A Strange Story.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1839, 19 April 1884, Page 6 (Supplement)

A Strange Story.

RESULTS 01' THE DISSECTION Oi 1 THE BODY 01' A COLORED MAN. In connection with the universal interest manifested in the " Missing Link, Krao," alleged to have been found in Laos, between Siam, Burmah, and Cochin China, in the south-eastern portion of Asia, I will relate an incident recently detailed to me by a gentleman of undoubted veracity, and who is well known in Salt Lake City : Some years since, in a neighboring mining region, the gentleman referred to was a member of a vigilance committee, which in the ordinary course of business, found it necessary to hang a negro, who was a party to a capital crime. It so happened that the medical fraternity in that section had but few opportunities for extending their knowledge of human anatomy, and a3 a result the body of the negro was much coveted by these searchers after the secrets of nature. Accordingly a prize was offered to any one of the lynching party who should bring the body to the office of a certain surgeon, well known by many residents of the Eocky Mountains. The gentleman who related the story accepted the conditions, and with not a few eventual experiences, managed to place the body at the disposal of the doctor. The next day all the surgeons in the vicinity (some three or four) were present at the dissection, and our hero became, by invitation, an interested spectator. Nothing of interest was discovered in the conformation of the negro until, for the purpose of some inquiry, the body was split down the entire length of the spinal column, when at its extremity was discovered a rudimentary tail, composed of three or four vertebrte, projecting from the ordinary termination about three inches, forming a protuberance about the size of a man's thumb, and apparently about as flexible. The caudal appendage was allowed to remain attached to one-half of the spinal cloumn, so that the left half of the trunk presented the usual view, while the right looked eiaetfy as if it had been cut from a black sheep. Certain peculiar incidents attendant upon this affair made it appear prudent to remain reticent on the subject, and I was assured the story had never been related eutside oE a very limited circle. Even now the parties concerned* have no ambition to evoke certain contingent disagreeable results, but in the interest of scientific knowledge the Tribune is authorized to disclose the name of the writer who can put the parties on the track to discover everything pertaining to this interesting case. Whether the negro was an importation from Africa I do not know, but I think he was born in America. His education was very limited, and from all that could be learned on the subject there is every- ' thing to warrant the assumption that he regarded his jewel as a perfectly natural attachment, and likely supposed that all other aristocrats had been similarly adorned. Krao and all her race are said to be decorated in the same fashion, and perhaps we may hereafter refer to our ancestors as possessors of so many extra vertebra as an unquestioned evidence. Be that as it may, it seems that tales about tails ara now in order. — Salt Lake Tribune.