SHOW FREAKS.

North Otago Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 9410, 7 March 1899, Page 1

SHOW FREAKS.

An amusing Incident h«9 occurred at fcho 'hugo olroua of Barnaul and Bailey, London. Amongst the attractions nro » number of human monstrosities, giants and dwarfs, armless and legless men and womon, a boarded woman, a man with » lion's head, an ubnnrma ly thin min and a jntoruaturally f >t womnn. IV giuntBPt?, bub for her extraordinary h«Mghi, would pass anywhere for a very protty woman, •uid the skeleton nun appoars to bo clever and intelligent. Those mous'ro* sltios aro termed in the programme of the show "freaks," «nd this title has boen nccapted by the public. But tho poreons in question objooi to tho term, and they have taken steps to havo it altered. They hold a mooting with tho hurain skeleton in tho chair, and passed a resolotion, declaring that the term "froak" was opprobrious and thao it« ope, without tho consent of the parties concerned, was =*n "indignity." Misa Jones, tho boarded lady, who was tho primo mover of tho proceedings, wna ospooiaily dotor* rained. Sho considorod th-tt •♦freak" was synonymous with "fight," and sho objeo ed fco bo called a "fright," because sho had a magnificenb board. She suggested th*b tho word " phenomenon " should bo employed. Tho resolution w,»e as giandiloquunb as tho Deol>ratlon of American Iudt-penclonca, and promised tint "in tho opinion of im»y som) of us aro real'y tho dovolopcmont of a hiahor typo and aro superior pornom, iiusmuoh as some of ub are gifted with ex:raordmnry attributes, not apparent in otdimry bolng"." Tho gi*n', a NubUn, who stands 7 toot U Indie, without his boots v wns p^iticulnrly indignant, and di'Douuoed, in tho very choicest Arabic, tho employment of tho word "freak" as »pplying lo him, who was in roiHty a romuktbly lino epecimon of manhood; and tho protty glantosa was equally demined that she would no longer Ihto her ch«rni8 ho disgracefully dohcribod. Tho armless and legless wonder? did not go so f*r oh to regard themselves as superior beings, but woro quite- a»j strong as tho others in their objoe'lon to tho word " freak."