The Globe-republican., 1890-03-12
AN AUSTRIAN clANTEss.

AN AUSTRIAN GJAN1ESS.
She Is xix Feet SIX and Weighs 500 Pounds
ut tho Age Of Eleven.
The most famous child in the German
empire just now is Elizabeth Lyska.
Every German daily has told its read
ers how she looks and acts. how much
she eats and drinks and what kind oil
clothes she wears. All Berlin is calling
upon her. as all Vienna called upon
her when she was ut the Austrian
capital. Professors and officers and
doctors and privy councillors and other
German big-wigs are received by her
daily. Even the great Virchow passed
several hours with her. chatted with
her Familiarity, and eventually wrote
an elaborate description and biography
of her, which he will read soon before
the AnthropOlogical society of Berlin.
Elizabeth is getting all this atten-
ton, not because she is pretty or clever.
but because she is big. According to
Virchow. she is the biggest girl of her
years whom Europeans of modern
times have seen. Though but eleven
years old she is six feet six inches
tall and weighs about three hundred
pounds.
Elizabeth was born on the Manor
Wiessolyj IN the valley of +hn Danube.
Her parents were poor ants. not
taller nor broader than OtI,... peasants.
She was the youngest of five children,
If ,yh hausalf 10 vl<-
ably large. Four hours after her birth
she weighed ten pounds. She grew as
other children grow till she was four.
years old. Then she began to be a lit
tie giantess. In her fifth year she
gained ten inches in height. She out
grew her blue cotton gowns and wooden
shoes SO rapidly that Papa Lyska. who
was trying to support Mamma Lyska
and four other little Lyskas on some
thing over 500 a year. was put to his
wits ends to get money enough to keep
her decently clothed.
From her fifth to her ninth birthday
she grew only an inch or two. Be-
tween her ninth and tenth birthdays
she gained foot; between her tenth
and eleventh IL foot and four inches.
She could pitch hay, cut grain. pillow,
and dig potatoes with any man on the
manor. Her hand was as large as
three ordinary feminine hands and her
arm was capable of terrible blow.
With an open-handed cuff over the ear
she once knocked a young man who
leased her senseless to the ground.
: Her appetite became enormous. For
breakfast she took several cups OF
coffee, seven or eight thick slices of
black bread, almost pint of honey.
and half dozen pieces of the fruit in
season. For dinner she often ate a
pound and half Or two pounds of
pork, five or six potatoes. and other
vegetables in correspondingly large
quantities.
While her increasing appetite and
size were playing ducks and brakes
with the meager income of the Lyska
family her father died. His widow was
almost penniless. Some one suggested
that the young giantess might be turned
to financial account. A Vienna man.
ager of freaks was brought to the
manor to look at her. He agreed to
pay Elizabeth salary which in a week
would buy the Lyska family more blue
cotton gowns and wooden shoes and
black bread and honey than they could
use up in a year. Frau Lyska said
'All right" Elizabeth was immedi.
ately put on exhibition and within two
weeks was famous throughout the two
German empires.
Elizabeth is handsome. She has
long, dark, brown wavy hair, large,
dark eyes, clean-cut features, and
white teeth. Her figure is shapely,
though somewhat immature. She has
a very fetching smile, which has made
her the object of all sorts of attention
from light-headed young men. Three
students OF law, an elderly man who
pretended to be a Freiherr, and any
number of young tradesmen have
written her love-letters. Ten of her
correspondents were willing to wait for
her to ''grow up" if she were not al
ready willing to love them. Elizabeth.
however, is too childish still to be even
amused by this one-sided correspond
ence. She is contented to play with
her dolls, and paper puzzles, and pict-
ure-bOoks while not on exhibition for
the benefit of the rest of the Lyska
family. She is altogether happy and
satisfied with ner new life on the stage.
Her appetite, strength and height are
increasing slowly. She takes gymnas-
tic exercises daily to develop her mus
cles. Already che is able to perform
easy feaos of strength. In time hey
manager thinks she will be the
champion strong woman as well as the
champion big woman of the world
Chicago Times.
A SENSIBLE WEDDING.