VI

the circus

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THE idea of exhibiting white tattooed men for a

fee was born among European visitors to the South SeaIslands and was first tried out in Western Europe. JosephCabri, a Frenchman tattooed while in the South Seas, re-turned to Europe where he was gravely studied by learnedsocieties, exhibited to several crowned heads, and finallyshown, in the most intimate detail, to any spectator whowould pay the admission price. Thus he made a living for anumber of years, but his skin shriveled with age, and in1818 he died, obscure and poor, in Valenciennes, his birth-place. In 1843 Vincendon- Dumoulin and Desgraz describedhis life and adventures, voicing regret that his skin had notbeen preserved in alcohol to enlighten new generations. Butother white men were returning to Europe from the Orient Glossar ::: zum Glossareintrag  Orientand the South Seas, with their skin tattooed, and the exhibi-tion of these wonders was taken up by various entrepreneurs.From Europe the idea was brought over to America and ex-ploited by the circus- owners.

Freaks are the important element in the" high romanceand grotesque realism," the paradoxical raison d'être of the

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