The inscriptions and paintings on the outside of this show were, “_The
White Negro, who was rescued from her Black Parents by the bravery of a
British Officer--the only White Negro Girl Alive.--The Great Giantess
and Dwarf.--Six Curiosities Alive!--only a Penny to see them All
Alive!_” While waiting a few minutes till the place filled, I had
leisure to observe that one side of the place was covered by a criminal
attempt to represent a tread-mill, in oil colours, and the operators at
work upon it, superintended by gaolers, &c. On the other side were live
monkies in cages; an old bear in a jacket, and sundry other animals.
Underneath the wheels of the machine, other living creatures were moving
about, and these turned out to be the poor neglected children of the
showman and his wife. The miserable condition of these infants, who were
puddling in the mud, while their parents outside were turning a bit of
music, and squalling and bawling with all their might, “walk in--only a
penny,” to get spectators of the objects that were as yet concealed on
their “proud eminence,” the caravan, by a thin curtain, raised a gloom
in the mind. I was in a reverie concerning these beings when the curtain
was withdrawn, and there stood confessed to sight, she whom the showman
called “the tall lady,” and “the white negro, the greatest curiosity
ever seen--the first that has been exhibited since the reign of George
the Second--look at her head and hair, ladies and gentlemen, and feel
it; there’s no deception, it’s like ropes of wool.” There certainly was
not any deception. The girl herself, who had the flat nose, thick lips,
and peculiarly shaped scull of the negro, stooped to have her head
examined, and being close to her I felt it. Her hair, if it could be
called hair, was of a dirtyish flaxen hue; it hung in ropes, of a clothy
texture, the thickness of a quill, and from four to six inches in
length. Her skin was the colour of an European’s. Afterwards stepped
forth a little personage about three feet high, in a military dress,
with top boots, who strutted his tiny legs, and held his head aloft with
not less importance than the proudest general officer could assume upon
his promotion to the rank of field-martial. Mr. Samuel Williams, whose
versatile and able pencil has frequently enriched this work, visited the
Fair after me, and was equally struck by his appearance. He favours me
with the subjoined engraving of this
[Illustration: ~Little Man.~]
I took my leave of this show pondering on “the different ends our fates
assign,” but the jostling of a crowd in Smithfield, and the clash of
instruments, were not favourable to musing, and I walked into the next.