Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-07-03
A Gigantic Nlnrriage.


From the Pail Mall Gazette.1
When giant meets giantess then comes the
tug of love. marriage between two persons
whose combined height, to use the arithmetical
method generally adopted by newspapers where
the bride and bridegroom are of advanced age
or of particularly tender years, would approx
mate to that oftwo lamppostS placed one upon the
top of the other, is an event which cannot be
properly appreciated save by such an enterpris-
ing soul as Barnum. Something similar NAV
be common enough in Patagonia but in this
country 1t is an incident almost as rare and in
teresting as the birth, at the Geological gardens
of an infant hippOpotamus. For the celebration
of the ceremony il was only right that the royal
parish church of st. Martin s-in-the Fields
| should be chosen; and those happy beings who
| this morning saw sixteen feet of humanity
| made one flesh will be able with reason to boast
to their posterty that they were witnesses of
| a sublimer sight, or, as Americans would say, a
taller spectacle, than any royal family in the in
habited world could offer. Giants are known to
be weak, especially in the knees; and from the
days Of Polyphemus they have always been very
susceptible of the tender passion. But poor Poly
phemus could cast but single Sleeps eye,
and couldn't find anybody taller than Galatea
upon whom to cast it. Our giant who was this
morning married in our royal parish was more
fortunate. He and his giantess met-at pub
lie exhibition-and loved. The giant proposed
and was accepted; and this morning Miss Anna
Swan, 1.-THE tallest person known to exist" was
joined together in wedlock with Captain Martin
Van Buren, Bates, whose Christian name NAV
have suggested the idea of comforting such
distinction as has been conferred upon the
church of st. Martin s-in-the-Felds. 1t is GER
tainly a case of matrimony in eIcelSiS; and the
curious occupy their thoughts in guessing upon
what grounds the union was contracted. 1t may
have been case of true love, of which the
course undoubtedly ran high, if it did not run
smooth. 1t may have been due to a sense of
symmetry and fitness; for it is easy to conceive
that each, at the first glance, must have felt
made for the other, and that the gallant captain
must have muttered,' in the words of Geraint
"Here by Gods grace is the one maid for me-"
Or it may have been, as the cynical will perhaps
suggest, marriage of cold calculation; for a
marriage is Of itself an advertisement and a
bride is always, for some inexplicable reason, a
more interesting spectacle than a spinster or a
matron. 1t would be an unwarrantable liberty
to pronounce an opinion about the cause which
has produced SO remarkable union, and, be-
sides it would be too late, for by this time they
have taken one another for better or worse, for
shorter or taller
The hour fixed for the solemnity was eleven
A. NJ, and the affair having got wind there
was, long before the momentuous question was
put by the priest, gOodly company of those
spectators to whom any kind of wedding is al
ways gratifying, and a monster wedding a Joy
forever. Perhaps crowned heads or dwarfs
would have commanded a larger concourse; but
multitudinouS, nevertheless, were the ewes
bridegrooms coming. AT quarter to eleven
exactly he arrived, and walked composedly up
to the altar. He did not wear the uniform of
that corps of Anakim in which he is understood
to hold captains commission, but an ordinary
dress, If we exclude an exceedingly blue tie.
AT ten minutes to eleven load whispers, sue
ceeded by a dead silence, announced the ap-
proach of the bride, who-pd.e of face and clad
in a few acres of "white samitc, mystic, won
derful," and with her veil thrown back-moved
nc oil hor
circumference admitted Of, M the nave, stood
in front of her affianced hes and, and looked
down upon him from her superior eminence
with the ghastly smile proper to the OCCASION
She had been preceded by the "two-headed
nightingale combination" whose misfortune
naturally caused buzz a. Comment and much
hilarlty. The service . ;Id amid reveren-
tial scene Of whispering, 4iggling, and climbing
over pews; and when it was over the usual
signing OF names appeared to occupy much
more than the legitimate time. AS the reason
could not be the length of the names, which by
no means corresponds with that of the owners,
one is driven to the conclusion that children of
Anakim, like some other great folks, find writ.
ing laborious and difficult operation. At last
however, the pair of T,tans emerged from the
vestry and strobe arm-in-arm, followed by the
sympathizing combination" and accompanied
by the strains of the wedding march, to meet
the plaudits of the outside crowd. At II rs all
was over. 1t were rash to dip into the future;
hut one cannot help seeing that if, when giants
marry gantesses, the result is giant and
giantesses, there has this day been taken
a step which will shortly ruin the business"