SOME SMALL GREAT CELEBRITIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1904, 18 May 1888, Page 31

SOME SMALL GREAT CELEBRITIES.

General Tom Thumb used to make short, curt answers when questions which he considered impertinent were put to him. An American once asked him how it was so small a person could bear such mighty honours. The General drew himself up, and no doubt felt big, whatever he looked, as he answered, " Great' men have not always great bodies, nor has celebrity anything to do with size." He was all wrong here as regarded himself, for his celebrity had everything to do with his size, or rather, want of it. His interlocutor, however, was taken down in moral inches, and left the great little man victor on the field, or rather, platform. Tom Thumb in the days of his greatest fame was • ■ A REALLY SMART, BRIGHT, CLEVER LITTLE CHAP, a great favourite with the ladies, whom he much admired, nor kept his admiration for those of his own inches, and never showed that his intellect was a whit less bright than that of ordinary people. Miss Mowcher was not far wrong when she asked David Copperfield to take a word of advice, even from three foot nothing, and the advice' was not to associate bodily defects 'ifath mental. There was a dwarf, a king once, early in the fourteenth century. He reigned over that brave, warlike, and handsome race, the Poles, and Jproved himself a good monarch and a brave soldier. Whether he went to war all alone on his own account, riding, perhaps, a full-sized steed, or was carried by a soldier, either mounted or on foot, his deeds were valorous and his blows mighty. The memory of them has been handed down, and at the time these doughty doings of so small a man were regarded with awe by his subjects and fear by his qnemies, who considered his strength supernatural. Some dwarfs have anything but good times, as no doubt Jeffrey Hudson would have agreed at some intervals of his chequered career. He could not have liked being sent to table in a pie when he was EIGHT YEARS OLD AND EIGHTEEN INCHES HIGH, even though the pie was opened before the King and Queen .^Charles the First and Henrietta Maria. Possibly they did not open pies in the way we do nowadays, or poor Jeffrey would have had a bad quarter of an hour speculating into which portion of his small person the carving knife would most probably go. He came out all right, and the Queen liked the novel contents of her pastry so well that the Duke of Buckingham, to whom the tiny Jeffrey belonged, made her a present of him. He was a terrible lady-killer was Jeffrey, but he suffered many indignities and taunts on account of his height, which, no doubt, went far towards rendering his temperas short as his person. There is a story written about his having given battle to a turkey cock, and having got the worst of it, which hurt the little man so much that he complained to his royal mistress, who kindly signified that insults offered to her little favourite would be felt by her as personal. Even this proved futile to shield the favourite, who was taunted now with taking refuge behind a woman's skirts. He challenged his tormentor who went just a little too far for his own well- being. He appeared to answer the challenge armed with a tin squirt. The dwarf, enraged beyond measure at this new insult, insisted on a rea duel, and shot his opponent dead at the first firing of' his pistoL He attained to the honour and dignity of knighthood in days when it was a rare and

