A 'wild man' is captured in the woods of Paducah County, Kentucky in 1883. The 2 captors accompany the wild man by train to Jersey City, NJ, then by boat to New Haven, CT.
"Among the passengers the other night bound for New York from the west on the day express was a wild man who occupied a seat in smoking car number 153. He was accompanied by James Harvey and Raymond Boyd his captors both of whom belong in Paducah, Kentucky. They had three second-class tickets to New York which privileged them with three seats in the smoking car of any first-class train
When the day express arrived at the Broad Street Station at 8 o'clock James Harvey ran down the platform into the restaurant and purchased a box of sardines and some sandwiches for the wild man's supper. His companion remained in charge of the wild man.
The wild man was dressed in a citizen's dress and wore big cloth shoes. His hair reaches nearly to his waist and falls over his shoulders completely covering his back. His beard is long and thick while his eyebrows are much heavier than those of an ordinary human being. There is nothing imbecilic in the wild man's manners or actions. He cannot talk and seldom makes any sound except a low growl. Like a leopard, his actions are as much like those of the hyena of the Zoological Garden.
Raymond Boyd, who seemed to have perfect control over the wild man, said his body is covered with coarse brown hair as thick as the hair on a horse's hide. The palms of his hands look like the paws of a bear and his fingernails, which were over an inch long, resembled the claws of an eagle.
He was first seen in Paducah County thirteen years ago and was known as Mum the Hermit because whenever anyone accosted him all he would say was 'Mum's the word.' He lived in an old pine hut in the woods for about five years and was seldom seen by anyone. Finally, he abandoned the hut and took up his abode in a cave under a ledge of rocks known as Lizard Rock.
A little over six years ago two or three citizens of Paducah County, while out hunting, saw him running into his cave without a stitch of clothing on him. Three years ago it was discovered that a thick coat of hair had grown all over his body. Boyd and Harvey built a man trap for him and it took over three days before he entered it. He was not afraid of any bird or beast of prey but ran terrified away from any human being who approached him.
It took two days to accustom the man-beast to their presence. The tinkle of a small dinner bell they used had great influence over him. He watched the bell intently but would not touch it.
Some time ago a farmer missed a calf and two sheep which had strayed off. They were tracked to Mum's cave here. All trace of them was lost and it was supposed that he devoured them in his cave which he had occupied for the last seven or eight years. Boyd and Harvey found the skeletons of small animals and the skins of over 50 snakes. Some of the skins belong to the most venomous species of reptiles. The floor of the cave was alive with red and green lizards and hundreds of toads hopped about.
The wild man ate the box of sardines voraciously and the two sandwiches which were handed him were greedily pulled apart. He ate the ham and threw the bread away. Whenever a train passed on the opposite track he crouched down in the corner of the seat terror-stricken. After the train passed he would put his hand to his ear and listen with a look of animal cunning stealing out of his restless eyes like a panther about to pounce on its prey. Every time the engineer blew the whistle the wild man would grab the back of the seat in front of him with both hands and hold on until the whistle ceased blowing. Boyd had a little tin music box which he manipulated with a crank. The tune that it played was 'Empty is the Cradle' and it was ground again and again to the great satisfaction of the ex-hermit who sat and looked at it silently but would not touch it.
When conductor Harry Smith took out his glistening nickel-plated punch to cancel the tickets the wild man watched the punch intently until he heard it snap. Then he got down in the corner of the car and set fairly shivering with fear and set up a low howl supposing evidently that conductor Smith was about to wing him.
Boyd and Harvey said that there was a story to the effect that the wild man had originally come from North Carolina and that during the war he had been a sharpshooter on Bald Mountain and that shortly after the war he had murdered a whole family of settlers in the mountain and left.
Both Boyd and Harvey appear like shrewd fellows and they expect to make a fortune out of their prize. Their great anxiety in fear is that the authorities will interfere with them and claim that the man is simply a lunatic and place him in some institution. They had the snake skins in a box in a baggage cart together with some other curiosities found in the cave.
Boyd said that the wild man will not touch anything but fruit and meat which he eats ravenously and much the same as wild beasts. Cigar smoke bothered him a good deal and he kept driving it away from him with his clawed hands.
When the train arrived in Jersey City the men took a carriage and said they were going to take the New Haven night boat and avoid a day crowd."
Source: Highland Weekly News - Hillsboro, Ohio - Wednesday, April 11, 1883
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