Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-10-26
Mr.. and Mrs. Tom Thumb at Home

The Rev. w. II. Adams, of Massachu-
sets, has written letter describing
visit to the home near Middleboro'. Mass.
of the world -renown dwarfs, General and
Mrs. Tom Thumb, in which he saws:
The public are not admitted to their
sumptuous home. Only few favorite
friends, who its proprietors are confident
will appreciate the privilege, are received.
1t IS three-story wooden mansion, taste
fully painted, with p1azzas and bay win
dows commanding an extensive view of
variegated scenery, with the dome and
spires OF Middleboro' in the distance, and
having the air Of luxury. A Scotch maid
announced us, who subsequently told one
OF the ladies that they could not help low
ing Mr.: and Mrs. Stratton, who were al
ways kind and seeking to make them
happy. The general gave us a hearty
welcome and ushered us into an elegant
drawing room, adorned with Italian and
Chinese paintings, and portrait of his
father, who died some years since at
Bridgeport, Conn.,, where the family still
reside. On the marble center table Law
large family Bible alone. Chairs and
sofas were all adapted to persons of
ordinary size, and nothing in this story
of the mansion suggested its owners
Wee-ness, save in the library, replete with
bric-a brac and articles ST virtu from all
the world, souvenirs of travel, where
child's rocking chair of black walnut re-
ceives the little madam, while her guests
occupy ordinary seats during the halt
hour in which the general kindly exhibi-
ted article after article, from Masonic
apron hundred years old to an elephant
carved from a tusk, but whose tusks
alone of the whole animal, were not
ivory but of brass. To curiously carved
walking stick surmounted by long
bearded head with great glass eyes, they
have given the name of "David" from
tancied resemblance to the sweet psalmist
OF Israel. Mrs. Stratton, pointing to an
elegantly carved set of East India chess
men, remarked her fondness for the game,
and (archly and with the generals good
humcred response) her husbands dislike,
because, .'modestly I say it, I always
beat him.
We could we'll appreciate her assertion
"that the general and she had always got
along we'll together" He is forty years
old, and four years her senior. He now
weighs seventy-fve pounds, having
weighed fifty pounds at fifteen years Of
age. "But," said he, II began life a
good big boy of six pounds" Going up
stairs we felt inclined to be so unman-
nerly as to take two steps at time, for
the stairs of both flights seemed but four
or five inches in height; but we were not
so exalted above measure as thus to indi-
cate our own pedal superiority. At the
head of the first flight, in the sewing
room stood the diminutive Wheeler and
Wilson sewing machine, wedding pres
ent, fifteen years ago, from that firm, who,
at their own expense, caused this exquis-
itely pearl-lnlaid plaything to precede the
little travellers in every land they visited
around the globe. 1t is plavthing in
size alone, Mrs. Stratton making it do
good service to the present day. In the
front entry over the entrance was the
generals grand piano, about two feet
high, one of his pastors fingers striking
three of the keys at once, and with diff
Guilty covering only one. It was made
in England, and cost $500, being inlaid
with pearl and richly gil6ed and enam-
eled. But the general was "out of prac-
tice," indeed, chad given up playing al
together"
Perhaps our greatest treat was the in
spection of their own apartment. Hero
we're the Penates. Admitted into the
penetralia, we may be permitted to write
that everything is adapted to themselves
alone. Bureau, cabinet, dressing table,
sofa,. chairs and bed were all diminutive;
the last deliberately carved from ebony.
and richly eanopied in damask and lace,
a gift from his father