, 1896-03-03
PROGENY OF FREAKS.
SOME RESULTS OF RoMANcEs IN THIS
SHOW BUSINESS.


The First Real Living Skeleton. His VIII
and Their Three Skin and Zone Sons
An Old Museum and Side Show TIan
ager Taps His Memory Tank.
According to Manager I. e. Sackett
of the Biiou theater, Isaac W. SpraguC
was the first unnaturally or abnormally
thin skin and bones man to be exhibit
ed TO the public under the title of q
Giving skeleton It was during the
palmy days of Barnum's Greatest ShoG
Oh Earth, and while that celebrated
Snowman was raking the continents in
search of curiosities in 1864. Incident.
ally Mr.. Sackett was i'll those days with
Tony Pastor. Mr.. Sackett WAS acting as
doortender. manager and all around
man for Pastor. He had previously been
out with Mile Christine, the two
headed girl, and had an eye ont fol-
freaks. When tie Tony Pastor show
reached Florida, Stone 81 Murray cir,
Gus came there. The old inhabitants
will rememt er Stone 81 M~urray's show.
1t was contemporaneous with Dan
Rice's, Thayer q Noyes' and afterwafd
with the John Robinson circus. With
Stone q Murray vas Isaac W. SpTague,
the living skeleton. Mr.. Sprague had
been discovered by Barnum i'll Massa-
chuSetts. He was the first living skelC-
ton on record since the discovery Of the
world by Adam. And Srraguo was a
real living skeleton too. He was moth
ing but skin and bones, yet he was
healthy aud jolly.
In 1865 Barnum collected several Gu
riosities, including Sprague, and sent
them for Il tour of the world. Sprague
was the big card. Next to him was a
skeleton woman, nearly as attenuated
as Sprague, whose name has escaped
the wonderful memory of Snowman
Sackett. Among the other freaks with
which Barnum expected to aud did as
tonish the world was Joyce Heth, the
colored woman he picked up in the
south, supposed to be 1875 years old; the
woody horse" and Annie Swan, the
first gianteSs ever o. exhibition.
Sprague, Oh the steamer going over
to London, fell desperately in love with
the skeleton She returned his
affection, and, according to Manager
Sackett, who was on the voyage, il was
a sight for the sentimental to observe
the billing and cooling of these aticnuat-
ed specimens of Pharaoh's lean kline. "
The outre love affair gave Barnum u
business hint, which he was not slow to
lake advantage of. On their arrival III
dear old "Lunnon' the Snowman advor-
tised and heralded the astounding fact
far and wide that on Il certain day there
could be seer at st. james hall twhere
they were showing) something that the
world had never before witnessed, name.
ly, the marriage of two living, breath.
ing skeletons. He also announced the
fact that never before in the annals Of
show business had such Il thing as the
wedding of freaks been performed in
public. This was Il fact too
OF the enthusiastic crowds which such
a unique announcement drew, or the
interesting conduct of the living skele-
tons, welded i'll the presence Of ''as-
sembled thousands Manager Sackett
is silent. But he tells Of u fact, how
ever, which is of such interest that it
was recorded in medical works, but
never before has seen the light OF news
paper Publication. That was that ii
year after the marriage OF the skeletons
the wife bore u child which also was a
Giving skeleton"
Stranger still to relate-but Sackett
stakes his fortune on the truth of it
two other children were also born to
MI. and Ms S%prague, and they were
also of the skeleton mold. For many
years afterward the parents travelled
with their un%naturally thin offspring,
and added to the stock OF the worlds
establishment, including both crowned
heads and those that We're bald. The
original Sprague aud his wife are dead,
but the three skeleton children, now
young men, are showing about the II
try. healthy, happy and rich.
This is the only case or succession of
cases in medical annals where a father
and mother transmitted the disease of
wasting atrophy to their offspring.
Mr.. Sackett also tells of another weird
case that came under his observation in
his peregrinating show days. Major
Burnell, u celebrated Snowman of the
sixties, found a pair Of freak twins III
the south, tho offspring of colored pee
pie. One Of the twins, a boy, was black
as Kongo stock. The other, a girl, was
a pure albinc. 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 a 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 hel to st. Louis. She was a
young girl of surprising beauty, with
but one fault discoverible. She slept
nine tenths of the time. She was the
greatest puzzle the medical men had
ever seen. 1t was one Of these latter
| who deprived her mother of a fortune
| and Prescott of one of his most popular
curiosities. The Young doctor was left
alone in the showroom II day while
the beauty was sleeping as usual. His
curiosity prompted him to take out his
1arnor mud p,,,nt,ro Lnr Tho h1ooJ