The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1895-10-10
POINTS on FREAKS.
SOME BORN re THE PROFESSION,
OTHERS THRUST UPON 1T.


Any one who has remarked the
gregarious element in human nature,
/ which makes every one eager to see
what the other has seen, will not mar.
vel at the success which notoriety has
1 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 willing to pay any price for it. To
make no account of the money value of
the advertisement, they are delighted
to know that they are being talked
about and speculated about, and to see
their names in the newspapers. You
sec how high that dome ISL he contin-
ued, pointing to the arched space far
above the ropes and bars stretched
across for acrobatic performances
well, man came III here. offered to
jump from its highest point down to
the floor so as to make a name for him
self 1t would have been certain death
you know, to attempt IT, 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
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
offered to exhibit himself as tarred
and feathered victim Just returned from
the west, and we let him do it. More
over, the public encouraged him to do
it, fd1 they came in hocks to zee him.
The tattooed woman who was paid s 90
IA day WAS tattOoed right here i'll New
York, but the work was MAJ velausly
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 III 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 100 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 l0 cents. "
"Do many of these freaks. remark
able for various reasons, get fine sala-
ries?'
''Indeed they do. We paid certain
midget 500 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 profited finan-
cially.
Each day we get letters from all
over the country-all over the world
offering us freaks Of nature. This ono
sends photograph of sheep having a
fifth leg and hodf growing out of his
shoulder. This one sends COW with
horn projecting from her back. Here is
"A letter from handless man in West
Virginia. He writes with his toes and
writes "a very good letter.
That box Of photographs unearthed
from little used recessos to refresh the
Snowman S mind What galaxy, not
of beauty, hut 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 logs or
arms; tremendously fat men, and men
so thin that they We're photographed
prone upon couch. limp and helpless;
men who had starved themselves in or
der to live. The strong woman is there,
and her remarkable sister, with yeri-
table horses name growing upon her
back
THAT was clever scheme this fell
low DEVISED said the Snowman, ad-
justing his glasses so as to view 4 like
ness, He represented himself as hay
ing a gunshot wound through and
through the body and the'i he fixed up
an optical deluson apparatus which
made it appear that people could look
straight through him. We displayed
colored photograph at the back, and the
people could see that picture on the
other side of the man. You have no
idea what turore 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 woman fixed herself up as having
been speared through the body with her
husb band 5 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 II 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 in signs and
wonders as long rs the world endures,
added the Snowman, and just so long
will scientists aud magicians cater to
their desires. In Paris there is an in
stitution where infants are made into
freaks as systematically as flour is made
into bread. Those i'll charge are sklllful
physicians it is said, who know just
how much the human anatomy can be
crippled and cramped and distorted