The Big Hill

Detroit Free Press, March 30, 1890

This story of a treasure found and lost on the "Big Hill" by supernatural means on the outskirts of old Detroit Village as foretold to three men--one later became a prominent County official--by a soothsayer, guided by a rubber ball and recounted here by Luke Sharp ("look sharp" AKA novelist Robert Barr) is probably bunkum but who can know for sure.

I included the full page below for the excellent Wonderland advert featuring the "Mammoth Hoosier Boy" Chauncey Morlan, esquimaux, Col. Fisher the prize package midget and Zip (Barnum's What-is-it?) and Ash (The Spotted New Zealander), noted freaks who made their first appearance in Detroit in a Burlesque Boxing Bout. The two semi-human, semi-savage, semi-civilized beings. Their words, not mine.

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