Evening star., 1901-05-25
TO BREED GIANTS
An Amazing Enterprise to Be Started
This Year.
THROUGH SELECFIVE PROPAGATION
What Washington Scientists Think
of the Scheme.
WOULD NOT BE DESIRABLE

Written for The Evening Star.
The breeding of a race of human giants
is an amazing enterprise to be commenced
this year at Rouen France. the ancient
capital of Normandy and the scene of the
burning of Joan of Arc. Count st. Ouen de
Perrecourt. who has just left an endow-
ment of 5000 500 to support the undertake
ing. Is a descendant of William of Nor
mandy, who conquered England in 1866.
To reGencrate the French people and.
ultimately. the entire human race is the
announced purpose of the count in be-
queathing this great fortune. His scheme
is practically one of seIective propagation.
such as is employed in stock breeding. His
money js left as fund fer encouraging
giITts and giantesses to marry. one per
cert will be given away thus each year.
one couple selected every twelvemOnth.
Will therefore receive the neat and COM
Portable sum of $4,000. a nest egg with
which to commence housekeeping and with
which to support the little giants and
gianteSseS which the StOrk may happen to
drop down the chimney The fund has
been hequeathed to the city and the prn-
CipaI will last indefinitely
y matrimonial agency for giants only will
be Immediately established in Rouen.
| There a board Of medical men will examine
candidates who apply. The healthiest
couple presenting themselves will annually
bH chosen for wcdiock.
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 at
traction between oppoSites it would seem
doubtful whether much true love will be
lost among the husbands and wives so Sc
lected. But the proposition is one of cold
science and hard cash. Among normal
persons We seldom find two persons
OF great stature tied together by the
nuptial knot. The man who stands six
1ect 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 a cOnsort who when tied to
his hawSer, will make him appear as a
tug pulling fUlI-rgged ship But con-
SoilhS To the ingenious matchmakcrs of
hpuen VINO. with the late counts bait of
s"it; VII! tempt giant SWANS and giant
InaltehS INTO their matrimonial trap will
ne the TACT that freaks of abnormal height
are almost invariably ultra good natured
"Possibie," Says biologist Gill.
But can such a scheme of giant propqga-
ton 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
nave a pronounced tendency toward gi5ant-
ism in their ancestry for a number of gen.
erati"us. Freak giants are often sports
OF the human SpecicS-n0t 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 scheme The
issue would probably revert to the normal
ancestors Such reversion would in any
event. be likely TO occur now and then un-
less the tendency toward gigantiSm had
Deen impressed upon all of the ancestors
for many generations.
The Count de PierreCOUrt was not the
first to conceive Of such an industry rs
giant breeding. according to DR.. Gill. Fred
erick William /, King of Prussia, and faith
er of Frederick the Great, attempted 1t
nearly 30 years ago. He collected from
all parts OF the world 2.4OU giants whom
he enlisted into a regiment known as the
"Potsdam Guard" Many giants are said
to have been kidnapped for this rcgin mt
King Frederick commanded these guards
men to marry tall women, and it was his
hope to propagate a large army composed
of thousands Of giants. None of the men
in the front rank of his Potsdam Guard
WAS under seven feet in height. according
To accounts which. however, may be ken
with a considerable dose of saline matter.
The scheme was abandoned before any i'm
pOrtant results were observed. Yet it IS
said that there is an unusual number of
abnOrmally tall men in the vicinity of Pots
dam today and that they claim descent
from King FrcderiCk's famous freak regi-