Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1916-07-06
Shephedsown Jefferson County, West Virginia. Thursday July 1916
Why Are There 0iantsP

Why Are There Giants?
Giants and dwarfs abound in The region
of the Caucasus mountains. Now, why
are some people big and some little? In
families hereditY seems TO govern the
matter. Where races are concerned if is
not so easily explained. We are accus-
toned, by the way, TO think OF the Chi
nese as of inferior height; but that is be-
cause our Chinese immigrants nearly all
come from the south OF China. The Peo-
pie of north China are tall and OCCASION
ally approach the gigantic.
Circus giants are not uncommonlY suf-
ferers from disease called giganticism,
which in the long run is inevitably fatal.
If appears to be due 10 something wrong
with small gland at the base of the
brain, which, in mysterious way, gov
erns growth. A strange thing about this
affliction is that the victim may be al
tackled long after he has become adult
and has ceased TO grow in normal way.
A man over thirty years of age may sud-
denly become giant, the first warning
he gets of the fact being the discovery
that he needs a larger hat and bigger
boots and gloves.
There are, however, occasional giants
who are simply people of extraordinary
size, in other respects normal. How to
account for them nobody knows unless
by calling them freaks OF nature. Much
more remarkable are the giant families
which are found in the Caucasus region,
though most individuals of such families
are not big enough 10 be worth while for
show purposes. For circus exhibition a
giant ought not to be less than seven feet
six inches tall. With that stature, plus
boots with thick soles and high hat, a
man may be safely advertised as touch
ing the eight-foot mark.
Such giant families are not unknown in
history. Josephus and other profane
historians indorse the statements found
in many places in the Bible in regard to
the giants OF Gath. from which locality,
il will be remembered. Goliath hailed.
The Bible puts the stature of thatredoubt-
able champion at "six cubitS and span"
in other words, about three inches
short OF ten feet. This would seem 10 be
the altitude record for human being,
even allowing that the measurement was
from the ground TO the crest OF Goliath's
helmet.
The most celebrated OF all the giant
breed, not excepting Goliath, was Og,
king OF Bashan. AT the time when the
wanderings OF the Israelites in the will
derness were brought TO close he was
ruler over no fewer than sixty cities
"fenced with high walls, gates and bars. "
His indeed was a powerful monarchy,
and the conquest OF his realm by Moses
is looked upon to this day as one OF the
greatest events in Jewish history.
Og, by the way, was accustomed to
sleep in remarkable bedstead-not OF
wood or metal, but OF basalt.
Whatever the circumstances under
which the giant breed existed in Pales-
tine at the time OF the first arrival OF the
Israelites, If is certain that in later years
they were scattered about among other
peoples. In political sense some were
Hittites and yet others Amorites.
Coming into contact with other races
they became, il would seem, either ex-
tinct or subordinate. From what little is
said of them in history il is TO be inferred
that they were mentally inferior, though
formidable fighters by reason OF their
great size and strength in an age when
mere bodily prowess counted for much.
II Goliath be supposed to have been
eight and one-half feet high (allowing for
helmet and crest his stature did not ex-
ceed that ofthe celebrated Winckelmeyer,
the tallest man of modern times, who,
born in Bavaria, died not so many years
ago. The height of many giants has been
exaggerated, but Winckelmeyer was
carefully measured by the anthropologist
Doubes.
A man OF less than eight and one-half
feet could hardly have worn the enor-
mously heavy armor and accoutements
described in the first book Of Samuel as
composing Goliath's outfit. The staff Of
his spear, we are told, was "like wea-
ver's beam," the iron spear-head alone
weighing GOO shekels. about twenty
pounds.
The giant breed in Palestine apparent
ly died out not very long before the birth
of Christ.
There have been lesser giant breeds in
modern times, but in some instances they
have been the result of artificial selection,
as, for example, in the case of the wrest-
lers of Nippon, who. seen in crowd,
stand head and shoulders above the or
dinary Japanese.
In the neighborhood of Potsdam there
are today many very tall people. owing
TO the TACT that King Frederick Williams
famous regiment of giants was long sta
toned there. The regiment numbered
2,4O0 soldiers, and all Europe was
searched by the monarch for big men to
serve in il.
Here's A Good Scheme.
Fditot of Reoister-KiudIy publish this