The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-03-08
He WAS A QUEER GIANT.
No Wonder People Marveled at the
Late Col. Ruth Goshen.

from HS NStO 1OIh sui.
Col. Ruth Go hen, Barnum's biggest
RANT. whose odd funeral, with its attend
ant difficulties to the undertaken, was
recently described was q picturesque
figure diurng the latter years of his
life for miles on every side of New
brunswick. Not only his conspicuous size
and his widespread circus reputation, but
his remarkable invention when applied to
stories of his own adventure, made him a
constant topic of conversation.
AT home. o his farm at Clyde, he contin-
ually had crowds of circus people, show
men and freaks OF all de -crlptions visiting
him. Amo these were always sure to be
sorne Pretty WON II, who frequently turned
ont to be gvmnasts, living ca non balls and
bareback riders. Indeed, for several sum-
mels the town of Middiebush, near where
the colonel's farm lay, was sort OF train
ing ground for such of these folks as lacked
engagements, but desired to keep up their
skill and strength for future exhibitions
before possible employers.
At first it caused some surprise, not
to say dismay, to the quiet.a neighbor
hood whose only occupation was farm z,
and who biggest Sc Element did not boast
a store, to see a rosy young woman with
streaming hair and tossing skirts, standing
upon the back of horse galloping wildly
down LDt N6N ID uuoWANh btll ii lac. Anu lu6
remarkable agility of Prof. This and Seignor
That in leaping over a horse wi hout touch
ing it. or leaning upon the back of galop-
ing horse to pick up handkerchief in the
road. excited an admiration in the farmers
bows that resulted in numerous broken
limbs before they discovered that they
themselves were not built that way. After
awhile, though, the farmers got used to all
thst, and, finally, nothing that ever hap
4 fA ava Of II
Goshen surpri ell them.
The colonel,s marital adventures were
equally matter of much gossip. He had
tn ee wives altogether, every one of whom
ran away, and from each of whom he OBJ
tanned papers of separation or divorce.
This became a chestnut too, OTTER fes
wears, and fad the col mel a nounced his
marriage to Queen Victoria ore day and
his divorce from her the next it is probable
that affair would only have caus d
comm nplace gossip. Astonishing things
were exp cted from Col. Goshen. 1t is prob
able that few months of utter calm
his affairs might have produced some sem
satiOn.
With all this the people of Middlebush
and its twin mmu lity, Clyde, were
nightly proNd of tneir big fellow citizen.
He was so big that. as a worthy neighb r
put it, Though you'd seed him every day
for ten years, the rex time you'd clap your
ewes on him you'd think all over axiA that
he was alnighty big" 1t was his custom
TO ride over the country on Fl e days and
tell yarns To gaping crowds. Tno1, when
ever,a fel ow cltiz nh opened to drop into a
place the colonel had visited he at once be-
came a lion and treated the crowd to end
less stories of the giants home life.
On these excursions around the country
the big fellow uaed always to appear in
rig that would We attracted attention in
itself for its oddity, but which, as the &C
compartment of ma of astonishing ap-
pearance, literally dazzled the eyes of be-
holders. Il was a low, wide wagon with
small wheels sraddling over good deal Of
road, and had single uDcovei ed seat. 1t
was drawn by two small mules. arnessed
with some attempt at dis LAY. The colonel
always wore q scarlet plush jack. on THESE
occasions, which served to highten thu
effect of his size by rendering him more
conspicuous. He wore black ombrero,
with a brim a foot wide, ard carried a
long-lashed drover's whip, which he used to
crack with considerable skill The scat of
the vehicle seemed enormously broad TO
such a pigmy as the average New
it so com. letely that there was no
room left for the tiny colored boy
that invariably accompanied him
10 tie the mules when the colonel alighted,
and do other mental duty. So the diminu-
tive colored boy invariably shared the floor
of t e wagon with the giants feet, ami kept
his seat by clasplng both arms around the
coloneps enormous left leg. The show, so
made up, caused no end Of astonish .nent
wherever it appeared. 1t was a well-known
sight in New Brunswick, and was not un-
known in Kingston, Rocky Hill, and even
Princeton.
On these driving excursions it was the
giants delight to stop at a country hotel
under the pretense of giving his mules a
rest, and SIT down on the porch or in the
baToOm. He seldom drank. When he did
he seemed to know no difference between
the ripest of apple and the most fiery and
disreputable lightning known to Jersey. 1t
was not whisky the colonel wanted, it was
an opportunity to exercise his powers as a
racOnteur to an appreciative audience.
Around home the people sprinkled too much
salt upon ms stories to suit the Coloneps
taste. They knew MIN there. But back N
the country, seated upon bench (he couldn't
get INTO the ordinary barroo n arm chair,
he at once had score or more of gaping
countrymen about him, who paid him
the utmost respect and swallowed his
stories whole Then the colonel's broad
lace W. uld beam, his eyes would sparkle.
his great arms would gest ure with grac9
learned in the sawdust ring, and wonderful
tales OF his gallant charges on Mexican bat
tlehelds, astonishing adve lures In Arabia,
In Africa, In the wllds of South America,
and IN foreign courts flowed ell quently
from his lips. He told of duels with giai is,
none OF whom was quite as large as he, in
which he was always victor. He gave ac-
curate weights and measurements of the
arms he had welded in battlefield and
forest He told astonishing stories Of
norses OF wonderful size that kings sought
lar and wide for him to rid.
One story, which he told with great effect
on many occasions, illustrates the lengths
OF Imagination to which the giant was ac-
customed to to go, and the degree of guilt
Dill Y which he expected his audiences
when l was i'll Brazil. he used to begin,
with great impressiveness, "the natives
used frequently to come in from the swamps
with accounts of a wonderful snake which
they called the 'scarl serpent He
was eight feet long and of a dazzi &
red That shone even in the night. He
was not poisonous. but almighty DANGER
GUS his eyes were his power. They
were large and protruded from his head.
lhose who had, to their cost, met the SER
Pents gaze, toldme that they never could tell
the color Of the makes eyes. IL was some
thlng brilliant and awful-they never could
getauy further than awful. There they stop
PED and shuddered. Every one of these men
came out of the encounter blind. That was
the snakes power. His awful eyes, when
once they met other eyes, whether of man
or beast at short renge, instantly destroyed
,he slght. was thus the snake protected