God's children: Josephine Clofullia

 

Josephine Clofullia was a famous "bearded lady" displayed in a travelling show by P. T. Barnum. She was born in a small Swiss village, apparently lived quiet and unremarkable life until her mother died - this was beginning of her involvement with travelling circuses. It was probably a sheer necessity as there were not many options for single women + she had a very unusual handicap that would always isolate her from the society, so the offer of businessman P. T. Barnum was probably the best thing that could happen to her. 

God's children: Margaret Ann Neve

 

This woman is called Margaret Ann Neve at the age of 110 in 1902.⁣ 

She was born in 1792 and died in 1903, making her the first proven person in recorded history who lived in 3 different centuries

God's children: Ida Forsyne

I have stumbled upon this beautiful photo and was instantly captivated by it but had no idea who this person was: a subsequent internet search unearthed a few more details about the identity of this lady. She was indeed a very famous vaudeville dancer Ida Forsyne who had reached the peak of her success before WW1 and was later more or less forgotten. I just found this photo so beautiful that I needed to find more about her.

Apparently Ida starred in a travelling show led by celebrated "Black Patti" Sissieretta Jones so we are talking about earliest opportunities for black performers - she also toured Europe, where she had far bigger success and respect than back home. She even managed to pick up a few Russian dance steps, which created her a dancing sensation and was probably a novelty to see an energetic black lady doing something so exotic on a stage. However, after WW1 she had returned to US just to find her fame slowly disappearing and job offerings diminishing - new fashion trends in Harlem meant that nightclubs prefferred light skinned girls and Forsyne was not fashionable enough. She even went trough gruelling tours with Blues queens Mamie Smith and Bessie Smith where she had a chance to reprise her famous Russian dance routines but experience left her traumatised and she wowed never to tour the South again. Rather than facing the racism, she opted for work outside of show business - later she worked as domestic and elevator girl, living up to 100 years and dying in Brooklyn 1983. In her time, Ida Forsyne was known as "Queen of the Cakewalk".

God's children: Muhammad and Samir

Every now and than a photo found online stop me in the tracks. This was one of them. Surely, we can't always take everything we read online for granted and most of the time its not true anyway - what we know for sure is that this photo was taken by Italian photographer Tancrède Dumas who had worked in the Middle East and had his own photo studio in Beirut, ca 1860. While living and working there, he took some very unusual photo portraits of now completely forgotten and lost world - one of them is this heartbreaking and highly memorable photograph of two unfortunate souls who depended on each other for survival. Various web sites have mentioned their names as Muhammad and Samir - the story goes that one was blind Muslim and another paralyzed Christian and they were beggars who lived as one, sharing whatever lodging and meals they could find, until death eventually separated them and the survivor quickly perished from grief as one could not live without the other. While the story itself is certainly moving and inspirational, we don't need to take it as a literary truth - neither their names or history can not be confirmed but what is certain is that these were two beggars dependant on each other and very probably completely alone in the world. 

The writer in me wants to know everything - who were their parents? Were they both rejected after birth? How did they found each other? Were they raised on some kind of orphanage and than kicked out as they grew up? How did they scramble for the food, survive harsh conditions of being homeless on the streets of Damascus, where did they found a place to sleep, did they comfort each other and wipe each other's tears? It is only a photo from a long gone world but my heart aches for them. If only I could go back in time, I would do everything to make sure they have roof over their heads and decent food, I find this so heartbreaking. Somebody should write a whole novel about them.