The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-10-16
FAMED FAKER DEAD
DADDY" CONVERSE PASSES TO THE
REALM OF REALITIES.

| b1A1m VI MALL l1SS
Now Knowing, It Il to be Feared, How the
Poor "Dancing Turkeys" Felt, who
to Rsd-Hot Little ThinhIet In Daddy's
| Shamfui Brain-He Did . Business In
Hand-Me-Dowa Relies, Supplying Mu-
seums With Freaks. and GullinE Par
ticolar Fools at First Hands.
New York, Oct. 15.-Old Daddy" Con-
verse is dead, and with him passes away
all out the memory Of one fine most
| curious occupations in which any man
ever engaged for livelihood. He was
the original ami for many years the
only freak builder" in the world, and
the number Of sea serpents. ossified
giants and mummified Indians that he
produced during MS career would stack
building as big as the Museum Of Nat
ural History pretty nearly full.
He began in the early forties and con-
demand for mis- peculiar productions had
fallen so low that he found il more pro-
fitable to quit than to continue. and he
retired from business yith what the now
el writer's usually describe as COM
Portable competency. Daddy Converse
was not his real name nor his pseudoym
but ne left large and respectable fam
lily, and his ways were not the ways Of
the upright, it is not necessary TO iden-
tify him further ina by Daddy"
Daddy" may not have furnished Bar
nun with the woody horse, but he GER
tainly supplied a large majority of the
inanimate curios for the famous old mu-
scum at Broadway and Ann street, and
some old showmen say that the horse
with the sheep like coat was ar least
his suggestion II il wasn't his creation.
His human faced chickens were attrac-
tons in every little side show in Amer
lea twenty years ago, and while they
were advertised as having been discov-
cred in the heart Of Borneo wilderness
1t was well-known to those in the secret
that they came from the corner Of a
tumble down carpenter shop on Bond
street
MAKING WAR RELICS.
It was during the war that the freak
factories flourished. There were dozen
anatomical museums on the Bowery and
around Cha than square. Longs Muse
UNI in Philadelphia, where there was a
room full of hangmen's nooses. and an
other room devoted to revolvers. dirks.
sand bags and other pleasing weapons
OF assault, was wonderfully good Gus
toner, and 80 was the Baltimore muse
UNI, with its spllnters of gallows, trees
and murderers' shoes.
New York ran more 70 stone idols
from the land Of the Aztecs via Bond
steet, and pterodactyls from the iime-
stone region Of Arizona, by the same
route. together with shells from the field
OF Bull Run or Antietam, and letters
sonville. These mementos Of the great
struggled appealed powerfully to the
public mind at the time. and the muse
UNI that could display the greatest num-
Der OF war relics did a land Office bust
ness. AS consequence the freak fac
tories were kept busy. A letter written
in blood, with the signature illegible or
eroded-for discovery of the deception
would result in the place being mobbed-
was worth anywhere from $50 to $500.
A bit Of note paper stained with weak
coffee and scrawled over with pointed
stick dipped in a preparation OF vermil-
ion and brick red. then crumpled up and
soiled with spatter OF mud was the
way the alleged letters from behind Cap
tain Wirz's terrible dead line were man.
ufactured. Shells were easy 10 get. The
swarm Of relic hunters that overran the
like vultures, months after
the armies had moved, got plenty OF
those, so there was no need to initiate
them. Swords and pistols were procur- |
a BILE from junk dealers. With painted |
stock for the other they made excellent |
relics, and were readily marketable at |
from SO to S. each.
Bibles and prayer books pounded with !
a mallet until they were soft, and then |
inscribed on the fly yeap From mother |
to john" or ''To my dearly beloved hus-
band" were wonderful attractions. and |
their value was greatly increased by |
firing bullet into their covers at long t
range Hundreds and hundreds Of peo-
pie would DO to see pocket bible. which |
they were assured in bold lettering and |
by a brass lunged announcer had been |
found on a dead drummer boy at Shi- |
Ion or the Wilderness. There was the |
hole made by the ball that plowed its |
way through his heart. Women would |
weep and men grow not with anger as /
they looked.
THE DANCING TURKEYS.
II was a matter Of common knowledge !
among showmen that Daddy was the or /
originator OF the dancing turkeys" al |
though he would never acknowledge the |
doubtful honor. These terpsichorean !
birds first appeared in Paris in 1857 and |
in this country in 1859. They were US
ually exhibited in a hall. A large wire
cage is discovered on the stage as the
curtain Is lifted, and in are three ordi-
nary barnyard turkeys. \ lecture ex-
plains that the birds were found in Rus
sia in charge OF a number OF monks,
who had taught them 10 keep time to
music.
After little more talk the lecturer
gives a signal 10 fiddler seated in the
orchestra pit in front of the cage and he
begins o play. slowly at first and then
faster and louder until ne reaches a mad
5allop. As the music increases in time
and volume the turkeys hop first on ore
'0ot and then on another, until they get
% going with the rapidly ot a jig dan
,er As the music dies down the motion
y the turkeys become slower and slower
Incil il finally ceases with the last
;c-ape o: the hddler's bow