THE LEXINGTON DISPATCH — NOVEMBER 24, 1880
A MAN WITH A MERMAID ♢ The Strange Creature, Half Woman and
Half Fish, Now in St. Louis.
Mr. Chas. A. Doyle is a San Fanciscan, lately returned from Japan. He is registered at the Lindell Hotel from Yokohama, and in addition to the interest that attaches to him, owning to the strange country he hails from, he enjoys the further distinction of being known as the man with a “mermaid.” A Globe-Democrat reporter learned yesterday that Mr. Doyle not only enjoys the distinction mentioned, but really is the possessor of a genuine mermaid. The reporter hunted up Mr. Doyle and had a pleasant chat with him. He had been in Japan for several years and was greatly interested in the many modernizing influences at work in the Orient. Mr. Doyle, who is an art critic and collector, went into raptures over the richness of Japans’ art products, and this is just what was expected from him, as he is here with a large quantity of rare Japanese artisles, as curious as they are costly.
But these lost all interest to the reporter when a long deep glass cage, in the shape of an acquarium, was exhibited, which held the most curious and the rarest of all the objects in the collection. It was a wonderful looking thing, almost hideous to look upon, but possessing a powerful attraction for the beholder, owing to the queer amalgamation of species displayed in its formation. Those who have seen the old-time geography illustration, which
