has recently been used as a trademark for a certain patent hair restorative and which represents the mermaid rising from the sea and combing her long looks with one hand while in the other she holds a small looking-glass, can recall this picture and thereby form an idea of what the present monstrosity looks like, barring, however, the beauty, which is a distinguishing trait of the ideal mermaid. Mr. Doyle’s strange curiosity is half human, half fish. The head, chest, abdomen and arms are unmistakably human, but from the abdomen down the creature is a fish, scaly, finny and formed like the extremities of a dweller in the water. The arms are covered with scales to the wrist, and the backs of the small hands have the same scaly covering to the finger tips. The head is small as that of a baby, but is perfect in every detail; the forehead does not recede, but is high and straight and is of the class that indicates an unusual degree of intelligence. The eyes are soft, swimmy and lightless, as those of a fish; but the mouth, the ears, the nose, and in fact all the other features, are pronounced human, regular, clear cut, and as perfect as a beautiful woman’s face. A light covering of brown hair, several inches in length, and eyebrows of the same color, are the only hirsute of appendages. The spinal column is clearly seen running up to the base of the skull and falling down the back until it is lost in the fishy extremity. Ten ribs are easily counted upon the breast, and the mammalian female development fur feeding the young is readily discernible. The mermaid measures almost three feet from the crown of the head to the extremity of the candal fin, and is said to be larger than the only other specimen of the kind ever seen

in this country. The other mermaid is now on exhibition in the New York Aquarium, and attracts a vast amount of attention from scientists as well as from the general public.     Mr. Doyle is very proud of his mermaid, and, although a great many attempts have been made to induce him to sell the curious creature, he has thus far refused to part with her. He says the monstrosity has been subjected to the closest scrutiny by scientists of the Pacific slope, all of whom have pronounced her the most wonderful natural phenomenon ever brought to their notice, and have concurred in declaring mermaids no longer myths. The curiosity was captured two years ago by three fishermen, near Urishaba, in the great island sea. They had seen her many times and had made many attempts to capture her, and succeeded in taking her after the most persistent efforts. When taken she was placed in the museum at Tokio and remained there for a year and a-half. She had been heard by the fishermen to sing a peculiar song while on the rocks, but never spoke, except to feebly try to articulate after her capture. She was fed on a peculiar sea-weed, the secret of which is known only to the Japaneses, and thrived under the great care taken of her. Mr. Doyle purchased her from the authorities of Tokio at the extravagant figure of 5,000 sats, or dollars. The purchase was made to satisfy a sudden desire to possess the strange creature, and Mr. Doyle does not know what special advantage he enjoys in being one of the very few men who own a mermaid.—St. Louis Globe-Democrat. The Lexington Dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina), 24 Nov. 1880. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.