The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-02-19

1t is in the discovery ana presentation
of entirely new freaks that the money
and the glory lies, for when one of these
is shown at a museum it not only greatly
increases its reputation, but is source
of large profit, for few freaks have at
first any idea of their value, and they
can usually be engaged for a compare
lively small salary. For this reason the
manager of one of the large museums VIII
travel almost any distance, and go TO al
most any amount of trouble to secure
genuine novelty in this line. the more SO
as new freaks are becoming rarer and
rarer every year.
Freaks are as a rule, persons or a
quiet and retiring disposition, which is
probably due to the fact that almost al
of them came from country places ms
seems rather strange, the popular loea
being that life In the city is not SO Wnoie-
some IS that in the country, and tnat the
former ought TO result In more olstorteo
forms of life 1t is also true that nearly
all of them have gone back to the coun-
try. usually to the places from wnlch
they came, where they enjoy the prom
tnence that their rise in life has given
them among their old neighbors. Many
after making a comfortable competence,
spend nearly all their time on these coun-
try places, leaving them, perhaps, lot
only two or three weeks In the year, as
ID
city life for a while as from any wish for
gain. Even for so short 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
were brought here nearly fifty years ago.
In the interim between that time and the
present they have rolled up fortunes for
the several persons who have exhiblted
them and have lived to see most OF them
dead and buried. AS nearly as can be as
certained they were brought to this coun-
try about 1850 by a Captain Hammond,
who found them on one OF the small
islands in the Pacific. He called them the
wild men of Borneo because. every one
was acquainted with Borneo as the larg-
est island in the world. Captain Ham
mond died and they were taken charge of
by Henry Harvey of Boston. After his
decease H A. Warner of Waltham, Mass,
took them and he has now become blind
from age so that his son Ernest has to
take them on the road, although they still
live with his father In spite of their age
the little fellows are as cheerful and full
of life as when they first came to this
country. Their eyes are bright, their hair
shows no sign of gray, and the only signs
of approaching old age are slight deaf
ness and diminution of their enormous
strength When they were in their prime
one of them could lift two good-sized men
with ease, although they stand only about
three feet in height, and weigh but forty
five pounds. Even now they are extreme
ly strong and active, but do not lift these
great weights, while their whole life is
much more quiet than it used to be.
Big Footed Women.
One of the most interesting cases of the
rise of q freak from poverty to affluence
is that of Fanny Mills, the big-footed
woman, who was discovered by Frank
Store, the Boston dime museum manager
He heard of her through the postmaster
at Sandusky, o., and after a little cor