The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton: A True Story of Conjoined Twins Read Online Free Page A

Millie-Christine, the Two-Headed Nightingale; and John Merrick, the Elephant Man. They were embraced by royalty and lionized by the press. Whenever such “celebrities” appeared anywherein public, they were swarmed by crowds who did not see themselves as being unusually rude or snoopy. They were simply uninhibited in their fascination.
    Mary had arranged for the baptism of Daisy and Violet to take place on the evening of March 24, 1908. She was mindful of the harm that could come to the seven-week-old babies from overly enthusiastic curiosity seekers. She plotted the details of the christening with the secrecy of a military general planning a sneak attack.
    Minutes before the ceremony, a horse-drawn cab rolled up in front of the Countess of Huntington Church, a large and imposing stone edifice on North Street, and disgorged Mary, Henry, and Edith Emily Hilton, Kate Skinner, and the twins. The party avoided the church’s main entrance into which others were streaming for an evening service. Instead, with Edith carrying the twins cocooned in a blanket, the baptism celebrants walked briskly to the vestry at the rear of the church. 12
    Mary Hilton may have been fearful about the babies being mobbed in public, but she had no reservations about gaining more publicity for her new charges. She had alerted the
Brighton Herald
of the christening and a reporter was already on hand when the group entered the vestry.
    Daisy and Violet were dressed in white christening gowns with silk ties at the cuffs. Mary fussed with the infants in the moments before the ceremony began, removing the white woolen shawls that covered their heads. The
Herald
correspondent was love-struck at the sight of them. He ravished them with this line: “They are, as far as is known, the most wonderful couple in the world.”
    The christening was presided over by the Reverend F. J. Gould, a visiting minister from the Lewes Road Congregational Church. Violet slept throughout the entire ceremony. Daisy was not so blasé. She gazed up at the minister, while sucking on a pacifier, with what the
Herald
called “a volley of smack, smack, smacks.” 13 The reporterdid not have any compunction about declaring which twin would be the hands-down victor in any beauty contest in which the two were the finalists. “Were they older,” the writer observed, “one would hesitate to draw comparisons, but Daisy is undoubtedly the prettier of the two. She has a better forehead and her features are better moulded. She is indeed quite a charming little baby. Violet is not so well favoured. Still … she is quite a winsome and appealing little lady.” 14 The
Herald
piece may have ranked with the fullest accounts of any baptism ever recorded. The story ran almost two full columns. The reporter even recorded the twins’ passing of gas.

    The newborn sisters in their pram, 1908. Already sensing an income opportunity, Mary Hilton sold this two-penny postcard to visitors at the Queen’s Arms and later at the Evening Star pub
. (
Author’s collection
)
    Following the baptism, Gould took Kate Skinner aside. In what the newspaper called “the kindliest words,” the minister assured her that she was showing great love for the children by surrendering them to a family that would be able to take care of their special needs and provide them with a caring home.
    Before leaving the clergyman, Mary reached into her purse and pulled out a deck of postcards that carried a photograph of Daisy and Violet in a buggy. The cards were printed with the a title, “Brighton’s United Twins.” She presented one of the postcards to the minister as a memento of what the
Herald
called “the most extraordinary christening he is ever likely to perform.”
    Gould was not alone in seeing Mrs. Hilton as a saint for adopting a pair of wretches that might otherwise have ended up in an institution. As word spread that the pub hostess and midwife had taken the children into her own home, there were those who