Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1890-09-11
GREAT BIG PEOPLE.
GIANTS WHO HAVE EXCITED
THE WORLDS CURIOSITY.
The Part Large Men and Women
Have Played as Court Favorites-A
Dwarf in a Giants Pocket.

Giants are rare, although showmen
say that such as pose in the various mus
Gums are plentiful and their pay is small
An extraordinary man or woman has
always been a curiosity.
At all times and in all countries, saws
the Irish Times, kings and mobiles had a
fancy for including among their retainers
either giant ora dwarf, sometimes both
Frederick the Great had his corps of
gigantic grenadiers; and in the Tower of
London may be seen q lance and some
enormous armor of sixteenth century
work which doubtless belonged to some
giant knight or trooper of the Kings
bodyguard.
James l. had attached to his person a
porter named Walter Parsons, common
ly called the Staffordshire giant, hand
some, brave and strong young man, who
had begun life as farrier His height
was Z feet inches, and his portrait ex-
lists, engraved by Glover. Parsons lived
on into the reign of Charles l., and was
succeeded by another giant, William
Evans, two inches taller than his predc-
cessor
1t is curious fact that the population
of France has rarely produced a giant; :;
Great Britain, Germany, Poland and
Switzerland carry off the palm; and this
may perhaps be attributed to the pre-
valence in France of vegetarian diet,
which does not tend to develop the mus
Gle as does the stronger diet of meat
The eighteenth century, to judge by
contemporary letters and newspapers,
seems to have been more than usually
prolific in giants and giantesses.
Horace Walpole mentions giant and
giantess who were on view respectively
at Spring Gardens and Half-Moon Court,
Ludgate Hill. They were both, it seems,
handsome and well proportioned persons,
and without the usual ungainliness pecu-
liar to their kind. At this time also
appeared young Italian giantess seven
feet in height, ''who was the admiration,
said the hand-bills, "of the Emperor of
Germany, of eight kings of Europe and
of the grand Czar of Moscow himself"
Her appearance seems to have been
followed in 1742 by that of Caanus, the
famous Swedish giant, commonly called
the ''living colossus" who came over to
England and established himself at
house opposite the Mansion House. He
was a son of a pastor of a little village IN
Finland, and stood feet inches in his
socks.
In 1855 London was visited by another
Italian giant, named Bernardo Gigli, or
Gill, who measured feet in height, and
seems to have created an immense sensa-
ton by the colossal proportions of his
limbs.
But no giant ever created such a furor
as did Charles Byrne, the Irish giant,
who was feet 8 inches in height, and
possessed of enormous strength. He was
clever and shrewd and full of the natural
wit of his mother country; but unfortu-
nately the large fortune he rapidly gained
by the exhibition of himself led him
into habits of gluttony and intemper-
ance, and he died at the early age Of
twenty-five, leaving instructions that his
body was to be buried at sea; but the
College of Surgeons in some way obtained
his corpse for the sum of $500, accord
ing to certain reports, and the skeleton
was ''set up" in their museum by William
Hunter, the famous anatomist.
Shortly after Byrne's death another
Irish giant exhibited himself in London,
He was so attenuated that, tall as he was,
he appeared even taller. His height was
s feet inches. Feeble and debilitated
in health, he could only walk by support.
ing himself on the shoulders of two tall
men walking in front of him, resting a
hand on the shoulder of each. Many
amusing stories are related of him. One
evening, at Masonic dinner, he took
out of his pocket the celebrated dwarf,
Count Berulauski, and set him upon the
table, to the astonishment of ALL
Some time after, while staying at Bath,
he nearly terrified night watchman out
of his wits by taking off the top of a
treet-lamp and lighting his pipe with
the flame.
He was of an amiable and gentle dis
position, but not remarkable for any in
tellectual capacity. Since his day to the
present time London has only seen four
giants of any abnormal height or Size
namely, James Tolees, feet inches in
height, in 1919; Scott, Chang and Herr
Wickelmeir. the Bavarian giant
OF giantesses, Miss Scott and Pauline
Marie Elizabeth Wedde are the only CO.
lossal ladies who have astonished the
eyes of the sightseeing world. The
latter, called the Queen Of the Amazons,
was born at Ben Rendorf, in Thuringia,
on the 31st of January, 1866, and intro
duced to the London public at the Al
hambra in piece entitled "Babil and
Bijou." She was good looking and of a
handsome, well-proportioned figure and
measured about feet 4inches in height