The Freaks Must Go

1915

The secretary of the Minnesota state fair is the authority for the statement that the "freak" show and the sensational side show will not have a place in the state fairs of 1915. This form of entertainment is to be replaced by educational exhibitions, the step having been decided on by the American Association of Fairs and Expositions in convention at Chicago.

It will be a great relief if the minds of children are not to be abnormally stimulated by these morbid, not to say revolting, sights. The idea that the poor monstrosities of nature should be exploited by means of their deformities is repulsive and productive of no good. The practice of allowing fakers to grow fat off proceeds from "showing" these unfortunates is a species of barbarism.

The atmosphere that pervades state fairs is as wholesome as that which surrounds any of our national institutions, and it has always been a wrong to vitiate it by the clinical features of a freak show. — Minneapolis Journal.


1911

Easy

"Does it cost much to clothe a family? asked the economical man.
"Not mine," replied Mr. Sirius Barker. "My only daughter is a barefoot dancer and my only son is a marathon runner."

Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Exhibition Tomorrow

Syracuse, New York, 1902

THE WILD WEST

Buffalo Bill's Show to Appear To-morrow.

END OF EXHIBITION IN SIGHT

It Pictures a Period Which Is Fast Passing Away and Soon None Will Be Alive to Participate in It — Many Realistic Scenes Are Displayed — Exhibition Will Give Two Performances Beside a Street Parade in the Morning.

The Wild West will be here to-morrow. The American, German and English cavalry, the cowboys, Indians, vaqueros and gauchos, the Cossacks, Arabs, Bedouins and other wild horsemen, the Roosevelt Rough Riders, Cuban insurgents and the Baden-Powell South African troopers will give their stirring exhibition. For over twenty years this assemblage of savage and civilized horsemen have wandered throughout the United States and over the continent of Europe.

But the end is near, for fate is overtaking both the red and white man, entirely changing conditions. In a few years the painted war Indian will belong to the past and with him will disappear the rider of the plains, the cowboy herder. Then there will be no Wild West, for its present charm and value lie in its integrity and faithful adherence to historical accuracy.

Colonel Cody found fame and fortune by reproducing types of Western characters as they really existed in the olden days. He now looks forward to the day when the exhibition must cease to exist for lack of material.

General "Tecumseh" Sherman witnessed a performance of the Wild West before it had been brought to its present perfection and at the close said to Colonel Cody (Buffalo Bill):

"Billy, for my children and grandchildren, who can never see these things as we saw them, I thank you."

How the Indians Worked.

Among the numerous, almost painfully realistic scenes illustrative of pioneer life on the Western border is one showing the manner of approach and attack by the stealthy and cunning red savages upon a settler's cabin. As here enacted, a band of pioneers, men who ride fast and shoot straight, come to the rescue in good time and leave a satisfying sufficiency of Indians effectively reformed from their evil ways. But Western men who lived on the frontier in the days when such incidents were common, recall bitterly and sadly, too many occasions when the rescuers did not come in time.

The "breeches-buoy" operated by the Atlantic coastguard life-savers has been the means of saving over a hundred lives from vessels wrecked on the Eastern coast in the terrific gales of last winter. A crew of experienced life-savers — on furlough from Government service — show in the arena of the Wild West how communication with a wreck is established and the breeches-buoy worked. It is an exhibit of thrilling interest.

Other popular features of this famous exhibition, such as the big battle scenes, he wonderful lassoing of the Mexicans, the daring riding of the bucking bronchos by the cowboys, cavalry and artillery drills by United States soldiers, Indian war dances and the wonderful shooting of Colonel Cody (Buffalo Bill) and Johnny Baker, will be seen at Kirk Park at two performances to-morrow. The mounted parade, which will pass through the principal streets in the morning, will give the spectators a good idea of the magnitude and interesting character of the exhibition.

—The Post-Standard, Syracuse, New York, June 29, 1902, page 10.