Show TRICKS OF OP A DRIB S MUSEUM I A Truthful Tale ale of How One ODe Fakir Kak Makes a Living I Beneker they call him He has bas been I known as a Bowery Bov cry fakir for the last test 1 t thirty years One Ont day he may be I j found at the th race track touting making mak making ing in a hand book in the tAe field or appear appearing appearing ing in in the role of a bettor with real money molley Another hay he be may y be seen n nat I at a chowder r picnic working w the shell s game Iame or operating a sweat board Sometimes he be has bas a job fob as door doorkeeper doorkeeper doorkeeper keeper in a gambling house hou e Now and then he appears appear at Coney Island as i the manager of a fake take museum mu eum or the i brains of a game In Coneys Bowery As a rule though thou h he devotes most of ot his time to the museum mURum trick and considers himself one of the leading showmen ah in the country He to is seldom eIdom without money for tor when his exchequer is fa nearly empty he be soon oon has ha a scheme to raise more funds Some years ye rs ago he was wu in need of money H He sought out a Baxter street clothier and aDd suggested ted that they be become become te come partners and open a museum somewhere near Chatham square quare The clothier doU er who was known as was wu ready to enter into any an scheme e to tomake tomake tomake make money and quite willing to listen to Beneker the latter said d it would cost about St to start the museum You have Te a 8 lot of relatives said be he and probably pr some of them are out of OC a Job Well give them all work We can use uee u e all the members of your family In the first Ant place ft It will wUl take 25 85 to get one of the vacant stores along alon the row After ALter we pay the rent well welI go down don to a friend of mine tied find buy huy some old pictures painted on canvas showing the attractions we have in inthe th tM the museum mURum Then we can an build the platforms the th stage staRe and aDd the Ute other oth r fittings ourselves Your folks can pose as the freaks Dots Dot a fine ane scheme said My can be der fat She act dot in a minute ve ye give her 5 a reek yeek My daughter can sell der tickets by iy byson DYson son son Sammy be b der midget the scheme exactly replied Beneker But we must have a feature I for tor the barker to shout Just now the I papers are ue full of f a story about a wild wildman wildman 1 man having haYing been at Rockaway We must get some fellow tellow with plenty of I whiskers to do dp the wild man act in a ae cage e and well weil get a picture of him painted to put outside on the sidewalk Mine Mille vitas adder fadder be a good goodone goodone one for tor dot said He has such sucha I a long beard his grow up py his ears en he shave shae I for a he looks like a regla I man manI Good replied Beneker hes bes just I the sort we want Tell him hes en engaged engaged engaged right away and Beneker Benek r went up to Four Fourteenth Fourteenth Fourteenth street and bought several dirty looking pieces Discs of canvas can as which had hd been used for years in an old New York museum Among them was a painting of a strong man lifting heavy weights eights Ill IH do that turn myself said Bene Beneker Beneker Beneker ker I can act set as barKer banter it at the door and then go inside and do the heavy heaY act We can get several seve l large weights and paint signs on em announcing ing I pounds and and the crowds will stare when they see me lift em era I with one hand band and pass em over my ray head Then ve ye dont get nobody to lec Iee lecture lecture I ture remarked That being the th case it was agreed to tomake toI make Pliny the strong mani man His I daughter was engaged to sell tickets in the box office His elder son who was very thin was introduced at the museum as the human skeleton A cage Ws Was as built on a platform in the I place and the from Pils s bed bedroom bedroom bedroom room were used as a curtain to cover over the cage The bars bers were rails from rom an Iron fence purchased at a secondhand I lumber yard 1 Into this cage they put fa with his hands k to a heavy chain His only cloth I was a pair of trunks and as he pre prepared prepared prepared pared for the part by keeping away from barber shops for two weeks his face was u covered with hair They taught him that at a signal each time I they had lured a 8 crowd crow io to the place I he was to roar and growl and rattle his chains Then when Beneker raised the curtain to give the crowd a a chance j I to gaze upon the Wild Man from Rock Rockaway Rockaway Rockaway away he was to show his teeth and jump at the Iron barn bar as If 1 he was was trying to get Iet out When W en they opened the the museum tip rap for business Beneker stood on the side sidewalk sidewalk walk pointing to the pictures on the canvas canvas and shouting for trade Mean Meantime Meantime time m e p daughter in the box office was vas grinding music from a hand organ they had hired hire in Pearl street I At t the end of the first week when l they figured up accounts they had hadl l made WO charging 10 cents admission I and turning tinting a crowd out every five minutes They kept it up for three weeks Then they were compelled to find a new n w attraction so they hired seven girls whom horn they picked up in inthe inthe inthe the street to sit In short skirts on the platform and pose as candidates in a beauty contest One girl was I labelled as ass coming coining from Philadelphia another from Boston a third from I Chicago a fourth from California I another from New Orleans one from l St Louis and another from frem Buffalo o For the next neat two weeks they had crowds all day They kept this up until the police p ordered the place closed When W en they received word that they must shut down because they had no license they asked for a weeks time timeto timeto timeto to get their expenses out of It They then advertised in papers and sold the museum to a man from the West who paid them for the trappings and good will of the place The police put him out ut af after er a few days da s In the meantime Beneker had gone to Coney Island where he opened up another show bow getting there In time timeto to put in a profitable season In the following winter Beneker lost his money by bucking the tiger in an uptown gambling house Since then he has been following the fairs through the country and doing all sorts of things He has worked as a hotel detective in the cities of the west and he be has bas found employment as a rail railroad railroad railroad road conductor Today he is on the road with a novel show having with him another old time Bowery flowery museum barker known as Blubber Many Man years ago a Blubber barked for side show and among circus men he Is considered one of or the best barkers backers ba kers in the He has also In all aU of the freak freaR roles that ti have ever ever been pUl on oh h the tile pro mme of a Bowery museum museum He has posed as the t tattooed man has played the ossified man exhibited him himself himself himself self as the living skeleton and the human pin DIn cushion With the tile aid of ofa ofa ofa a carpenter and costumer he was as able lihle ble bleto to make a hit as Chang Chans the Chinese Giant a year after the real Chang was in his grave brave He has done the act known to the public as phrenology and has sat at for fot hours on a platform in a Bowery museum mU um posing as the Albino Girl GIrI |