CHAPTER XXIV
SOME REAL GIANTS
Let us agree, arbitrarily, that people of from six to seven feet in height are only very tall men, but that those who exceed the seven-foot mark may fairly be called giants. During the last two hundred years there have been over a hundred men and women, figuring in the public eye, who have exceeded seven feet. Probably twenty-five of these have had a height of eight feet or over. In spite of statements in advertisements and handbills and newspapers, even in encyclopædias, there does not seem to have been any human being measured by scientific methods who reached nine feet.
To be sure, one may read in the histories and biographies that the Roman Emperors Maximinus and Jovianus, and Charlemagne, and Emperor Maximilian of Germany were eight-and-a-half or nine feet. But one cannot measure even live Emperors, unfortunately, much less long dead ones. Many a traveller asserted that he had seen with his own eyes scores of Patagonian savages ranging from nine to eleven feet; yet as soon as careful measurements were made these dwindled to a maximum of something under seven. And the vast number of "giants' bones" dug up from time
to time, indicating men of nine feet and upward, have practically all been shown to be those of great animals.
One of the most notable characteristics about the giant is a certain shrinking tendency before the camera and the tape. In the last twenty years or so a group of alert savants, especially in France, have been gathering authoritative biological observations upon all the subjects possible; and it is wise to recall that only such exact scientific records can be relied on.
For, apart from pride, there is a vast deal of money involved in a few extra inches for the show giant. For instance, Antoine Hugo, announced as the tallest man, died in 1917 after having made quite a fortune in America; and it was stated that a "freak" promoter would pay a premium of $400 an inch, for any one who could show a greater stature than Hugo! That is to say, he would give nearly $3000 for a nine-foot giant—besides paying the giant himself something like $1500 to $2000 a week. Whereas Hugo's brother, who was only a couple of inches shorter than he, was not in demand in the United States, which calls for only "champions" in the freak class.
Apparently the tallest man on record was Machnow, a Russian, who was born at Witebsk about 1882, was exhibited in London in 1905, in the United States, Germany, Holland, and elsewhere, and died around the age of thirty.
None of his family was exceptionally tall, and he himself was a normal child up to the age of four. Then he began to grow very rapidly, not eating a great deal, but sometimes sleeping for twenty-four hours at
a time. At fifteen he was about five feet two; at twenty-two, according to Professor Luschau and Lissauer he was seven feet and ten inches. When he appeared in London next year, he was credited with nine feet three inches, and the most conservative of British encyclopædias accepts this figure. In the show world he was universally taken as the "champion," with a figure of eight feet seven inches. It seems beyond question that he was over eight and a half and under nine feet; his weight was given as 360 pounds.