Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1906-11-16
SOME GIANTS OF OLD.
Noteworthy Specimens That Are Told
of In Historv

SOME GIANTS OF OLD.
Noteworthy Specimens That Are Told
of In History.
II there Is one thing In the show
business which can be depended on 70
draw 1t is giant, provided always
that he be big enough.
But giants existed long before this
profitable business was invented, and
the names of many of them have been
handed down to posterity simply be-
cause they were of high proportions
and combined with their abnormal de-
velopment a proportional amount OF
strength. Thus 1t is probable that had
Goliath of Gath, whose height the
ologians placed at over ten feet, not
been the strongest as we'll as the big
gest warrior among the Philistines we
should never have heard Of him. The
same argument applies to Moab, king
Of the Amorites, and Og, king Of Ba-
shan. Orestes, too, was eleven and a
half feet high, according to the Grecian
legends, and he. together with Ajax
the Greater, had they not been gifted
with strength in proportion to their
bulk would have been only ordinary
soldiers of the Grecian army before
Troy.
When history begins. however-that
is. when Rome began to reach Its high
est point of civilization in the time of
Augustus and learned men began to
write about the times they lived in in
stead Of the times that had gone by
long before they were born-we get
authentic records Of giants. In Au-
gustus time, for instance, there were,
according to the authority Of Valerius,
two giants in Rome who were over ten
feet high. Their names were Idusis
and Secundilla, and they were keepefs
of the gates Of the gardens Of Sallust.
Then again we have a record In
Pliny of one Polydamus, the son of
Meas, who was over nine feet high
and whose strength rivaled that of
Hercules himself Polydamus used, in
fact to boast his superiority to that
Roman deity and perform his special
tricks. For example, he once slew a
lion with a blow of his fist and scat
tered its brains about the arena. He
chariot dead and on one occasion seiz-
ed bull by the hoof in order to carry
1t away, but the animal struggled 30
violently that the hoof was left in his
hand. In the end he was killed by the
falling in of a cave. When his COM
panions noticed that the roof was fall
ing they left. but Polydamus was 80
vain about his strength that me thought
he could not be killed. So he stayed
and was finally crushed to death.
The Emperor Vitellius sent to Darius
by way of a present a Jew named
Eleazer, who was seven cubits high
that is. reckoning the cubits at eight
cen inches. ten feet six incfes-and a
giant who is mentioned by the his
torian Tacitus was over nine feet. His
name was Corbulo, and he lived In
Neros time and was a more than usu-
ally skillful general and soldier, be-
sides being an enormously strong man.
An account Of the ancient giants
would be incomplete without mention
ing Maximinus, the imperial giant Of
the third century. The most extraor-
dinary stories are told Of this emperor
Of Rome. His height was eight feet
ten inches. he COULD draw unaided a
loaded wagon which six oxen could
not move. while his appetite was so
great that his usual rations for the day
consisted Of forty pounds of meat and
whole amphora of wine, besides
bread and dried and fresh fruits.
Medieval giants are plentiful. but.
strange to say, the records Of them are
not so authentic as those of the times
Of the emperors. Funnian, Scottish
giant who fiourished in 1927, seems to
be the most authentic of these, but as
he is put down as being over eleven
feet high the statement should not be
criticised too closely. Still more start
ling, however Is the following, which
is vouched for by a monastery full OF
monks: In 1909 some workmen, dig
ging near Rouen, came across a cave
| in which were some human bones and
copper plate, bearing the words,
Here lie the remains of the great and
mighty Chevalier Ricon de Vallemont.'
The skull was large enough to have
held a bushel Of wheat and the Shin
bone was over four feet long. 1t (the
bone) was preserved by the above
mentioned monks, and it was estimated
that the height of the defunct knight
must have exceeded eighteen feet. A
stranger though somewhat similar le-
gend comes from Ireland. but In this
case the discoverers thought that they
would, to use an expression popular
some years ago, go "the whole hog or
none" 1t happened in 1908. Some men
were digging in Ireland when they
came across a brick tomb which con-
tained a human skeleton no less than
120 feet long. But there is "raison
d'etre" for all these legends. Accord
ing to German professor, these bones
which were supposed by ignorant per-
sons to be those Of human beings, were
probably those Of mastodons or some
other fossilized remains which to the
uninitiated would look exactly like
those of a man.-London Standard.
|
D"Hows this?" said Cumso to
Cawker, as they sat down to the an
| puo1 hopnuat of tho Allied Sons OF
Liberty. There's no wine on the
menu, but half a dozen glasses al
each place." 1.-The menu is to take
| hnnna to n1r wives WAS the SatiS-