Year: 1869

When ] Travelled the country With a
caravan | had Il giantess and q dwarf
in my collection Of natural curiosities.
The dwarf was Il Polish gentleman,


Iinnikin by name the giantcss was
from Russia, and we called her I'm
mensik. h-the title of music hall
song which was in vogue at the time
having suggested an appropriate alias
for her. l did very well with them.
The dwarf had an outrageous temper,
and would sometimes refuse to attend
the visitors at his lcvcc; but the giant
ess was always on hand to supply his
place on the list of attractions. She
was the most amiable creature in the
world and she stood seven feet eie-
ven inches and three quarters in her
slippers, o., speaking i'll round num-
bers-as we did in the bills-eight feet
six. The dwarf WAS three feet five.
but he could bring himself down to
three feet whenever he was in Il good
temper and the show was full. In a
general way, however, he may be said
to have been about three feet two.
We had all travelled the NJ dland Cir
Quit together, and we were gtirg M
north when an accident happened
Minnikin and ImmensikoH cloped.


1t happened in this way. Minnikin


being n man, had naturally got an as
cendancy over Immensikofi' mini,
and used his power to borrow half
crowns of her when his own purse was
low This happened very often, for,
although he drew an enormous salary,
he lived above his income, and as he
GOULD not hold enough to cat and drink
his money away he gambled with cards,
and played at billiards, standing OH Il
chair, till it WAS gone, and he was prct-
ty deeply i'm debt. When he left the
chair in the billiard room it WAS only
to mount OH another i'll the parlor of
the caravan and whisper an order,
rather than request, into the cars OF
the benevolent giantec for loan to
pay for his dinner. She used to de-
clare that there was something in his
eye which made it impossible for her
to refuse him !; and so she would al
ways dip into the old school satchel in
which she kept her savings, and give
him what he wanted. He would then
eat a whole kidney for his supper, and
drink cruetful of wine, and when the
latter had got into his head would
make such a commotion in the tent
that to pacify him she was generally
obliged to give him shilling more.
He saw her dip so often in the satch-
cl that he fancied its contents were
proportional to its size and one day
he, as it were, ordered her to marry
him, which she was too weak to refuse
to do. He told her to keep their in
tention a secret from me and she obey
ed, although L had hitherto been her
chosen confidant. Taking advantage
of my absence in the town, he order
van to be sent round to the door oi
the caravan one evening, as if some
furniture were to be removed, and by
this means conveyed her to neighbor-
ing railway station.-Mcan to the last,
he made her pay the expenses Of hcr
own elopement, for the van was dis
charged with her money. When
came back / found nobody but the
jaguar in the tent, and note written
on a sheet of brown paper from I'm


mcnsikoff, asking my forgiveness.


/ was angry enough at the moment,
as may be supposed, but L made tho
best of it and what with turning my


sclfinto an aboriginie, and advertising
the beast as tiger, managed to keeI
roof over my head. But 1 always
kept on the lookout for new giantet
i made UP my mind 10 have no moro
to do with dwarfs-and one day, some
n onths after my loss, 1 found one OIL
show in very inferior locality of the
town of Portsmouth. Ipaid my penny


and went in. 1t was Miss Immensikoif
She gave sob when she saw me tina


frightened the people out, and wber
they were gone she gave full vent tC
her feelings, till the very glasses il
the room seemed to share her sorrow
\ o, how changed she was Profcs
sionally, perhaps the change was fo
the better, for she was now so THU