Daily Kennebec Journal

Tales and Sketches.
Madame Victoria Dead.
The Funeral of The Heaviest Woman
IN THE COUNTRY.
Mrs. Emma M. Markley, who was credited
with being the heaviest woman in the
country, was buried from her home at No.
525, Lombard street, Sept. 4. She was
known to the amusement public as Mme.
Victoria. Her advertised weight was over
600 pounds, and her actual weight about
550 pounds. Mme. Victoria was born in
Reading, Penn., about 35 years ago, and
was slim and delicate throughout her girl-
hood. At 19 she weighed only 90 pounds,
but from this age she began to gradually
gain in flesh. Between three and five
years ago, when she made an application
for an insurance policy, she weighed only
280 pounds. From this time her weight
increased rapidly until she gained the dis-
tinction of being the fattest woman in the
country. it not in the world. This honor
was officially conferred on her at the "Fat
Women's Congress," at the Ninth and
Arch streets museum, last winter, when
she carried off the first prize.
Aside from her great weight Mme.
Victoria possessed a very pretty and in-
telligent face, and at the same exhibition
received the second prize for beauty.
During that display of ponderous women
Mme. Victoria was for the first time
pitted against her rival in the matter of
avoidupois, Hannah Battersby, who up to
that time had been considered the heaviest
woman in the world. The official weigh
ing at the museum, however, gave the
championship to Hannah Battersby's
younger rival.
Mme. Victoria first placed herself on
exhibition as a fat woman in Trenton in
1876. She then made an engagement
with Adam Forepaugh's circus. traveling
with him for one season. She then ex-
hibited herself at a New York museum,
and after leaving there retired for a time
from public life and started a sailor's
boarding house at No. 526 Lombard street.
When the Fat Women's Congress was
convented she was prevailed upon to en-
ter as a contestant for the prizes. This
was her last public exhibition.
Two years ago Mme. Victoria was
placed on exhibition for a short time at
No. 729 Chestnut street. and while there
sustained an injury that finally resulted
in her death. The platform on which her
chair was placed was hastily constructed.
and the giantess expressed her fears as to
its strength. Soon after she had mounted
the platform the supports gave way and
precipitated her to the floor. In her fall
her ankle was sprained, and soon after-
ward she was attacked with erysipelas in
the leg. The disease was arrested for
a time, but it broke out at intervals
afterwards, and the fatal attack
seized her about three weeks ago.
A week ago Sunday, while suffering great
pain, she fell out of her bed. A number
of strong men tried to lift her back on her
bed. but failed. They succeeded in plac-
ing her on a mattress on the floor, how-
ever, where she remained until her death.
Mme. Victoria's weight seemed to in-
crease during her illness, and some time
before her death measurements of several
parts of her body were taken. The cir-
cumference of her arm at the biceps was
36 inches. Her waist measured 62 1-2
inches, and from shoulder to shoulder she
measured 3 feet 1-2 inch. The measure-
ment across her hips was just 4 feet. On
the night of her death it required the full
strength of nine men to carry her body
from the second story to the parlor on the
ground floor.
Early this morning a crowd gathered
around the house eager and clamorous
to look on the dead woman.
Many of
them were drawn through feelings of love
and gratitude toward the woman, as she
had befriended scores of poor persons in
the neighborhood. The body was placed
in a coffin that is probably the largest
ever built. It was constructed of three-
inch walnut planks.and was stoutly braced
on the inside with a dozen heavy
iron bars. It was 6 feet 10 inches
long, 46 inches wide and 3 feet deep.
It was too large to pass through
the door, and was taken through the wide
single window and carried to the under-
taker's wagon by 12 stout men. There
was not a hearse in the city large enough
to contain the coffin. The burial took
place at Odd Fellows' Cemetery. Mme.
Victoria had a morbid fear that her body
would be stolen for the purpose of dissec-
tion. and asked that it be cremated, but
her husband's limited means prevented
him from carrying out her wish.
Mr. Markley. who is a young man
weighing about 130 pounds, said his wife
never had an extraordinary appetite, and
never ate more than himself. She was
active, and moved about the house with as
much ease as any person of one-fifth of her
weight.
Dr. Samuel J. Ashton, who had been
Mme. Victoria's physician for the past two
years, said death was caused by hemor-
rhages and blood poisoning. Her gener-
al constitution was as good as that of any
person of ordinary size. "Many persons
of small bones," the doctor continued,
"attain an enormous size. There is no
authentic explanation of the cause of the
accumulation of this avoirdupois matter.
In this case elephantiasis, or a thickening
of the skin. had set in on one leg. and in
places the membrane was almost as thick
as leather.-Phil. Cor. N. Y. Times.