Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 63, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 March 1915 — The Freaks Must Go. [ARTICLE]

The Freaks Must Go.

The secretary of the Minnesota state fair is authority for the statement that the “freak” show and the sensational side show will not have 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.