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Show SOLI) IllSWTON. A Freak Who Can Dislocate His Joints Without Difficulty and With 1 No Apparent Pain. ! HOW HE FIEST DISCOVERED IT.! Working it for All it is Worth to Avoid Tasks In Demand at Hospitals. AFKEAK, who is'in no sense of the word a fake, is Charles K. Hilliard. He dislocates his joints and replaces them at will to the great astonishment astonish-ment of many visitors. The most eminent physicians in this and other countries, says the Brooklyn Kagle, have tiled to solve this mau's peculiar gift, but all have tailed and he remains as great a puzzle, to himself as well as others, as when he first discovered discov-ered he could loosen himself, so to speak, without tlolug any harm or c-.uising any pain. Mr. ilillkird is of medium height, lithe and graceful, and is possessed of his share of manly beauty. An Eagle reporter interviewed this stumbling block to science yesterdaybearded yester-daybearded him in his den as it were and drew from him a life history which is full of incident and novelty. "I was born at Martinsburg, V. Va.(" he began, "on Aug. 16, 1857. I grew up to a schooling age the same as any other child. One day I remember it well I climbed into an orchard from which little boys were supposed to be excluded, ex-cluded, and, catching sight of a dog, quickly jumped the fence into the roadway, road-way, turning my ankle when I struck the ground. It didn't hurt any, so I kicked against the fence and snap it went back into place again. I went home and scared my parents almost into hysterics by repeating my snap act, and they sent post haste for a doctor. THE DOCTOR PUZZLED. "He twisted me and hammered me, and found a lot of new places that could be broken without pain, finally giving up the puzzle with the consoling theory that there was a screw loose somewhere. In school I soon learned to unjoint my head, and could write on the blackboard and look squarely at the school at tho same time. I always cracked my ankles instead of snapping my fingers to attract the teacher's attention, and if I found I was being beaten in a foot race I always managed to have a broken leg or twisted foot for ten or fifteen minutes as an excuse ex-cuse for having lost. When a bucket of coal was needed my wrist was always dislocated; during harvest lime a dislocated dislo-cated knee came in very handy. I couldn't carry water with a dislocated shonlder, nor weed the garden with three broken fingers on each hand, so I managed man-aged to have things pretty eacy during my childhood. "As I grew older I found there were few joints in my body that I could not dislocate, and it gradually got to worrying worry-ing me. I consulted one doctor after another, and one word, enigma, gives the result of all their investigations. When I gave it up in despair and resolved re-solved not to bother myself any more about my failing, as I called it, the doctors doc-tors begau. Dr. St. Clair, of the Port Huron Medical college; Dr. Pauerest, Philadelphia; Dr. Bliss, New York; Dr, Howell, Baltimore; Dr. Cliambors, St. Louis; Dr. Doremus, Philadelphia; Dr. Adolphus, Atlanta, Ga., and a thousand and one others tackled me one after another, and as regularly gave mo up as being an unexplainable mystery. "I now began to get used to being on exhibition through having so many doctors doc-tors experimenting with me, and resolved re-solved to accept one of the many offers that kept pouring in upon me to visit medical colleges throughout this country coun-try and England, and after exhibiting for a time before surgeons and students at home I took an engagement in the Royal college in London, where they kept me for seven years, and yet could tell me no more when I left than when I entered. When I returned I took turns at the prominent colleges in the large cities, occasionally shifting of? to a season sea-son in a museum or side show for a change. I have become completely hardened hard-ened to criticism and curiosity regarding my defect or gift, which ever you have a mind to call it, and am just as well satisfied here or in a museum as before a crowd of students that are aching for my corpse whenever they see me. SOLD HIB SKELETON FOB $6,000. "College work pays me best, though. 1 get $ 150 a week at a college or where I am now, but I have worked as low as $73 in a museum just because I wanted a change so much. By the way, I suppose you read iu the newspapers a few years ago how I sold my bones. I bad received various offers from half a dozen cranks scattered over the country of from $1,000 to $4,000 for my body after death, money to be paid on date of contract, but I paid no attention to them. "Finally, one day while I was exhibiting exhibit-ing at the Bellevue hospital, Philadelphia, Philadel-phia, Dr. Doremus came up to me with a pleasant smile and the equally pleasant greeting of, 'Well, Hilliard, how much for your bones today:" 'They're $6,000 todav,' said I, laughing. 'It's a go,' he answered, and .the next day he seit me a check for that amount, and I signed a contract giving him my skeleton after death, but reserving the right to use it myself until death occurs. I thought at first it was a joke, but soon found out it was a straight transaction and business from the word go." Mr. Hilliard has never known what it was to be ill, and is in perfect physical condition. His disjointing and rejoint-ing rejoint-ing are done quickly, and among many others include the following dislocations, disloca-tions, which will give some idea of his peculiar formation: Complete dislocations disloca-tions of the wrists, elbows, fingers, ankles an-kles and knees; four different dislocations disloca-tions of the shoulders and, four of the hips; eight dislocations at the same time, embracing shoulders, hips, knees and ankles, and twelve dislocations at the same time, embracing toes of each foot and the two ankles. While thus dislocated dislo-cated he shows seven different forms of what is known as club feet. Mr. Hilliard Hill-iard is married, well educated and .a very pleasing conversationalist. " i "' . |