The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1873-12-18
Manufactured DWaFfs.

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The business Of manufacturing
dwarfs by mutilsting children, uG-
happily, 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'H0mme
Qui Rit, " Victor Hugo gives an ae-
count of the operations of these per
sons which is full Of painful interest
They call themselves "Compraehi-
COS" and they labored to supply the
demand which existed a couple of
centuries ago, in almost every Euro
pean country, for dwarfs and distort-
ed human beings for the royal pala-
ces and for the homes of the wealthy
nobility. The king must have his
misshapen jester; the fine lady her
fantastic page or footman the noble
man his hunchback lackey; and even
the Sultan his grotesque buffoon for
the seraglio. The demand was far
greater than the supply afforded by
the freaks Of nature, and the Com
prachicos undertook to make good
the deficiency. They fabricated mon
sters on large scale. The head. quar-
ters of this Infamous fraternity were
in England, but its ranks were re-
eruited from all countries, and its Op-
erations were extended to other coun-
tries. The organization had its ORR
gin, we believe, in Spain.
The Comprachicos procured chill
dren for their purpose in various
ways. Sometimes 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 mutila-
ted beyond recognition. Sometimes
pauper and orphan children would be
disposed of by relatives who did not
wish to take care of them and often,
again, when the raw material was
not offered in sufficient quantities,
the COmpraehicos would kidnap chill
dren for their purpose. Once in their
hands, there was no possibility that a
child could be rescued without mutt
latiOn. Taken when very young,
they were, as Victor Hugo expresses
it, touched up so that their parents
would not recognize them" Some
times the ComprachicOs would Ope-
rate on the spine in such way that
the child would have a bumped back;
or they would leave the dorsAl col
umn straight, and alter the eOunte-
nance. They would cut the muscles
so that the little one would wear a
perpetual and diabolical grin, or
would have its face set permanently
in some fantastic shape. By peeul-
lar process the growth of another
would be stunted so that the child
would be dwarf; whiis III 9SmgI III, I'M ESz SSs
would 6eiRts aAdt. aAdt.G WIint mat thew would
acquire unnatural suppleness. These
patients would be sold to showmen,
who trained them as gymnasts.
Sometimes, also, the throat would be
manipulated for the purpose of Civ
ing the child peculiar vocal powers.
Charles III. had being thus mutila-
ted, whose Office it was to move
around the palace at night signaling
the hours by Growing like cock. A
certain DIR. Conquest, of London,
wrote q volume npon this kind Of
surgery, in which he describes the
processes as If they had rightful
place among the practices 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 operators take child of two
or three years old, and put it in por-
celain vase of some odd shape, but
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 q
given period it is without remedy.
When the mould has been taken, and
the monster is made, they break the
vase, and. the child comes out of it.