THE BOY WHO RESEMBLES A FROG

From The Vernon Clipper, Lamar Co. Alabama, 5 March 1880

With thanks to R. L. Ripples of the excellent Twitter feed TweetsofOld for providing this story.

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Five miles southwest of Kenton, Tenn., on the Mobile and Ohio railroad, is the greatest monstrosity of the age – a human being who resembles a frog. He is the son of R. Newell, is twenty-six inches high, weighs forty-eight pounds, and was born in Obion County, Tennessee, March 12, 1875. His body and arms are regularly formed and well developed, his fingers are short, and the manner in which they are set on his hands give them the appearance of a frog’s feet.

His legs are small and are set at right angles with the regular line walk. His feet are small and badly formed. His face is eight or nine inches long and makes an angle of sixty-two degrees with the base of skull (facial) angle. His head is almost conical. His eyes are small and without expression. His upper jaw projects far over the lower one. His lower jaw is small and has a superabundance of flesh attached, which renders him quite froggy. He can’t talk. If you throw a nickel on the floor he will light on it like a chicken on a June-bug. He can’t walk, but what is wanting in walking is made up in jumping.  I saw him jump eight feet after a dime. If a tub of water is placed near him, he will jump into it like a duck. In rainy weather he goes to the door and leaps out, and remains outdoors until the rain is over. Obion County has given birth to the following:  The female dwarfs, the mud-negro, the sleeping beauty, and the frog-child. She is justly entitled to the appellation, “Mother of Monstrosities.”

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