lookers and gawkers
Most people today would never use the word “midget.”
The word comes from “midge,” which are several species of tiny fly.
The proper term for a person of unusually small stature is “little people.”
Traditionally, little people were reviled and excluded from full participation in society.
Some were given to royalty as gifts and became court jesters.
In the 1800s, attitudes began to change, and little people were often accorded the affectionate condescension given to young children.
“Isn’t he cute?”
The lucky ones with talent scratched out a living as performers in circus freak shows.
P.T. Barnum, the circus empresario of the mid-1800s, hired many little people for his New York City museum and touring shows.
Barnum’s most famous hire was Charles Stratton, whom he hired at age four to perform comedy and music routines.
Charles had talent and his act was a big hit!
So, Barnum began advertising him as “General Tom Thumb,” a character drawn from English folklore, and billing him as “the smallest man alive.”
He toured the US and Europe to sell-out crowds.
Charles portrayed a young Napoleon in a command performance for Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace, and the Queen loved the show.
In 1863, Barnum staged a huge wedding ceremony for Charles in a New York City church.
The bride was Lavinia Warren, another Barnum employee, who had given up school teaching to perform on Mississippi River showboats.
Ten thousand people paid Barnum $75 apiece to attend their wedding reception.
Charles and Lavinia received their guests from the top of a grand piano.
The wedding was front page news and the Library of Congress still has a slice of their wedding cake.
[It’s now dark and moldy, but who could throw it away?]
A few days later, President Lincoln, a big fan, hosted a White House reception for them.
“President took our hands and led us to the sofa, lifting the General up and placed him at his left hand, while Mrs. Lincoln did the same… for me, placing me at her right…” — Lavinia
Charles and Lavinia expanded their act to include an orphan taken from a foundling home whom they passed off as their baby.
[It wasn’t.]
And they continued to tour until Charles’s sudden death from a stroke in the 1880s.
While attitudes about little people have matured in recent decades, talented little people still find fame and riches in the entertainment world.
[Just ask any fan of Game of Thrones.]
People are people.
And people still love to gawk.
******************************
I’ll see you tomorrow.
— Brenda
Photo of the Day