The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-10-07
HOW TO BECOME a FREAh.
Some Are Born to the Profession
Others Thrust Themselves Upon II.

Others Thrust Themselves Upon 1t.
From he New York Tribune.
ANY one who has remarked the gre
garious element in human nature, which
makes every one eager TO see what the
other has seen. will not marvel at the
success which notOriety has attained in
the show business" said the manager Of
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 ad-
vertisement. they are delighted to know
that they are being talked about and
speculated about, and to see their names
in the newspapers. You see how high
that dome is2' he continued, pointing TO
the arched space far above the ropes and
bars stretched across for acrobatic per-
Iormances. well, man came in here,
offered to jump from its highest point
down to the floor so as TO make a name
for himself 1t would have been certain
death, you know, to attempt il, but he
said he had practiced Jumping, knew
how 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 to jump once.
AFTER having performed the feat he felt
that he would be curiosity worth money
to see. That was the motive that prompt
ed the woman bridge-jumper the other
day, and now, whether she jumped or
didn't, she is equally notorious, and people
her.
Anyway, we business people see that
the public crave amusement of this kind,
and we are delighted to crafty them.
AT the time of the white cap agta-
ton, when there was so much talk in the
papers about their outrages. man offer
ed to exhibit himself as a tarred and
feathered victim just returned from the
west, and we let him do it. Moreover, the
public encouraged him to do it, for they
came in fiocks to see him. The tattooed
woman who was paid 800 a day was tat
tooed right here in New York, but the
work was marVelously well done, and the
fairy tale about her, as told by the show
man, only heightened the crowds interest
and harmed nobody She was represented
in the story as having been stranded on
one of the Sandwich Islands, shipwrecked
with her husband, who was put to death
Her life was spared, but she was put to
torture, having these extraordinary char
acters tattooed all over her body. There
were from five hundred to seven hundred
people at each one of the tWenty-one daily
performances, at which that tattooed wO-
man was exhibited, and all were pleased
at the show. for which they paid ten
cents"
DO many of these freaks. remarkable
for various reasons, get fine salaries?'
Indeed, they do. We paid a certain
midget 500 a week. Her father and the
family Travelled with her. and got rich out
of it. Then that wonderful Oregon horse
with the trailing name and tail was paid
$500 a week for several months. The two
headed negro girl, or girls, has made
fortune, and l could mention any number
Of celebrated freaks who have prohted
financially.
Each day we get letters from all over
the country-all over the world-offering
photograph of a sheep having a fifth leg
and hoof growing out of his shoulder This
one sends cow with a horn projecting
from her back. Here Is a letter from
handless man in West Virginia. He writes
with his toes, and writes very good let
ter He is a gentleman, l judge from the
tone OF the letter and the picture. He is
undecided whether to exhibit 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
freaks can secure"
That box of photographs unearthed
from Httle-used recesses to refresh the
showmans mindi What a galaxy not of
beauty, but of the bizarre and the gro
tesque! Bearded women taken in decol-
lette gowns. their masculine faces in re-
voting contrast to the feminine neck and
arms; men without legs or 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 remark
able sister with a veritable horses name
growing upon her back.
That was a clever scheme this fellow
devised said the Snowman, adjusting
his glasses so as 10 view a likeness He
represented himself as having a 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 straight through him. We
displayed, colored, photograph at the
back and the people could see that pic
ture or 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
bowling success, a woman fixed herself
up as having been speared through
with her husbands bayonet the victim
of cruelty and brutality. We fixed it for
the crowd to look through her, and she
was no end of a success. She stood there
surrounded by red curtains 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 wcrld endures," added
the Snowman, and just so long will scien-
lists and magicianS cater to their de-
sires. In Paris there is an institution
where infants are made into freaks as
systematically as flour Is made into
bread. Those in charge are skillful Dhvsi-
clans, it is said. who know Just how
cramped and distorted. without injury to
life. The babies limbs are manipulated
when tender and pliable, and they soon
grow misshapen and grotesque"
do freaks live in the museums when
not on exhibition"
Some do-those whose pecularities 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 the city. They are us
ually care-free and contented, and make
the most of life, like true philosophers
Miss BIedsOe Resents a FIOrefnp