Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1873-12-18
Manufactured DWarfs.

The business OF manufacturing dwarfs
by mutilating children, unhappily, was at
one time followed as a profession by
body Of villains who had reduced it to a
system. In the preliminary chapters to
"L'Homme Qui Rit," Victor Hugo gives
an account of the operations of these per
sons which is full of painful interest.
They called themselves 'Comprachicos, a."
and they labored to supply the demand
which existed couple of centuries ago,
in almost every European country, for
dwaris and distorted human beings for
the royal palaces and for the homes of the
wealthy nobility. The king must have his
mishapen Jester; the fine lady her fantas-
tic page or footman; the nobleman his
hunchback lackey; and even the Sultan
his grotesque butfoon for the seraglio.
The demand was far greater than the sup
ply afforded by the freaks of nature, and
the Comprachicos undertook to make
good tn, deficiency. They fabricated
monsters upon a large scale. The head
quarters OF this famous fraternity were in
England, but its ranks were recruited from
all countries, and its operations were ex-
tended to other countries. The organiza-
ton had its origin, we believe, in Spain.
The Comprachicos procured children
for their purpose in various ways. Some
times there was an heir to an estate who
was in the way of somebody and he would
be sold into the hands of the order to be
mutilated beyond recognition. Sometimes
pauper and orphan children would be dis
posed of by relatives who did not wish to
take care of them; and often, again, when
the raw material was not offered in sutti-
cient quantities, the Comprachicos would
kidnap children for their purpose Once
In their hands, there was no possibility
that child could be rescued without
mutilation. Taken when very young,
they were, as Victor Hugo expresses it,
touched up, so that their parents would
not recognize them" Sometimes the
Comprachicos would operate on the spine
in such way that the child would have
bumped back; or they would leave
the dorsal column straight, ana alter the
countenance. They would cut the nus
Giles so that the little one would wear
perpetual and diabolical grin, or would
have its face set permanently IN some
fantastic shape. By a peculiar process
the growth of another would be stunted
so that the child would be dwarf; while
in other cases the joints and muscles of
the limbs would be so treated that they
Woulu acquire unnatufal SupplencSS.
These patients would be sold to showmen
who trained them as gymnasts. Some.
times, also, the throat would be manipu
lated, for the purpose of giving the child
peculiar vocal powers. Charles III. had
being thus mutilated, whose office it was
to move around the palace at night signal
ing the hours by growing like cock. A
certain DR.. Conquest, OF London, wrote a
volume upon this kind of surgery, in
which he describes the processes as if
they had rightful place among the prac-
tices of science.
The Comprachicos were suppressed by
statute under William and Mary Their
counterparts are said, however, to exist
at this day in China. The Chinese oper-
ators take a child of two or three years
old, aid put it in porcelain vase of some
odd shape, hrt without lid or bottom, so
that the head and feet are exposed. In
the daytime the vase is kept upright; at
night it is laid upon its side, so that the
child may sleep. Thus the child grows,
filling up the spaces in the vase with its
compressed flesh and twisted bones. This
growth in the bottle lasts for several
years. At a given period it is without
remedy. When the mould has taken, and
the monster is made, they break the vase,
and the child comes out of it-I0-day