New Orleans daily crescent., 1860-11-05
GIANTS ARE sHoRr-LrvEDl

of all the tribe OF WQnneTs- Inc pig sLhVsu my
may hide her facial angles behind Shetland ven
| the abino can dye her hair and wear spectacies
the living skeleton may now assume any ssns ns
likes by the help of balloon sleeves anu pe8teps
the dwarf is pefted and kissed, retires WIN fof
time and wife three times his size. TO the giant
alone Is denied alike the pleasure o. retlfealent
and the bliss of connuhal life Is = inlefuicted
from appearance in public except when v m llefe Is
no public to appear IN He pines while living, and
iies Of his own greatness ere half the span of bis
life Is run.
The unmerited neglect of these eminent men has
rendered It rather dficut to procure authentic in-
4 formation respecting them. Sueh little scraps as
have been gotten together are now presented to the
/ pablic.
Ireland has long been famous for producing ex-
otics of this kind and perhaps the largest skele-
ton to be found is that Of 0'Bren Byrne, in the
College of Surgeons. This ambitious young gentle
man came over to England and exhibited himself
as the Irish giant and, having died, was disseoted
and labelled with this title. But at the very time
when he was being converted into an interesting
specimen of osteology, the real OsBrien and real
Irish giant was alive aud IS we'll as giant can Pc
His name was Patrick Cotter, which he bore III
some one persuaded him that he was descendant
Of the farlamed Brien Born, upon which be took
the name of OtBren, and agreed with his friends
that he very much resembied his ancestor. HIS
| genealogy was never very strictly inquired INTO,
and as his father was bricklayer the family must
have lost caste, as well as changed their name He
| was brought over to England BY rascaiiv show
man, who, in erder to eoerce him into signing
fictitious claim for debt: and he would have been
sent to Bristol jail had not an English gentleman,
seeing this simpe-ninded creature in state OF
dire bewilderment and distress, not only rescued
him from the clutches Of the Snowman, but enabled
him to set up for himself, whereby he realized
| thirty pounds in ten days. He continued at this
| work from time to time for twenty five years, and
| then, having realised nice fortune, retired to
Bristol, where two years afterward he died of dis
! ease of the lungs, in his forty-sixth year-thus
reaching the extreme limit Of giants life. The
wonder is that he ever lived SO long; as bis huge
| frame seemed to be only half vitalised. When
he walked he never lifted his feet from the ground
but went shuf1ing along in the most painful man
ner, sometimes resting his hands upon the shoulders
of his companions and when he stood up, he had
4 to put his hands upon the small OF his back. as u
4 his spine wanted keeping in shape.
i il was 0 Bren who frightened the watchman by
i lighting his pipe at streetlamp The man coming
! suddenly upon this appalling spectre at dead of
night, fell down in a ft, and was carried to the
nearest lookup. Another time the giants carriage
i was stopped BY a highwayman, when q Brien put
I bis head out of the window, the terrible highway
man Immediately clapped spurs to his horse and
i fed.
O,Brien was the king Of his tribe, and-as far as
4 was possible for giant-enjoyed life He was
\ wont at times to retire from the busy haunts OF
| man and reside IN mansion near Epping Forest,
| which had once been converted into an lnn He
seems to have been an amiabe, quiet sort Of giant,
and up to the last. loved TO meet his friends over
the cheerful glass and pipe. His stature increased
| till he arrived at the age of twenty live, when his
l growth abated somewhat" (pretty nearly time9
but he continued growing little after that period,
\ till he attained the height of eight feet seven
| inches; his foot being seventeen inches, and his
| hand twelve inches long. He took very good care
I no one should disseet him. for his grave was dug
ten feet deep in the solid rock alter which 1t was
l thoroughly fastened and watched.
| The Irish giant whose skeleton is such striking
/ object in the Museum of the College of Surgeons
1 in London, had very brief career of it. Being
adj al tf1r and hov al
money, he gave himself up to such debanch Ito
| drown care} that his health broke down. and he
died at the age of twenty-five.
