Life is an interesting and sometimes very cruel thing. The tricks that nature often does give people different mutations and often drastically change their appearance.
For many, such gifts are a punishment that dooms a person to an eternal desire for death. But some people, perhaps stronger and more enduring, still manage not only to accept their unusualness and dissimilarity to others, but also become famous throughout the world as a unique and almost magical creature.
One of these individuals is Ella Harper, the legendary camel girl.
Do you know why she got such a strange nickname? Did it have humps or some other resemblance to a desert animal? This article will reveal to you the secret of an unusual girl named Ella.
Ella Harper. The beginning of the story
Ella was born in 1870 to William and Minerva Harper. The family lived in the United States in Tennessee. Her fate was sealed from birth. After all, she was born with a terrible and, alas, incurable disease.
This disease is scientifically called knee recurvation andmeans that the girl's knees did not bend forward, as in normal people without deviations, but backward, as, for example, in a grasshopper or a camel. Due to this disease, the girl could not move on her lower limbs, but only on all fours.
The Harper Family
There were already four children in the family at the time of the birth of baby Ella - one boy and three girls. They did not have any violations in the structure of the body, unlike Ella Harper, whose parents noticed an unusual (if not ugly) almost from the very first days of her life.
By the way, an unusual girl was born together with her twin brother. According to some reports, the boy had deviations similar to those of his sister. But little is known about his fate, so there is no reliable information that he also had a similar disease.
Ugliness or the ability to show the world that everyone has the right to life
At first glance, Ella Harper, the camel girl, is a freak who is doomed to a miserable and worthless existence. But, on the other hand, if you look at the girl's life more closely, you can see a strong and purposeful personality, confidently going against the will of fate and her illness.
After all, Ella Harper did not give up, she managed to accept herself for who she is, and even made a good career on her rejection. But where could they take a strange girl? What job did she get?
In those days, the so-called freak circus was quite popular. And a twelve year oldthe camel girl went there.
The circus life of an unusual baby
Little Ella was warmly received in one of the circus shows, which included not only animals, but also people with an extraordinary appearance, and toured different cities and countries.
Pretty soon, the unusual girl began to attract people's attention. Her name increasingly appeared on posters, the public showed remarkable interest in her. After some time on the road, Ella Harper gained a lot of popularity and was nicknamed the camel girl, as her lower limbs resembled those of a camel, and her gait was to match.
It is this nickname that has now begun to appear on advertising posters, attracting new people and fans of a strange girl. For four years of touring, Ella's popularity reached its maximum heights, the payment for her performances was colossal - about five thousand dollars in modern money.
Photos of Camel Girl
Ella Harper's photos are quite common on the Internet. Although there aren't too many of them.
The fact is that an unusual girl only once took part in a photo shoot. This was in 1886. They show sixteen-year-old Ella, who is actually very cute.
These photos were taken by a New York-based photographer who became famous around the world for photographing people with various physical disabilities.
Ella Harper. End of the road
In the same 1886, Ella decided to finishtour and go to school. She explained her departure by saying that she was tired and wants to change her activities.
In 1903, a camel girl moved to another city with her mother. And two years later, at the age of thirty-five, she got married.
A year later, Ella gave birth to a girl who died almost immediately. After that, no matter how the couple tried, they did not have children. And then they took the baby from the shelter. But she was not destined to grow up and have children of her own. She died before three months.
Ella Harper lived to be fifty-one years old. Which is quite good, because this is a respectable age for people with an unusual appearance. And she found eternal rest in the Nashville cemetery next to her children. Her life was interrupted by a sudden onset of colon cancer.
Ella Harper's biography is tragic and at the same time quite interesting. But most importantly, she demonstrates to all people that everyone deserves life, and under no circumstances should you give up on yourself.
