The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-10-10
WHERE Do FREAKS COZ
Two Years the Limit OF Popularity
They May Hope to
Enjoy.
Their Harvest of Dollars Is Brief,
But 1t Is Generally
Rich.
They Die Young or Take to Drink and
Become Very Dissipated-Their
Profits.

"Yes, / know that it is tho generally ac-
cepted belief. but tho truth is quite differ
emit. The profession of being a freak is far
from u soft snap"
The man who spoke thus is the manager
of one of the leading dime museums of this
city and of the whole United States. And
he referred to those human oddities and
%misshapsn monstrosities who &c by the
vulgar appellation of freaks"
First and foremost, the period of use
fulness for any sort of freak is very brief,
not more han a couple of years as a rule.
What they have not made in the shape Of
money during that time they'll likely never
mako. You see, it is just like this: There
are a certain number of good, paying
dime museums in this country. e..
those where anything like good
wages are paid. This number is not
large-a score or SO, says the Chicago
Herald. When the freak has got through
with them his or her days of usefulness are
over. The public curiosity has been salts
fed. and that's an end to it. The show
business, with its excitement and its easy
earnings, has spoiled the freak for any
other occupation and life. The freak has
acquired a great notion of his or her own
Importance, coupled with IN utter disin-
clination to work. So l say again, what is
a freak to do after these show days are
over? Generally they squander their money
and then become objects of charity, public
or private. until death intervenes, which is,
however. not slow in coming in most cases.
For the average duration of life for a freak
ia notlong, says the San Francisco Examiner.
take the two leading features in the
freak business, living skeletons and fat peo-
pie, for instance. You see. to be worth any
thing to US in the show business, these
nounced. In other words. a thin or a fat
person must be very much SO in prder to be
worth money to us. Now, as q person can
not be either very fat or very thin. and at
the same time healthy, it is quite natural
after they have become freaks their
either for the purpose of frightening their
commercial value or out of q spirit of
or vanity, often use artificial means
to become still thinner or fatter. Thus,
the more of q freak and the larger the
remuneration paid them for their ser
vices. the briefsr their remaining days
rs a rule. Suppose one such freak is
paid 800 a ~wssk-which is a very high
price nowadays, only paid in exceptional
cases-his or her earnings may hguro up
$1,000 or $4,000 for two years. And that
will be the last of it, and it is a maximum
figure besides. 1t is queer, but quite true,
that freaks, as a rule. are not abstemious.
fact. the hardest drinker I have ever
known was a freak-a dwarf. He's dead
these many years and I'll not men
ton his name. He was a colorsd boy, a
l picked him up in Brooklyn,
where his mother was in humble oircum-
stances, a %laundress, in fact. He measured
Init vpon4v-pin inchna in hQjohk INIT ucQ
broad across the chest and
I engaged him at 1926 a week,
and he earned his money, too, l am free to
say. He did and said the queerest and fun
nisst things; but he at once began to dis
and in six months he had learned to
drink like a fish.
''Tve seen that mite Of a fellow sit down
On top of ono of those high stools in a
fashionable saloon and drink undiluted
French brandy in schooner glasses. His
for the consumption of liquor was
marvellous. He'd drink some
hours, m he'd never get
trunk. Nothing could stop him. And nine
later he was dead-Bright's disease,
Coroner Simms of Brooklyn called it. It's
lsath, for instance, sure death, for a very
ct person to drink. 1 remember Sol Bur
a man who weighed close on to
100 pounds. Ho was killed by a single I
of whisky-heart disease, you know. ]
That, in fact, is the cause of the death of 4
most of the fatties--fatty degeneration of {
he heart. AS n rule they can eat next to
lothing, and their power Of digestion being
ably impaired by their superabundancs of
dipose tissue and consequent inability of
Thus, you will see. it is no
un being a fat person. Neither is it 30 !
being a living skeleton. They are
o sensitive to cold, poor fellows, that they !
re always half freezing. And as they {
mustn't wear much clothes while on show, {
or fear of spelling their looks, as it were. !
on may imagine how they feel all day !
ong. | knew one who'd complain of the /
old and ask for extra blankets in his room j
With the thermometer at ninety.
LAS it is with them it is with every other !
reak. Something is the matter with all of 4,
hem. robbinR them of their comfort in \
ife. even during the brief haloyon period i
t their existence while they are on exhibi- \
ion, and then they nearly all die young. !
When the public think it Is a nice thing to F
70 a freak you can tell them from mo
mistaken. I'd rather be a poor rail ?
.l,-o. .k % or =. l. - a.,a D