Man Profits by Limp Wrist, Claiming Injuries

1915

Hand Would Fall Limp After Fall in Rail Car, Insurance Claim Following

Minneapolis. — How an obedient wrist bone served as a means of livelihood was told in court by Lester Edward Mills, who confessed that it had netted him $2,000 in the last year. It finally caused his downfall, however, and he will serve an indeterminate sentence in the Stillwater penitentiary as the result of sentence by Judge W. C. Leary, before whom he pleaded "guilty" to a charge of attempted grand larceny on complaint of Ralph Wellington, claim agent of the Duluth Street Railway company.

All that Mills has done to separate $2,000 from railroads, street railway companies and merchants within the last year has been to fall prostrate over a suitcase in the aisle or any obstacle on the sidewalk, gasp for breath and allow his left hand to hang limp from the wrist. Six rides has he taken in ambulances, six fair nurses have smiled at him as the color slowly returned to his face. Five claim agents have drawn checks against their companies and as many times has Mills pocketed the same.

Among the recent settlements made with Mills, according to his story in court, are:

Kennedy Brothers, $400; Northern Pacific, $1,200; Great Northern, $125; Great Northern, $250; St. Paul Street Railway company, $250.

"I have been in just one wreck," Mills told Judge Leary. "That was March 13, 1905, at Fond du Lac, Wis. I was brakeman on the old Wisconsin Central. My left wrist was broken. About a year ago I thought I could use that injury to collect damages from others. At Duluth I got a fellow with a suitcase to get on the street car, and when the car was rounding a curve I fell over the suitcase. I complained that my wrist was hurt. They took me to a hospital. Later I came to Minneapolis and met the claim agent at the West hotel. It was only a few days afterward that I was arrested."

"This may be your first arrest," said Judge Leary, "but it is not to your credit, for all these other claims have been faked the same way, have they not?"

The prisoner glanced to the back of the courtroom, where was seated his young wife. When he raised his eyes to the judge he admitted that he had done nothing but work up fake claims for the last year or more.

Although Mills was arrested at No. 1604 Stevens avenue, his wife gave her address as No. 86 Thirteenth street South. She said she had no idea that her husband had been collecting money in the way he admitted. She thought he was working for a railroad company, she said.

Under the sentence Mills may be confined to state prison not to exceed two and one-half years.

Freaks in Circuses — The Attraction of Monstrosities

1910

FREAKS IN CIRCUSES

People Are Strangely Fascinated by the Monstrosities

When the "Domesticated Gorilla" Got the Show Into Trouble — Hot Water Spoils a "Mermaid" to Uncover Fake

London — It seems strange that freaks, from the legless wonder to the two-headed calf, should possess such a strange fascination for nine people out of ten, yet this is undoubtedly the case.

Of course, there are many so-called freaks which have no business to be called by such an unpleasant name, for if one argues from the dictionary a freak is a monstrosity, and a monstrosity, in the generally accepted sense of the word, is something horrible. The giant and the dwarf are interesting and unusual, but certainly should not be called "freaks."

Hunchbacks were an exception to the rule, for all kinds of powers were attributed to them. There are some very sensitive people to whom the sight of anything in the nature of a monstrosity is absolute pain, and women are fortunately few and far between who fall in love with a monster because of his monstrosity, as in the case of Victor Hugo's "L'homme qui Rit."

The ordinary individual comes across very few physical freaks, and one cannot but wonder whence the showman's rank and file are recruited. Perhaps, if the truth were known, more than half of the show freaks are "fakes." There are many good stories told of these sham freaks, who, owing to some contretemps, have "given the show away." The two following are good examples:

Among the freaks of a certain show was a "domesticated gorilla," to quote the handbills, and he proved one of the finest draws the show had ever had. After the performance no one could have recognized the gorilla, as he then took the shape of a very quiet, ordinary little man. The public particularly enjoyed seeing the gorilla swing from the horizontal bar by his tail, an appendage which is very slightly developed in the species as a rule.

This tail was a masterpiece of ingenuity. It was made of flexible steel, and so contrived that when it took a turn around anything it locked into position until it was released by the gorilla touching a spring concealed somewhere near his waist. The thing worked splendidly for a long time, until one day the gorilla put his tail through the bars of his cage, and a lady standing by took hold of it. Well, the tail acted automatically, as usual, and of course when she felt it tighten around her wrist the lady screamed. The gorilla pressed the hidden spring to no purpose. To make a long story short, the men standing by came to the lady's rescue, took hold of the tail and pulled it off. When the people saw the leather fastenings and buckles they "cleaned out the establishment."

The second story concerns a mermaid. She was no ordinary mermaid, but a "really high-class article," a very handsome young woman encased from the waist down in blue and gold fishskin. The water in which she smoked, and sang, and sat on a rock combing her hair was kept tepid so as not to give her a chill, and this was what gave her enemies — the beautiful Circassian girl and the dwarf — a chance to injure her.

They were jealous because she attracted more attention than they did, so they hatched a plot, which the dwarf carried out successfully. One day he pretended to be ill, and got a day off, and just before the mermaid's performance he hid himself in the boiler-room. After the man had been down to see that there was not too big a fire, the dwarf set to and stoked for all he was worth.

The mermaid soon felt that something was wrong, but she stood it as long as she could. At last, however, she had to choose between being boiled or giving the thing away, and naturally she preferred the latter alternative; but, as the showman put it, the public said things that were "very discouraging" and the show had to move on.

Fake Exposed By Telephone

1903

Young Woman, Pretending to Be a Mute, Foiled in Her Game

A Poughkeepsie (N. Y.) telegram to the Philadelphia Inquirer says that a young woman giving her name as Delia Flynn called on several of the pastors in the city, posing as a mute and describing her pitiable condition with pen and pencil.

Chief of Police McCabe at that moment came in and began to express sympathy for the woman. Suddenly he stepped to the telephone and began an imaginary conversation.

"We have a woman here," he said, "who says she comes from Albany. We must know all about her history, as she cannot talk, or she must be sent to the penitentiary."

The woman, hearing this, made a dash for the door, and fought desperately to get out of the station. Chief McCabe took her into his office and questioned her.

The woman said that she had feigned dumbness in Albany, Troy, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn. She declared that she was compelled to beg for a one-armed man, Edward Burnett of Brooklyn, with whom she eloped from her home in Philadelphia when she was 16 years old. She is now 22.