The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-03
CIRCUS FREAKS MAKE
 DESIRABLE CITIZENS
From the chicago Trihune

From the Chicago Tribune.
 There are more professional freaks liv- ing in Chicago than in any other city in the world.
 Chicago Is in the center of the circus territory. and every year hundreds of circuses, carnival companies, fair conces- sions and museums select their attrac tions here. At the end of the season the show people return home to make ar engagements for another engagement. For this reason Chicago is even more popular than New York among this class of pup lie performers.
 The number of available freaks is stead fly growing smaller, probably because the demand for them is declining The day was when string of museums ex- tended from coast to coast, but now there are only about a dozen museums, scattered at intervals through the larger cities. But the side-show market still holds up strong, and visit to the differ ent men who have their finger upon the pulse of the freak trade reveals the fact that at present several hundred human curiosities call Chicago their home. Among these will be found some of the most famous and distinguished members of side-shoW society.
 These freaks live everywhere about town. Just as the diver Is apt to bring up pearl on every trip below the sur face, so a visit to any rooming house or 9 casual walk about 1ae streets may dis cover freak, Just about as rare as the pearl and probably as valuable, because the freak possesses the invaluable power of drawing upon his capital a hundred times a day without diminishing it.
 The more prosperous freaks, of course, own their own homes somewhat out of the center of the city, but many of them live In furnished rooms. This mode of life, for freak with sensibilities, has its inconyeniences. Many landlords object to snakes and other such pets as the artists are apt to favor, and are apt to pay em- barrassing visits to inspect the locks and hardware In the room in which the hu- man ostrich curls up at night. The fat woman, too, is sure to find a six by eight room inconvenient for those little tasks every women of modest means finds nec- essary She often Is forced to the tedious process of washing one stocking, drying it, and packing 1t in her trunk before she launders it's mate,
 The homes owned by freaks in Chicago are interesting places They are generally moderate in size, but quaint and bizarre in their furnishings. There is almost in- evitably a collection of curios and souve- mfrs of the owners travels, and a large assortment of photographs of other friends in the freak business The deco rative possibilities of two-headed girls and dog-faced men are far greater than pictures by Aubrey Beardsley or night mares from the impressionistic school
 There is one boarding house in town patronized entirely by side-show exhibits It is located at 310 State street. At this boarding house all the comforts of the different patrons are looked after and provisions made to accommodate the spe- cial requirements of each. The chairs are larger or smaller, as need be, and there are different shaped beds in some of the rooms. There are provisions made for the care of the queer live stock so often af fected by freaks. The place also is home like with its hundreds of pictures and souvenirs of former boarders.
 Although Chicago is the mecca for so many shining lights of the circus world, it is really the great desire of most of them to own home in some small town in Iowa or Ohio. This may be because in his unprofessiona1 life the average freak is modest and retiring in disposi- tion, and he may feel he will attract less attention in a town where every one can become used to seeing him. After So many years in the fiickering light of the gasoline torch he may long for the clear sunshine of the open country and the quiet of long, idle afternoons.
 Conversely it is possible that the vanity of the freak has been so stimulated by years Of exhibition that he fiends it i'm possible to settle down in Chicago, where he would be lost sight of. He realizes in Iowa he would be a marked man. He would be one of the notable people of the village, and when visitors were taken driving by their friends that his cottage would be pointed out as the ''home of Cresco, the midget, who has appeared be- fore all the crowned heads of Europe" At the Methodist social he would be vel comed by the deacons as 8 distinguished visitor, and his progress around the courthouse square would be filled with many kindly inquiries about his health.
 The tone of Chicago receives an un- doubted moral uplift from the presence of these human curiosities, and the gen era1 average is brought up by the addi- ton of these remarkably law-abiding per- sons. Whatever there may be of scandal among the members of Chicago society or crookedness in financial circles, or corruption in the civic administration, in
 
 he is industrious, he is peaceful, and in every way he fills the qualifications of the ideal citizen.
 Whoever heard of an Anarchist among the large percentage of freak citizens? Or of an embezzler? Or of murderer? :? Or of drunkard? The fact s the freak is so used to the stern discipline of the circus regulations and the requirements of the museum that he is inclined to be temperate and law-abiding. He usually Is the chief support of large family and there is not case on record where he abandoned his responsibilities.
 The midget, or dwarf, makes up the larger part of the freak population in Chicago. There are about 30 or 90 pro- fessionals in town. The craze the last few years for midget cities at parks and county fairs has given a powerful stimulus to this branch of the industry. The best known among this gentry are Zelda Chief Debro and wife, who are al- legged to be Eskimos, but who find the temperature of Chicago comfortable, and Euvilia Rogers, the only known dwarf who has dwarf children. Euvillia has two babies who are the oldest little par cells of humanity in the world Then there are the warlike Major Nichols and and is probably the smallest dwarf be- fore the public. Chema the Chinese boxer, is tiny foreigner, who has adopted Chicago as his home, and royal visitor is found in the person of the Princess Neuma.
 When the White City had the Midget City" last summer all the dwarfs and midgets lived at one boarding house at the corner of Throop and Taylor streets,