey commenced they were compelled to march twenty-five miles every day. It lasted altogether about nine months, for later they were obliged to lay off in several places ow- ing to intense cold and snow storms. Completing the journey, they were placed in the mines and had to work seventeen hours day. After the days work was over they were placed in a position half way between the atmos- phere and base of the mine. For period of four years and two months they never saw the sky or sun. Op- portunity for escape came at last and twenty-two of them made bold break for liberty. It was the chance of free life against living death. Two weeks after the escape they were over taken by the czar's cOSsacks. But they were prepared to face death rather than return to the mines. After a desperate struggle sixteen of them managed to get away from the cossacks, but these were again overtaken, after which there were only nine of them left, nearly all of whom were wounded. Millkarski receiving gunshot wound in the right leg and another in the back. But again they started, only to be soon Overtaken them were killed and Millkarski received stab wound in the heart. He was left for dead, but his three companions es- capped. They afterwards returned and nursed him back to life.
 After terrible journey they landed in China and Joe was taken to the. Jesuit hospital iu PeRfn, where sa GerA man physician announced that the lance had penetrated two and one-half inches into the heart and declared the wound as fatal But after twelve weeks of kind and skillful treatment he recovered sufficiently to travel During his stay in the hospital spies became aware of his identity and he and comrades again had to flee. Alter several weeks of pursuit in China they landed in Hong Kong. Here they found friends who aided them to em bark for Yokohama, Japan. There
  took them and made life as pleasant as possible for them under the circum- stances. But they soon had reason to believe that it was time to leave again and were smuggled by boat to San Francisco, where they landed twenty five days later, March 25, 1894. Here the Russian consul with several detec- tives met them before landing and they were taken to jail, after trying to have them sent back to Russia. But thanks to the laws of the United States they were allowed to go free.
 Judge Jacobs of the supreme court | and Thomas Moore, now editor of the St. Joseph Daily Herald, proved TO be their friends and they were passed to New York, where they arrived June l5. They were penniless and all took positions as they were to be found. Joe became a snake charmer" in a at the Philadelphia exposition, owned by man named Hennebeck and l under the management or man named | Bostock. Soon after he started in as a trainer of wild animals and was bit ten by bear, which obliged him to enter the hospital once again. and it | was there that his heart was discovered | to be one of the medical wonders of the world. Since then he has travelled the entire civilized world, and has been examined by all the noted physicians and medical students, and his case pro- to be one of the wonders of the nineteenth century. He has not appeared in public many times. his business being mainly with the doctors and medical experts
 This is a true story of Joseph Mill karski, alias Edward Lewis''
 This man while in Hartford put up at Longs hotel and while here the writer of the foregoing learned from himself the strange story of his life. He appeared before the Hartford Medi- cal society a few months ago and gave of the melodiouss pulsa- tions of his heart, which on post nor tenn examination was found to be four times the normal size.