Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 February 1896 — AN INDIAN MUMMY. [ARTICLE]

AN INDIAN MUMMY.

The Tallest Man Who Has Ever Lived. The corpse of the biggest man that ever lived has been dug up near San Diego, Cal. The mummy—for in such a condition the remains were found—ia that of a person who must have been nine feet high in life. The cadaver has been carefully inspected and measured by Prof. Thomas Wilson, curator of the department of prehistoric anthropology in the Smithsonian Institution, and by other scientists. The mummy is that of an Indian, and is almost certainly prehistoric, though its age cannot be determined with any sort of accuracy. Its preservation is no matter for surprise. In that arid region the atmospheric conditions are such that a corpse buried in the dry season might very well become perfectly desiccated before the arrival of the rains. That this man must have surpassed in height any giant of whom there is historical record is unquestionably true, so far as the last two centuries are concerned, and accounts of older dates are not well authenticated. Indeed, they grow more and more apocryphal as distance of time increases. The exhibited giant is always more or less of a fake, a number of inches being added to his stature by the show bills. P. T. Barnum in his memoirs says that he never could find a human being that would come up to the eight-foot mark, Chang, the Chinese giant, was advertised as eight feet high. The fact is that he was only about six inches over seven feet. His apparent height was increased by a flowing robe and thick-soled shoes. Yet Chang was probably the'tallest man ever on exhibition in this country. Seven feet is a good height for an'ordinary show giant.—New York "World.