GIANTS OF TO-DAY

Evening Star, Issue 22459, 2 October 1936, Page 10

GIANTS OF TO-DAY

AND SOME OF THE PAST FAMOUS PRUSSIAN GUARDS The Berlin Olympic Games brought together the world’s most powerful giants, writes Margaret Lane, m the Daily Mail. , , Tallest of them all was Willard Schmidt, the basketball player. He weighs 14st 71b and is 6ft 9Jin. ' Another basketball player, Joseph Sortenberry, is 6ft Sin, while there is an American policeman, Jack Torrence, who makes up in weight what he “ lacks ” in height. Kven he is 6ft 3m, hut he weighs 22st 121 b! His specialty is shot putting. Among the discus throwers was a giant Swede, Gunnar Berg, who stands 6ft siin. The extraordinary physique of these enormous athletes contrasts sharply with the comparative weakness of the freak giants —men and women of Bft and 9ft in height. NO MATCH FOR DAVID. Legends have persisted, since the beginning of the world, of extinct races of giants inhabiting the earth. “ There were-giants in the earth in those days eavs the book of Genesis, and the Old Testament abounds in references to men of godlike stature. Goliath may well have been as tall as these, but like most exceptionally tall men he- was probably a weakling, no match for the sturdy and resourceful David. Nearly all the giants of whom we have any detailed records (the eighteenth century Irish giant, Patrick Cotter O’Brien, for instance, who was well over Bft in height, could walk only by leaning on the shoulders of two tall men, and was unable to rise from a sitting position without placing his hands in the small of his back, groaning with the effort) have been physically weak, timid, and helpless men. The abnormal behaviour of their pituitary gland, which is the gland governing growth, exhausts all the natural resources or physical energy. An Bft giant is often incapable of lifting a 3ft child. Frbm the beginning of history royalty has always shown a weakness for giants, often dressing the gentle creatures in ferocious uniforms to form a personal guard. Haile Selassie possessed a huge drum-major called Balabu, who was executed for espionage. At 7ft sin he was reckoned the tallest man in Abyssinia. A KING’S PORTER. George IV. when Regent had a giant porter, Sam MacDonald, whom he employed to keep the gate at Carlton House, and who used to amaze visitors by looking at them over the top, instead of opening the gate. Robert Hales, the Norfolk giant, who measured 7£ft, was presented in the year of the Great Exhibition to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at Buckingham Palace. Both Charles I. and James I. had men of freakish height as porters, and even Cromwell was not above the affectation. Queen Elizabeth had a 7Jft giant imported from the Low Countries, and increased the fierceness of his aspect by dressing him as a Spaniard. But the most famous example in history of a royal taste in giants is Frederick William 1. of Prussia’s famous giant Guards. The tallest of them was 7Jft high, and they were recruited, sometimes at enormous cost, from all over Europe. The.; King delighted to go out every day himself with a sergeant’s cane and review his freakish regiment, who fortunately were never, so far as anyone knows, called upon to fight. TALLER THAN CARNERA. “ The giants,” wrote Voltaire, were the King’s “ greatest delight, and the things for which he went to the heaviest expense. The men who stood in the first rank in this regiment were none of them Jess than 7ft high, and he sent to purchase them from the furthest parts of Europe to the borders of Asia.” It gives one an idea of the gigantic stature of these men to think that Camera would have missed being in the front ranks by nearly half a foot. The eighteenth century seems to have abounded in giants, and there are contemporary accounts of many of them cowing to London and setting themselves up as peep-shows in the Haymarket (where, for that matter, they still do), the Strand, and Fleet street. They were usually to be seen for the sum of sixpence or a shilling at the back of a barber’s or tobacconist’s shop, and might also be hired for private entertaifiments. Going to see them, comparing their heights, and measuring one’s self against them was a modish pastime (Pepys records going to see one at Charing Cross in 1664, “ under whose arm,” he wrote, “I wept with my hat on ”), and their managers usually made a fortune. OF NORMAL PARENTS. The giants of to-day are as tall as ever they were in legendary days, and the taller of the two German sisters, Else and Brunhilde Droysen, who came to London several months ago, is probably the largest giantess on record. She is Bft 4in, and proportionately stout and heavy. There are several American giants, one of whom, Robert Wadlow, is only 18 and the same height as Else Droysen. Dike nearly all giants, he is the child of normal parents, with normal brothers and sisters. At 14 he was head and shoulders taller than Camera. And mention of Camera again brings to mind the young Rumanian boxer, Gogea Mitn. He stands 7ft Gin and has great ambitions of success in the ring. Some years ago a young Dutchman called Van Albert, who was actually over 9ft, came to exhibit himself in this country and was photographed in Downing street with Mr Ramsay MacDonald. How did giants, even in the days before history, acquire a reputation for ferocity, for devouring hoys and girls, for growling “Fe fi fo fum ” when they smelt human blood, and possessing other bloodthirsty characteristics? Only, illogically enougli, by reason of their size. There has never been any scientific evidence to show that there were ever giants who were not gentle and harmless.