muoh-prized thing to receive* the accolade. Once upon a time . . ; DiWARFS WERE 1 ARTIFICIALLY PRO- . PUOBD, their growth being stunted by every possible means. They were not allowed to grow, by being put in such places as prevented it. This was in the Middle Ages, when there was a run on dwarfs by eminent and fashionable personages,' who liked lilliputian attendance. The dwarfs so produced were, however,. grotesque, their limbs and appearance always being much contorted by the unnatural restriction placed upon their growth. A lady who had an amiable weakness for poisoning people had a giteat partiality for dwarfs. She nsver seemed tempted to experiment on these favoured attendants as she did on full-grown folk. Even in the last century in England fashionable ladies liked dwarfs as personal attendants, and the uglier they were so much more were they : prized by their mistresses, who would pet and fondle these monstrosities as they do now fche particular kind of dog which happens to be in fashion. The succesgor in popular favour to) Tom Thumb, ' -. ' GENERAL MITE, is a really prett7 little fellow. He is 'ever so much smaller than the well-known Tom; and is perfectly proportioned, whilst in every way he has the manners of a miniature man. He is 22 or 23; now, arid is a married man, his wife being a little shorter and a little younger than himself. She is just as well proportioned as he, and is an exceedingly pretty little thing, although her intelligence is not so bright as that of the General, her husband. He can act Hamlet, and do the famous soliloquy from memory with appropriate gesture, and simulate the walk of a drunken man to perfection. Indeed, it is hardly fair to tell it, but I believe the general knows the sensation from experience. He once'is said to have got drunk on a thimbleful or so of brandy. He did not find dissipation agree with him, however, and decided from his headache next day that the game was not 'Worth the candle. His father is a great, big, handsome IrishAmerican called Flynn, who used to go about in the General's suite, and sometimes place the little chap on the liberal palm of his not too small hand. The General and his fiancee had the honour of seeing the Queen.' The little chap, a real, independent American citizen, walked up to her Majesty with his hand out, and when the Queen shook hands with him, politely asked her how she. was. He received . from her a threepenny piece, fresh from the mint, set in diamonds. , He was married in America with great pomp, and is, it is understood, now in LiverpooLwith his wife. Peter the Great and his sister had a great fancy for dwarfs. She once collected from . all the surrounding provinces all the dwarfs of both sexes that could be found, brought them to the city, and had them bathed and magnificently dressed., She then gave A MAGNIFICENT ENTERTAINMENT TO THE LITTLE FOLK, and selected for the little men fiancees from the little maids, and with great pomp and' ceremony betrothed them. It is to be sup,posed the number of the sexes corresponded, and that no 'disconsolate maids, or envious bachelors, were kept to be mere onlookers at so much matrimonial bliss. The Princess further amused herself with these : human dolls by having 15 little carriages made. On a certain day these were filled by happy pairs, and each drawn by six tiny ponies to the cathedral. The prpcession was headed by a band of dwarf musicians, whilst a detachment of gigantic guards rode on either side, probably to the no small terror of the little people, as a playful indiscretion on the part of a trooper's horse would have meant annihilation for- a carriageful of them. After the marriage ceremony there was a State banquet and ball, after which the lilliputian brides and bridegrooms were dismissed into private life, where, let us hope, they lived i happily ever after. One little woman who was for a ,time socially successful, being 23 and not 2ft high, had the manners and customs of a cantankerous kitten. Her pleasing little ways were to bite and scratch every one with whom she came in contact. This little lady had also a fatal liking for stimulants, indulgence in which led to her premature departure from existence. These little, folks have to be most carefully fed and looked after. They eat abont a tablespoonf ul and drink a wineglass full at one meal. Stimulants are poison for them, their most healthful " tipple " being milk or water. About 120 »r 130 years ago there were two dwarfs who used to stand at the doors of the Mansion House exhibiting on their bodies placards setting forth the merits of the entertainment, auqtion, or meeting going on ■within — just as sandwhich men in these days stand outside a public hall, in which capacity the Mansion House was then used. These two were singularly grotesque, and so well known that they were modelled in china, and find a place in this form in many collectioris. In Paris some weeks ago there was quite a sensation about THE LOVE AFFAIBS OF SOME DWARFSwho were performing there. One little lady formed a bone of contention between two little men, as sometimes happens with a trio some sizes larger. These little lovers, however, had very furious feelings, which they had neither the inclination nor the power to control. The little lady favoured ,one lover sufficiently to wear a ring, presented to her by him. She wore it, however, not on her finger, nor even in her nose, but on her great toe. Where she wore it made no difference to the other, who had some slight claims on the lady's affection, having been married to her according to the customs of his, but not her, country. a He vowed vengeance on the other younger, and presumably handsomer, dwarf, who was obliged to have protection wherever he went, the elder being also carefully watched. What the end of this diminutive drama may be, one cannot conjecture. It is possible,however, that it may be serious enough to one or other of the miniature men, for their passions are fiery, and their brains subtle enough to plan and carry out a cunning vengeance, in spite of the vigilant watch kept upon them.

Dwarfs hare always borne an important part in fiction. .Dickens introduced them freely -in his stories, sometimes good and sometimes bad, like other sorts and conditions of people. Quilp wasn't exactly a pleasant sort of man, as his wife found to her cost, but other dwarfs of Dickens' creation were nice little folk. The hunchback of Notre Dame in Victor Hugo's celebrated book is another immortal dwarf whose character was simply noble. Taking them all in, £.11, in these days, when their growth is not so artificially stopped and t they are not so much subjected to ridicule as in the days of brav.e Sir Jeffery Hudson, the characters of dwarfs are very much like those of ordinary people, and though their intellects may not be greater, they average fairly. There was , A DWABF PHILOSOPHER ' once, in the days of long ago, who was wont to thank the gods for having bestowed upon him so small a portion of corruptible matter, which was a most philosophic way of thinkOne dwarf, too, carried off a second prize in a grand tournament, so .that he must, have been an accomplished horseman, and ridden from balance, as his knees could have had no grip to help him. "Altogether, the "wee folk have held their own. Considering that there are only a few of them in the, world, many, have come to >the front, in one way' or i another, as great small celebrities.