The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-02-12
MUSEUM FREAKS LOVE FARMING.
Home Life, Earnings and Ambitions
of Some Famous Attractions.

-.
New York, Feb. lO-"What would
you consider a good salary for first
class freak?" was asked recent
ly of number of persons, and in answer
one guessed Sc a week, one $15 one $50
and one, whose guess was thought by
the others to be out of all reason, 500.
This is a fair Illustration of the opinion of
those members of the public who have any
such opinion, about the value of a really
star freak, while as a matter of fact the
weekly salary of such an attraction
ranges from $3.50 to $500 a week Equally
vague are most persons ideas about the
lives of freaks outside of the museum.
Who they are; where they come from and
where they go, are questions about which
most people never bother themselves, yet
yet some interesting stories are found in
the lives of these people; stories of a
change from lives of the most abject pow
erty to that of comparative wealth, and
in many cases of contumely to position
in which they are able to dictate terms
TO successful business men, and to feel
the power that money alone gives.
Freaks are the cards on which a wide
awake dime museum manager wins or
loses. This is not because a great deal
of money is made from them, the contrary
being the case, when the freak in ques-
ton has become a standard attraction and
commands a large salary. In this case
with the extra expenses in advertising and
providing special surroundings, the cost
of the attraction ruins up to something
like 200 a week, and after this is paid
there is little left from the extra receipts.
Bnt the public is so skeptical of every
thing shown at a dime museum that, I'M
less a number of these standard attrac-
tons is shown every year the attendance
viii fall off.
Discovery of New Freaks
II is in the discovery and presentation Of
entirely new freaks hat the money and
the glory lies, for when one of these is
shown at a museum it not only greatly in
creases its reputat ton, but is a source of
large profit. for few freaks have at first
any idea of their value, and they can
usually be engaged for a comparatively
small salary. For this reason the man
ayers of one of the large museums will
travel almost any distance, and go to al
most any amount of trouble to secure a
genuine novelty in this line, the more so
as new freaks are becoming rarer and
rarer every year
Freaks are, as a rule, persons of a quiet
and retiring disposition, which is probably
due TO the fact that almost all of them
come from country places. This seems
rather strange, the popular idea being that
life in the city is not SO wholesome as that
in the country, and that the former ought
to result In more distorted forms of life.
Ii is also true that nearly all of them have
gone back to the country, usually 10 the
| places from which they came where they
enjoy the prominence that their rise in life
has given them among their old neighbors.
Many, after making a comfortable compe-
tence, spend nearly all their time on these
country places. leaving them, perhaps, for
only two or three weeks in the year, as
much to crafty a desire TO see little of
city life for a while as from any wish for
gain. Even for so short a time as this,
however some of them will not leave
their homes. and none of them will do
so at all unless they get about their own
price.
wild Men of Borneo.
Perhaps the best known freaks in this
country are the wild men Of Borneo, who