Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1882-11-16

chills, and other malarial attractions
you have down here in Texas"
"4ou seem to be connected with the
circus?"
eyes, 1 travel with the circus. How
did you come to find it out9 Who gave
me away.?"
"Just guessed it."
"Well, you must come around and
see our curiosities. You may not have
the curiosity to see them, but we have
the curiosity to show"
10 what curiosities do you refer?"
1--WE have got living skeleton who
Is thinner than the defense in the star
route case. He is SO thin that when
we were in Gorgia he frequently re-
celeVed an immense popular applause,
being mistaken for Alex. Stephens.
Then We have got a fat girl who kicks
| the beam at 573 pounds, I mean figur-
atlvely speaking. Of course she couldn't
kick up at all, and she wouldn't do it
If she could, for she is very shy and re-
tiring, owingI suppose, to her having
travelled with a circus. That brings
out all the latent modesty there is in a
person"
''How long have you been travelling
with q circus ?"
'Not very long, but don't you put
any of these statistics in Teas iSiftillos.
She is very musical, but of course she
can't get close enough to piano to play
on 1t, so she has to sit off and strike
the keys with a couple of crouuet
mallets. It's wonderful, wonderful !'
.'Sne must be quite contrast to the
living skeleton"
"She is, but the funniest part of it is
that he began to pay her attentions,
and finally he fell in love with her, and
offered her his hand-skeleton hand
and told her he would stand between
her and the storms of adversely. Just
think of it, she as big as one of these
water tanks you see on the railroad.
and he only weighing SO pounds when
he has got an overcoat on. But he was
dead In earnest. He told her that if
she would be his she would never re-
gret it; that he never knew what love
was until he saw her."
"How did she take it ?"
"She just laughed at him. The idea
was so comical that it put. her in
good humor, and she laughed and
grew fat. The more she laughed. the
latter she got, and the circus has in
creased her wages, as she laughed IT'S
pounds to her weight in few weeks.
GLOW did the living skeleton take
it?"
"Poor fellow, it nearly killed him.
He fell OFT one pound and half in two
weeks. That's not as big a falling off as
that of the Republican vote in Ohio, but
it is right smart for man only weigh
ing about sixty pounds, after square
meal. He has never smiled since that
day when, on his attempting to en-
circle her waist with his anatomical
right arm, she threatened to sit down
on him."
'They are thrown a great deal to-
gether travelling on the cars"
'1 should say they were thrown to-
gether q great deal on these Texas rail-
roads, but they were thrown more to-
gether yesterday, about fifteen miles
from Austin, than they have ever been
before. They were in the same car with
a lot of other curiosities, and there was
q. break down on the train"
"Do you m can niger dancer"
mo, mean a smash-up. Their car
stood up on one end, and remained
that way, all the occupants, according
to the laws of gravitation, being jam
med together. l was afraid everybody
was killed. Mr.. Doris, one of the pro-
prietors, was nearly crazy, for fear
some one Of the midgets and the fat
woman had telescoped. 1t was dread
full. The living skeleton was iammed
up IN one corner with the fat girl and
two midgets on top. | should say they
were thrown into each others company
some, but the living skeleton didn't
mind it. He said that the half hour
he spent in her company was the hap
piest in his life. We pulled him out
through the window, but we had the
mischief of time getting the fat girl
out-had to lift her out with a der
rick"
'Do iyou think she will ever look
upon the living skeleton otherwise ex-
cept in the light of brother"
"She hates him worse than ever.
Poor devil, feel sorry for him, but the
fats in the fire now, after what he did
this morning"
"What did be do2'
"Wen, you see, he imagined she
would love him if there was no such a
contrast IN their personal appearances.
What do you think he did?'
"Don't know"
"He bought a bottle of anti-fa RENE
dy and gaze it to her. That hurt her
feelings. She imagined that he meant
to intimate that she was too fat to be
good looking. She tried to catch him.
If she mad she would have sat down on
him, certain, but it was like COW try
ing to catch mouse. He avoided her
for the first time. Jee whilikins want
she mad r'
Just at this crisis the noise of brass
band was heard, and the circus man,
gathering up his bundle of old papers
and skipping across the street, tossed
them up to the shabby-looking driver of
the gilt-edged chariot, on the top of
which roasted the $4,000 beauty-and
that was the last we saw Of him.