Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1904-11-28

minaretS of dreamland dWellS Mrs.
General Tom Thumb, the fairy god
mother of at least two generations or
children and the legendary heroine OF
all of us, from the nursery up.
"Once upon time"-that is the way
it seems as though any story about her
ought to begin. But in truth, there is
nothing at all mythical about the
Countess M. Lavina Magri, A. G. A.
(Act.ors' Church Alliance), as her ele-
gantly engraved carte de visite in
scribed. Her actual history is more
fascinating than fiction.
We would never give away a lady's
age but every body knows that Mrs.
Thumb Magri, nee Warren, is sixty
five Like queens and other royalties,
she is on record in the almanacs, and
is thus denied the ordinary human
privilege of skipping a birthday now
and then. Every years counts.
They have touched her very lightly,
however. Her figure is plumper than
Of yore, but there isn't a gray hair on
her head, and when she takes off hen
tiny, goldrimmed spectacles her fine
dark eyes are almost as bright as they
were on the day Of her first marriage,
somewhere back in the early COS.
That marriage to the redoubtable
Gen. Thumb was celebrated in Grace
church, New York city-an event OF
which there is pictorial record in the
form of an oil painting on the orna-
mental case of the characterization
Wheeler & Wilson sewing machine
which was one of the wedding pres.
ents The countess keeps this ma
chine-which bears evidence of having
seen plenty Of practical service-in
her Lilliputian parlor at Dreamland,
together with many other historic SOU
venirs in the way of furniture and por-
traits. These things are indubitable
proof, if any were needed, of the iden-
tity of the Countess Magri with the
original and only Mrs. Tom Thumb, a
point upon which she is extremely
sensitive.
Until u4ey have seen her it is in
deed difficult for some elderly people
today to believe that she is the bride
who figured in that famous photograph
of The Fairy Wedding Group, copy
righted by Brady in 1864. and still
cherished in hundreds of plush albums
on parlor center tables. The group
consists of Charles S. Stratton (Tom
Thumb) and Lavina Warren bride and
bridegroom with Minnie Warren as
bridesmaid and Commodore Mutt best
man.
Now, ancient history, avaunt! Us
for Dreamland and the Midgets of to.
day.
Two dreamers of The Worlds
Metropolitan Section were dispatched
to Lilliput to find out what Mrs.
Thumb" might be up to in the way Of
dramatic work. 1t had been rumored
that she was dissatisfied with the
playlet which she and her husband,
the count, and his brother the baron
are presenting at the Midget City
opera house, and that she had under
taken to reconstruct the plot and re-
write her lines.
What an extraordinary thing for a
star actress to want to do!
Well, we approached from the sea,
after dark. The spectacle of the
domes, towers and battlements out
lined in incandescent fire set the artist
wild with color schemes and appealed
to the neutrality-suspicious. for fine
writin' and unlimited space.
But we had a mission, so we went
straight on down the Pike, turning
neither to the right nor to the left,
oblivious even to the Sewers of Paris
and the Temptation of st. Anthony,
until we struck Midget-hurst-b the
Sea-
At the porte-cochere a bantam band
played Justify, under the conductorship
of a condensed Duss. A little cop told
us to move on, so we ducked into the
boiled-down city, with its population
of over a hundred human atoms.
Our first impression was that we
were II feet tall and still growing
Everybody and erything was on the
midget scale. Midget ladies and
gentlemen promenading about, street
cleaners in white-wings uniforms, pc
Iicemen, fakirs, sports, shopkeepers
and salesladies, restaurant, fire de-
partment, with engine and horses in
readiness, opera-house, marionette the
atre, and circus-all looked as if view
ed through the, wrong end of a tele-
scope.
Another huge giant like ourselves
approached, and said he was Mr..
Rodriguez, the head ogre of the place.
He would take great pleasure in pre-
senting us to Mrs. Gen. Tom Thumb,
the Countess Magri.
There she stood, in the doorway of
her ohatelet-a quiet, matronly look
ing little lady in a black bombazine
dress, who extended small, chubby
hand in welcome, and said in her clear,
pleasant voice, yet which has an odd
suggestion of babyishness in it:
Good evening, gentlemen. I am
very pleased to meet you. I am just