Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1895-12-05
POINTS ON FREAKS.
some BORN 70 THE PROFESSION,
OTHERS THRUST UPON IT.

IL Nature Hasn't Been Kind to You In
Hirsute Adornnents Where They On -ht
Not to BE, Yoa Must Achieve Notcriety.
Any one who has remarked the
gregarious element in human nature,
which makes every one eager 10 see
what the other has seen, will not mar
vel at the success which notGriety has
attained in the show business, said
the manager of q popular museum.
'Notoriety, no matter how and where
obtained, is Just so much Stock in
trade, and people in our line OF work
are willing to pay any price for it TO
make no account of the money value Of
the advertisement, they are lighted
to know that they are being talked
about and speculated about, and TO see
their names III the newspapers. You
see how high that dome is: lie cOutin-
ued, pointing to the arched space far
above the ropes and bars stretched
across for acrobatic performances.
We'll, man came in here, offered 70
jump from its highest point down to
the floor so as to make u nJme fer hln-
self. 1t would have been S-r'ain deaih,
you know, to attempt it, c,it he said he
had practiced jumping, knew how TO
manage and would escape injury. He
begged to be allowed to make the jamp
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.
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 agi-
tation, when there was SO much talk in
the papers about their outrages, a man
and feathered victim just returned from
the west, and we let him do it. More
over, the public encouraged him to do
it, for they came in flocks to see him.
The tattooed woman who was paid 500
a day was tattooed right here in New
York, hpt the work was marvelously
we'll done, and the fairy tale about her,
as told by the Snowman, only height
ened 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 500 to 700 people at each
one of the 81 daily performances at
which that tattooed woman was exhib
tied, and all were pleased at the show,
for which they paid 10 cents. F"
"Do many of these freaks, remark
able for various reasons, get fine sala-
ries?"
Indeed they do We paid certain
midget S700 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 5000 week for sew
eral months. The two headed negro
girl, or girls, has made fortune, and
] could mention any number of cele
brated freaks who have profted finan
cially.
Each day we get letters from all
eyer The Us s4HektFy0fh Of qHfE one
sends photograph of a sheep having a
fifth leg and hoof growing out of his
shoulder. This one sends a cow with
horn projecting from her back. Here is
o letter from a handless man i'll West |
Virginia. He writes with his toes and |
writes very good letter"
That box Of photographs unearthed
from little used recesses to refresh the
Snowman mind What galaxy, not |
of beauty, but of the bizarre and the
grotesque Bearded women taken in |
decollete gowns, their masculine faces |
in revolving contrast to the feminine |
neck and arms; men without legs or
arms; tremendously fat men, and men |
SO thin that they were photographed
prone upon a couch, limp and helpless
men who had starved themselves i'll or
der to live. The strong woman is there, |
and her remarkable sister, with veri- |
table horse's name growing upon her |
back.
"That was clever scheme this fell |
low devised" said the Snowman, ad- |
justing his glasses SO as to view like |
ness. He represented himself as hav-
ing a gunshot wound through and
through the body, and then he fixed up
an optical delusion apparatus which
made it appear that people could look
straight through him. We displayed a
colored photograph at the back, and the
people could see that picture on the
other side Of the man. You have no
idea what furore there was about it.
That was down on the Bowery. Every |
body wanted to look through the man |
with the gunshot wound Then, finding |
that the man was such bowling sue
cess q woman fixed herself up as having
been speared through the body with her
husbands bayonet, the victim Of cruel
ty and brutality. We fixed it for the
crowd to look through her, and she was
no end Of success. She stood there
surrounded by red curtains with pa
thetic, rapt look on her face, and the
people couldn't get enough of looking
through her at the bouquet of flowers
displayed at her back.
People will delight III signs and
wonders as long as the world endures,
added the Snowman, ''and just so long
will scientists and magicians cater to
their desires. In Paris there is an in
stitution where infants are made into
freaks as Systematically as -four is made
into bread Those in charge are skillful
physicians, it is said, who know just
how much the human anatomy can be
crippled and cramped and distorted
without injury to life. The babies
limbs are manipulated when tender
aud pliable, and they soon grow mis-
shapen and grotesque New York
Tribune.
COLOR SCHEME FOR SMALL HOUSE.
Let Old Blue Predominate In Parior. LII
brary and Dining Room.
How few people when furnishing a
small house or fiat remember that old