The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-06
SPEAKING OF GIANTS.
Some Accounts of Them From OE
and Goliath TO Jim COrbett.
From the Philadelphia Times.

and Goliath to Jim COrbett.
From the Philadelphia Times.
Was there any giant for Jack to kill?
OF course in our childhood days, we
have been delightfully."- terrorized by Wis
ions of mammoth men against whom Jack
dear, never-to-be forgotten, indomitable,
invincible Jack-made his uever-failing on
slaughts But modern scientists cast the
legend of Jack the Giant Killer into the
limbo of nursery fables and tell us that
there were no such men of the stature
ascribed to the gigantic kings against
whom Jack struggled with lnVariable sue
cess The scientific conclusion recently ad-
vanced leaves no giants TO disturb the
nursery Imagination, and therefore lnfer-
entially proves that there was no JACK 70
kill them. The statement has been serl-
ously made that no man ever lived, and
no man is alive to-day, who exceeded or
exceeds eight feet six inches In hight
complete refutation of this Is presented
by a Copenhagen Colossus, one Lewis VIII
kins, who will appear at the Ninth ana
Arch Streets Museum next week, and who
is automatically the tahest man on earth.
This is no advance agent story, but VIII
kins is such a remarkable piece of hu-
man statuary that he is worth talking
about as an illustrative refutation of sci
entists conclusion and a delightful con-
tirmation of tales of the cradle. Lewis
wilkins measures eight feet six and three
quarter inches-the advance agent says
lin his stocking feet'-but We will elm
mate that customary proposition as to
mans stature and give him that altitude
regardless of the stockings. He wears a
1878 hat, a Is glove, q % shoe, 26 collar
and weighs 1865 pounds. II is true that
these measurements do not Size up with
the giants of the pages of the Bible and
of fiction, but it Is also true that there Is
no credible or authentic record of there
ever having lived a man of the stature
credited to Wilkins.
We are told in the Bible that the bed
stead of Og, King of Basham, was nine
cubcs long which in English measure Is
1917 feet Goliath of Gath, who was slain
by David stood six cubits and span tall
about eleven feet. The body OF Orestes,
according to the Greeks was 1112 feet long.
Pliny described Gabbaras who was
brought to Rome from Arabia by Claudius
Caesar, as being between nine and ten
feet in hight and adds that the remains
of Posio and Secundilla, found in the reign
of Augustus Caesar, in the Sallustian gar
dens, measured ten feet three inches each.
Herodotus says that the shoes OF Perseus
measured an equivalent of about three
feet English standard Josephus tells of
EleaZar who was nearly eleven feet high.
Saxo, the grammarian, mentions giant
1917 feet high. Ferragus who was slain
by Roland, the nephew of Charlemagne,
was said 10 have been nearly eleven feet
high There are fabulous stories of the
Emperor Macmillan. Some accounts say
that he was between Sl2 and feet high,
ana used his wlfes bracelet for finger
ring The Emperors Jovianus and Charlie
magne are also credited with great hight.
The naturalist Turner Saws that on the
river Plata, near the Brazilian coast, he
saw naked sayages twelve feet high, ana
in his description of America, Heyenot
confirms this by saying that he saw the
skeleton of a savage giant who was
eleven feet five inches in hight.
There have been numerous accounts of
the finding of human bones which belong
ed to giants ranging from twenty to thir-
ty-six feet in hight but comparative anat-
omy has punctured the stories by proving
conclusiveiy that the bones were those or
mastodons, elephants and other animals.
Modern scientists are slow to believe that
any men ever existed who measured over
nine feet, and "a comparison OF the stature
OF Giant wilkins was those Of whom any
authentic record exists reveals his suprem-
acy over all other giants ancient and mod
ern In fact, Quetelet considers that the
tallest man whose stature is authentical-
Iy recorded was the Scottish Giant" of
Frederick the Greats regiment OF giants
He was not quite feet inches tall. From
the original estimate of the hight of Adam
CHenriot once calculated that Adam hight
was 1913 feet and that of Eve 11s), we grad
ually come to 10 feet, which seemed to be
the favorlte hight of giants in the mid
die ages. Approaching this century, we
still have stories OF men from to 10 feet
high, but no authentic cases. 1t was only
in the latter part of the last century that
we began to have absolutely authentic
nights of giants, and to-day the men show
ing throughout the country as measuring
feet genrally exaggerate their hight sew
eral inches, and exact measurements would
show that but few men commonly called
pounds.
Dana says that the number of giants
figuring as public characters since 1790
does not exceed 100. only about twenty
of them were advertised as being over
eight feet. If we confne ourselves to