San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-03-14
GIANTS MALE AND FEMALE OF AN
GENT AND MODERN TIMES.
The Largest Men and Women Living-Dy-
ing of Old Age at 2O-A Family of
man Feet 10 Inches in Height.

Charles Byrne, mentioned in q former pa
per as being contenporaneous with Cotter,
alias Brien, bore the distinction of being the
only giant that ever appeared on the stage
as an actor in play Byrne, having evinced
hstrionic talent, friend of his Mr.. Will
lam Wicklow, prepared the play known as
The Giants Causeway; or, The Harle-
quin League" the name of which alone
suggests the prominence Of something alb
normal in the cast. Byrne was at this time
q years of age; this was in 1881. Byrne died
a year later at the untimely age of %. At
the time Of his appearance on the stage he
was exactly feet | inch tall and, according
to The British Magazine, had gained another
inch by the end of the year. After death he
measured feet inches The immediate
cause of his death is alleged to have been ex-
cessve drinking, to which, the same author
ity says, he was always more or less addicted
DIsLIEED THE DOCTORS.
Byrne held the medical fraternity in holy
horror. 1t was with great difficulty that he
was prevailed upon to accord an interview
to a half dozen German and French physi-
clans who had travelled from Paris to London
for that express purpose, and not until the
snake charmer the legless freak, the mana
ager and the Arab knife thrower had con.
sented to stay and see him through" would
the big BOBBY consent to the admission of the
of the doctors.
Even i'll death the fear of falling into the
hands of the internal chirurgical frater-
nifty" was uppermost in his mind His last
request was that his remains might be thrown
into the ocean This, some writers say, was
really done The writer in The British Mag
azine says: Accordingly, after the death of
the giant at Cockspur street, Charing Cross,
his body was put on board vessel, conveyed
to the Downs and sunk in twenty fathoms of
water" If this writer narrates the facts as
they occurred sea ghouls must have been on
hand with their divers ready to hoist the de-
funct giant from his watery grave as soon as
safety was assured by the disappearance of
the funeral vessel, for the reason that the
skeleton of the actor giant is now on exhibi
ton at the magnificent museum at Lincoln's
Inn Fields, London, where it has been for the
whole of the time since the death of Byrne,
with perhaps the exception of a week or ten
days, during which time the medical frater-
nifty, headed by the eminent John Hunter,
were negotiating with the friends of the de-
ceased for the purchase of the remains, and
they, the friends, were conducting their mock
sea burial
THE IRISH GIANT, MR.. MAGRATH
In the museum of Trinity college, Dublin,
may be seen the skeleton of the third gigantic
lrishman, Mr.. Magrath, who with Cotter and
Byrne, forms the most remarkable trio in
lrlsL history When Magrath was youth
of Is, having always been very poorly
housed and fed, he came under the watchful
eye of Bishop Berkeley, who was a great be-
lever in the doctrine that food and raiment
have great deal to do with muscular devel-
OPment; presenting to the kindly bishop a
splendid subject for a test of his then curious
belief. Berkeley took charge of the gigantic
youth, I'D. and 7ouriSbod liz GDstrnns