1t was believed by his friends that he was buried
at St. Martin sim the Fields and his coffin was GER
tainsy taken there, though he wished that his re-
mains should be sunk in the sea but John Hunter
was determined to have his body, and actually
paid five hundred pounds for it. The skeleton is
eight feet high. 1t is well and strongly made, the
huge frame being quite symmetrical, except that
the neck of thigh bone is longer than the other
the tissue of the bones, however, does not seem to
be SO compact as in other skeletons. Large as the
head looks, there is not more room for brain than
in man of moderate size.
The writer having seen with his own eyes this
skeleton, and having learned that the skeleton Of
this giants great rival lay ten feet deep in the rock
was not little startled by being told that the
skeleton of the irish giant was in the anatomical
room Of Trinity College, Dublin. Sure enough a
giants skeleton ia was there, Of which the fol-
lowing history has been given
The celebrated Berkely, Bishop Of Cloyne, of tar
water memory, in one Of his rainbes found boy
seated on doorstep. apparently in an advanced
stage OF hunger and poverty. Being of beneye-
lent disposition the bishop relieved his necessities
but being also OF philosephic turn of mind, he
subjected this hapless orphan to series Of inter
esting experiments putting him through the same
fattening process by which prize pigs and buocks
are brought to the verge Of suffocation. These
succeeded to perfection; the youth shot up like
scariet-runner, and at l6 years of age was seven
feet high. McGrath Chat was his name) now made
the tour of part of Europe the g Prodigous
irish Giant But the bigger he grew, the more
fatlons and helpless he became. until at last he died
giants death of sheer old age, when little more
than TO.
count of young Irishman Edward Maine, seven
feet six when he nineteen. DR.. Molyneug,
however, told the Society that he measured this
man himself in Dublin, and that he was, at that
early age, seven feet seven without his Shoes 50
We are Indebted to Ireland for four authentic mod
ern giants.
One summer evening, as the writer was passing
through beautiful little burying ground, near
Hanover he observed figure sculptured on a
tombstone, more like q Guy Fawkes than anything
else, except that it had no pipe in its mouth and
stood upright, which of course genuine Guy
could net do Otherwise it had the true tumble
about, helpless, half wide-awake look peculiar to
these creations Of youthful fancy. 1t was the like
ness Of Chrstof Munster, born at Erlosen, near
Munien June, 1882, and defunct at Hanover, Au-
gust 1876 so that he lived almost as long as the
body guards Of the Elector, in which he served
the tasselled cap, long single breasted tunie, and
slashed hose. In the simple and pions eptaph he
ID represented to have been four ellis and half
high. The lowest calculation Of the old German
ell is twentyfonr inches French, but friend ar-
custoned to German measures computed four ellis
and d half at nine feet and ahalf.
He was also given to Lighting his pipe at the
lamps, and had TO stoop down to get at them.
Being object of much solieitude to his paternal
government, he was allowed eight times as much
food as any other person. which he always prompt.
~ disposed Of, to say nothing of loaf or two at
his own cost into the bargain. Having been guilty
of disobedience to his commanding officer, he was
put into the stocks or rather pillory. 1t is need
less TO say that he was congratulated respecting
this distinction by the boys Of the place, who wait
ed in a body upon him for that purpose. AS in
addition to the comfort derived from their very
sympathising remarks, he endured all the discom.
fort Of an extremely cold winters day, (Which in
Hanover meaning something like cold) he resolved
to change his quarters and having by a desperate
effort nproeted the huge pole to which his neck
was chained, he took it his shoulder and walked
| off with 1t TO the nearest public house.
| II Is uncertain whether Belgium or France had
produced real giant, that is to say, something
above seven feet and q half; but Holland gave
birth TO the giant of Utrecht described by both
lDiemerbroek the anatonlist and Mr.. Ray. They
agree In their accounts that he was eight feet and
4 half high, with well-shaped limbs. Leyden pos.
sesses the frontal bone Of 8 man who must have
been nine feet high at least 1t is quite double the
nt the frontal af an