Nine Feet Nine Inches
Not Tall Enough
Those of us who had pictured a giant of immense stature were keenly disapointed upon viewing the Spaniard for the first time. Paolina stands nine feet nine inches high. – Alabama Paper.
This one is a stub I am certain of it. It is so obscure and strange its a redacted disappointment as if the original claim was far larger than the actual subject. Is this a living person, a skeleton, mummy or a statue. I kept finding myself double and triple checking the word stature and making sure it wasnt statue. Was this a traveling museum exhibit or a circus exhibit? If it was a circus exhibit 9 feet 9 is hardly a disapointment, but after seeing so many giants in the 1800’s maybe a 9 foot 9 inch human is mundane.
I also struggled with the heritage of this individual article, do i file it under Spanish or do i put it where it was viewed, Alabama. Seeing that everyone was immigrants from somewhere I chose Alabama. There is no way of knowing whether she is or is not an immigrant or a Spaniard visiting.
- Anacortes American, Volume 37, Number 51, 12 May 1927