s "Half a Ton of Beauty," the Fat Lady of
the Side-Show.

As Syrilla descended from the car, aided by the Living Skeleton and
the Strong Man, the fair creature wore a low-neck evening gown. Her
arms and shoulders were snowy white (except for a peculiar mark on one
arm). Not only had Mr. Gubb never seen such white arms and shoulders,
but he had never seen so much arm and shoulder on one woman, and from
that moment he was deeply and hopelessly in love. Like one hypnotized
he followed her to the side-show tent, paid his admission, and stood
all day before her platform. He was still there when the tent was
taken down that night.

Mr. Gubb was not the only man in Riverbank to fall in love with
Syrilla. When the ladies of the Riverbank Social Service League heard
that the circus was coming to town they were distressed to think how
narrow the intellectual life of the side-show freaks must be and they
instructed their Field Secretary, Mr. Horace Winterberry, to go to the
side-show and organize the freaks into an Ibsen Literary and Debating
Society. This Mr. Winterberry did and the Tasmanian Wild Man was made
President, but so deeply did Mr. Winterberry fall in love with Syrilla
that he begged Mr. Dorgan, the manager of the side-show, to let him
join the side-show, and this Mr. Dorgan did, putting him in a cage as
Waw-Waw, the Mexican Hairless Dog-Man, as Mr. Winterberry was
exceedingly bald.

At the very next stop made by the circus a strong, heavy-fisted woman
entered the side-show and dragged Mr. Winterberry away. This was his
wife. Of this the ladies of the Riverbank Social Service League knew
nothing, however. They believed Mr. Winterberry had been stolen by the
circus and that he was doubtless being forced to learn to swing on a
trapeze or ride a bareback horse, and they decided to hire Detective
Gubb to find and return him.

At the very moment when the ladies were deciding to retain Mr. Gubb's
services the paper-hanger detective was on his way to do a job of
paper-hanging, thinking of the fair Syrilla he might never see again,
when suddenly he put down the pail of paste he was carrying and
grasped the handle of his paste-brush more firmly. He stared with
amazement and fright at a remarkable creature that came toward him
from a small thicket near the railway tracks. Mr. Gubb's first and
correct impression was that this was some remarkable creature escaped
from the circus. The horrid thing loping toward him was, indeed