Zip the What Is It?

Zip the What Is It?
Zip was born William Henry Johnson in New Jersey in 1843. The debate as to the authenticity of his microcephalus is still open. He had a cone shaped head, but whether his idiocy was genuine or an act remains in dispute.
Barnum was enamored with Johnson at first site. He dubbed him Zip the “What Is It?” dressed him in a furry monkey outfit and billed him the missing link in the evolutionary chain. During the Scopes Monkey Trial, Zip offered his own person as irrefutable proof of evolution.
Zip used to play a fiddle for the crowds, not playing very well; he was usually paid to stop playing. Zip was also an amateur chicken farmer, who invested money in a chicken farm in Nutley, after he entered show business.
Zip took ill from pneumonia. It was on his deathbed at Bellevue that Zip purportedly uttered to his sister: "Well, we fooled 'em for a long time." He had lived to be 83.