The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-09-25
HOW TO BE A FREAK.
Some Are Born 10 the Profession,
others Make Themselves.


a popular museum.
"Notoriety, no matter how and where
obtained, is just SO much stock-in-trade.
and people In our line OF work are will
ing to pay any price for it. To make no
account of the money value of the adver-
tisement, they are delighted TO know that
they are being talked about aud speculat-
ed about, and to see their names IN the
newspapers. You see how high that
dome is?'' he continued, pointing to the
arched space far above the ropes and bars
stretched across for acrobatic perform
ances. "Well, a man came in here, Of
fered to jump from it's highest point
down to the floor SO as to make name
for himself. IL would have been certain
death, you know. to attempt 1t, but he
TO manage, and would escape injury. He
begged TO be allowed TO make the jump,
and was much cast down at our refusal.
"That man only expected 10 jump once.
After having performed the feat he felt
that he would be a curiosity worth mon
ey TO see. That was the motive that
prompted the woman bridge-jumper the
other day, and now, whether she jumped
or didn't, she is equally NOTORIOUS, and
people.would go much out OF their way
to see her.
Anyway, we business people see that
the public crave amusement OF this kind,
and we are delighted TO gratify them.
A TARRED AND FEATHERED VICTIM.
SAT the time of the white Cap agita-
ton, when there was SO much talk In the
papers about their outrages man offered
10 exhibit himself as tarred and feath-
cred victim just returned from the West,
and we let him do 1t. Moreover, the pub
lie encouraged him to do 1t, for they
came in fiocks to see him. The tattooed
woman who was paid s100 day was tat
tooed right here in New York, but the
| work was marvell ously well done, and
the fairy tale about her, as told by the
Snowman, only heightened the crowd .
| interest and harmed nobody. She was
represented In the story as having been
stranded on one of the Sandwich Islands,
shipwrecked, with her husabnd, who was
| put to death. Her life was spared, but
! she was put to torture, having these ex-
| traordinary characters tattooed all over
| her body. There were from five hundred
| TO seven hundred people at each OF the
| twenty one daily performances at which
that tattooed woman was exhibited, and
all were pleased at the show, for which
they paid ten cents"
"Do many of these freaks, remarkably
for:various reasons, get fine salariesf"
"Indeed they do. We paid certain
midget 500 a week. Her father and the
| family travelled with her and got rich out
| OF il. Then that wonderful Oregon horse
with the trailing name and tail was paid
5000 week for several months. The two
| girl, OF kHls, induS
| fortune, and i could mention any num-
Der OF celebrated freaks who have prohted
| financially.
Each day we get letters from all over
the country-all over the world-offering
| us freaks OF nature. This one sends
| photograph of sheep having fifth leg
| and hoof growing out OF his shoulder.
! This one sends a COW with a horn project
| ing from her back. Here is a letter from
a handless man in West Virginia. He
writes with his toes, and writes very
| good letter. He is a gentleman, / Judge
from the tone OF the letter and the pic
/ ture. He is undecided whether to exhibit
1 or not which, of course, means that he
| does not know whether we will pay him
enough. Talent even genius, doesn't
! command the high prices which these
fortunately unfortuate freaks can secure" /"
That box of photographs unearthed
| from little-used recesses to refresh the
showman's mind! What galaxy, not
| of beauty, but of the bizarre and the gro
tesquel Bearded women taken in decol-
lete gowns, their masculine faces in re-
voting contrast to the feminine neck and
| arms; men without legs o. arms; tremen-
| dously fat men, and men SO thin that
they were photographed prone upon a
couch, limp and helpless; men who had
! starved themselves in order to live. The
strong woman is there, and her remarka-
bic sister, with veritable horses name
growing upon her back.
A MARVELLOUS GUNsHoT WOUND.
"That was a clever scheme this fellow
devised" said the Snowman, adjusting
his glasses SO as to view likeness. "He
| represented himself as having gunshot
| wound through and through the body,
and then he fixed up an optical delusion
apparatus which made IT appear that peo-
pie could look sraight through him. We
| displayed colored photograph at the
] 10 cOnld
ture on the other side of the man. You
have no idea what a furore there was
about it. That was down.on the Bowery.
| Everybody wanted to look through the
man with the gunshot wound. Then,
| finding that the man was such a howlnig
success, a woman fixed herself up as hav
ing been speared through the body with
her husbands bayonet, the victim of cru
city and brutality. We fixed II for the
crowd to look through her, and she was
no end OF success. She stood there
surrounded by red cuytains with a pa
thetic rapt look on her face, and the peo-
pie couldn't get enough of looking
through her at the bouquet of flowers
| displayed at her back.
''People will delight in signs and won
ders as long as the world endures," add
ed the Snowman, "and just so long will
scientists and magicians cater to their de-
sires. In Paris there IL an institution
| where infants are made into freaks as
Systematically as flour is made into bread
Those in charge are skillul physicians, 1t
is said, who know just how much the hu-
| man anatomy can be crippled and
cramped and distorted without injury to
life. The babies limbs are manipulated
when tender and pliable, and they soon
grow mishappen and gortesque.
"Do reaks live in the museums when
not on exhibition?'
Some do those whose peculiarities are
so striking that they fear to attract at
tention. We fit up apartments for them in
the building. The others board all about
in various parts OF thecity. They are us
ually care-free and contended, and make
| the most of life like true PHILOSOPHERS. "