The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1903-05-01
Freaks and Freakesses alta. o U. w.
Hall Last Night.
Unique Entertainment Given BY Inc
Episcopal Church Ladies.
Black Patti, a Snake charmer, and
Me Big Fat Lady.
Yellow Kids, Wild Man of BorHeo
and Other Curiosities.
From Wednesdays Daily.

| NiOn wednesday 1d1ly.
| 70 the ladies of the fourth division
of the Episcopal church belongs the
credit for one of the most unique and
| original entertainments seen in Manka-
to in long time The museum which
they opened to the public last evening
in A. o. U. W. hail contained one OF the
greatest aggregation of freaks eyer as
| sembled under one roof, and Barnum in
his palmiest Us never had such a col
| lection.
| In order that the audience should not
miss any of the salient features of the
entertainment, the management secured,
at great expense, the services of two ex-
pert sbowmen, loud OF voice and confident
of manner to deseant upon the various
| features OF the show. S. b. Wilson and
Frank Crandall filled the parts
The attractions" were lined mp on
the usual museum platform. First came
| Black Patti, beautiful in figure and
chraming in voice, beneath whose radiant
visage the initiated could detect c. D.
Benack. Colonel Mite and his wife,
1.-The smallest couple On earth, were por-
traved by Catherine Brown and Gather
inc Gerlach. Schuyler Alleman and
Stephen Taylor were the yellow kids
and the showman's vivid imagination as
Govt al tbo+ +bo,, ,,,,ra oop+urod IN Cuba
Next came the tall lady, who required
two minutes in which to stand up or
sit down, 50 great was the distance she
had to cover She distributed her auto
graphs at so much per autograph and it
was said'that the handwriting was very
similar to B. c. Taylor's
Earle Pay was the leopard boy, who
wont through the whole performance
without changing sFnts. Mrs. Carl Dice
represented the last of the famous seven
Sutherland sisters, with yards and yards
| of flowing. glossy hair Of suspieiously
hempen hue.
The next attraction had an interested
crowd Of spectators all evening. 1t was
a genuine ''Wild man from Bornes,v a
most wonderful creature, with the horns
of an OK, black hide and baseball mits
for feet. Someone suggested that 1T
looked like Charlie Macbeth and tried to-
make it smile. A large part eff the audi
ence spent most OF the evening trying to
bring a smile to the creatures face and
once or twice they succeeded.
The fat lady, who is without peer,
has been seen in Mankato before. She
is the same Madame Clarelfce who made
such hit in the Charity Circus some
years ago She wore charming gown
and most bewitching smile.
Miss Jessie Becquette made her initial
appearance as snake charmer last eve
ming and held the audience spellbound by
her performance with lot of hideous
and venomous reptiles. Bonita Florita
was most remarkable ''lusus naturae"-
While apparently q beautiful young
girl she had "sprouted" and watercress
grew from her head and any
number of flowers from all parts
of her body, and bachelors buttons
blossomed in riotous profusion from be-
tween her toes Her autograph cost
only ten cents.
Mrs. Partridge was Queen Liluokalam
of Hawaii, and Miss Clara Gerlach as
Lana Roorh sang a number of selections
in her usual, charming manner. Miss Pal
mer and Miss Hunt were the "Simolese"
twins and gave very interesting In
dian club drill.
The much yaunted Signor Spagatti
land his Swiss bear we're an attraction
out of the ordinary. If we are to judge
from this specimen, Swiss bear is en-
| tirely different from the ordinary per-
forming bear. This one could dance adj
mirably, and could hold his own wrest-
ling with his tanner but when it came
to climbing the creased pole, he "fell
down. Fred Force was the trainer and
Horatio Pay the overworked bear in
this amusing feature Of the performance
The entire entertainment was original
in its conception and very we'll executed
and a. large crowd turned out to enjoy
the fun, in spite OF the disagreeable wea-
ther.