THE ROMANCE OF THREE FAMOUS LILLIPUTIANS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3443, 9 March 1920, Page 59

THE ROMANCE OF THREE FAMOUS LILLIPUTIANS.

Love comes even to Lilliputians., love with all the conventional trappings of jealous}' and rivalry, as commentators are reminded by the recent death of the widow of General*Tom Thumb, at her home in Middleboro, Mass. • The General and ■ his wife, we are told, were mutually seized with the divine passion at first sight. A rival, haTdly less famous, a midget by the name of Commodore Nutt, helped to make the proceedings interesting. The Commodore Was somewhat larger and handier with his fists than Tom Thumb, but Tom used strategy and carried away the honours as well as the fair, if very diminutive, lady. P. T. Barnum, into whose varied menagerie nearly all freaks and oddities were finally collected, disclaims in his autobiography a wide-spread -belief that he acted as match-maker,. and insists that love came to them a swift and unaided guest. A writer in the New York Times thus quotes him and tells tho stoiy of tKe midget's romance: ' "It was by no means an unnatural circumstance," wrote Mr Barnum, "that I should be suspected of having instigated and brought about the marriage of Tom Thumb .. and Lavinia Warren. Had I done this I should at this day have no regrets, for it .has proved, in an eminent degree, one of the 'happy marriages.' " He insisted that "from first to last their engagement was an affair of the. heart, a case of love at first sight." . Torn) Thumb met Lavinia Warren,. or Mercy Lavinia Bumpus, as-she was born, in 1862, when she was on exhibition in the museum in New York, under Barnum's advertising watch and care.. The midget was then in temporary retirement, but came from Bridgeport to see Barnum on" business. No sooner had Tom , Thumb cast eye's on the tiny woman than he burst into Barnum's room and began inquiring as to her family antecedents. Barnum, with an eye to the future, imparted the information so favourably that the hasty and ardent little wooer into happy ejaculation. "Mr Barnum," he exclaimed, "that is„ the -most charming little lady I ever saw,,' and I believe she was created on purpose to be my wife. I have got plenty of money, and I want to marry and settle down." Action was suited to the word. Tom Thumbs Barnum relates, neglected business, houses, and the joys, of a yacht at Bridgeport, and set about his love-making with such persistent ardour that the little lady was eventually forced to capitulate. However, she set herself a wary course, and forced her lover to undergo all the pangs of jealousy and doubt. Tom had to make frequent use of his married sister, then living in New York, as an excuse for his daily excursions to the city. Meanwhile, Commodore Nutt, another of Barnum's prize midget attractions, had also fallen a victim to Miss Warren's charms, and was no less bent on possessing for himself her hand and heart, ne was a few years younger/than the little woman, but laok of years and discretion only spurred him to more ardent effort. Of a fiery temper, he once put the little General on his back after an argument and struggle in the dressingroom, and thereafter the latter, less hefty than his rival, gave the Commodore a wide berth at the frequent crossing of their paths. Tom laid siege to Miss Warren's heart after the most approved methods in New England wooing. He made it his habit to meet her every Sunday afternoon and evening, and then, under Barnum's chaperonage, had her come to his home in Bridgeport. He anxious, Barnum's story runs, to have his mother pass judgment on his choice, feeling sure that his sweetheart would charm the mother no less than himself. The Commodore overheard the plans being arranged, and immediately sensing, peril to his own scheme, besieged Barnum that he be invited, too. The showman settled the matter by inviting three to his own house in Bridgeport and to have Tom's mother go there. The Commodore had to go by a later train. Tom Thumb determined to garner his crop of hay while the sun shone in the Commodore's absence. Mrs Stratton, his mother, was won over by the midget queen, and after tea the scene was left clear for the suitor's programme. His proposal was careful. Seating himself on a tiny sofa with Miss Warren, he dilated on his possessions and his ability to care for an enlarged household should that happy event come to pass. Two young girls whom Barnum had invited to_ meet the midgets so forgot the proprieties as to remain within ear-shot on the stairway in the darkened hall. They heard everything that passed, Barnum declares,, and were his authority for what transpired. i Miss Warren was under contract, to go to

■I I * Europe with the showman, and General Thumb hinted that she would be very lonely among so many kings, queens, and princes, and suggested that it would be well if someone familiar with the proper deportment in sovereign presence were to accompany her. He let it be understood that it would be his chief pleasure in life could he be that cicerone. _"That would be very nice," the eavesdroppei's heard her say. "Do you think .so?" he inquired, warm and interested. She thought so, as she had just remarked, and therewith followed sounds familiar to all, but not trarisjgpble in the printed word. The Commodore arrived, bounced into the room, arid tried to make the General feel the; force of the old adage concerning two being company and, a third a work of supererogation. "Not for 50,000d0l! M shouted tha General excitedly. "Good for you, Charlie," exclaimed Miss Lavinia, blushingly, "only you ought to have said not for 100,000dol, for I would not." That settled the matter for Mr Barnum. For several days before i the wedding it was the chief morsel of gossip and the most frequent topic of'the newspapers. It was suggested to Barnum, he states, that the wedding be made a public functionend _ be celebrated in the Academy ■ of Music.- "But," he writes, "I had promised to give them a genteel wedding, and 1 did." The marriage took place in Grace Church, New York, on. Tuesday, February 10, 1863, the Rev. Junius Willey, rector of St. John's Church, Bridgeport, assisted by the Rev. Dr Thomas House Taylor, rector of Grace Church, performing the ceremony. Admission to the.church was by invitation only. Present were, Barnum says, Governors of several States, Congressmen, ,army officers, and many prominent i in public and social life. Hundreds begged him for tickets, and for one he received - an offer of 60dol. But all such requests/, were refused. As it was. the church was packed and jammed, arid hundreds waited '■ outside, to watch the bride and groom. ; /"