The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1885-09-17
A Mountain of Flesh.
DEATH OF THE BIGGEST WOMAN IN
THE WORLD.
From the Philadelphia Times.

From the Philadelphia Times.
Mrs. Emma M. MackIey, who was cred.
tied with being the heaviest woman in the
country, was buried from her home, at 52t
Lombard street. yesterday. She was
known to the amusement public as Mad
anne Victoria. Her advertised weight
was over 0Opounds and her actual weight
about $50 pounds. She was born in Read
ing, Pa, about thirty-three years ago and
was slim and delicate throughout her girl
hood. AT nineteen she weighed about
ninety pounds, but from this age began tC
gradually gain flesh. Between three and
five years ago, when she made an appli.
cation for an insurance policy, she weighed
about $50 pounds. From this time heI
weight increased rapidly, until she gained
| the distinction of being the latest in the
world. This honor was officially conferred
on her at the Fiat Woman's Congress- in
this city last. winter, when she carried of
the first prize,
Aside from her great weight she pos
sessed very pretty and intelligent face
and at the same exhibition received the
second prize for beauty. During that dis
play of ponderous women Madame Vic
toria was for the first time pitted against
her rival in the matter of ayoirdupois,
Hannah Battersby, who, up to that time,
had been considered the heaviest woman in
the world. The official weighing at the
| nucnum hnurnuor orauo fho ohio n ~
to Hannah Battersby's younger rival Ma
dame Victoria first placed herself on exhi-
bition as fat woman in Trenton in 1877
She then made an engagement with Adam
Forepaugh's circus and Travelled with him
for one season. She then exhibited her.
self at New York ..museum and after
leaving there retired for time from pub
lie life and started sailors boarding house
at 526 Lombard street.
When the STAT women's congressn
was held in Philadelphia she was prevailed
upon to enter as a contestant for the prizes.
This was her last public exhibition. Two
years ago. she was placed on exhibition. for
short time at 729 Chestnut street, and
while here sustained an injury that finally
resulted in her death. The platform on
which her chair was placed was hastily
constructed, and the giantess expressed her
fears as to its strength. Soon after she had
mounted the platform the supports gave
way and precipitated her to the floor. In
her fall her ankle was sprained and soon
afterward she was attacked with erysipelas
in the leg. The disease was arrested for
time, but has broken out at intervals since,
and the fatal attack seized her about three
weeks ago.
A week ago last Sunday, Iwhlle suffering
great paiu, she fell out of her bed. A
number. of strong men tried to lift her back
on the bed, but failed They succeeded in
placing her on mattress on the floor, how
ever, where she lay until her death. Her
weight seemed to increase during her Ill
ness and some time before her death meas
urments of several parts of her body were
taken. The circumference of her arm at
the biceps was thirty-six inches. Her
waist measured sixty-two and half inches,
and from shoulder to shoulder she measur-
ed three feet and one half finch. Themes
urement across her hips was just four feet.
On the night of her death it required the
full strength of nine men to carry her body
from the second story front room to the
parlor on the ground floor. Early yester-
day morning crowd of people gathered
around the house, all eager and clamorous
to look on the dead woman. Many of
them were drawn through feelings of love
and gratitude towards the woman as she
had betriended scores of people in the
neighborhood, but the majority of them
came to crafty idle curiosity.
AS the hour of the funeral drew near
Lombard street in the neighborhood of the
house of mourning became blocked with
people, and it was necessary to call out a
squad of police from the Third district to
hold the mob in check. Hundreds file d
through the parlor and looked on the face
of the dead woman, but hundreds more
failed to get near the house.
The body lay in coffin that was proha-
bly, the.largest ever built. 1t was con-
structed Of three inch walnut plank and
was strongly braced on the inside with a
dozen heavy iron bars. 1t was six feet ten
inches wide and three feet deep. 1t was
too large to pass through the door, and
was taken through the wide, single win
dow and carried to the undertaker's wagon
| by twelve stout men.
| There was not hearse in the city large
enough to contain the coffin. The inter-
ment took place at the Odd Fellows ceme-
terry. Her burial was against a wish ex-
pressed by her shortly before her death.
She had morbid fear that her body would
be stolen for the purpose of dissection and
asked that it be cremated. Her husband s
| limited means prevented him from carry
| ing out her wish.
Her husband, who is dapper, good look
ing young man, weighing about 100 pounds
said that his wife never had an extraordi-
nary appetite, and never ate more than
himself. She was active and moved about
the house with as much ease as any person
one-fifth of her weight. DR.. J. Samuel
Ashton, who had been her physician for
the past two years, said that death was
caused by hemorrhages and by blood
poisoning. Her general constitution was
as good as that of any person of ordinary
size. "Many persons of small bones" he
said 'attain an enormous size. There is
no authentic explanation Of the cause OF
this accumulation of adipose matter. In
this case elephantiasis, or thickening OF
the skin had set in on one leg, and in places
the membrane was almost as thick as
leather Madame Victoria. whose nader
name was Harring, was married about
five years ago, OF which time she was not
an unusually large woman. During the
the years that she exhibited herself
as monstrosity her husband acted as bel
manager.
J. R. Donaldson, Green Spring, w. Va.
says in the year 1888 he used Powell's Pre-
pared Chemicals for wheat, and realized
"a bushels per acre. The year before he
got from the same ground only 6 bushels