In April 1885, a New York Herald journalist rushed to Madison Square Garden for a special reception highlighting Jo-Jo, the Dog-Faced Boy. A feature of P. T. Barnum's traveling show, Jo-Jo was confounding scientists who had requested a stand-alone inspection of the mysterious attraction. Accordingly, the reporter provided an anthropological description of the boy: “He stands about five feet high. . . . His whole body is covered by a very thick growth of long, tow colored hair . . . and the peculiar formation of his head [is] very suggestive of the Russian dachshund.” At first, Jo-Jo appeared docile, but as the scientists prodded him more and more, he started “snarling, showing his three canine teeth” and asked his guardian if he could bite the inspectors. Jo-Jo was decidedly not a dog-boy, or not exactly. He was, in fact, a Russian teenager suffering from hypertrichosis, a condition causing excessive hair growth all over the body, including nearly every surface area of the face. Barnum had signed him to perform a year earlier, and the boy made quite an auspicious debut. However, Jo-Jo was simply the latest in a long line of supposed hybrid species and exotic curiosities that Barnum had been displaying since midcentury. The famed showman built his name in part by presenting human creation itself as a continual spectrum. Barnum's attractions ranged from live tigers and giraffes to enigmatic simian performers to wax statues of America's degraded lower classes. As much of a draw as he became, even Jo-Jo had to share a bill with Tattooed Hindoo Dwarfs, Hungarian Gypsies, Buddhist Priests, as well as a menagerie of animals including baby elephants, kangaroos, lions, and twenty-foot-long “great sinewy serpents.” But Jo-Jo's specific appeal was tied to his inexplicability. Even given the closer inspection of the dog-faced boy, “none of the physicians present would hazard an opinion as to his ancestry.”

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家庭骗局：十九世纪客厅博物馆中的怪胎和赝品

1885 年 4 月，一个纽约先驱报记者赶到麦迪逊广场花园参加一个特别招待会，突出显示狗脸男孩 Jo-Jo。作为 PT Barnum 巡回演出的一个特色，Jo-Jo 让那些要求单独检查这个神秘景点的科学家感到困惑。据此，记者对这个男孩进行了人类学描述：“他身高约五英尺。. . . 他的全身长满了浓密的长长的、两色的头发。. . 而且他头部的特殊形状[非常]暗示俄罗斯腊肠犬。” 起初，乔乔显得很温顺，但随着科学家们越来越多地刺激他，他开始“咆哮，露出三颗犬牙”，并问他的监护人是否可以咬检查员。乔乔显然不是一个爱狗的男孩，或者不完全是。事实上，他是一个患有多毛症的俄罗斯少年，导致全身毛发过度生长的病症，包括几乎面部的每个表面区域。巴纳姆在一年前签下了他的表演，这个男孩的首次亮相相当吉祥。然而，Jo-Jo 只是巴纳姆自本世纪中叶以来一直在展示的一长串假定的杂交物种和异国情调中的最新成员。这位著名的表演者之所以成名，部分原因是将人类创造本身呈现为一个连续的光谱。巴纳姆的景点从活老虎和长颈鹿到神秘的猿猴表演者，再到美国堕落下层阶级的蜡像。就连乔乔也不得不与纹身印度矮人、匈牙利吉普赛人、佛教僧侣以及包括小象、袋鼠、狮子和 20 英尺长“强壮有力的蛇。” 但乔乔的特殊吸引力在于他的莫名其妙。即使仔细观察这个狗脸男孩，“在场的医生都不会冒险对他的祖先发表意见。”