Monstrosities to Order.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 61, 2 August 1884, Page 4

Monstrosities to Order.

Recently I paid a visit to an artisan in the East End of London whose peculiar business is the making of monstrosities. I found him in a dimly-lighted room, the walls, ceiling, and floor of which were literally covered with parts of curiosities, some being stuck up to dry, and others for the purpose of show. " What is wanted," the man explained to me, as he added a daub of glue to the dorsal fin of a mermaid, "is something the showmen can put on the canvas that will draw folks in. The side shows are getting ready to start out, They have their fat women, albinos, Brazilian apes, big snakes, and that sort of thing, but they won't draw, Folk will stop and look at the canvas, say that they have seen snakeß, monkeys, and fat woman enough, and will pass on. But if the side snow can hang out a mermaid, or a sea-serpent, or an alligatorboy, folk will pay their money and step in. Usually they find that the monkeys alone are worth the price of admission, and they are not disposed to find fault, because the mermaid is not alive. Cutting a three-cornered piece out of a cod-fish skin and neatly drawing it down around the papier-mache body of the mermaid, the artisan went on : "I used to be in the magic line, but magic doesn't pay any longer. It pleases the intelligent public, but the public is small." " How came you to go into the manufacture of monstrosities and curiosities?" I asked. " Well, one day I saw in a show-window one of these Japanese mermaids. The price was £50. In the north, a little while after that, I saw a mermaid advertised at a side show. It waß one of Japanese make. I thought if the Japs could get £50 for mermaids, I could get £15 or £20 for them, and I knew I could manufacture them profitably at those figures." Here the artisan gave the mermaid's tail an upward and sidewise twist, put on some glue, and put it by to harden. "This mermaid." he said, "is made to fit some expensive canvas that a man has got hold of cheap. Here is a sketch of it." It was a rough pencil sketch of a mermaid sporting in the ocean, and a lasso descending over her head from a boat. In the distance was the ship from which the boat came. The scene represented the capture oi the mermaid in the Pacific Ocean, 400 miles off San Francisco. "It isn't abaci way," said the artisan, "to make the curiosities fit the canvas that is to be displayed outside. In that way the sights fill the bill, and the public is not deceived." "For what is the chief demand this spring ?" "Mermaids, alligator-boys, sea-serpents, and double babies. " What does an alligator-boy cost ?" "Here is one," leading the way to an inner room and pointing to a creation which he had recently finished, " that costs £15. You see it is about four feet long, and covered with leather. The monstrosity is supposed to have been born by negro parents in Louisiana, to have made its escape into a lagoon when about seven years old, and to have been found dying on the bank after a fight with a bull alligator. I got the idea from the scrofula patient that was on exhibition as an alligator-boy." " And the double babies ?" " They are modelled after the one that was born of Italian parents here last year. I went to see it, as I go to see all monstrosities that I hear of. Double babies have two heads, four arms, four legs, and only one body. It is a job to get them up as they should be, and they are rather expensive." " About how large do the sea-serpents run?" " The biggest I ever made was about 20 feet long; with a sort of dragon's head and tail. There is a good deal of latitude in the matter of sea-serpents, descriptions of them differ so much. I get my best ideas from the stories of sailors on the Dutch trading vessels from Holland ports. A pretty fair sea-serpent can be got up for £10. "A while ago," the artisan continued, "I advertised, 'Send your orders for a first-class mermaid, alligator-boy, sea serpent, Egyptian mummy, or double baby.' Here are some of the letters I have got" One of the letters said : "Is your seaserpent in good condition ? How large will he grow, and what does he eat ? If he is the right thing, and not too expensive to keep, I think we can strike up a bargain, Please name lowest price, delivered healthy, and warranted sound." "I will give the alligator-boy a home," wrote a woman, "if you think he would appreciate kindness and a chance to get away from evil surroundings. It is a shame to make his misfortune a source of profit. ' " I couldn't help answoring this letter,'' the artisan said, " though most of the letters of this kind I leave unanswered. I told the woman that the alligator-boy, though but seven years old, drank whisky, chewed tobacco, and had twice been arrested for stabbing his widowed mother; that if there was anybody who needed reforming it was the alligator-day, and that if she was willing to take him in hand she conld let me know by return mail. I haven't got her re P ly • " _«_««____