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Conservative *
1783. He possessed phenomenal strength ,
and his height was probably eight feet ,
six inches. He was full of natural wit ;
but the fortune he rapidly gained by the
exhibition of himself led him into habits
of intemperance , and he died at the early
age of twenty-two , leaving instructions
that his body should be buried at sea.
Nevertheless , the College of Surgeons
of England managed to obtain it at a
cost , it is eaid , of eight hundred pounds ,
and the skeleton was set up in their mu
seum by William Hunter , the celebrated
anatomist. It measures eight feet , four
inches. The actual body , with the soft
parts attached , could not , in my opinion ,
have been more than three inches taller
than the skeleton.
Shortly after Byrne's death , another
Irish giant exhibited himself in London.
His name was Patrick Cotter , but he
took the name of O'Brien. He died in
1806 at the of . His
, age forty-five. cor
rect height was over eight feet , al
though he appeared taller in consequence
quence of being exceptionally thin.
Being feeble and debilitated in health ,
he could only walk by supporting him
self on the shoulders of two tall men.
who walked in front of him , while he
rested a hand upon the shoulder of each.
This giant appears' to have been an
amusing person , and he is said to have
astonished his friends , more than once ,
by producing from his coat-pocket the
Polish dwarf , Count Borulauski , and by
other playful tricks which no ordinary
man could accomplish.
Frederick William I , of Prussia , had
a regiment of giants , the tallest of whom
was of Scottish birth , his height being
eight feet , three inches. It is not im
probable that the skeleton in the mu
seum at Bonn ( Germany ) , which meas
ures eight feet , is what remains of this
once famous giant.
There is on record an account of
Bishop Berkeley's attempt to manu
facture an abnormally large man out of
an ordinary boy named Magrath. In
his family history , I can find nothing of
importance. He died , however , at the
age of twenty , perhaps as a result oi
being fed upon "selected articles of
diet" furnished by the worthy bishop ,
Magrath's height is given as seven feet
eight inches at the time of his decease ,
Giants are of rarer occurrence than
dwarfs , and less than half a dozen of any
great size seem to have been exhibited
since O'Brien. Tellers appeared in 1819
his height was eight feet , six inches
Chang , the Chinaman , who claimed to
have grown from seven feet , eight inches
to eight feet between 1865 and 1880 , has
been shown almost all over the world
In 1880 , when the writer saw him in
London , ( England ) , it was impossible to
ascertain his age , as nobody seemed to
know it. He is said to be still alive , and
to be in China.
About 1885 , a Bavarian named
Winokelmeier was an attraction at a
London music hall. His height was ,
perhaps , eight feet , six inches. He did
lot live to see his twenty-second birth
day.
The Biggest of them All.
The biggest living man ( in stature ) is
Lewis Wilkins , who is now in Europe.
He was bom on a form near St. Paul ,
Minn. , in 1874. When only ten years
Id , he measured six feet in height , and
now has grown to the tremendous
height of 107)4 inches three-fourths of
an inch less than nine feet and weighs
164 pounds. .
Female giants are not common , and
; he only authentic information at my
disposal concerns Pauline Wedde , "the
Queen of the Amazons. " She was a
well-proportioned German girl , who
measured eight feet and four inches
when she played in "Babil and Bijou , "
some thirty years ago.
The health of men of abnormal size is
very seldom good ; their muscles are
labby , and their voices are often weak.
As might be expected , they ore good-
tempered , indolent , and lack force of
character. .
Buffalo , N. Y. 0
TWO SUGGESTIONS.
Here are two suggestions from J.
Sterling Morton's CONSERVATIVE. All
bhe "pop plans" ever proposed , all the
suggestions ever made by His Turbulent
Loquacity , Mr. Bryan , would not result
in as much permanent good to the state
of Nebraska as would come through the
two ideas here offered , if they were car
ried out :
"Every twenty-four hours the rail
roads , manufacturers and homebuilders
ers of the United States denude twenty-
five thousand acres-of timbered land.
That is , there is a daily consumption of
all the wood , the trees on twenty-five
thousand acres supply. How many
acres are planted ? Twenty-five.
Next Arbor day , April 22 , 1902 , let each
of the one hundred counties in the state
of Nebraska plant at least two-hundred
and fifty acres in trees. Let there be
one day in the year in which one state
shall plant as many acres in trees as all
the states destroy. Nebraska ought to
plant twenty-five thousand acres of
timber next Arbor Day. "
"The common roads of Nebraska are
sixty-six feet in width. That is an un
necessary waste of good land and i
constant method of weed propagation.
Legislation permitting county commis
sioners to sell one-half and make all
roads in the state only thirty-three feet
in width would be beneficial. The land
money thus accumulated would make
a permanent road fund. If this can
not be done , compel the planting of
trees on either side of the road until
thirty-three feet is utilized for arbori
culture. " York Republican.
FATHER DE SMET.
/
General Grenvillo M. Dodge writes
thus to the editor of THE CONSERVATIVE :
"I notice in an article in your paper
a reference to the books of Father Do
Smet. Could Mr. Richardson inform me
where the books published by Father
De Smet can be obtained , or give me the
name of the publishers ? I have been
anxious to obtain them. In my early
explorations in the West I often ran
across his work , especially in the Indian
campaign of 1805 , when we found the
remains of an old mission near the Salt
fork of Powder river that no one
seemed to know of , or its history. We
were supposed to be in a country that
little was known of , and I know we
made the first trails over it. I learned
that the mission was built by Father De
Smet from some of the Indians , but I
could obtain no history of it ; perhaps
his books might mention it. It was near
the head of Powder river , fifty or sixty
miles from the Big Horn range , and I
should say about 100 miles north of old
Fort Fetterman , which then was on the
North fork of the Platte , about 100
miles west of old Fort Laramie. "
Mr. Richardson does not know where
Father De Srnet's writings can be found ,
and he is very sorry that he does not ,
because he wants to buy them himself.
They are long out of print , and quite
hard to find. Perhaps somebody can tell
where copies are to be had , and some
thing about the old mission in Wyoming
of which General Dodge speaks.
CHILDREN SHOULD BE TAUGHT IN
DUSTRY.
J. Sterling Morton in fee Conserva
tive says that no American parent has
any right to rear a child without teach
ing it industry. The human being , who
from infancy to maturity , is indulged in
all things asked for , makes a selfish , in
considerate , and useless member of so
ciety. Human beings who do not work ,
get very little of real honey out of life.
They are offensive and repellent. They
are in old age remorseful and unhappy.
The very room they occupy on , the globe
is begrudged them. Mr. Morton has
followed his own precepts in case of his
own sons evidently , for they have all
stepped to the front rank in fhe com
mercial world and that is not done in
this age without persistent hard work.
His son Paul , of the Atchison road , has
been offered , only last weekthe manage
ment of the Harriman combination with
a salary of $50,000 a year. This is a
stride upward tha < was not possible
under conditions existing twenty-five
years ago. This , however , is an age of
colossal salaries. It is more that Paul's
father ever got. J. 'Sterling Morton
once said in commenting npon his sons'
success , that they had shown better
judgment than their father , because
they had kept out of politics and at
tended to business. Ottumwa Saturday
Herald , July 18 , 1901.
