Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1886-05-14
SOME CURIOUS PEOPLE.
A Professionals Chat About Some
Wen-Known Freaks.
Midgets Mated to Giants-The Living
Skeleton Who "Bewitched" a Pretty
Philadelphia Girl-The Romance
of n Circassian Girl.
philadelphia Times.l

philadelphia Timesl
"Freaks fall in love, fall out of il, marry,
have children, grow jea- Gus, wander Off to
other fancies and are happy and miserable
just like ordinary people," said a dime
museum official, sand they make some of
the queerest matches imaginable. 1t is
said that in selecting life partners people
generally choose their opposites, and it is
certainly true Of freaks. There was Mrs.
Hannah Battersby, one of the fattest of all
fat women. Her husband, John Battersby,
was living skeleton. No sooner were
they married than she began to lose flesh
and he to gain it. His weight increased so
rapidly that he soon became too stout to
exhibit as a skeleton, and, like Othello, his
occupation was gone.
"Baron Littlefnger, the italian dwarf, Is
only little over three feet high, but he
married woman who stands five feet six
inches in her stockings. They have had
children, one of whom is already larger
than his father. Dwarfs very frequently
seem to fancy people of large size. This
was the case with Che Nah, the Chinese
dwarf, who married Louise Coleman, a
full-sized attractive young lady of Brook
lyn.
"Just as dwarfs prefer large people, so
giants seem to find their affinity among
those of low stature. Colonel Goshen, a
man about eight feet in height, married
woman rather under the medium size.
Colonel Bates, another very tall giant,
was married to at least one or two ordi-
nary sized woman before he welded his
present wife, Anna Swan, the Nova Scotia
giantess. This couple have a delightful
residence at Seville, that is quite like a
giants castle out of a fairy story. The
ceiling and doors are of great height,
while the beds, tables, chairs and other
furniture are like that described of Jack,
the Giant Killer
"Quite often freaks show excellent iudg-
ment in their matrimonial ventures and
marry persons admirably suited to them
in all respects. Every one knows how
happily Mr.. and Mrs. Tom Thumb lived
together, and the latter bids fair to be
equally contented in her second marriage
with Count Maggi, the nobly born Italian
dwarf. Then there is Pat O'Brien, the
Irish giant, who married the German gil
antess. They are a splendidly matched
couple, and are as happy as clans at hiph
tide.
when they marry persons in no way con-
nected with the business. They appear to
have an irresistible fascination for some
people, and the more monstrous and re-
pulsive they are the greater seems their
power to charm. once saw a very pretty,
well-dressed young girl gazing with an
expression of the most intense admiration
at Tom, of Tom and Hattie, the we'll
known Australian wild children, who is
driveling imbecile. For fully half an hour
she stood apparently spell-bound, and it
was only by the most earnest entreaties
and the use of gentle force that her friends
were finally able to induce her to leave the
spot. Everybody who reads the news
papers must remember how a handsome
Brooklyn girl of good family was COM
pletely fascinated by Charlie one of
Barnum's blacklist, most repulsive Zulus, a
few years ago, and married him in spite of
all her friends could do.
"The first tattooed man ever on exhibit
tion in this country was a Greek sea cap
tain, said by some people to have been a
pirate, who had number of very hand
some diamonds. He had been made pris-
oner by the inhabitants of some savage
island and tattooed as a means of torture
There was not place on his entire BODY
the size of pins head that had not been
treated in this way. His face was tattooed
in such a manner as to make him anything
but attractive in his appearance and his
savage tormentors even shaved off his
hair and tattooed every inch of his scalp.
Notwithstanding these drawbacks he mar
ried a very handsome American woman,
who was devoted to him. Instead of the
harmless pigment generally used by tat.
tooers the savages employed indigo, which
finally produced blindness and other seri-
Gus ailments.
Everybody will remember J. B. Gar
rison, the living skeleton we had on ex-
hibition during the season of 1SS3-S4, who
acquired such celebrity under the sobriquet
of the Skeleton Bridegroom from his
having charmed and married a young
woman of West Philadelphia. Her par
ents and friends declared that she was
temporarily insane, but most probably she
was only suffering from that peculiar
power of fascination which freaks seem to
have over many people. You would have
been surprised if you could seen the large
number of love letters which Garrison
daily received.
"In Pittsburgh, some years ago, when
Major Burnell, an old Snowman, long since
gathered to his fathers, ran a museum on
Fifth avenue, his list of curiosities includ-
ed Circassian girl. A fine young fellow
of about twenty years, belonging to one
wealthiest and best families of the Smoky
City, saw her in the show, fell desperately
In love with her, made her acquaintance
and was soon engaged to be mar
ried to her. His mother, who,
until he came of age, had alb
solute control of the fortune left him by
his father, threatened to withdraw all
support from him meanwhile unless he
gave up the girl. AS consequence he be-
came insane and was placed in an asylum.
There he passed his twenty first birth
day and came into his property. Shortly
afterward the doctors declared him per-
fectly cured an d discharged him. He inn
mediately hunted up his lovely Circassian
and married her. At last accounts they
were living in a magnificent residence on
Squirrel Hill, one of the toniest places
about Pittsburgh, surrounded by fine
growing family and as happy as dickey
birds.
"Some freaks never get married. There
Is Millie Christine, the double headed col
ored girl. She has had many offers. but
has declined them all, apparently not
caring to follow the example of the late
SIamese Twins, each of whom married and
raised a family"
A st. Paul policeman tramps his beat in
shoes that are eighteen inches long ard
SIX inches broad aero the soles-