Lira of Pol
Who is Lira of Pol? Well, the story goes like this.
Lira, born Liralinda Madonna Spumante. Pol, actually Polandro,
is in the mountainous region of northern Italy close to
Switzerland. She was referred to as Lira of Pol because of her,
shall we say, lack of beauty.
Her father, Angelo, was the local blacksmith of Polandro. Angelo
was extremely strong and could lift a young colt off the ground. By
his strength and reputation. He was known as Angelo of Pol.
Small villages tended to gossip and were very superstitious back
then. They believed Lira’s lack of beauty was related to her
father’s ability to lift small horses and being involved in
the blacksmith trade. She was “cursed” with her looks
– she was referred to as faccia del cavallo, Horse Face.
Liralinda had four brothers and four sisters, all of whom were
normal except the youngest brother, Martino. He was
“different”, touched in the head as they used to say,
and known as sciocco di aprile.
It seems that Angelo and some of the boys were in the blacksmith
shop one day drinking hard cider and joking around. Angelo had a
few too many ciders when the boys taunted him into trying lift a
young colt. Angelo was in the process of gripping the colt for the
lift when he accidentally grabbed the colt by the “two little
things” the colt did not want to be grabbed by. The colt
kicked and bucked knocking Angelo into a corner. Angelo regained
his footing but having had too much cider walked behind the colt.
The colt saw Angelo coming and let out a kick that landed right
square in the “two little things” Angelo did not want
to be kicked in. The boys thought it was pretty funny indeed
raising the roof with howling and laughter. Maria, Angelo’s
wife, kicked the boys out of the shop. She then helped poor Angelo
back their room and administered first aid to the affected area,
much to Angelo’s delight. It seems the first aid was quite
successful because nine months later Martino was born. The poor kid
was “different” as they say. The locals, being very
superstitious, said it was a curse from the kick Angelo took and
from antagonizing young colts.
Lira was born in 1832. Her parents loved her just as much as her
siblings but had to succumb to local superstition, regarding her
appearance, regrettably she was sold to Gypsies. They kept Martino
close to home.
Lira traveled around Europe for a few years
“performing” in sideshows. The money was good. She
managed to send money home from time to time to help support her
mother. Her father was kicked in the head by a horse and dropped
dead, gausto. Village people said it was a curse for selling her to
the Gypsies.
Many people paid 380 lira, just a coincidence to her name, to
see her in the show. In mid 1800’s Europe 380 lira was worth
around 99 cents.
Lira and the band of 73 Gypsies traveled to Spain and roamed the
countryside for six years. Being run out of too may towns in very
short period of time they settled in Lisbon Portugal.
The sideshow business in Lisbon was fairly good. Just sit there
and endure sometimes hurtful comments and get paid. Not a bad deal,
at least for poor old Liralinda. She sat through six shows a day
and made 194 Portugal Coppers per week, around $6.35 in
today’s dollars.
In 1845 she met an American, Moses Kimball, who worked for none
other than Phineas T. Barnum. They developed a relationship over
time. He said he loved her and she believed him. They married on
May 12, 1846. Off they went to the good ole U. S. A. Very shortly
after arriving in the U. S. they joined P. T. and traveled around
the mid west working in the sideshows. At one time exploitative
sideshows were politically correct.
Lira and Moses stayed together until his death in 1875. Lira and
Moses had four children. Martino, Austino, Maria and Rossino.
Martino married a lovely young lady named Maria Rossilino. They
moved to Sonoma California and planted a vineyard and started one
of the first wineries in California .
That is the story and for the most part it's true.
