she became subdued and quiet until the boat was reached, when again she struggled violently and screamed. It was all that Colonel Duncan, Jim Meredith, Bob Kerns and Postmaster Van Dusen could do to get her on board the yacht. After being placed in the stateroom her rage seemed to give way to grief. Sobs and moans took the place of cries and screams and these, together with mute appeals from her large, intelligent appearing and really beautiful eyes touched more than one heart.
She is the finest specimen of a mermaid ever captured outside of the Japanese waters, and it was not known until last Friday that any mermaids and mermen existed on the California coast. On Saturday Colonel Lewis had the interesting but unwilling captive brought to the city and placed her in a large aquarium for which he has had constructed in his residence, where she is the star attraction of the neighborhood and where she will be visited by many hundreds of people anxious to see this, the first mermaid captured on the California coast.
In order that there might be no doubt as to the truthfulness of the foregoing, the following well-known citizens have appeared before Col. James Buck, the Holienbeck notary public, and testified as follows:
“Know all men by these presents that we, Col Tom Lewis, Capt. H. Z. Osborne. H. V. Van Dusen, of the city and county of Los Angeles, did capture and bring to the said city of Los Angeles, on Saturday, June 8. A. D. 1895, one certain amphibious creature commonly known as a
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mermaid, and that the same is now in an aquarium standing in the grounds of one Tom Lewis, on Figueroa street, in the said city of Los Angeles.
Notary public in and for Los Angeles county, California.
Great excitement was reported last night as prevailing on fashionable Figueroa street over this addition to its population. The residence of Col. Lewis is beginning to be the Mecca for curiosity seekers. The discovery and capture is of the greatest scientific interest.
The Herald. (Los Angeles [Calif.]), 16 June 1895.
Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
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