Amongst the visitors who arrived at Liverpool from New York on
Tuesday in the Inman steamer City of Brussels, was a party of
ladies and gentlemen, whom the indefatigable Mr. Barnum, of showman
notoriety, has nothing to do with, though here for the edification of
the curious.
The most singular and physiologically interesting member of the
party is a young lady, between eighteen and nineteen years of age,
or rather, two young ladies rolled into one, who is certainly a
rival to the famous Siamese Twins, and very much more attractive in
appearance than Messrs. Chang and Eng. Those who saw the Siamese
Twins during their presence in England will have a vivid recollection
of the painful look that their features bore, and the constrained
movements of their bodies while walking in any direction. There is a
total absence of this in the young lady who bears the name of Miss
Christine Millie, whose four bright black eyes and dazzling rows
of pearly-white teeth light up a fair Creole complexion with an
animation that is really attractive. This singular _lusus naturæ_ is
the offspring of parents who were slaves in North Carolina previous
to the American civil war, and has several brothers and sisters who
are like ordinary humanity. During the struggle the family suffered
considerable privation; but as a curious illustration of the changes
which have taken place in Southern society, through the war and
the declaration of freedom from slavery, it may be mentioned that
the father of Christine Millie is now the owner of the plantation
on which he was once a slave. As to the young lady herself--for we
have surgical authority for describing her--she has bodily only one
person, though possessed of two heads, two pairs of shoulders, four
arms, and two pairs of legs, amalgamated curiously with one trunk.
We can only say that an hour’s audience with her yesterday afternoon
proved her to be a cultured, self-possessed and accomplished person,
who had a most singular attribute of being able to hold two totally
distinct conversations at the same time with different persons, or
the same person, can sing a duet very tastefully and tunefully in two
voices, soprano and contralto, and can dance a mazourka with singular
grace and facility. There was no difficulty made in exhibiting the
upper portion of the dorsal connection, and it was done without any
infringement of modesty.