Evening Star Newspaper, May 26, 1929, Page 96

6 THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, MAY 26, A “Kingdom of Tin By FLORENCE BARNES. IDDEN among the trees of Paris, in the heart of the Bois de Boulogne, has been discovered the Kingdom of Little People—the village the gay Parislans came to look at themselves, as it were, through the large end of the opera~ glass, A toy train meets visitors at the big gate in the Jardain d’Acclamation and tugs them everybody ! °f MY Eg gEé‘ befees] -high. Their uniforms are cut by military tai- -Jors and fitted like wax, and the tiny gray cloth _coats are as perfect as any at Potsdam. Their ‘ladies, too, are slender, beautiful walking dolls, the last word in chiffons from Vienna and ‘Budapest. These aristocrats of the colony are ‘more delicately modeled than the others. Their ‘hands have long fingers and good nails, and the ‘haughty heads are small, to match the neat, ‘slender figures. But the grinning little rough-necks, who are not so expensively finished, enjoy themselves Just as thoroughly as their finer kin. They de- 1ight in being looked at in wonder, and swag- ger about with their betters, their enormous ‘heads and stumpy figures heavy with more ‘than importance. They look like cakes that ‘had risen too fast and been spoiled in the baking. Most dwarfs come from Germany, mainly from the Black Forest, and many of them ‘are said to have been deliberately stunted for show purposes. There are pigmies, too, in Italy and the Tyrole and the Balkans. The ‘uglier they are the more pompously they strut ‘and their little faces are thrust into the lime- dight at every possible opportunity. They de- light in being photographed and in adding themselves to already satisfactory groups. The village was built for the Summer sea- gon only; light booths, tossed - together for show and not permanence. Every one ap- In the Kingdom of Tiny People. A group of midgets photographed in a Paris garden. A Paris Garden, Where Gathered the Midgets of Many Nations-== Everything on a Dollhouse Scale-=-Troubles of tggeney U H ERR i : : i i §§§s the Lilliputians. Mrs. Tom Thumb and Prima. 1929.—PART 7. vy People” : 5 E3 Y i & H 21 and engaged to married. talking toy with the mind of a child. It was the big dog’s owner who first dis- covered to us the prize of the whole show. “Are you the only American midgets, Mr. Laibel? You and your wife?” “Good heavens, no! Didn't we know who was right over there back of the band stand? Well, come and seel” “By George! It's Mrs. Tom Thumb!” It was. Theré she stood in her booth, selling & post card with her picture on it. She was like a letter from home in that foreign land, the very breath of New England, in her Vic- torian bustle and crimps, her ulster and specks —she was getting ready to go home—the funny little plush dress laced in at the waist like an hour glass; but, above all, the plain Yankee accent when she sald, “My dear, you are good to see. Come again tomorrow. It will be my birthday.” She put on a mink tippet because it was cool, and an old-fashioned bonnet, and, indeed, I wanted to go with her, not to lose 80 soon this new-found bit of home that rode away with the small fat husband, Count Primo Magri, Tom’s successor, whom I had entirely forgotten to mention. Patient little gentleman, Primo, in name only; he never ventured to steal her thunder. Gallantly he escorted her to the theater and then back to their booth whenever their turn was due. He was punctillious about everything but his necktie. He detested the feeling of anything around his threat and never, as far as his friends can testify, wore either a col- lar or cravat, even with a dress suit. A fat diamond stud fastened his collar-band and a still larger diamond called attention to the fat hand that was rarely without a great black Continued on Page 15.