The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-06-02

couraging giants and giantesses to marry.
One per cent will be given away thus
each year. :, One couple, selected every
tWelvemonth, will therefore receive the
neat and comfortable gum of $4,000, q
nestegg with which to commence house
keeping and with which to. support the
little giants and giantesses which the
stork may happen tosdrop down the calm
ney. The fund has been bequeathed to
the city and the principal will last in
definitely.
AZ matrimonial agency for giants only
will be Immediately established in Rouen.
There a board of medical men will ex-
anime candidates who apply. The health
lest couple presenting themselves will an
snuaEy be lchosen FOR rswedIock,7 probably
under the guarantee that offspring appear
within reasonable length Of time
Not at all romantic, to- be sure, does
such a method Of mating appear to be at
first blush. In view of the natural law
of attraction between opposites, it woul
seem doubtful whether much true love
will be lost among the husbands and
wives so selected. But the proposition is
enc Of cold science and hard cash Among
normal persons we seldom find two per-
sons of great stature tied together by the
nuptial knot. The man who stands six
feet is ever signing with woeful ballad
made to an eyebrow many inches below
his own, while the gentleman of squat
stature is ever plying the seething ocean
of love in search of consort who, when
tied to his hawser, will make him appear
q tug pulling full rugged ship. But
conSoling to the ingenious watchmakers
Of Rouen who, with the counts bait of
gold; will tempt giant swains and giant
,aidens into their matrimonial trap will
be the fact that freaks Of abnormal
height are almost invariably ultra good
Eatured.
POSSIBLE" SAYS BIOLOGIST GILL.
But can such a scheme of giant propa-
cation succeed? DR.. Theodore N, Gill, the
eminent biologist of the Smithsonian, tells
me that it may, provided that the giants
and. giantesses selected for the Parent
stock have a pronounced tendency toward
gigantism in their ancestry for a number
of generations. Freak giants are often
sports of the human species-not sports
in the striped shirt, diamond stud and
bulldog sense, but sports in the botanical
sense of the word. In other words, their
condition is abnormal and not hereditary.
Such giants would not serve the unique
purposes of the Count de Pierrecourt's
scheme. The issue would probably revert
to the normal ancestors. Such a reyer-
sion would, in any event, be likely to oc-
cur now and then, unless the tendency
toward gigantism had been impressed up
en- AN OF the ancestors for many genera
tions.
5 = The Count de Pierrecourt was not the
first to conceive of such an industry az
giant breeding according to Dr. Gill
Frederick William l., king of Prussia.
and father of Frederick the Great. at
tempted it nearly 200 years ago. He col
lected from all parts of the world 24dl
giants whom he enlisted into a regiment
known as the 'Potsdam Guard" Many
giants are said to have been KIDNAPPED
for this regiment. King Frederick com
manded these guardsmen to marry tai
women, and it was his hope to PROPAGATE
large army composed of thousands OF
giants. None of the men in the front
rank of his Potsdam guard was under
seven=foet, in heighta according. to ac-
counts, which, however, may be taken
with a considerable dose of saline mat
ter. The scheme was abandoned before
any important results were observed. Yet
it is said that there is an unusual num-
Der Of abnormally tall men in the vicinity
ofsaPotsdam- today and that they claim
descent from King Frederick's famous
freak regiment.
Leaving freak giants out of considera-
ton, it is, Of course, recognized that
great stature can be inherited. The best
evidence that such a characteristic can
be developed and. increased by careful
pAOPdSaIi114 may. De 1ounQ IN the case OF
the great wrestler5 ofsJapan, They are
much taller than the japanese as a race.
They have for centuries been bred by
careful selection. Moreover careful
breeding of domestic animals proves
what selective processes may accomplish.
-Beeves bred for food have been increased
tWo-fold in size within the past two CEN
turtles. The same Is accomplished with
the vegetable kingdom, where. giants, by
careful selection of seed, are being
grown every year in excess of s-ze. over
their parent plants. Thus have the huge
apples, of today been artiAcially bred
from fruit about the size of a crabap-