Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1896-04-01
PROGENY OF FREAKS.
soME RESULTS OF RoMANcES IN THE
SHOW BUSINESS.

fger Taps His memory 1hhh'
According to Manager 7. E. Sacket1
of the pijou theater, Isaac W. Sprague
VIE the first unnaturally or abnormally
thin skin and bones man to be EXHIBIT
cd to the public under the title OF
Giving skeleton. 1t was during inc
palmy days of Barnum's Greatest SNOW
on Earth, and while that celebrated
Snowman was raking the continents IN
selrch of curiosities in 1854. incident
ally Mr.. Sackett was in those days with
Tdny Pastor. Mr.. Sackett was acting as
doDrtender, manager and all around
min for Pastor. He had previously been
Out with Mile Christine, the two
headed girl, and had an eye out for
frtaks. When the Tony Pastor show
reOched Florida, Stone & Murray's cir
cul came there. The old inhabitants
will remember Stone & Murray's show.
1t was contemporaneous with Dan
Rice's, Thayer g. Noyes' and afterward
with the John Robinson circus. With
Stone g. Murray was Isaac W. Sprague,
thu living skeleton. Mr.. Sprague had
been discovered by Barnum i'll Massa-
chasetts. He was the first living skele-
ton on record since the discovery of the
wtrld by Adam. And Sprague was
refill living skeleton too. He was moth
inf but skin and bones, yet he was
hallthy and jolly.
In 1865 Barnum collected several Gu
ri<sities, including Sprague, and sent
th)m for tour of the world. Sprague
Wis the big card. Next to him was
skeleton woman, nearly as attenuated
as Sprague, whose name has escaped
tho wonderful memory of Snowman
6ackett. Among the other freaks with
which Barnum expected to and did as
tollish the world was Joyce Heth, the
,,onored woman he picked up in the
South, supposed to be 1876 years old; the
"Ooolly horse" and Annie Swan, the
Britt giantess ever ON exhibition.
tSprague, OH the steamer going over
90 London, fell desperately in love with
Ghk, skeleton woman. She returned his
Infection, and, according to Manager
Gaskett, who was ON the voyage, it was
n sight for the sentimental to observe
tho billing and cooling of these attenuat-
I'd specimens of Pharaoh's clean kline. -
The outre love affair gave Barnum q
business hint, which he was not slow to
taIte advantage of. On their arrival in
dear old "Lunnon" the Snowman adver-
tisBd and heralded the astounding fact
far and wide that on certain day there
could be seen at st. James hall (where
they were showing) something that the
yYCrld had never before witnessed, name
ly. the marriage of two living, breath
iII skeletons. He also announced the
fNt that never before in the annals Of
show business had such thing as the
WEDDING of freaks been performed in
uublic. This was fact too.
OF the enthusiastic crowds which such
unique announcement drew, or the
Interesting conduct of the living skele-
tits, welded in the presence of "as-
sanbled thousands" Manager Sackett
is silent. But he tells of fact, how
eSsr, which ia of such interest that it
WIS recorded in medical works, but
nyger before has seen the light of news
piper publication. That was that a
yiar after the marriage Of the skeletons
Ito wife bore a child which also was a
"llving skeleton.
stranger still to relate-but Sackett
stfkes his fortune on the truth of it
tvJo other children were also born to
MI. and Mrs. Sprague, and they were
alto of the skeleton mold. For many
ytnrs afterward the parents travelled
with their unnaturally thin offspring,
and added to the stock of the world s
Advertisements, including both crowned
hsnds and those that were bald The
original Sprague and his wife are dead,
brl the three skeleton children, now
young men, are showing about the coru-
try, healthy, happy and rich.
This is the only case or succession of
CAGES in medical annals where father
and mother transmitted the disease Of
Visiting atrophy to their offspring.
Mr.. Sackett also tells of another weird
cafe that came under his observation in
hiO peregrinating show days. Major
Brrnell, celebrated Snowman Of the
SIXTIES, found pair Of freak twins i'll
the south, the offspring of colored peo-
pic. One of the twins, boy, was black
rs Kongo stock. The other, girl, was
pure albino. The major engaged the
twins for his show and exhibited them
for years. The albino girl grew up and
married an albino in the west. The
offspring of the marriage was baby as
black as the ace Of spades OF course
this enhanced the showing price OF
Charley and his albino wife, and Major
Burnell increased their salaries accord
ingly.
d. X. Prescott was the discoverer OF
the far famed Sleeping Beauty, whom
he found In Tennessee in the sixties. He
brought her to st. Louis. She was Il
young girl of surprising beauty, with
but one fault discoverable. She slept
nine tenths Of the time. She was the
greatest puzzle the medical men had
ever seen. It was one Of these latter
who deprived her mother Of fortune
and Prescott Of one of his most popular
curiosities. The young doctor was left