Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1853-10-01
DISGUSTING EXHIBITIONS.

IL would really seem that a portion Of the COM
munity are only fully satisfied with the monstrous.
In the matter Of good exhibitions it is not sufficient
that they briste in the City, the spos of Europe,
artisticay speaking, being laid at our feet, from
the Crystal Palace to Julen's nightly ovatiOns to
the muse it is not sufficient that If the denizen of
the CITY be weary of brck-walls, The dashng speed
of our present mode of travel will place him in n
few minutes in the country. All these sights and
sounds are insufficient to please respectively the eye
aud ear aud nurture the taste. The normal and
beautiful are Inadequate the unnatural and hideous
mus be called into view. Hence it is that Broad
way isncvcr without one or more damnabe monster
ON exhibition. Several now are prominently parad
cd there The first that meets the eye on going up
is Fat Woman weighing upwards say the bills, of
seven hundred pounds A flying flag has a por-
trait of this oledgcnous Venus who appears rocking
in u sea of what tho doctors call adipose deposit
and the butchers, suct Is it really such an agree
able sight to behold woman full five times heavier
than she ought to be, according to the measurement
Of the classic girdle? Is beauty that thing of Joy
forever, so palng to the sight that we must resort
to the contemplation of pyramid of painting tai
Iowa mountain of pcrspring grcase-to find out
how far tho age of undiscascd mankind may be
perverted by alterations from nature, and huge and
melancholy monstrosity take its place? Why should
the misfortune of that woman be paraded in public
Why should her colossal fodsof obesity be brazenly
thrustin view, and even exaggerated and carcatured
in the doubly disgusting flag which invites spec
ators to her apartments2 1t is enough that she is
physically enormous without being made personally
public
So too, the exhibition Of the sleeping man. Here
is poor wretch, who as DR.. Dixon says, has less
vitality than an oyster, placed before the general
gaze. lie has been asleep five years, except that
about every two four months, he reyvcs for Few
minutes. llc is wofully emacoted. His face j,
linhumanly ugly. He is more horrible than death
lbed-morc elegac than a corpse. lie is u living
lNNts
lmanhood-not living, not dying, not dcad--a shock
ing denial of prccedcnts, facts aud Possibilities
thing that should hc ktpt out of sight and notice
and yet he is pushed into the of publictics, ant
all the world called in to behold the sorry, wretchet
Idreg of humanity.
Then comcs-proh pudur--a Bearded Lady
Antique goddess of beauty what descent is here
Mother of the gnces-inspircr of kisscsGlni
matcr-a woman with bard!
o woman in our hours of case
Uncertain, coy and hard to please, etc
We have stolen this number l3 of all Regular
roasts Mt public banquetings s:-the application i
so beautiful when thou hast pended to thy chin
the decorations of haify pard-of IL Shylock--of
Muscovite.
Ayaunt and quit my sight! Take any other form
than this
Then next ON exhibition comes n hidcous littl
dwarf; the King Of Lliputians, so called, n pal,
and trembling little whifct-a living abortion-ar
idiot old at twenty months--a caricaturc Mt one,
.uf age and babyhood-the crib and the coffin chccl
by iowl. Why should the existence of this pooi
little wretch be made the object of vicious curiosi
ty, and hungry speculation?
In connection with these rcpulsivc sights, W,
may mention another that is peculiar to American
cities, cmnenty so to Ncw-York. We mean ready
made coffin warehouses. 1t would seem that ac
cording to some popular mythology other, it il
Il dreary thing to die, and the paraphcrnalia o
death should be kept out of sight. But our mos
public thoroughfares selected for the exposition
of the terrors of mortality. Large glass Window
and doors reveal long lines of collins of all sizes
some Immediately in the windows sweltering il
black, and the gilded and plated decorations whcl
bad taste and worse vanity call into requistion t.
! wreath around corupting flesh and its colonies o
, worms. We are even informed, by a card tackeC
to the black cloth, that prize coffin, such thu
one displayed, is identical with that in which Hen
lry Clay is buried-as though 1t was hat or c6a
f Of the latest fashion. The public is invited to turn
the family circle into the family vault and take
e daily drive in hearse.
= Out upon these hidcOus spcctaclcs Of abnorma
s nature and abused ingenuity Let the appeals t,
the eye and the understanding he pure and real
and the yitiated taste which would hurl ubominab
sights into the face of the world be corrected ant
9 II sound sentiment take its place.-IrJUpe.