Old Doc Hyghhat Hyghcock

Old Doc Hyghcock comes back into the news, wearing hip boots and a high hat. The hip boots and the high hat and the crazy old car he drove are funny.

Camden Courier-Post – January 9, 1928

Old Doc Hyghcock comes back into the news, wearing hip boots and a high hat. The hip boots and the high hat and the crazy old car he drove are funny. The absence of a driver’s license and the presence of a loaded revolver were fair business for the police of the suburb where he was taken up.

“Why the high hat,” asked the policeman.

“To keep my head from getting cold,” said the old negro. As fair and reasonable an answer as the one to the classic gag, “Why does a hen cross the road?”

The excitement over Old Doc Hyghcock’s VOODOO plant in Liberty Street, two years ago, run vividly to mind: the subterranean tunnels connecting the dirty, littered secret chambers; the rumors that human bones were founds; the scrawled records of sales of medicines and healing charms.

Is the old darky a joke or a “menace”? A “character,” or a criminal? The story of his life would furnish material for a novel. Is there in it also material for a trial?

The police have an interesting task in sorting out the harmless, freakish elements from those that may demand the serious attention of the authorities.


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