MEN OF HIGH STANDING.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 196, 19 August 1899, Page 3 (Supplement)

MEN OF HIGH STANDING.

SOME OF THE MOST FAMOUS GIANTS

OF THE WORLD.

Often in a mist we see things magnified to tremendous proportions. The effect of ages is like that of the mist, for through the haze of uncertainty rumour grows Into legend, and legend into positive statement. Thus we have the early stories of mythology, in which giants and demigods arc as frequently spoken of as are men and women to-day. Atlas, who" supported the earth on his shoulders, is but one example, and then there is the giant Eneeladus, who dwelt, or rather lay enchained, under Mount Etna, and who made the earth tremble by his struggling. Polyphemus, too, we are told, made a meal off two of the companions of Ulysses, and walked with a stall in his hand as large as the mast of a ship. In Genesis we are told: "There were giants in the earth in those days," and in N'umborsthe Israelites are described as grasshoppers compared with the sous of Auak, And so down through the -centuries there are accounts of giants of great size, the size gradually decreasing, however, with the np- ' proach of the time to our own age. In the fifteenth century there were leports »f huge skeletons found, some of them which must have belonged to men more than 30ft high. Boccaccio, still further back, had It that the skeleton of a man had been found in a cave in Sicily which was 300 ft in length. In these cases it was found that some bones of mammoths and elephants' teeth were all the remains upon which the tales could be based. M. Henrion.a former member of the French Academy, figured it out that Adam must have been 123 ft high, and Ere 118. In this case it can be easily seen how Eve stooped to pluck fruit from the apple tree, the top of which must have come about to her knee. Goliath is set down at the height of lift, and Hercules is credited with no more than 10ft. In Rome during the time of Augustus there were two giants each 10ft high. The story is told of Emperor Maximin, who was originally a Thracian peasant, that he was Bft 6in tall, and ate 401b of meat and drank 18 bottles of wine a day. It is said that he could uproot trees and crush stones in his hand. The early discoverers of the southern portions of the new world, those Mho sailed around the Horn, told marvellous tales of the gigantic size of the people in Patagonia, some of whom were eight and a half feet high. It is strange that there Is not at present the confirmation of such stories. And yet, now and then, there appears on the scene some one of the human race who is heralded as a freak, and who is immediately snatched up by museums and circuses for exhibition purposes. This very fact attests the rarity of the modern giant. At present there is on exhibition in London a Swiss named Constantin, who is but 19 years old, and who stands more than Bft high. His feet are 17in long, and his hands are each a foot in length. He lives for the most part on milk and beef tea, and is said to be of excellent proportions. His appearance recalls some of the hundred or more giants who have lseen authentically regarded. Queen Elizabeth had a Dutchman for a porter who stood 7£ft high. It seemed to be quite the thing for. royalty to have a giant in its service in those days. William Parsons, of Staffordshire, was of the same height, and became porter to King Janes the First. It is recorded of him that when he worked at. the anvil it was necessary to dig a hole as deep as his knee was long in order that he might be on the proper level to strike. He was succeeded by i William Evans, who was porter to the uu. I fortunate King Charles the First. Evan* was a Welshman, and different accounts place his height at 7ft 6in and 7ft Bin. Cromwell, too, had his giant porter, who was given the height of 7ft 6in.

The Emperor Nicholas is said to have had a drum major who was Bft tall, and in the present century the porter of the Prince Regent of England was Bft in height. There have been a great number of giants shown in England, and many handbills advertising them are still preserved in the British Museum. But it.is safe to say that these advertisers have answered the scriptural question, "Which of you by taking thought can add a cubit to his stature?" and the heighr is no doubt in many cases exaggerated. In the last century there is record of one Jacobus Damrnan, a German, who was Bft high, and whose hand measured 16in ia length. Pepys, in his diary for 1669, speaks of a Dutch giant. He says that with his hat on he, Pepys, could walk under the giant's outstretched arm, and he could reach oh tiptoe only up to his eyes. John Middleton, of Lancashire, Is said to have reached the extraordinary height of 9ft 3in. In 1765 there were exhibited in York, England, a brother and sister, aged 17 years, who were respectively 7ft 3in and 7ft 2in. Edward Longmore, of Herefordshire, was 7ft 6in tall.

It is said that James Toller, who died in1 1819, at the age of 20, at St. Neot's, ia Huntingdonshire, England, was Bft Gin high. Women, too, have occasionally appeared of enormous proportions. Ann Hardy, who died in Lincolnshire in 1815 at the age of 16, was 2in over 7ft in height. Probably; the largest woman who ever lived, barring Eve, under the system of M. Henrion, was Marianne Wehde, who at 16 was Bft 4iioj tall.

In the early part of the century Geerit Bastiansen, who lived near Rotterdam, Hoi* land, was Bft high and weighed 5001b. In' 1839 there was a Belgian named Bihinl whose measurement is recorded as Bft 6in. Irish giants, too, have been numerous. In' 1682 Edward Mallone was 7ft 7in, and in 1784 two brothers from Ireland were exhibited at Charing Cross, London, each of whom was Bft in height. Patrick Cotter, who was born in Ireland in 1761, was 7in; more than Bft tall, and his feet measured! 18in in length.

Charles Byrne, or O'Brien, an Irishman, was shown at • Charing Cross in 1789. He died at the age of 22 years, measuring Bft 4in.

Every once in a while the dime museums will present some huge human being as an, attraction. It is within the memory of moK of us that the Chinese giant, Chang, accompanied Barnum's Circus in its perambulations through this and other countries. He reached the height of Bft, England takes the lead in the matter of giants produced; Ireland and Germany are next; and then the United States.

Scientific men have made a curious discovery with regard to giants. Charles L. Dana, M.D., of New York,writing in "Scribner's" some years ago, expressed the opinion, based on a long and careful investigation, that the growth of a giant is the result of a nervous disease. It is shown that all but one or two of the giants of whom record has been kept have died at an early age. Most of them have been of somewhat weak intellect, and, indeed, of weak muscle also. Dr. Dana ascribes the growth to the enlargement of a gland at the base of the brain, called the pituitary gland. It is this that furnishes nourishment to. the nervous system, and when this has been found so enlarged, in every case, the growth has been abnormal, and in many cases uneven. The converse of this is also true, so far as investigation has been made. This seems to be in line with the discovery that the misshapen cretins or dwarfs are the result of deficient glands in the throat. It is curious, too, that giants are seldom if ever the descendants of large people, but of ordinary sized parents. They have long been looked upon as freaks; it is now thought they aro I not freaks, but the victims of a nervous disorder.—Exchange.