The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-01-05
FORTUNES IN DEFORMITY
Large Salaries Paid to the
Dime Museum Freaks.
Pay that Runs from Fifteen to Seven
Hundred Dollars a Week.

lay GuaI nuns from Fifteen to Seven
Hundred Dollars a Week
The first dime museum was started
on the Bowery, in New York, in 1872.
AT first the museums multiplied SLOW
ly, but about three years ago they
sprang up all over the country, and
now all large cities have from one to
three. 1t is a bigger thing to be Il
freak than to marry a rich widow.
Freaks grow rich. The competition
between museums has run up the
price of curiosities until they draw
more pay than a receiver in a railroad
suit. A good freak makes more mon
ey without opening his mouth than
the most accomplished actor. Little
Lucia Zerate, the Mexican midget, who
is undoubtedly the smallest human
being ever exhibited, got $4,000 for
four weeks in this city, and now wants
So0o a week. Jo-Jo. the dog-face boy,
gets $500 a week. The first season he
exhibited he drew $500, but curiosities,
as a rule. draw larger salaries on their
first tour. The Greedy survivors were
offered $1,000 a week to show them
selves, but the Government interfered,
The "turtle boy" a misfit little darkey.
whose limbs are frigtfully distorted,
commands SIS a week. The gentleman
with the elastic skin. who thinks moth
ing of pulling the skin of the back Of
his neck over his face and can make a
neck-tie of his nose, got $500 a week
Tor his first season, and now gets $3.50.
The two negro girls who figure as
"what-is-its" are paid 5000 a week.
Chang, the Chinese giant won't show
for less than $3.50 a week; Colonel
Goshen, who is almost as tall and runs
a farm over in New Jersey, gets but
500, but Mr.. and Mrs. Bates, the we'll
known giants, are in demand at 5000.
The Count and Countess Magri (for-
merly Mrs Tom Thumb) and the
Counts brother, Baron Little Finger,
get 5000 a week. Josephine Myrtle
Corbyn, the four-legged girl, gets $3.50
a week. The Aztecs, man and woman,
who originally showed with Barnum,
gets $3.50. The "Modern Hercules"
who loves to catch redhot cannon balls,
does about twenty minutes work a
day and draws 5000 a week, but he is
not properly a freak. although he is
likely to be one if he ever misses the
ball and it hits him. But these are
high-priced freaks. The second class
curiosities manage to worry along or
from $50 to $3.50 Il week. Fat women
are in demand at $40. Ada Briggs.
who is good-looking and heavy as she
is pretty, gets $50. Dave Navarro,
the "fat boy" who, by the by, was not
a woman. made managers pay him
$l25 a week. He died recently. Liv-
ing skeletons get from $40 to $50. Ike
Sprague drawing the latter figure.
Sprague is 80 delightfully."- ethereal that
he can't stand without being propped
up with straws. Armless men who
do things with their toes are bribed
not torun away for $50 a week. The
leopard boy" a colored youth who is
turning white in spots. commands $25
q week. Albinos and mlnor curiosities
that are used to fill in the bill receive
SIS to $50 a week. Musical families
those families where the old gentle.
man plays the violin, the mother the
piano. and all the children some afro
cious instrument-chietly drums, draw
from $50 to 500 a week.
Freaks die. and sometimes they 30
out of business. Captain Costentenus,
the original tattooed Greek, retired
upon a fortune. and is now living on a
Gne estate in Greece, but has become
blind. Dudley Forster, "Hop-o-my-
Thumb" a very little fellow, made
enough In two years to buy his father
a nice farm.-PhHadelphia Times.
LeguI Intellicence.