Miscellany: Thumb’s House

Brisk citizens of Middleboro, Mass., paused startled last week before a neatly lettered sign:

FOR SALE THE HOUSE OF TOM THUMB

The house, built half a century ago, stands far back from the street, masked by huge trees. There memories foregather. There Charles S. Stratton, exploited by P. T. Barnum as “General Tom Thumb,” dwelt with his wife, that delectable midget, the onetime Lavinia Warren.

The “General’s” career was unprecedented, surpassed the triumphs of modern cinema idols. No screen sheik from Rudolph Valentino down can truthfully boast, as did Midget Thumb: “I have kissed nearly two million ladies, including the Queens of England, France, Belgium and Spain.”

“Managed” by Mr. Barnum, the General repeatedly toured Europe, became famous in Manhattan as a midget man-about-town who could afford to keep his own ocean-going yacht. “Tamed” by his “dearest Lavinia,” Tom Thumb settled down at Middleboro, ordered built for her the house which straightway became a local show place.

Since the Thumbs entertained Mr. Barnum frequently, as well as many another mortal of normal size, the house is of conventional dimensions but contains two sets of furniture, one “midget,” one “lifesize.”

Mrs. Thumb’s midget piano has been kept in tune, stands ready to accompany that piping tune with which the General delighted Queen Victoria: Yankee Doodle.

Beside the piano rests demurely the very stool upon which sat “that dissolute midget, Commodore Nutt,” when he held his once world famous conversation with P. T. Barnum.

Barnum: “Are you married yet, Commodore?”

Nutt: “No, sir; my fruit is plucked.”

Barnum: “You don’t mean to say you will never marry?” Nutt: “No, not exactly.” Barnum: “I suppose you intend to marry one of your size.”

Nutt: “I am not particular in that respect. I think I should prefer marrying a good, green country girl to anybody else.”

As everyone knows, Miss Lavinia Warren repulsed the attentions of Commodore Nutt because of his dissolute reputation, when he begged her hand in rivalry with General Thumb. The General’s virtue was deemed above suspicion, though on Sept. 20, 1854, the Illustrated London News reported that “a lady, from excess of fantasy, eloped with him to the neighborhood of Guilligomach.”