A TINY COUPLE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 210, 3 September 1880, Page 4

A TINY COUPLE

—■—■— ■ i : Germany can justifiably boastof having produced the smallest married couple that ever'stood before an altar, in-the persons ofa miniature " Marquis" and " Marchioness," who have for some iime past been exhibited on the Place dv Theatre, at Odessa. The " Marquis," a native of Kiel, is 30 years old, and weighs only 19 pounds, while his fairylike consort, a young lady, born in Neumunster sometwo-andtwenty years ago/just turns the scale at 13 founds. At a first glance this tiny pair, it is said, might be taken for a couple of scarcelyweaned babies, dressed up for a joke in (he garb of adults; but, on a closer examination, the genuineness of their maturity becomes unmistakably apparent. A certain pleasant flavour of romance runs through the story of the circumstances that led to their uuion. Although they are both German-born wonders, leased by their parents to. travelling showmen at an early age, they never happened to meet at the Fairs and Kermeßsen of their native land; but a year ago, the " Marquis" being on exhibition in Moscow, while Fraulein Lilli was starring'at St. Petersburg, they became aware of one another's, existence through reading Ith e,.newspaper notices of their respite ph:arac.T

teristics, and entered into a correspondence, which soon led to a rendezvous, and ultimately to the contraction of a matrimonial engagement. Now they take their professional rounds together, and are saving up their earnings with the ojbject of retiring into private life in the Fatherland. Nuremberg could, doubtless, supply them with the most charming of doll's houses, eminently suited to their minute domestic requirements.