The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-06-10
|DwARrs OF EUROPEAN COURTS.

key has installed as favorite the clever
dwarf, Mehemmed Selim, who stands
28 inches in his socks, speaks half a
dozen languages fuently, and can
conjure sweet music from dozen in
stru'nents, turns ones mind agree
ably from the subject of giants to the
men Of few inches, of whom many
entertaining stories are told.
One of the most notable of these
little men was Jefery Hudson, who
was introduced to Henrietta Maria,
consort of Charles l., in a noble veni-
son pie, says Tit Bits. "When the
pie was opened" out stepped Jeffery
in all the dignity of his IS inches and
and made courtly obeisance to the
astonished and delighted Queen, beg
ging to be taken into her service, a
favor which was promptly granted.
a6ery was a man of a stout heart
and adventurous spirit. He fought
two duels, one with a turkeycock and
the second with Mr.. Crofts, who
faced the little man armed with a
squirt and was forthwith shot dead.
Twice Jeffery saw the inside of prison
walls-once when he was captured
by the French on his way across the
Channel and again when he was cap
tured by Barbary Corsairs, and to
crown his career of adventure he was
accused of being mixed up in the
Popish plot and ended his rather
troublesome days in the Gate House
in 1852.
A very notable dwarf was Borul-
waski, the Pole, of whose debut the
following storyis told: As boy of
fifteen, when he was just one inch
higher than a two-foot rule, he was
presented to the Empress Maria The
resa, who was so charmed by his grace
and good looks that she seated him
on her lap and gave him a hearty
kiss. "And what do you consider
the most interesting sightin Vienpa?"
she asked the boy. "What I now
behold" he answered. "And what
is that?" why" said the tiny
courtier, ito see so little a man on
the lapof SO great lady," Naturally
a youth who exhibited such ready
and courtly wit had a distinguished
career before him. From that day
Borulwaski became the pet of the
courts of Europe. He was a special
favorite of Stanislaus II. who brought
him to England and introduced him
to George III. and his family, and for
more than half a century he made his
home with us.
Borulwaski, who at his tallest was
a yard and three inches high, had a
sister whose head was just level with
her big brothers. shoulders. He was
not only a handsome and courtly man,
but a scholar of repute he lived in
FIVE reigns, and was laid to rest in
Durham in 1887. side by side with the
Falstaffian Stephen Kemble.
Richard Gibson and his wife, who
hourished in the seventeenth century,
were a remarkable pair, quite apart
from their inches, which, combined,
barely reached seven feet. Both were
clever miniature painters, and Glib
son was drawing master to the daugh-
tiers of James H., both future Queens
of England. At their wedding, which
was arranged by Henrietta Maria,
Charles I. gave the bride away, the
Queen placing valuable diamond
ring on her finger.
Among other dwarfs of interest are
Philetas, who acted as tutor to Pto-
lemy Philadelphus, and who was said
to be so light as well as short that he
carried weights in his pockets to pre-
vent his being blown away Coropas
and Andromeda, two tiny handmaids
of Julia, niece of Augustus, each of
whom was but 28 inches high, and
Richebourg, who died in Paris in
1858 and who was one inch under
two feet.
tits eloquent of the healthfulness
of dwarfs that Borulwaski was but
two years short of the century when
he died; Richebourg was 90; Glib
son was "a, while his widow died at
the great age of SO years.
-O