Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), August 25th 1912
The Wild Man
From the New York Mail.
One of the weaknesses of modern humanity is its fad for “wild men.” Every year the correspondents send in a story about a wild man being caught in some swamp or mountain fastness and dragged back to civilization. America’s first expert professor of psychology, P. T. Barnum, in his original excursions into the human intellect uncovered this trait and put it on a dividend-paying basis. He presented the public with the “wild man from Borneo, who is so ferocious that he actually ate his own wife and children.”
How the wild man restrained his appetite until after the wedding ceremony instead of eating his “wife” while she was still his best girl, the showman never found it necessary to explain. His wild man was a colored man[*] from Virginia, to whose head a pair of horns and long white tusks had been attached.
Nowadays, whenever some poor wretch becomes demented and goes and lives in a swamp or forest, the correspondents send in stories to the newspapers about the doings of the “wild man.” We all show a “wild” streak in our willingness to write and read such stories. Maybe the waste basket is the best place for them – and yet we should miss them.
Disclaimer: This 1912 newspaper article was published prior to 1931. Under United States copyright law (specifically the 95-year rule), this work has entered the public domain and is thus free to use or republish. It is presented here as an interesting and folkloric newspaper oddity.
[*] Note on offensive terminology: This newspaper article uses an offensive term to refer to black people that has since become derogatory due to association with the American Jim Crow era. For the purposes of historical documentation of the material, the article has been unaltered and is presented as it was previously published, retaining its original language and word usage. The term used in the article is derogatory and should not be used to refer to black people.
Note: The author of this article mentions P.T. Barnum, who was a American showman, known for the carnival trade, hoaxes, and sideshows, some of which were people labeled “Wild Men.”
Context: “Wild Men” or “Wild People” were purportedly “feral” people who lived in the wilderness in European folklore, representing nature. They were often depicted as tall and hair-covered. In the 1800’s and early 1900’s, stories of encounters with people in or from the wilderness including hermits, houseless people, or people going through a mental health crisis, were often reported in American newpress and labeled “Wild Men” as a popular newspaper curiosity genre.
Source(s): https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045462/1912-08-25/ed-1/?sp=4
Categories: Newspapers, Wild People