Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1889-01-20
GIANTS OF OLD.
DO YOU BELIEVE THAT ADAM WAS 1873
PBBT TALL!
An Italian GIRL More Than Ten Feet High and Still
GrUwiDg-0ther Big People Seen Before the
Invention Of Dime Museums.
John W. Wright in 81. Louis Republic.

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sntediluvian humanity far exceeded their
descendants Of these later dsys, both in
physical strength aud stature.
NJ. Henricon, member Of the French
Academy of Sciences, published work in
the year 1718, larger part of which was
given up to the past aud present coadi-
tions of the human family. In the course
of his arguments he proves, to his own
satisfaction at least, that we have grad
ually degenerated from colossal specimens
of flesh and sinew TO almost microscopic
specks in comparison.
The dignifed position of the learned
Henricon demands for his views all due re-
spect, but who of the present generation
could be induced to believe that Adam,
the first landlord of creation, was 1913 feet
and 8 inches high? Yet, in the course of
bis reasoning, he proves This in satisfac
tory way both DO himself and his col
leagues Eve" says this learned NJ. d,
was splendid helpmate to her giant hus'
baud, but was not nearly so tall, being
but 118 feet inches and 8 lines" What
q number OF fig leaves it must have taken
to make this pair their first aprons
The nearer homs this learned French
man gets the milder he besOmes. Noah, he
says, was but 81 feet high, hardly one
fifth the height Of Adam, yet only one
ninth in direct descent from the gigantic
first pair; what falling off in stature 10
few thousand years! At a similar rate of
degeneration, we of the nineteenth cen
tury would have been bu. ss plant lice in
point of eize, he'd not HenIicorn taken it
rpOn himself to hsve a mans average
height fixed at the time of the birth of
Christ at feet y inches. His views On
the stature Of other a0tediluvian pa'ri-
srchs, however, are quite interesting.
Abraham and Noes, he says, while
small in comparison to their forefsthers,
were, in fact, giants in point of stature 70
any human that has existed since the birth
of the Saviour, the former being 30 feet in
height, while the latter, as if TO foreshsdow
the coming man, wss but Is feet inches
The Scriptural references TO giants are
quite numerous; most noticeable, those
two exaggerated heathens, Goliath, thu
champion Philistine OF Gath, and OF, the
Amoritish King of Bashan.
Goliath, according TO Scriptural &C
counts, was a swaggering braggsrt and
well merited the treatment received at the
hands of David of sling-shot fame, who,
preparatory to meeting the stall fed heath
en-, selected five smooth stones from the
brook, and so uneriing was his aim
the frat stone hurled from this
pocket cataput killed ''his tall
ness" as dead as if he had met broad
side from Zalinski's dynamite gun. The
height Of this ill-starred giant ia generally
set down as 'six cubits and span" Tine
cubit was % inches, the span four inches,
which would have given him height of
alb )ut II feet inches, if measured by the
rules in vogue to-day. Og, King of Blshsn,
reignsd over 90 cities 1893 years ago. We
are lett completely in the dark as TO the
actual height Of o., all estimates having
been inside from his bedstead, which was
of iron, 10 feet long and six feet wide.
Surely such piece Of furniture was never
calculated for the resting-place of a dwarf,
even of the third class.
Biblical accounts. like those Of NJ. Hen
ricOrn, are wholly indefinite and are Only
given as a scr, Of connecting link betHesn
semi-historic and modern accounts of
abnormal humanity.
According to Plutarch, the grave Of An
teus wac opened by order of Serbonius.
and finding there his skeleton, full 90
cubits long, wa greatly sstonished thereat,
ordered the tomb TO be closed, gave bis
! confirmation 10 the story, and added new
lustre to the fame of the wrestling giant"
In Crete an earthquake disclosed the
bones OF giant, OF whom Pliney gives
full description. Some" he says
"belisve the bones to be those of Orion;
others those of Otus; a. any rate, he must
have been monstrCus man during life, as
his skel, ton, after the lapse of years,
measured 46 cubits without the skull.
Passing ever many details of semi-his-
toric giants, we descend to the more GER
tain evidences Of later date. The body
of Orestes, according to the Greeks, was
liz feet in height. The Arabian giant,
Galbara, who made such a sensation in
Rome during the reign Of Claudius Cesar,
was 8 feet s inches in height, however
weak and puny.
Secondillo and Pufo, two gardeners Of
Sallust attained height of feet each.
Goropius, while making his celebrated
tour, saw girl of II in Italy who was
over 10 feet in height, well proportional
end still growing. Her father and mother
were quite small, even smaller than the
average of their race. The mother was 48
years old when this prodigy Was born. At
birth the child was not abnormal in size
or in any other way with the single ex-
caption of her forearms being as plisbe as
ropes, admitting of bending in any direc-
ton Sithout the slightest degree of pain.
Maximin, who was proclaimed emperor
in the year 236 A. D., was 8 feet 4 inches
in height He was originally shepherd
in Thrace; a cruel, brave man from natural
bent. hs attracted the attention of Emperor
Severius, who made him a general; lOOr
afterwards he became emperor
Yupman Calso written Funnaman) lived
during the reign Of Pope Eugenius III. At
birth he YVES Of the regulation eize, grew
a, other children during the first and sec
ond years of his existence, then shot up to
the size Of the average msn before the end
of his seventh year. At 10 he YVES feet
2 inches in height celebrated far and near
for his prodigious strength, his favorite
amusement being his visits to the butchers
stalls twice a week, where he would aston
ish all beholders by snappirg the neck Of
an OK by catching him by the horns ard
giving his head a sharp angular twist.
Bending an iron bar three inches in diam
eter by placing the centre of the bar across
the back OF his neck and tugging at the
q Two ends with his enormous hands until
they met in horseshoe shape before his face
was another feat often performed at coun'
| try gatherings.
, On several occasions he was known to
lift the largest-sized OK over five wicker
gate in spite of its frantic efforts to escape
from this human prodigy; at another time
he is said to have carried "a bull Of four
years" 300 PAGES on his back with ye
bulls puny legges dangling downe bye
either side of his mopsterous chest.
At the age of % Yunman injured his