Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-08-01
LIMBLESS HUMAN BEINGS
Distinguished Themselves When De-
 priyed of Arms and Legs

prived of Arms and Legs. I The recent advent in London of an
 armless and legless miniature painter
 who turned out very fair pictures Dy holding the brush between his teeth, l created no little sensation in artistic I circles.
 Such performance, however, is by
 no means so unique as many of those
 attending it seem to have imagined. Indeed, in almost all ages and in prac- l tically every country, artists handicap 1 ped after @ similar fashion have slml
 larly appealed to the suffrages of their I more fortunate fellow creatures. ! Perhaps the most famous of them
 all was a lady, Miss Sarah Biff1n, who 1 died at Liverpool in the year 1850, at
 the fairly ripe age of 66.
 l This ingenious person was born l mere shapeless trunk, with, of course, the head attached, but minus all four l of the extremities.
 1 At the age of 1 she is described as l looking like a discarded doll that had been badly treated by it's child mistress l And even when woman grown, she
 only attained the height of a yard and | an inch.
 1 Yet the frail and incomplete body
 was capable of great and sustained ex- l ertioT1. For years she worked almost l day and night at her chosen profes- l sion, and although her progress was l for a long time exceedingly slow, she l attained in the end such proficiency l that she succeeded in winning the gold
 medal of the Society of Arts and many I other honors.
 1 She also secured the patronage of ! royalty, and,s coming to London, estab- ! lished a studio in the Strand, where
 she actually gave lessons in art to numbers of pupils endowed with the l ordinary complement of limbs. I Of her paintings, many were pot
 boilers, and more or less mediocre, but ! 8 fair percentage show considerable
 merit, and are even now eagerly snap | ped up at stiff prices whenever they
 ind their way upon the market. I Another limbless wonder is the Rus
 sian, Kobelkoff, who visited this coun- l try some four or five years ago, and | astonished everyone by the ease with 1 which he performed numbers of ap- l parently-to him-impossible feats.
 For instance, he juggled with cups and balls, played battledore and shut l tecock, with extraordinary skill and ! agility, and even scored quickly and cleanly~at billiards, holding specially
 made cue between his teeth. 1 When dining he held his fork or knife cleverly between his cheek and his shoulder. He could thread the smallest eyed needle in far less time
 than most ordinary people, his method
 being to first stick 1t in the lapel of l his coat with his teeth, after which he
 manipulated the thread with his lips l Most visitors to Khartoum will have noticed Ali Hassan. the armless and legless donkey boy. He, however, was
 not born that way, but owes his sad plight to the cruelty of the late kha-
 lifa, Abdullah Mohammed, who had
 him thus mutilated at different times, as punishment for some infraction
 or other of one of his many arbitrary
 rules and regulations.
 Ali practically spends his entire walk
 ing life on donkey back, and he has
 become, in consequence, so extraordin- arily skillful in riding and guiding the
 particular animals he affects, that he
 is able to perform with their aid the
 most remarkable feats of "assman- \ shin.''
 Thus, he will stand on his head in the saddle while the donkey is going
 at full gallop and then, lowering him
 self to his shoulders to gain the neces-
 sary impetus, will project himself up
 side down into the air like human
 rocket, alighting always on the soft
 sand in the same position.
 Another favorite exhibition of his is
 to plant himself on the ground on the stumps of his thighs and allow don key, which he has trained for the pur
 pose to charge full tilt at him. Ther just as the animal reaches him, and ii looks as though in another instant he 1 is inevitably going to be sent flying head over heels Ali wriggles his thighs wide apart, the donkey lowers his head } to the ground and the next moment
 man and beast are seen careerir : rapidly across the desert, the former seated astride the latter's neck. ,s@ Among limbless travellers, MT Charles Heseline stands easily first. The only son of well-to-do vintner he had. ere reaching his maj ajority, visit.
 ed France, Spain, Germany, Holland
 and Belgium.
 When In his 25th year his father and
 mother both died within a few weeks
 of one another, and he then decided
 having no ties to keep him at home to make more extended acquaintance with foreign lands.
 He first proceeded to Rome, where he was received in special audience by
 the pope. From there he travelled bJ l I easy stages to Constantinople, where t the sultan sent for him. engaged hin
 for several hours in conversation anf
 dismissed him loaded with valuable presents.
 He spent three months in St. Peters burg, mixing in the best society, every
 where attracting the greatest attentioT and anxiety, yet being at the same time ,, treated with the most profound , courtesy and respect.
 , Resunfng his wanderings, he crossed Siberia by sledge from west to east