MARVELLOUS MIDGETS

Evening Star, Issue 19298, 10 July 1926, Page 15

MARVELLOUS MIDGETS

PUZZLE MEDICAL MEM Irving’s Imperial Midgets, twentyfive of the smallest people in tho world, have proved ono of tho most novel attractions ever presented in Fuller vaudeville. It is the general impression that midgets aro a distinct race of people coming from .some particular community where the “ race ” lives apart from tho rest of the world. Such itnot the case, for though these tiny people have tho mentality with which to carry on a community and to govern themselves, they have no special country, nor are they of a separate race. Midgets aro born of normal parents, and aro normal in every respect at birth. They grow physically until! they have attained the ago of three or four, when they cense physical growth, but continue in mental development, a condition which has puzzled medical and scientific experts. CAUSE UNKNOWN. Celebrated professors of the world’s laigcst research institutions have made elaborate study of the phenomena ot tho midget, attempting to learn “why is a midget,” but no important discoveries have been made in this respect, for midgets continue to bo born, grow to a height of from 22in to -lUin, and then stop growing. They seem to “just happen,” for, horn of normal parents, with fullgrown, normal brothers and sisters, a midget may occur in a family which has no record of ever having produced ? midget in any known generation. An example of this is found among Irving’s Imperial Midgets. Antono Snucck is tho smallest member of tho company of twenty-five. He comes from a family of twelve, and hr is the only midget in tho family. Do is in in height. All his brothers and sisters aro full grown. Mr Boiicek is thirty-seven years of ago, and it is a peculiar fact that when he lost a molar tooth several months ago he promptly grew another in its place, a rare occurrence for an adult. MIDGET WORKS AS CLERK. An example of midget mentality is demonstrated by William Blascro, another diminutive member of tho Irving company, who, at tho age of sixteen, became a clerk in a. magistrate’s court in Germany, remaining in that capacity for fivo and one-half years. At the ago of twculy-ono tie became a. performer. Midgets are mostly from Central Europe, and tho members of Irving’s company aro all from that locality, and have boon in America, but ono year. They are sensitive, and do not like t ) be looked upon as freaks or children. They feel that though they are small in size they aro equal in every other respect to grown people.