The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1874-01-09
Human DWarfs-HOw they are MAN.
ufactured to Order.

The business of manufacturing dwarfs
by mutilating children, unhappily, was
at one time followed as profession by
body of villains who had reduced it TO
system. In the preliminary chapters
OF "L'Hommie Qui Rit," Victor Hugo
gives an account of the operations of
these persons, which is full of painful
interest They called themselves Com
prachicos," and they labored to supply
the demand which existed couple of
centuries ago, in almost every Europe m
country, for dwarfs and distorted human
beings for the royal palaces and for the
wealthy nobility. The King must have
his misshapen jester; the fine lady her
fantastic page or footman; the nobleman
his hunchback lackey, and even the Sui
tan his grotsque buffoon for the seraglio
The demand was far greater than the
supply afforded by the freaks of nature
and the Conprachieos undertook to
make good the deficiency. They fabri-
Gated monsters upon large scale The
headquarters of the infamous fraternity
were in England, but its ranks were re-
cruited from all countries, and its opera
tions extended to other countries The
organization had its origin, we believe,
in Spain.
The Comprachieos procured children
for their purpose in different ways Som
times there was an heir to as estate who
was in the way of somebody, and he
would be sold into the hands of the or
der to be mutilated 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 quantiti es, the
Comprachicos would kidnap children
for their purpose. Once in their hands,
there was no possibility that the child
could be rescued without mutilation.
Taken VIXEN 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 a
way that the child would have a hump
ed back; or they would leave the dorsal
column straight and alter countenance.
They would cut the muscles so that the
little one would wear q perpetual and
diabolical grin, or would have its face
~ s.,
By peculiar process, the growth of an
other 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 would acquire
unnatuaeal suppleness. These patients
would be sold TO showmen, who would
train them as gymnasts. Sometimes the
throat would be manipulated for the
purpose of giving the child peculiar vo-
cal powers. Charles II. had being thus
mutilated, whose Office it was to move a
round the palace at night, signaling
the hours by growing like cock. A GER
tain DIR. Conquest, of London, wrote a
volume on this kind ofsurgery, in which
he describes the processes as if they had
"a rigfrrruf 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 op-
orators take child of two or three years
old. and put it in proclaim vase of
some odd shape, but without lid or bot
tom, so that the head and feet are ex-
posed. In the daytime the vase is kept
upright; at night it is laid upon its side,
80 that the child may sleep. Thus the
child grows, filling up the spaces of the
vase with its compressed flesh and twist
ed bones. The growth in the bottle
lasts for several years. At a given time
it is without remedy. When the mold
has taken, and the monster is made, they
break the vase, and the child comes out
of it.