Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 March 1894 — A YOUTHFUL PRODIGY. [ARTICLE]

A YOUTHFUL PRODIGY.

He Is Only Fifteen Year* Old. bat He Bumps the Scales at S3S Pounds. Wythe County, Virginia, numbers within its population the greatest man in the commonwealth, if one considers his dead weight—Melvin Grubb, whose wondrous girth and ponderous limbs make him the daily wonder of his neighbors, says the Richmond Times. He was born something more than fifteen years ago, and has ever since that event kept his neighbors wondering at his growth. Each year since he was ten has seen from 50 to 100 pounds added to his weight, until he is believed now to be the heaviest youth alive; and should his avoirdupois appreciate at the same rapid rate he will soon break all the heavy-weight records since Adam. At 13 years of age he weighed 410 pounds; at 14, 450 pounds; and now, at 15, the scales creak at 535 pounds; and the end is not yeL Grubb is not merely a mountain of flesh, but an active and intelligent boy. He can follow a plow all day without unusual fatigue, and is a bright and intelligent pupil of the public school near his father’s farm at Walter’s bridge, two and a half miles west of Wytheville.