The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1882-05-10
LIVING CUKIOs.
The Demand and supply for Giants.
Etc.-Preferring Rural
Wanderings to n SedentRry
City Life-Snake Charm.
ers and Wild Men.
New York MALL

tlclpatlOn OF saW-dust rings ana slde-shOWs,
as they prefer to travel with a circus to stay
ing at a stationary museum, because larger
salaries are given them, their hotel bills are
paid by the management, the fat woman
rides in a hack instead of a street car, en-
Toying as she enters, the expression which
mantels cabby's face. He little dreamed,
probably, what was before him when he
contracted to convey the fat woman to the
show from her hotel to the tent for two cir
Gus tickets. Woe to the vehicle if she takes
her seat %energetically. The Albino looks to
better advantage as his fair skin and pink
eyes receive the light Of the matinee sun
beams dancing through the openings In the
canvas. The Circassian girl, her hair freshly
brushed with sour beer, lay in a new supply
of powdered chalk and rouge, and with beat
ing heart contemplates the havoc she will
create in the rural breast. The giant can
pick cherries along the country road without
borrowing ladders from the farmers, or
amuse themselves by lifting the rustic lassies
from the ground with agility. AS there is
usually but one set of human curiositles in
each circus, considerable competition exists
among these freaks of nature. There is, for
instance, but one giant, one fat woman, one
Circassian girl, one brace Of dwarfs, male
and female, etc. The knowing curlosities
generally wait till the last and take up with
the smaller shows, preferring money TO no.
toriety. something which they have probably
already gained.
CHANGES IN CURIOSITY BUSINESS.
The large shows pay smaller salaries than
their diminutive competitors, because, as the
managers of the former claim, they partly
pay the exhibits by giving them a chance to
become famous. This season circus mana
gers are very anxious to obtain fine..specimens
of abnormal Developments and other things
of that sort, the success of the museum on
Broadway and those in Brooklyn and else
where having demonstrated that the people
are lust as anxious to obtain a fat woman as
a thin acrobat, a female skeleton as an ele-
plant. Formerly the circus relied upon the
huge crude paintings placed at tle entrance
of the side show to attract the public eye,
but during the past few years the giant has
been honored with eight-fOot paper posters,
his cuts have disgraced the columns or the
rural press, while Autographs of the bearded
woman, or wild men Of Borneo are placed
side by side with those Of Edwin Booth or
Clara Morris in the toWn-shop windows, and
we NAV see the melancholy eye OF Anna
Dickinson trying to decipher the hieroglyphlc
countenance of the What Is 1t. There is
something else which cheers the human curl
ositles. The supply of them does not meet
the demand. and salaries have consequently
increased. Indeed %circuses have depleted
many of the museums of their giants, bearded
women, ETC., causing museum managers to
seek in new fields and to substitute for fat
women and living male skeletons attractions
as a tattooed lady, long haired damsels, fe-
male phantoms and electric boys. Thus ne.
cessity is the mother of invention, even 10
the show business. To show the value OF
metropolitan notoriety to living curiosities, il
may be nstanced that Cheemah, the Chinese
dwarf, and Bruestad, the Norwesia giant,
were imported to this country at a cost OF
S75 per week. At the conclusion Of their
short contract with Bunnell they were en-.
gagged by a circus maj and paid $500 apiece
The famous living skeleton, who up TO this
year never received a higher salary than $4t
a week, now grows fat on double tina
amount. But Notwithstanding the prosperity
of human curiosities, there is nothing on
record to prove that a female skeleton ever
became an attraction as a fat woman. There
is but one genuine Hindoo snake charner IL
America, yet every show has its snake en-
chantress. A boa-constrictor, usually KEEP
in q blue box with q glass top, is looked after
generally by a fat woman or q Circasslar
girl. who handles the snakes without extrs
paw. Her only danger is from construction,
but the boa is always invariably too delicate
to ''constrict."
THE sATARIEs PAID TO FREAKs OF NATURE.
The paw Of fat women runs from $l5 t
$75 per week, according to weight ana pei
sonal beauty. There is one attraction ID INT
business who, in addition to being a fat Wo
man, is besides a bearded lady, and tht
charms the snake. Her salary is the smalle s
in the show, because she is cross-eyed. III
highest price paid to a fat woman is received
by Hannah Battersby. Her face is very
pretty, and she weighs 780 pounds. He
height is six feet. She has, however, Q dan
gerous rival in the ffteen-year-old giantess
Jessie Warner, who now tits the beam q
,4&s-MrI M r#N@#eE4-A--