Barnum and Bailey, and many other circuses, fascinated the dullest, most gullible minds of their day, playing them for suckers, by dragging out every imaginable freak they could find and promising entertainment for a nickel. People shows up in droves to see these freaks. Anyone too tall, too short, too ugly, too strange to make it in the real world using real talent to serve the public was preyed upon, placed in cages behind curtains, and exploited for the amusement of the mindless.