Darren Wood, age 10, of Dover, Del., for his question:

WHO WAS GENERAL TOM THUMB?

General Tom Thumb was a diminutive man exhibited by the famous showman, Phineas T. Barnum. Born in Bridgeport, Conn., as Charles Stratton, Thumb was so bright at the age of 6 that he was featured in a show as though he were a full grown man. At the age of 4 he weighed only 15 pounds and had a perfectly proportioned body only 25 inches tall.

Later General Tom Thumb grew to be 40 inches tall and weighed 70 pounds.

In 1844, at the age of 6, he went to Europe with Barnum where he entertained royalty and caused a sensation. When he was 25 years old he married Lavinia Warren, another one of Barnum's little people.

He stayed in show business until he died in 1883 at the age of 45.